You Are What You Eat, Cats Included
All this talk about health and fitness lately has inspired me to tell you the story of my cat Archie and his recent transformation from “obese” to “only marginally overweight”.
First let me say that Archie has always been the sexy one in the family, regardless of his size. He is well-loved and respected by absolutely everyone, which is why he has more friends than I do on Facebook. That’s no joke – it’s the pathetic truth.
What was a joke was the fact that I was a fitness trainer and enthusiast, and I had an obese cat.
Obviously, Archie didn’t start off fat. He started off as a svelte, uber-cute kitten, the way all Siamese do.
Charlie and Archie
A little background:
When Archie was young, we had two cats, one of which suffered from urinary tract problems. That cat was put on a special diet by the vet. “You can feed this kibble to both of them if you want,” he said.
“That’s easy,” I replied. “I’ll do it.” And I did. For a few years after that, both cats ate this really expensive, vet-prescribed kibble, with the occasional treat of moist, canned cat food mixed in.
Then that other cat died – he got hit by a train, but that’s another very long and very sad story.
The good thing: we still had Archie. The bad thing: Archie was getting a little bit chunky. Was I feeding him too much kibble? Perhaps. It didn’t seem that way though. I was trying to follow what the vet had told me.
Fast forward another twelve years, and we were a family with three cats, another who also suffered urinary tract problems, then kidney problems. We lost Sasha this past summer to the disease. By this time, Archie was very fat.
Terribly upset, I starting doing some research, and this is what I discovered – cats should be eating moist cat food most of the time. They should also be eating food that is as close to what they would be eating if they were left to their own devices in the wild – which means stuff that is mostly meat, very little grain, no fillers. Makes total sense, right?
In the last six months – with two young cats and the two older ones – I have been determined to do this right. I want to give them the best chance at living a long and healthy life that I can, so I’ve completely changed their feeding regimen. And guess what? It seems to be paying off.
Archie is no longer “obese”. He has lost four pounds in the last six months. He is looking leaner and a lot healthier. On top of his weight problem, he’s also had – for as long as I can remember – issues with his eyes. The vet says it’s Herpes. The vet says it’ll never go away, but we should be able to manage it with a combination of eye drops and vitamins.
With his weight loss however, his eyes have miraculously started to clear up. He is looking better than he has in years. Everyone says so. “OMG, Archie. Are you ever looking good,” they declare.
I’m not going to say anything about what the vet had prescribed, like maybe the food wasn’t the best product after all.
I’m not going to say anything about the fact that pet food manufacturers have been generally selling us crap to feed to our beloved animals.
I’m not going to say that I think dry kibble plays a big part in CAUSING obesity, urinary tract problems and kidney disease, even though I think it’s true.
I’m not going to say any of that stuff. I think the proof is in the pictures…
Archie before
Archie after
High quality, locally made raw dog and cat food. Source: tolldenfarms.com.
In case you are wondering, these are the brands that I feed my cats these days. Now, I know this stuff is expensive, but so was that other vet-prescribed food. It’s sort of like with people, if you can even use some of it, it’s worth it.
They get three small meals a day. Jackson still eats kibble sometimes because he is a picky-ass bugger, and he refuses to eat anything else. But now, I buy the grain-free stuff that has as few added fillers as possible.
As for the other cats, they all eat a combination of Tollden Farms – raw, locally-made patties of duck, rabbit, beef, chicken, and venison – as well as canned food that has no – or very low amounts of – grain and byproducts.
Even though, I am an advocate of the raw food for my cats, I have no interest in making it myself. It would take a lot of time, not to mention that it would be very messy.
Weruva – people food for pets. Source: weruva.com.
EVO pet food – feed the carnivore within. Source: evopet.com.
Merrick pet food – food worthy of a fork. Source: merrickpetcare.com.
I am happy that companies seem to be offering better food alternatives for our pets these days. My cats are a part of my family, and of course, I want them to be healthy and happy. I’m only sad that I didn’t know about this stuff sooner.
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Oh my, Archie is a handsome devil!! How I’d love to cuddle him up. I admit, I feed dry kibble. However, all the cats are indoor/outdoor and eat heartily of mice and who knows what else while outside. Occasionally, they bring me proof. Or leave the one little piece of apparently unpalatable “stuff” right in front of the door for me to step on. And yet, I still love them. Knock on wood, all my cats have been healthy, save for one years ago. He had liver problems, the cause of which the vet was never able to determine.
My boys Smalls and Kaos are…hefty. They spent a lot of time outside and usually plump up a bit during the winter. But they are solid muscle under all that, and in the summer look sleek and powerful. I think it helps all of them to be outside. They are off in every nook and cranny around, and I’m sure visit many of the neighbors. Lots of exercise. Pretty sure they only come in for treats and a good, healthy nap.
