Darcy, Please excuse me if I am posting this in the wrong place. Yours is the first blog I’ve followed, and I’m not really sure how blogs work. But I have a question about cat nutrition. I have an approximately 20-year-old torti, Nermal, who is a total sweetheart. She moved in under my porch with her 3 kittens 17 years ago, and then into our hearts and house. I also have one 17-year-old daughter. Nermal always had tooth problems, and no amount of dental care kept them from needing to be pulled a few at a time. Last November she lost the last of them. Since then she has been losing weight. I’ve always given them canned food twice a day and free choice (what I thought was) quality kibble. She turn up her nose at the canned food, and still tries to eat the kibble. In her life, she has never turned down a tidbit of leftover meat, fish or fowl. I want to start feeding her more fresh meat. Her kidneys are starting to fail, and I want her last months to be happy not hungry. But I’m concerned about her getting the nutrients she needs, especially Taurine that I understand from what I’ve read is hard to supply in fresh meat. Is there a supplement I can give her, (that doesn’t need to be chewed) that will give her the nutrients she needs to be as healthy as possible? Cathie
Dear Cathie, I’m not going to be much help I’m afraid. I know dogs, I don’t know much about cat nutrition. We do carry high quality cat foods for the convenience of our dog lovers. The cats who live in my house aren’t mine so I’m not the one who feeds them, they eat the foods from SitStay.com and they catch and eat mice, they’re doing great but they all still have their teeth. Here’s what I know about cat diets. Taurine is not a true amino acid but is essential in a cat’s diet. It’s found in many foods especially seafood and meat, and the less processed, the better. Processing of food kills Taurine and is why cat foods are supplemented with Taurine, you’ll see it on the ingredient list. Cats shouldn’t go over 24 hours without food. Truly that’s about all I know about it. We all get one life and we don’t have time to learn everything. That would be me, I don’t know everything.
Can anybody help Cathie with her sweet old cat? Sorry, I wish I knew more but it’s why I have a dog supply store. 
– Darcy
Hi Cathie,
I, too, have a cat with few teeth, but he eats voraciously. My 15 yr. old dog, however, has kidney disease. I have been feeding her home cooked meals – recipes and supplements from BalanceIT foods. They have recipes and kidney disease supplements for cats as well, but purchase requires a prescription from the vet. Summer’s recipes consist of rice and chicken or rice and beef. The rice is soft and you can cut the protein into pieces as small as you like so this would be appropriate for a toothless animal. Good luck. Jill Martin
Dear Readers, I don’t know much about this company but I will do some more research into them. I’m going to allow this post info even though I disagree with some information on BalanceIT’s website about supplements. I agree that over supplementing a diet is a most common mistake we make for our animals and ourselves and can cause a great deal of harm to the body. I disagree heartily about BalanceIT’s push for commercial foods even if it’s the reason their supplements are needed. Most of the commercial foods on the market have to be supplemented because the goodness has been processed out, they are not good foods for long lasting health. There would be very little reason for supplements like BalanceIT if everyone fed and ate a good, simple and natural diet. SitStay.com carries some of the best and highest quality processed foods on the market, if you have to feed a commercially processed food, choose the best. Raw and homemade diets are head and shoulders above processed foods and rarely need to be supplemented because all the goodness is still in there. – Darcy
With Summer’s kidney disease, my choices were to feed a commercial kidney diet (all had by products as the protein source), figure out how to cook and supplement food very limited in phosphorous, or use the BalanceIT recipes and the BalanceIT KD supplement. Because of the poor quality of the commercial KD diets (Darcy, if you know of a high quality kidney disease food, PLEASE advise me, because that would be much easier for me) and my inept recipe designing abilities, I chose BalanceIT and my girl has been eating heartily (with stable kidney disease) for almost 3 years. I recommended the BalanceIT only because the cat has kidney disease and must have a restricted diet. My other dog eats a high quality dry food. My cats also get good quality dry and wet foods. I should eat as well as they do…
my 17 year old got real sick last summer and i thought she was about gone. i could not give up since we had had her to the vet only three months earlier and she was fine. i started giving her cranberry juice, same as i drink. about a teaspoon ful by syringe squirted in her mouth., every hour at first cause she was super dehydrated.. when i got her to eating again i got high protein kitten chow. yes, crunchie stuff that i soaked with a little warm water to soften. she absolutely loves it and is putting weight again. i give her as much as she can eat and she is eating alot now. she rapidly improved and we are fixin to celebrate her 18th birthday. i still give her a teaspoon of cranbery juice for her kidneys every day….good luck, to you!
