We have an indoor-outdoor cat (another topic, don’t need the lecture, long story why he’s allowed out). He hunts the rats the local chickens attract, and is quite good at it. And anything that eats rats, IMO, can bloody well eat Meow Mix rather than the stuff that’s seventeen dollars a bag.
We do, however, bribe him to come in at night with about a spoonful of tinned food, of which he’s ridiculously fond. He doesn’t need it, but we want him to avoid unfortunate coyote incidents.
^^^ no lecture here…I have an indoor/outdoor cat as well. She sleeps inside, eats, then goes out and sits in the front yard and plays with a neighbor cat. When we walk the dogs, she follows.
No lecture from me, either. As far as I’m concerned, mousers and rat-catchers should get medals. =D>
I haven’t ploughed through this entire thread, but I used to feed my cat Ziggy (see my avatar) plain old Fancy Feast Purina cat food. And he was a habitual, serial vomiter. Almost two years ago, on a vet’s advice, I switched to grain-free cat food – specifically, B.F.F. [Best Feline Friend] grain-free, low carbohydrate cat food in pouches. Ever since, he vomits much less frequently, perhaps once a week or less as opposed to almost every day. So I’m convinced that it’s better for him, and he endorses the recommendation. He also gets a small amount of dry food that I leave out for him in a bowl all day.
DonnaL, it sounds like Ziggy is allergic to one or another grain in cat food.
My kitten has regurgitated only once in the nearly five months she has been with me. I think it was caused by she wolfing down her food too quickly, and I gave her too much food at once. I am still learning. There have been successes. She tried a new wet food today, venison, and she ate it. Hopefully, providing various types of protein to her will allow her to avoid food allergies. So far she really hasn’t said no to anything from a can, although it’s clear to me that she prefers kibble.
If our twelve-year-old long-hair drinks as much water as he wants right after he eats, he’s just about guaranteed to lose the meal. He does much better if we withhold water for 30 minutes or so.
The cat’s dining schedule is down to about three small meals daily. Maybe she was eating too much at one sitting before. I place a good sized portion in her bowl in the morning as I am about to depart for work. When I get home, there might be a bit left but she will harass and fondle me for several minutes until she sees me pick up a can or hears the rattle of kibble. Once I set the bowl down, she takes a couple of bites and then…walks away to her next diversion. When I am about to hit the hay, more often than not lately there’s a good sized portion of food left in her bowl. By the next morning it’s gone.
We just got a new kitten and when I looked at cat food, especially the so called ‘healthy’ stuff like Blue Buffalo, I was shocked to see some of the things in the food, the worse offender was Carageena, which they use to thicken the food but it is a known irritant and is not good for people or animals. The irony is standard cat food, like purina one and fancy feast, don’t have that in it (they have other problems, fillers, artificial colors and ingredients and so forth).
I found a brand without the carageena, and also are finding more simple ones that are the main ingredients. They don’t add vitamins to it, but I suspect with a mix of food he will be fine. He is currently eating a lot, but then again he is active, he just became the BFF of two puppies we just adopted, and they play like fiends…WWE has nothing on them!
Blue Buffalo USED to be “healthy food”…
https://www.petfoodsettlement.com/documenthandler.ashx?docpath=/documents/product_list.pdf
Even some OVERPRICED cat food brands contain carrageenan. The stuff is hard to avoid.