5 ms·

Cats are a lot cleaner, if you want a clean indoor pet. Dogs are better for spending time outdoors. Don’t feed them commercial pet food (especially dry).

zarmin 7y ago
>Don’t feed them commercial pet food (especially dry). Absolutely correct. Don't feed any pet commercial pet food! Feed raw. I recommend Darwin's Raw Food, but there are many others out there. I accidentally gave diabetes to my beloved cat Penguino. He was eating standard dry (and occasionally wet) cat food for the first 6-ish years of his life. Suddenly he dropped from 13 lbs to 9 lbs in about a year. Fast forward four years and thousands of insulin and vet dollars, he is much healthier and on a raw diet, but will need insulin 2x a day for the rest of his life. Mishandling his food and health is one of my deepest regrets. And it was almost entirely avoidable, had I had the right information.
- dangus 7y ago
  Why would this anecdote about diabetes be assumed to have any correlation to commercial pet food? My vet recommended against raw diets because they’re easy to contaminate and difficult to manage properly. Why would you just assume that diabetes couldn’t possibly be genetic?
  - zarmin 7y ago
    Some cats may be predisposed to the condition, sure, but it's not deterministic. There is a correlation between carbohydrate and fiber intake and a number of feline health conditions. You can read more here: https://catinfo.org/feline-diabetes/ https://catinfo.org/feline-diabetes/ My cat's raw food is delivered once every few months, it's kept in sealed packages in the freezer, and I've never had a problem with contamination or managing the food. I can only speak for myself, of course, but I would encourage you to do your own raw food research.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- davidcbc 7y ago
  You do realize that Darwin's Raw Food is a commercial pet food, right?
- lupinglade 7y ago
  Yep, our cat came back from the dead after switching to human grade food.
koolba 7y ago
What are you supposed to feed them then? Left overs of your own food?
- alacombe 7y ago
  Raw meat. Cats and dogs are carnivore.
  - dangus 7y ago
    Don’t just do this without the aid of your vet. Cats and dogs need specific nutrients that are already formulated into pet foods.
    - alacombe 7y ago
      Remark from our vet, from feeding raw to our 3 cats: "we've never seen cats in such a good shape". Two of them have been on raw since kitten, one of which was pretty young and in pretty bad shape while being fed commercial crap after she got abandoned by her mother. She was no more than a couple of week at the time, bloated belly, etc. Everything she was eating was pretty much passing through undigested. As for the third one, we transitioned her from kibble to raw and she got noticeably less bloated and got much nicer pelt.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - drstewart 7y ago
    Dogs are not carnivores
  - improbable22 7y ago
    But just raw muscle isn't necessarily great -- I think there are lots of nutrients they would get from specific organs in the wild. One vet's recommendation was to alternate with high-tech dry food, which is likely to have these things. And some vegetables.
Johnny555 7y ago
Don’t feed them commercial pet food Nearly every dog in the country is fed commercial dog food (few people have the time and money to prepare food for their dog), and with few exceptions, those dogs seem to live a healthy life. My last dog lived to be 14 (pretty good for a 70 lb shepherd mix) and lived entirely on commercial dry dog food. (but it wasn't cheap grocery store food)
- jonfw 7y ago
  I think they were referring to cats with that line. If not- I'd be interested to hear some scientific support that dry food isn't good for dogs. Last I talked to my vet he was happy with the commercial dry food my dog was eating- but if that isn't the consenus I'd like to know some more.
  - dangus 7y ago
    In my opinion the raw feeding craze shares a lot of social media attributes with anti-vaxxing. It isn’t veterinarians spreading this advice. My vet recommended against it. I would guess that for every person doing raw diets right, there are five screwing it up.
    - lupinglade 7y ago
      Doesn’t have to all be raw, but just dont feed the garbage they sell as pet food if you care for your pets.
      - dangus 7y ago
        But what is “the garbage they sell as pet food?” It’s really nonsense un-actionable advice and it doesn’t actually align with what veterinary professionals tell you to do. You didn’t even recommend which food I should be buying or making. You just told me to put my tinfoil hat on. I’m doing what my vet told me to do. Why should I listen to people without veterinary degrees?
  - Cass 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
commandlinefan 7y ago
There’s an interesting theory that we don’t actually like cats, but are tricked by a parasite (toxoplasmosis, which cats are the primary carriers of) into thinking that we do, and caring for them even though they don’t really serve any purpose.
- pintxo 7y ago
  Don‘t cats have a purpose on farm, decimating rodents?
- lupinglade 7y ago
  That is absolutely ridiculous! We love our cats, they are extremely intelligent, loving, funny and make great pets. Oh and companionship is a great purpose on its own. Try having a siamese cat, see if you don’t really like them lol.
diyseguy 7y ago
I wonder what percentage of factory farmed meat is devoted to the pet food industry. I love dogs and cats dearly, but I really hate what's happening to animals in factory farms. Unfortunately cats and dogs can't be vegetarian as far as I know. I also suspect that pet owners rationalize daily meat eating for themselves since their pets have to have it.
- bradknowles 7y ago
  Felines are actually Obligate Carnivores. That means their digestive system REQUIRES them to eat primarily animal protein, or their health will gravely suffer and they will die. Now, it doesn’t have to be 100% protein. If they were eating mice and birds in the wild, then the bodies of those prey animals would not be composed of 100% protein. But they would be primarily protein. So, when we feed our animals, we need to make sure that we keep their natural dietary requirements in mind.

