Cat food for a sensitive stomach

Cat food for a sensitive stomach should be a form of prescription diet.

Some cats are intolerant to certain types of food. If your cat vomits about two hours after eating it might indicate a food intolerance or hypersensitivity to that type or brand of food.

Apparently grains (wheat and corn) in cat food are the common cause. Cats, apparently, can also be intolerant to protein such as chicken and/or fish.

The obvious choice of cat food in this instance is grain free cat food. There are also cat foods that contain reduced protein. The Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook recommend (in the USA) Eukanuba Response LB Feline, Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP Feline, Royal Canin Neutral Formula Feline, Royal Canin's Limited Ingredients with duck, lamb, rabbit or venison, Science Diet Feline d/d with duck, rabbit or venison and Science Diet z/d ULTRA Allergen Free Feline.

See also hypoallergenic cat food.



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F1 Chausie

Helmi and Ken Flick once kept and cared for an F1 Chausie. His name was Wildkatz Bwana Bushwah. You may well have heard of this beautiful wildcat hybrid. Apparently he was pretty wild! I mean this is in a nice and respectful way. I guess you would expect that from a first generation wildcat hybrid - jungle cat (F. chaus) to domestic cat mating.

Here he is playing in water. The wildcats often live and hunt by water as it is a source of prey. The wildcat hybrids love showering with you....!

F1 Chausie at play! Photo copyright Helmi Flick

You can read more about him and see more photos on this page. When F1 wildcat hybrids head butt they do it hard so says Helmi. And I have seen this in video material provided by Kathrin Stucki. You can see Titan head butting in the video below. Titan is an F1 Savannah cat (serval x domestic cat).





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Most Beautiful Orange Cat

CATILLACK, a photo by David McCudden on Flickr. 
Photo is copyright David McCudden

This is a truly beautiful orange cat. I think she is the most beautiful cat I have seen bar one or two others and I have seen a large number of cats as you might expect. Actually she is orange and white. She is a tabby cat. You can see the classic "M" mark on the forehead. Even the mark is beautiful. And she looks very female, sexy almost. Uhmm I have not heard someone call a cat "sexy" before but I have now!

If she was a person she would be walking down a red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. She would be a film star. Her name is Catillack and she is a Maine Coon cat....err..no, wrong, she looks like a Maine Coon (except for the lack of ear tufts and long ear hair) and looks classy enough to be purebred Maine Coon but is, in fact, a moggie born in a shed I am told. She is definitely the most beautiful moggie I have seen. The photograph is by her human companion, David McCudden. Who takes  a bloody good photograph by the way.

The gene that makes her orange is sex-linked. More sex...The gene is carried on one of the sex chromosomes. The symbol for the gene is O. This gene removes "all the eumelanin pigment from the hair fibres.." Eumelanin produces black, blue and chocolate colours etc.. An alternate pigment is produced called "phaeomelanin".  The pigment granule is lighter and it reflects light differently.

I have quoted Robinsons' Genetics (briefly) and the book says that the tortoiseshell cat is "the heterozygous female" (Oo).

Some people call orange cats "yellow cats". Why not! Yellow tabby cats are one of my favorites.  Martha Kane in Malta cares for an orange tabby amongst the many more she rescues and she says they are more likely to be the boss in a group but in a benevolent way. The orange traditional Persian is also very handsome.

The orange cat varies in the colour/density of the orange. I must say that CATILLACK is the most beautifully deep orange I have seen on a cat. Maybe it is David's photography and the low evening light that enhances the orange and gives it that deep luster. I don't care, she's a very sexy cat.

Grain Free Cat Food

You search on the internet for "grain free cat food". You want to find good grain free cat food. Do you know why you want that kind of food for your cat and why cat food that contains grain exists? You probably do but this page sets out my spin on this huge issue.

Dry cat food emerged onto the pet products market about fifty years ago. Before that canned cat food was around for up to one hundred years or so, I am advised.

Dry cat food (and dog food) is a relatively recent innovation. It's creation is born out of the need for convenience and I am not talking about the convenience of our cat, but of us.

The pet food manufacturers have two customers, us and our cat. They have an obligation to provide palatable and nutritional food for our cat and to provide inexpensive and easily handled food for us. These are competing goals. As we buy the food for our cat, our actions take priority and so the pet food manufacturers found a great market in dry cat food.

Dry cat food is highly convenient for the cat caretaker and can be left for feeding all day  - free cat feeding. Ideal for the busy cat caretaker. Whereas wet cat food goes off rapidly and smells quite quickly (a sign of poor quality?)

