Sunday, December 02, 2018

Do cats need to take supplements?


Dear George,
I’m quite worried about my mummy as I believe she fell victim to marketing and advertising promoting supplements and superfoods for pets. Lately she behaves very strange and our kitchen start looking like an apothecary, if you know what I mean!
Little bottles and containers with mysterious stuff inside… on every single counter! When she’s preparing my food she’s like a pharmacist measuring and weighting powders and other things.
I’m damn sure she doesn’t try to poison me but all this it’s very unsettling for me! I heard her saying that I should get more anti-oxidants! Why? I don’t have “oxidants” in my body so why taking “anti” something that I don’t have? The other day I caught her ordering online some “super greens” for me.
Could this be genetically modified cat grass? If that’s what it is….then, no thank you! I would not have that – very damaging to anybody’s health. Our bodies are so much smaller compared to humans’ bodies! It will be devastating! I think she’s watching too many commercials on TV! Definitely she’s following too many holistic veterinarians (not that they are any different than the others…they all smell the same). George, I don’t know what to do about this situation! Do cats really need to take supplements? I need you advice! And, in the meantime I’ll have some “regular”, normal grown cat grass (oats) as you can see in the photo attached.
Chico

Dear Chico,
We cats are carnivores with a digestive system that is designed to eat the bodies of rodents, birds and insects. That means not just their flesh but their innards, their skin, their bones, etc. We probably eat a little green stuff in the rodent gut and we definitely eat grass occasionally.
An all-flesh diet of something like steak doesn't give us everything we need. Nor does an all-vegetable diet. Nor does an all-fish diet. An all-liver diet can kill us with hypervitaminosis. Feeding a home-made diet is complicated.
In the past we cats were fed scraps and milk and fish (those two items used to be cheap) and we supplemented our diet with catching mice and birds. Cats fed odd diets by their owners can still do that, as long as they have a cat flap. But cats that live indoors without a cat flap cannot do that.
So supplements for cats on home-made diets are a good idea. Which ones? Your owner should ask a qualified vet for advice and follow it. It's probably better to choose a well qualified vet and stick to their advice, rather than taking a piece of advice here and another there and maybe getting muddled.  As for TV commercials, Youtube "influencers," pet shops, etc - these are not the right places to get advice. They do not know enough.
You've gone through so much, you need the best, Chico.
Yours
George.

4 comments:

  1. CAT VictoriaDecember 02, 2018

    Chico, you made me laugh, you little bugger! I know for a fact that you eat better than most people. You eat a very balanced, organic raw meat meal (+ everything else needed in it) twice a day! Your mummy is following Dr. Pitcairn's, Dr. Fisher's and Dr. Baker's recipes! You must suffer from "junk treats" withdrawal symptom, buddy ...to complain about your humans :-)))
    CAT Victoria

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh! Chico you look so sweet! I don't know what you went through but George is right...you deserve the best! Can I hug you?
    Purrs
    Mia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chico, hope you'll get your perfect meal soon! I'm Sammy - an 11 years old pug who loves cats:-) I know you don't love dogs or any other pet companion! Must be related to what you went though before you were rescued by your human mommy! My Mom is a friend of your mommy! We (Mom & I) just gifted your mommy with "The Healthy Homemade Pet Food Cookbook" by Barbara Taylor-Laino (Foreword by Kenneth D. Fisher, D.V.M)! Maybe we'll meet some day if you change your perception of danger! Cheers,
    Sammy

    ReplyDelete
  4. We all take digestive enzymes and probiotics! Does any other cat is taking such things?
    Patches

    ReplyDelete

Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org