zarmin 7y ago

>Don’t feed them commercial pet food (especially dry). Absolutely correct. Don't feed any pet commercial pet food! Feed raw. I recommend Darwin's Raw Food, but there are many others out there. I accidentally gave diabetes to my beloved cat Penguino. He was eating standard dry (and occasionally wet) cat food for the first 6-ish years of his life. Suddenly he dropped from 13 lbs to 9 lbs in about a year. Fast forward four years and thousands of insulin and vet dollars, he is much healthier and on a raw diet, but will need insulin 2x a day for the rest of his life. Mishandling his food and health is one of my deepest regrets. And it was almost entirely avoidable, had I had the right information.

dangus 7y ago
Why would this anecdote about diabetes be assumed to have any correlation to commercial pet food? My vet recommended against raw diets because they’re easy to contaminate and difficult to manage properly. Why would you just assume that diabetes couldn’t possibly be genetic?
- zarmin 7y ago
  Some cats may be predisposed to the condition, sure, but it's not deterministic. There is a correlation between carbohydrate and fiber intake and a number of feline health conditions. You can read more here: https://catinfo.org/feline-diabetes/ https://catinfo.org/feline-diabetes/ My cat's raw food is delivered once every few months, it's kept in sealed packages in the freezer, and I've never had a problem with contamination or managing the food. I can only speak for myself, of course, but I would encourage you to do your own raw food research.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
davidcbc 7y ago
You do realize that Darwin's Raw Food is a commercial pet food, right?
lupinglade 7y ago
Yep, our cat came back from the dead after switching to human grade food.

koolba 7y ago

What are you supposed to feed them then? Left overs of your own food?

alacombe 7y ago
Raw meat. Cats and dogs are carnivore.
- dangus 7y ago
  Don’t just do this without the aid of your vet. Cats and dogs need specific nutrients that are already formulated into pet foods.
  - alacombe 7y ago
    Remark from our vet, from feeding raw to our 3 cats: "we've never seen cats in such a good shape". Two of them have been on raw since kitten, one of which was pretty young and in pretty bad shape while being fed commercial crap after she got abandoned by her mother. She was no more than a couple of week at the time, bloated belly, etc. Everything she was eating was pretty much passing through undigested. As for the third one, we transitioned her from kibble to raw and she got noticeably less bloated and got much nicer pelt.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- drstewart 7y ago
  Dogs are not carnivores
- improbable22 7y ago
  But just raw muscle isn't necessarily great -- I think there are lots of nutrients they would get from specific organs in the wild. One vet's recommendation was to alternate with high-tech dry food, which is likely to have these things. And some vegetables.

Johnny555 7y ago

Don’t feed them commercial pet food Nearly every dog in the country is fed commercial dog food (few people have the time and money to prepare food for their dog), and with few exceptions, those dogs seem to live a healthy life. My last dog lived to be 14 (pretty good for a 70 lb shepherd mix) and lived entirely on commercial dry dog food. (but it wasn't cheap grocery store food)

jonfw 7y ago
I think they were referring to cats with that line. If not- I'd be interested to hear some scientific support that dry food isn't good for dogs. Last I talked to my vet he was happy with the commercial dry food my dog was eating- but if that isn't the consenus I'd like to know some more.
- dangus 7y ago
  In my opinion the raw feeding craze shares a lot of social media attributes with anti-vaxxing. It isn’t veterinarians spreading this advice. My vet recommended against it. I would guess that for every person doing raw diets right, there are five screwing it up.
  - lupinglade 7y ago
    Doesn’t have to all be raw, but just dont feed the garbage they sell as pet food if you care for your pets.
    - dangus 7y ago
      But what is “the garbage they sell as pet food?” It’s really nonsense un-actionable advice and it doesn’t actually align with what veterinary professionals tell you to do. You didn’t even recommend which food I should be buying or making. You just told me to put my tinfoil hat on. I’m doing what my vet told me to do. Why should I listen to people without veterinary degrees?
- Cass 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

commandlinefan 7y ago

There’s an interesting theory that we don’t actually like cats, but are tricked by a parasite (toxoplasmosis, which cats are the primary carriers of) into thinking that we do, and caring for them even though they don’t really serve any purpose.

pintxo 7y ago
Don‘t cats have a purpose on farm, decimating rodents?
lupinglade 7y ago
That is absolutely ridiculous! We love our cats, they are extremely intelligent, loving, funny and make great pets. Oh and companionship is a great purpose on its own. Try having a siamese cat, see if you don’t really like them lol.

diyseguy 7y ago

I wonder what percentage of factory farmed meat is devoted to the pet food industry. I love dogs and cats dearly, but I really hate what's happening to animals in factory farms. Unfortunately cats and dogs can't be vegetarian as far as I know. I also suspect that pet owners rationalize daily meat eating for themselves since their pets have to have it.

bradknowles 7y ago
Felines are actually Obligate Carnivores. That means their digestive system REQUIRES them to eat primarily animal protein, or their health will gravely suffer and they will die. Now, it doesn’t have to be 100% protein. If they were eating mice and birds in the wild, then the bodies of those prey animals would not be composed of 100% protein. But they would be primarily protein. So, when we feed our animals, we need to make sure that we keep their natural dietary requirements in mind.