I have two cats that I give extra taurine as a supplement for heart conditions, one has a mild murmur as a result of thyroid problems (she’s 16) and the other was born with a hole in his heart and wasn’t expected to live past 5mos – he’s turning 5 yrs. I’ve had no problem buying human grade taurine in a capsule, opening it up and mixing it in with the wet food. I don’t believe it has much of a flavor so they don’t turn up their noses. They both love the Nature’s Variety medallions which makes it easy to mix things in. I’ve also used the Honest Kitchen Prowl with great success. I switched to all wet food a few years ago when the 3rd cat (also 16) started into kidney failure, and in 6 mos with no medication, just wet food, his kidney levels improved significantly! Also a lot of the feline multi vitamins are flavored and easily crushed and sprinkled on food, Pet Naturals of VT work well, they are more of a chewy vitamin. Lindsay
Nature’s Variety Medallions and Prowl are available at SitStay.com
I too don’t know much about cats, or their nutrition requirements, but I do have a few suggestions that might help point Cathie in the right direction… Firstly, as a short-term solution, since Nermal seems to still want to eat her dry food, maybe try moistening the kibble with warm water, effectively turning it into a ‘home-made’ wet food. That way, she at least is getting some nutrition. Secondly – and not to step on any toes Darcy, you’ve got a great philosophy & quality that carries over to your store, and I enjoy shopping there – maybe try contacting the customer service people at Only Natural Pet (.com). They have always been very helpful if I’ve ever had any questions, and are very knowledgeable when it comes to both dogs and cats. If they don’t have an answer for you, I’m sure they’d be able to point you in the right direction.
Good Luck!! Andrea,
Andrea, the only thing OnlyNaturalPet does that I don’t like is to promote Cesar Millan and his methods. You all know that I believe that he and his TV show exercise a great lack of responsibility to TV viewers. SitStay.com does carry one of Cesar’s books in the hope that we can turn people on to better ways and it’s been working, you should read the description, it came directly from me. My hope is that we can turn more and more people to a positive way to live with dogs. If the dogs on the TV show had been started with positive methods, they wouldn’t have the behavior and biting problems they have now. Using the TV show’s methods on an already fearful or aggressive dog causes more bites and relinquishing to shelters. See the most recent The Dish post from The Vet. Other than that, I’m a fan of OnlyNatural, too. Thanks for listening. – Darcy
I have 2 recommendations: There is freeze dried raw and since your kitty likes kibble, it can be broken apart to a more powdery substance that perhaps she could digest. Probably the better choice would be to puree real chicken or ? to give her (such as you would do for a human with no teeth) which also makes it easy to add a supplement to the food. (Babyfood meat is 99 cents for a tiny jar) My cat won’t eat canned either but will lap up broth or all meat babyfood. Hope this helps and thanks for doing all that you can for the sweet one!!!! Linda
A quick caution about commercial baby foods…read the labels and know what’s in there. Do a search online for the words ‘commercial baby food danger’. Many aren’t fit for human children much less for our animals. Yes, many cats do well on freeze dried raw foods, some turn down the texture but it’s certainly worth a try for Nermal. SitStay.com has great freeze dried raw. Thanks, Linda! – Darcy
Darcy, What do you feed DC? I have cats as well as dogs, and would like to know. I’ve rescued lots of cats over the past twenty or so years, and several have gradually in spite of checkups & cleanings lost their teeth. They continued to eat dry food. This was before I started feeding wet food almost exclusively. Now I’m hoping to phase the two elderly cats I have left into raw food. They like the Nature’s Variety freeze-dried raw, broken into small pieces. I’m still researching cat supplements. My dog supplements are from Nature’s Farmacy. They also sell cat supplements, but my cats – so far – object to their supplements. Congratulations to you, Cathie, on having your cat live to age twenty. This is quite an accomplishment. – Sylvia
Dear Sylvia, It sounds like Nermal was an outside cat to start out and if that is so, probably had a great start in life, eating mice, baby rabbits, grasshoppers, worms…the things that Nature provided for diet. Some animals can live on paper plates rubbed with the smell of food, it doesn’t mean that they will end life in a quiet and peaceful death. Our food choices for them are so important.
