Have you ever looked the ingredients of your cat's food...?

I'm glad you've raised this issue of cereals. One of the prevalent allergic reactions in cats which may result in their 'over-grooming' is from the cereals added! A further aggravation - which often eludes the veterinarian's diagnosis - is the fibres from insulation (particularly glass-fibre) which many use. Anyone with a cat should always consider this as a probable cause forover-grooming; stress, too. And to some of you,for goodness sake, don't be so critical of feral cats, they keep the rats in order - so never put down rat-poison if ferals are about!

The last cat I had developed an itching along her back, she would bite at her back all the time...took her to the vet and she gave her a cortisol shot. Seemed to work for a month and then the itching came back with a vengeance and her skin got dry and flaked something terrible. Took her back again and another shot....the vet suggested a special food and I bought that for her...the shot caused her to swell up like a basketball for a couple months, then she got a tumor on her breast area, and became a diabetic. I had to give her insulin shots and take her to the vet once a week to see what her blood sugar levels were to adjust the insulin levels. She died about 5 months later, her blood sugar never got stable. After this was over I read a column in my local newspaper written by a veterinarian, he was into holistic healing. He said that the ingredients in cat foods could cause itching and other problems. He suggested a diet of protein foods like steamed chicken, yogurt or cottage cheese, egg etc. No cereal fillers or offal... If I ever get another cat I’ll do just that. One of the oldest cats that ever lived in the USA was given a diet of chicken, cottage cheese, steamed broccoli and a cup of black coffee each day and he lived to over 30 years old, his owners called him “Grandpa”.

catnurtrition.org

We use a recipe from there to make our cat [u]raw cat food[/u].
If you need a place to get fresh frozen predatory meats, pm me and I can send you the link.

Big profitable business this cat and dog food industry. I have read the ingredients in the Friskies and the high end foods...I mean the obscenely expensive foods...many of us can't afford it so Friskies it is! I have tried a few cans of the stuff with the 500% markup and my cat prefers the cheap stuff. Lucky me...less guilt. I don't even want to know what they put in it. and don't get me started on the price of litter!

Yep, I remember being baffled by this. Also my cat would eat cereal without milk sometimes which makes sense since he was already eating it in his other food although it seemed funny at the time.

Interesting, what are your qualifications though to be telling others about this?

As a vegetarian since 1970....it's really heard to have a carnivore as a pet

Isn't that the same for dogs?