The Way of Cats

Cats start entering their senior years faster than we might think. Here’s a chart to indicate how old our cat really is:

Surprised? According to this, Mr. Bond is already sixty human years old! No wonder he’s been taking it a little easier around the house, and letting his sidekick, RJ, take over a lot of his supervising duties.

Cats face physical aging challenges just as humans do, but we might not know that they face a mental challenge as well. According to this study, one vet estimates feline dementia could affect 28% of pet cats aged 11 to 14, and 50% of older cats. We need to be alert to cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS), which can lead to dementia.

This is when the cat becomes easily confused, and can start wailing at night and missing the litter box. Their problems are more easily seen when they are tired or not feeling well. They also have a lowered ability to cope with stress. Diet seems to be one way to treat this condition.

Hill’s did one study of 75 cats, all older than 12, and later questioned their owners about the j/d [Hill's Science Diet for arthritis] food’s impact on their dementia, Gunn-Moore says. “Over 70 percent said their cats had improved cognitive function,” she said. “It’s great. I think it’s a fabulous brain diet. I’ve got a lot of little old cats on that brain diet. It’s really nice.”

Well, okay, that sounds good, even though it was the makers of the pet food doing the study, that’s nice improvement rates. What about prevention?

The j/d food should not, however, be given to younger cats as a dementia preventative, Gunn-Moore says, because it contains far too much fat and protein.

Now, we’re talking about cats. An animal who eats other animals. An animal who does not have the enzymes needed to digest carbohydrates, such as found in grain. How can such a animal get too much fat and protein?

In fact, as I’ve written before on cats and their proper diet, the best way to feed cats is with lots of fat and protein, and very little carbohydrate.

I think if feeding a high fat & protein diet helps older cats regain their cognitive function, then it is definitely indicated to feed them that kind of diet all through their lives.

Especially since there isn’t a single reason not to.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.

Cat treats are necessary for the health of the cat. It’s not that cat treats offer nutrition packed food that’s good for them. They already get that. It’s that cat treats offer wonderful bonding opportunities for both of us.

Cat treats are essential to their mental health.

more cat pictures

Don’t think that we shouldn’t give the cats treats because they should love us for ourselves. They do.

Don’t we love our friends and relatives? Don’t they show us they love us by providing food we like?

Maybe… special foods we especially like?

We can buy cat treats at the store, get them online, or make them ourselves. But we need to find ones our cats like. It’s how much they like it that creates the love/teach opportunity that treats can provide. Treats are not the only way to create these opportunities. But they have a great advantage, especially with young or uncertain cats.

They give the cat something to focus on.

When they are focused on a goal, they are highly alert to cues that let them know how to get what they want. By watching their behavior closely, while they do things to try to get us to give them the treat, we wait for one we like and then, swiftly and happily, give them the treat.

It does not take long for the cat to learn how to push our buttons.

Make the treat ritual an easy and automatic part of our day by keeping the treats handy, but in a way that the cats cannot open themselves. Be prepared for the cat to investigate the container, and whatever contains the container.

Another treat option is to see if cats enjoy any of our treats, thus making treat time for all.

In the picture at left, RJ demonstrates the cat response to food they are politely declining. There are other forms of opinion sharing. The cat might give us a disbelieving look, stalk off indignantly, or pretend to bury it.

It’s easy to tell when it’s something they like.

Don’t let them become nuisances about it. Demand some proper behavior, such as petting them into a sitting position or making them get off the chair where they are being too insistent, and nudging them into staying on the floor.

This is love time. This is teach time.

This is treat time.

Mr. Bond is saying, I’m James Bond, and I approved this message.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.

Do we have a fat cat? Are they overweight, or just “big-boned?”

It has come to my attention that a lot of vets just aren’t giving the right advice. They say to get the cat to play more, restrict the cat’s food, or give them the “diet” food they sell. But there’s only one thing wrong with this advice.

It’s wrong.

more cat pictures

Cats get fat when they eat stuff they can’t digest. That would be grains, or to the diet conscious, carbohydrates.

Cats don’t have the enzymes to digest carbohydrates. They even lack the amylase in their saliva that helps break down plant starches. So when we feed a cat such food, it only turns to fat.

There’s your problem!

So on top of the cat eating food that can only turn to fat, there’s also the hungry problem. Since cats won’t get the signal to turn off their appetite until they get enough protein and fat, they won’t get the signal when they are eating foods low in protein and fat. So they eat even more… of the food that’s making them fat.

What’s a pet parent to do?

For cats, the solution is to feed canned. Canned foods have much more protein and fat than any dry food. This gets the nutrients into the cat, and turns off their “hungry” switch.

How much? As much as they will eat within an hour. How often? Twice a day, morning and evening. If they bother us for more food, we can feed more often. Hungry problems aren’t solved by not giving the cat food!

We don’t restrict the food. We just give them more of what their bodies are crying for. After all, the cat didn’t get fat by eating too much. The cat got fat by eating the wrong thing.

Canned also has a high water content, which helps the cat’s digestive processes work well.

If our cat, like my two older boys, is used to having a bowl of dry food out all the time, it can be a challenge to get rid of it. Mine weren’t fat, but my research convinced me that they needed a more natural diet for their health. So I switched their dry to Innova EVO, the lowest carb dry food I could find. They like it, and we don’t get the anxious the bowl is missing! activity.

Mr. Bond got a little trimmer. Puffy actually lost weight, but his tiny-boned frame doesn’t need much. Which only convinced me that I was doing the right thing.

It will work. I’ve seen it work.

Too bad more vets haven’t seen it work. Show yours!

This vet agrees.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on FEEDING THE CAT.

Cats are hunters. Their original environment had little vegetation and lots of small animals. Thus, cats are almost solely dependent on meat, and its main components, protein and fat, for what their body needs. Feeding the cat their environmentally proper diet is also known as “Catkins.”

more cat pictures

When I became aware of how cats must have eaten in the wild, I started reading the labels for the food I’d been feeding my cats. I was truly astonished at how many ingredients were grain based, and how low down the list I had to go before the meat products appeared. It’s not like the label makes it easy. Pet food regulations do not allow the word carbohydrate on the label. What the hey!

To get the carb content, pet parents have to take a calculator to that information on the label: 100- (protein+fat+moisture+ash+fiber) = carb content. Those bags I was buying at the supermarket were not much more than enriched, meat frosted, breakfast cereal.

In fact, that’s exactly what it is.

Just as the food industry wanted us humans to eat more convenient, processed foods, the growing number of dogs and cats in urban areas created the same potential market. Thus the pet food industry sprang into action to lecture us about not feeding people food to our pets, and instead buying their product.

Just like with people, the cheapest source of food is grains. Cats, in particular, do not see the appeal of grains. A pioneer father never came back in the cabin to exclaim, “That mountain lion’s gotten into the wheat field again!”

We might get sticker shock comparing the prices of the better food to what we get at the grocery store. But with the high quality food from specialty pet stores or feed stores, we are getting what we pay for. It’s not as expensive as it might seem. My cats ate less of the nutrient dense, better food. I wasn’t going out and having to get it as often.

So when we go searching for better foods, don’t go by reputation or marketing. Go by what the calculator tells us. The less carbohydrates in the food, the more protein and fat we are actually buying. That’s what we should be paying for, since cats need the protein and fat.

The rest will only make them sick.

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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.