Kent feeds all three cats the same thing, cat foods from SitStay.com, including canned and dry and freeze dried raw, he mixes it up from week to week. DC is the real mouser and she eats other live things that she catches from Mother Nature’s dinner table, she’s in the best shape of all of them.
Real, simple, and less processed foods are best for all of us and our animals. In my opinion and that of many animal nutritionists, raw is best whether fresh or freeze dried. Then home cooked. Then canned, then kibble is last. Kibble is the most processed and is what probably needs more supplementing. All kibbles are not made from the same cloth so to speak, some have terrible stuff in them. SitStay.com carries only a few food lines and those are chosen from only the best available, so you can’t go wrong choosing from our food line up. Again, over supplementing can cause more harm than good.
Read the ingredient labels, if you see colors, wheat gluten, corn, corn syrup, and the meat isn’t identified, you may want to stay away from that label. Know your food makers, are they using good fresh food or dead, dying, down and diseased. If you have to guess, don’t feed their food.
You see so many supplements available because people have ruined the food supply, it’s just not what it used to be but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find good food for your animals and your own table without having to add supplements. It’s out there and it’s best.
My cats, I had many through the years but I don’t have one now, were all cats who hunted for their own food and the occasional sharing of mine. I trust Mother Nature is right about what they should eat. They were lean, smelled good, didn’t shed, and lived long and healthy lives. None of my cats lost their teeth, that’s a new one on me. Dental problems may have a lot to do with processed food diets and heredity.
If you’re going to feed commercial foods, get the very best that you can. – Darcy
Thank you all for your help. I live in a small rural town, and its hard to get anything for a cat, including medical care, that goes beyond the basics. Frankly until the Chinese decided to start poisoning our pets and children, I thought I was doing good by driving 40 miles to buy Science Diet for my cats. Now I drive 120 to get them EVO! But my cats aren’t crazy about the kibble if its moistened. It never ocurred to me to look for Taurine supplements in people vitamins, but I need to find out how much to give her before I’d try it, and get somewhere where they sell more unusual vitamins. They don’t have it in our drug store in town. I did find an Excell soft treat supplement on-line that has taurine, and the first ingredient on the lable is FOOD, not corn syrup! Because my 17-year-old (Nermal’s daughter) was diagnosed with diabetes 2.5 years ago, I found the Feline Diabetes website, and learned how to read lables. She wouldn’t touch the Vet’s prescription food. But there are some flavors of Fancy Feast wet food she can eat that I can buy locally in a pinch that are actually way better than the prescription stuff. Her kidney numbers aren’t too great either. Somehow I think they would both disappear if they saw me coming with an eye dropper of cranberry juice! I might get one of of them, ONCE. They are old, not stupid! Cathie
Cathie, you may want to shy away from foods you find in the grocery store or the vet. I’m pretty sure everyone who knows nutrition will back me up about that. Read the labels. Ick. I’m glad everyone was able to help. – Darcy