Your cats are no doubt so much healthier being able to go outside and hunt and roam about. It is the only thing I hate about where I live. My cats would get run over pretty quick. They go out in the back yard with me, and on the deck, and Lionel will walk on his leash, but that’s as good as it gets for them. I want to live on a cat farm like that lady in California. Have you seen her? The Cat House On The Kings. I assume you have. I’ll Facebook it just in case.
I’m sorry about your kitties. What great advice–I always wondered how all my cats had urinary problems. It’s just so easy to leave that dry food out, but I’ll never do it again. PS Do you have all your ingredients out, prepped, and ready?
Answering after – pie is almost done. So great to do this! So great to finally meet you! Onward to the shopping mall LOL!
Yes! On to shopping! We might be on to something BIG. You are adorable and so are your kitties and your sons! Hope your pie is yummy!
Just about to cut a piece and sit down and watch some sort of house show. If I can get SOMEONE to stop making so much noise LOL. Yes, he is still playing. He never stops.
You have an “artiste” there, that’s what they do. I forgot to tell you to let it cool before you slice it, or the juices will all come out!! Let it coollllll!!!!
LOL Too late.
Well???? how was it? I bet it was awesome.
It was awesome, thanks all to you and your expert baking/teaching skills.
I think you could have done it with no help at all!!! but it was super fun to do together! Ours was delicious, how did you and your family like your creation?
The pie’s more than half eaten, and my husband hasn’t even had any yet. My daughter won’t eat that stuff – it’ll make her fat she says. Charlie wasn’t home to eat any. So what does that tell you? Yeah, Zach and I are the culprits. Luckily, he worked out this morning already, and now I’d better get to it. Thanks again. I had a great time!
same here, we ate almost half already and we worked out together (last time) and now we’re loading up to take our boat out! I had so much fun with you!
Have fun on the boat. TTFN!
It was awesome-we rowed (he rowed) to the other side of our lagoon and we had a picnic lunch, now I have to get ready for our christening party tonight. Pics and post to come! TTFN
LOL “he” rowed. You know how to live! Looking forward to the pics and story behind it all.
Just got finished with our little christening party. I wouldn’t share any pie with anyone, but I made ginger cookies and they ate ‘em all up!!! Got some good pix!
This is a great article about food and our pets! Thanks for been so honest. I wish all pet lovers could read this. I live in Mexico and my cat is called, Sireeta. She has been getting only kibbles and sometimes a little milk. What do you think of milk for cats?
From what I’ve read, cats should not really have milk. Just water. Like people.
Oh, you have touched a nerve here. When Angus died last spring, our sort-of Siamese, Ralph, went into deep mourning. That’s when he had his first-ever UTI (which I found out can be caused by stress, go figure). So the vet gave us a special super-duper mega-expensive canned food that was supposed to reduce the ash in his diet. Ralphie, being a dry food connoisseur, turned his nose up and refused to touch it.
Then we got Stella, who a) has the foulest, most room-clearing poops I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter, and b) only seems to like one kind of dry food, despite our attempts to wean her over to wet food with less grain filler. Oddly, seeing that Stella loves this kind of food, Ralph has decided that he wants it too. So right now, though it’s not my preference, they’re both eating a (quite expensive but nevertheless probably not great for them) dry food.
I would LOVE to move our guys over to a raw food/low grain diet, but the question is how to force…I mean how to convince them to actually eat it. Maybe I’ll give the Tollden Farms product a try (only potential issue being that any dietary change seems to set off Stella’s poo issue).
Sigh. When did owning cats get so complicated?
Karen
So sad to hear about Angus and Ralph’s subsequent mourning. And it makes sense that stress in cats could cause UTI’s. It causes it in humans, so why not?
As for trying to get them to eat moist, or grain free, as you can see Jackson won’t touch the stuff either. He likes his kibble. And that is what I’ve heard from quite a few people. Any cat used to getting the dry will be hard to switch over. My two little ones will eat it only because they don’t know anything else. If given the opportunity to eat the kibble, that is what they go for. There must be something tasty in it. Archie – the big man – eats absolutely anything so he wasn’t hard to convince.
The only food other than kibble that picky bugger Jackson will eat is the Weruva – it is like shredded meat, the chicken anyway. That is the ONLY food. He wants kibble, he gets kibble.
I feel your pain. You can only do what you can do.
Also, my mother points out that our cat Nelson lived to be twenty two and he only ever ate kibble. He also spent much of his time outside, so I’m sure the exercise and the odd bird or mouse helped.