In order to make the pellets or kibble (so called in the USA) carbohydrates are required as this binds the rendered dry material together. Grains are a cheap source of carbohydrates. If grains such as wheat are not used potato, for example might be. Apparently, peas are also used.

Cats don't have a taste for sweet foods - they can't taste it so the only advantage to a cat of the carbohydrates is as a source of energy. But a cat is not designed to digest carbohydrates.

This can lead to the cat developing illnesses such as feline diabetes. The 12% water content leaves the cat in a permanent state of mild dehydration as cats don't fully compensate by drinking more water. The classic prey for a cat and ideal balanced diet is the mouse that contains about 60+% water and 3% carbohydrates. Dry cat food has 20-50% carbohydrates.

Some enlightened pet food manufacturers have created grain free dry cat food. The material is not bound together by carbs. One such dry cat food is Wysong Epigen Starch-Free Dry Dog & Cat Food (so claimed). The binding is carried out by "nutrient-rich protein sources" the manufacturers say. If this is possible why don't they all do it?

The obvious answer is cost. There are two criteria for promoting sales to people: cost and convenience. Some people simply are not aware of the dangers to health of permanently and solely feeding their cat dry cat food and so buy the cheapest while ignoring the high grain content.

Indeed, my vet some years ago recommended that I bought the dry cat food he was selling and to feed my cat permanently with it. He got his commission of course. It was Hills and Hills have a close relationship with vets promoting their food as the veterinarian's choice.

In the USA the best example of grain free cat food that is dry is Innova Dry Cat Food as it has received the most positive reviews over many sites. Another is Wellness Core. Another is Wysong as mentioned above. And yet another is Canyon River Feline Formula. Some will replace grain with some other source of carbohydrates as stated. Is that any better? Well I say it is not. The problem is not getting rid of the grain but the carbohydrates.

In the UK an example of grain free cat food that is dry is Arden Grange Sensitive - Ocean White Fish and Potato. I would check if there is a substitute for carbohydrates. In this case potatoes are used. And they announce that openly. Not sure about that. It seems like a trick to me  - reverse psychology.

Here is a little fun video I made about trying to obtain a balanced cat diet:



I wrote an earlier post about this subject, which covers slightly different ground.

Wet can food might also contain carbohydrates but premium brands contain little or not carbohydrates in the USA.

Incidentally one of the main causes of pet food recalls is due to the poor quality of the grain. This is an added benefit of buying grain free.



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Why the Siamese cat is pointed

The Siamese kitten is born without pigmentation (color). Within a short time - a few days - the coat forms pigmentation on the nose and ears.

Robinson's Genetics calls this typical of what it describes as "Himalayan albinism".

The production of pigmentation is dependent on ambient temperature. The temperature in the area of the fur is dictated by the body temperature of the cat and before being born the temperature in the womb.

The womb is at body temperature and it is this relatively high temperature that keeps the new born kitten white.

Once born, thrust into environment, the extremities become cooler than the center of the cat's body. The causes the production of pigmentation. The central area of the body of the cat is warmer causing the production of pigmentation be be restricted.

The body temperature is too high for "full pigment to be produced". This results in the coat varying from "pale to medium sepia".

The density of the color of the coat and points is dependent on the genes of each individual cat.

Apparently older cats tend to become darker in the body and for that reason only younger Siamese cats are show cats. Below is an older Siamese looking very dark:

Harlee looking vary dark in the body - Photo by cliff1066™

Siamese Cat Video

Here is a video of me rambling on about the Siamese cat:

Siamese Cat from Michael Broad on Vimeo.

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Siamese Tabby Cat

The Siamese tabby cat is not tabby cat all over the body but just on the points - the extremities of the cat. What I mean is that the tabby coat only affects the points. Well that is not exactly true because I suspect the objective is to have the tabby gene only affect the points but it does affect to a certain extent other parts of the body.

Lynx point Siamese - Photo by ♥ellie♥

This creates a cat that in my opinion no longer looks like a Siamese cat but each to their own taste. You will see the classic "M" mark on the forehead or a vestige of it and banding on the legs and some lines on and around the face.

When the pointing is broken by the tabby gene it is less distinct. Tabby pointed Siamese cats are called Lynx point Siamese cats.

Lynx point Siamese cat - by AlishaV

Siamese tabby cats can be sliver tabby (silver lynx points) and tortie points. Although tortie or tortoiseshell points are not tabby points but the broken pointing looks similar.