The HOW of Feline Feeding

My first preference for these obligate carnivores is
The Feline Raw Meat Diet: A+ This best speaks to who these creature are inside: very efficient prey eaters. For those who feel raw meat is more than they wish to work with, I offer this B+ Plan. If the rawness is scary to you, read Food Safety and Raw Meat.

Cats are unique in the animal kingdom in a number of ways. Perhaps that’s why we are so attracted to them! I have found that the way they are fed is almost as important as what they are fed. That HOW becomes all the more important if you choose to use dry food in their diet.

Just Who Are You, Puff?
The cat is originally from the desert regions of Egypt. As such, it has evolved a highly specialized water scavenging metabolism that has allowed it to survive on the moisture present in its prey. You may have noticed that cat urine is highly concentrated and strong in odor. This is a reflection of this water concentrating ability.

One of the most important things we must do for this water conservator is not dry them out by feeding dry food! Oh, I know, the food I’m recommending for Puff in this plan is dry. And I know, your cat likes dry food. And perhaps you’ve always fed dry food. Nonetheless, it’s very important to:

Have you ever watched a cat drink? They are lousy drinkers! Splash, splash, lap, lap, and splash some more! Why? Well, they have a tongue and mouth parts that are not well designed to drink. That coarsely barbed tongue is there to lick the meat off of bones, and the narrow jaw and sharp canine teeth are made to bite and tear prey. Contrast that to the mouth of a horse or even a dog. The horse can literally suck huge volumes of water without much tongue action at all, and a dog can actually use its tongue like an upside down spoon, shoveling water in pretty efficiently. So what happens when we feed dry food to Puff? We force her to drink. And because she’s not well-adapted to it, but is thirsty, she tries her best but never gets enough. We’ve taken away her usual, instinctive archetypal diet (prey), which is 80-90% moisture by weight, and given Puff a food that is about 10% moisture or less. On a diet of moist food, a cat who is healthy (by the homeopathic standard) will drink once or twice a week. (You may want to reread that; it’s not a typo. If your cat is drinking daily on moist food, this is a sign of chronic disease.)

Why Wet? Ask the Bladder and Kidneys
What happens to the cat who eats dry food and cannot drink enough through the years to keep up with his needs? He gets chronically dehydrated. This puts stress on his bladder by creating more concentrated urine, so concentrated in fact, that it precipitates crystals out of solution. In the male cat, that can be a big problem (more on this below). Even the female will have a greater likelihood of cystitis or bladder inflammation because of these crystals “rubbing” the delicate lining of the bladder. More importantly though, we push these creatures into chronic renal failure, which becomes an incurable chronic disease in either sex. It typically shows up in mid- to later life, subtly at first. There is a larger volume of urine, and it’s pale and watery. The coat looks dull and disheveled. Vomiting increases in frequency. There’s less energy for play and grooming. And the thirst is really high now. A simple blood test will confirm the diagnosis, but at that point, it’s likely that 75% of the kidney tissue is nonfunctional. And irreparably so, even with the best of natural methods like homeopathy. We are able to slow the progression with the careful use of remedies and supplements, but we never get a complete cure as we do with other organ diseases. This disease makes life shorter than it should be for the affected cat, and saps their energy.

Cats have much more likelihood than other species to get this kidney failure. Why? Because they are commonly fed dry food. (There may also be a vaccine link in this illness. See Vaccinations: Safety) So what to do? If you feed a dry food, like Flint River Ranch Super Premium, just moisten it before the meal is offered. An equal amount of water can be poured on the food a few minutes before offering it. The aim is to get a canned food consistency, not a soup.
What if you now have a cat who stares up at you and won’t eat this new, improved version of victuals? Hang tough. Have patience. Know that, in the long run, your cat will come around and be grateful for what you’ve offered. Right now, he’s just not hungry. (More on that below)

Another area of the “how” of feeding the cat is:

I know. It’s easier to fill the bowl when it’s empty, and let Samantha eat whenever she wants. But this habit leads to some serious health problems also:

• obesity
• finicky appetites
• poor digestion, including hairball vomiting
• bladder crystals

Remember, we have a predator in our midst when we have a cat in our care. Even the most loving cat owner can see that the word “domestic” applies very loosely to the feline! We have, at the most, selected for appearance in breeding the modern domestic feline. We have not changed much else, because we’ve not worked to do so by applying genetic selection. So, think about how a predator eats in the wild. Take the big cats as a good example. The lion or tiger or bobcat gets hungry, seeks prey, works to get the prey by hunting and killing it, and then feasts. Afterwards, it’s time to lie in the bush, tend to grooming, keep the cubs in line, and generally forget about food. Until the hunger returns. That may be two or three days later, and the cycle begins again: hunt, kill, gorge, rest.

Contrast this to the “wild” cat who’s become a pet. The prey is in the bowl already, so there’s no work involved in getting it other than ambling over (strrretch!) to the kitchen. If the food stays out, most cats will get into the habit of never really getting hungry enough to gorge. They’ll act hungry, but eat little. Maybe a mouthful or two, and it’s on to other projects. Over time, that creates problems.

“No, I’m not pregnant or nursing, I’m not even female!”
One big one is obesity. Just as in people, if snacking fills the day, the weight can increase past a healthy set point. And part of this is that digestion is interfered with. The analogy is one of cooking rice. Imagine starting the process of cooking rice (the rice is the food in the “digestive fire” of the stomach if you will). If, part way into the cooking of the rice, you lift the lid and add more rice, you end up with a mess at the end. Some is cooked, some is not. A similar mistuning takes place in snacking cats. They have not really finished the digestion of the prior meal and taken the needed break before hunger returns. The food dish is full, there’s not much else going on to interest them, and so they return to the kitchen for another mouthful. This can happen several times in the day and night, and before you know it, this cat has a fat belly pad. And obesity shortens life and sets the cat up for other health problems, including diabetes and liver disease.

