Sunday, October 23, 2005

BARF diets and other food musings

It's tough to write when the cats are having times when they actually behave in ways that seem normal enough to humans. Fortunately I have no doubt that such a time won't last and they'll be back to their old tricks.

This weekend I tried making up my first batch of BARF diet.. yes, I belief it's something like biologically appropriate raw food for cats... BARF. That's something I can get my teeth into and really makes me want to feed my cats this. But I got some Instincts from my vet and whipped up a batch with the raw foods they recommend on the package. I have enough for 14 1/2 cup servings.

Gemini thought the Instincts mix part was great until I added in the raw meat. Chey is the only one who really likes it but Georgia eats a bit of it. Gemini doesn't get that it's food yet. I don't understand this cat. I'm not sure I'm up to making a raw food diet regularly particularly when the youngest cat won't eat it at all.

Having worked in a veterinary clinic back in the day when you fed one food and one food only (because it was better nutritionally) this new concept of varying the diet so that they don't get too much of any one thing and or not enough of any one thing is quite new. Still I have hope that it will work. My large orange cat, Ingold lived to be 16 (nearly seven of those years post cardiomyopathy diagnosis) and he always shared whatever I ate as well as having cat food. I don't recommend Taco Bell regularly but he was a big fan of their bean burritos and it didn't upset his digestion at all. I figure if you can eat junk and be happy and live that long, if I just keep trying to feed the cats a variety of good foods, we should be on the right track.

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