“No, I think I’d like something else to eat. Not that, either.”
The same mistuning of digestion is responsible for the problem that drives a lot of cat caretakers crazy: finicky appetites. Unless the brand or type of food is changed pretty regularly, Puff won’t eat. And do we get worried about that! “Well, if you don’t like the liver and bits, maybe you’ll eat the seafood feast? No? OK, wait, I’ll get your old favorite, shrimp flavored chicken fillet.” Still not much eaten. Why? There’s no hunger, for one thing! The boredom factor sets in. No thrill of the hunt, no wind in the face with the pursuit of the prey, no working with the rest of the pride, just a comfy bed near the fireplace, so who cares? Eating becomes a habit, and interest wanes over time as food is always available.

“Ewww! What did I just step on, Harry?”
I suspect hairball vomiting is also related to the poor digestion that comes form snacking. Normally, swallowed hair moves with the rest of the digestive contents through the intestines and becomes part of the stool. When it accumulates in the stomach due to poor digestive function, it sets up discomfort and eventually needs to be vomited out. If you see hairballs more than once every few months, you are seeing the evidence of a digestive problem. When was the last time you saw a lion in the zoo with a hairball? Ask the keepers -- I’ll bet they never see one!

“OUCH! Hey, I’ll be right back, I gotta run for the litter box.”
Another problem with free choice feeding is bladder crystals. A cat normally has concentrated and acidic urine. Anytime eating takes place, there’s a brief change to alkalinity, as the bicarbonate pours into the small intestine as part of digestion. This is normal, and happens in all species. But when a cat becomes a snacker, he becomes more like a cow, and stays alkaline most of the time. This results in urine alkalinity, which means the crystals come out of solution (compounded if the food is dry, as mentioned above). In the male cat, this can result in a plug forming in the urethra, the narrow passage that brings urine from the bladder through the penis and out. These plugs, made of crystals and often mucus, can actually prevent the escape of urine entirely. This makes the male cat not only very uncomfortable, but downright sick, as he fills up with the toxic waste material that should have gone out into the grass or the litter pan. These boys usually end up in the emergency room repeatedly until the diet is (artificially) acidified or they get a surgical operation that cuts the penis open (ouch!). And these repeated bladder problems seem to set the cat up for kidney failure later in life.

The HOW of Limit Feeding
So, how we mimic the wild cat’s eating habits becomes the basis for a healthier digestive system. This, in turn supports the urinary system's functioning as nature intended. Overall well being is enhanced and longevity added by doing just a couple of simple things in feeding our cats. The first is:

• Offer 30 minute meal times only once or twice a day.
  Remember that wild cat hiding out in your domestic cat’s body? Well, though he doesn’t have to hunt to get fed, we can mimic the gorge and fast model they live by through limiting the “windows of opportunity” for eating. Cats in nature eat on a 28 hour cycle. Offering food at intervals once or at most twice a day simulates this. While we would not be happy eating so seldom, we must keep in mind that we are different creatures entirely!
• Next, pick up any food left after allowing a 30 minute feeding time.
  That’s right. Pick it up and put it away. Moist food can be saved in the refrigerator for a couple of meals. Before offering it again, warm it slightly by putting the dish in a bowl of warm water (cats need to smell what they eat, and cold food doesn’t appeal to them partly because it doesn’t smell like food).

Finally, all purchased cat foods (even the best, Flint River Ranch Super Premium, which Puff eats in this B+ Plan), are missing an important ingredient. “What? They forgot to put something in?” No, actually, they cooked something out. I call it “life.” It’s that thing that’s present in prey, but gone if that prey is cooked before it's eaten. This is explained more fully in The Missing Ingredient (click here for the evidence).

So, what to do about this missing ingredient?
One is to add some raw meat or egg (Scared? Click here) regularly to the (moistened) Flint River Ranch cat food. This can be chicken, turkey, beef, calves liver, or eggs. If we keep the proportions of the raw food to 25% and the Flint River Ranch at about 75%, we’ll stay in a good nutritional balance. (Meat alone is very unbalanced, and a wild cat would never eat only meat from a fresh kill. They’d eat the bones, organs, digestive contents, and fur.) You could also add small amounts of finely chopped vegetable matter in that 25%, to mimic the digestive contents present in prey. Alfalfa sprouts or carrot are possibilities. But because cats are true carnivores, don’t go overboard.

Another way to get some of the missing ingredient back into this excellent diet to make it even better, is to add some enzymes. These are available in powder form from some natural grocery stores or health food stores or some veterinarians. A great product I recommend is AddLife, made made especially for dogs and cats.

Probiotics are the “friendly bacteria” like acidophilus and bifidus that live in the healthy intestinal tract. They are responsible for a number of healthful functions, including aiding digestion, manufacturing B vitamins, and preventing the overgrowth of disease-causing organisms. The probiotics are even known to enhance immunity. The wild cat regularly gets these lively organisms when eating prey, as they live in the intestines of the mouse or gazelle. You can add them to the Flint River Ranch food as a supplement. AddLife has a nice selection of the “good guys” with an ingredient called FOS that keeps them growing in the intestines.