A 3 month old kitten will require 4 small meals a day. This will gradually ease off to two meals between 6-9 months. Siamese and Orientals enjoy a varied diet and will try almost anything.

Never feed your cat or kitten cooked bones. It is a good idea twice a week to feed your cat or kitten a raw chicken wing or neck, this will help to keep their gums and teeth in good condition.

Please do not feed your cat or kitten cows milk as many cats are intolerant of the lactose in the milk. Give your cat one of the especially designed pets milk such as Pets Own, Whiskas or a lactose free milk.

A balanced meal could be a serve of good quality canned food, I prefer Dine, Fancy Feast & Purr. As kittens they also enjoy the Kitten Whiskas pouches. Our cats sometimes have a small amount of grated cheese & small dab of natural yoghurt on top of their meal. The dry cat foods that I choose to use are Royal Canin,  Purina One, Eukanuba & EaglePack.  I feed this as their morning meal and make sure that they can graze on this during the day.

This diet can be varied with minced raw chicken or minced steak which is totally free of preservatives and fresh. Mince raw steak yourself if in any doubt of what it contains. I only ever use meats from the fresh meat section that I would eat myself.

Red Meat: Beef or human consumption kangaroo steaks cut in large lumps. These they can tear and chew on which will help their digestion and keep teeth and gums healthy and clean.

Fish: Cooked and boned thoroughly or canned fish cat food, such as Snappy Tom.

Rabbit and Chicken: Cooked and boned. Unless feeding raw chicken wings or necks.

Eggs: Scrambled, boiled or poached. Never feed raw egg white.

Cereal: High Protein baby cereal mixed with pets milk. Weetbix with warm pets (lactose free) milk has also been a favourite amongst our young cats.

Water: Always provide ample quantities of clean rainwater for your cat or kitten to drink. Of course in the city this may be impracticable. I also use a Cat-It cat fountain as a water dish and only glass or crystal bowls.

Vegetables: Some cats will accept cooked mashed vegies mixed in with their normal meal.

Kittens and young cats should have vitamins and calcium added to their food to ensure a good start in life. Elderly cats also benefit from extra mineral and vitamin supplements. Please speak to your Vet who can decide what is best for your cat.

Gourmet Recipes

For when your cat is extra good

Sardines & Rice (Serves 2-3)

• 2 small flat cans of sardines in oil

• 2/3 cup cooked rice, brown or white

• 1 tblspn parsley - finely chopped

Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl

breaking up sardines into cat bite sized pieces.

Serve immediately.

Scrambled Eggs (Serves 2-3)

• 3 Eggs

• 2 tlbspoons milk

• 2 tlbspoons grated cheese

• 1 tlbspoon margarine

Beat eggs and milk together. Stir in grated cheese.

Melt margarine in frying pan until sizzling.

Add egg mixture, stirring continuously until cooked.

Cool and serve.

In the following recipe I have removed all reference to onions and garlic as these are known to be toxic to cats and dogs. Though this recipe was only to be fed as the odd treat I don't want to take the chance with any body else's cat.

For further reference please visit

http://www.vetinfo.com/ctoxin.html

http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Chicken and Tuna Delight (2-3 serves)

• 3 chicken thigh fillets

• 1 large can tuna (in spring water) drained

• pinch fresh or dried thyme

Pour enough cold water over the chicken and thyme to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer slowly for 40 minutes. 

Allow to cool. Remove chicken from stock and shred into strips. Return to soup mixture. Stir in flaked tuna and serve when cool.

(Originally I used to make the above recipe with fresh chicken carcasses. I would boil them for a couple of hours, strip the flesh of the bones and continue with the recipe. But I found that my female Oriental neuter developed cystitis each time this meal was fed to her. I'm not certain but I believe the high calcium content from the boiled bones bought this condition on each time. She doesn't have the problem with the adapted recipe above. I have to be careful feeding her too much cheese and yoghurt for the same reason.)

Note: Some cats are allergic to wheat products, some are allergic to all grains and some are allergic to vegetables. If you think your pet has an allergy, please consult your vet.

Contaminated food killing our pets

REPORTER: Helen Wellings

BROADCAST DATE: April 17, 2006

A Today Tonight investigation has revealed some pet food could be harming – and in some cases even killing – our animals.

Adam Shelly's eight-year-old golden retriever, Annie, became seriously ill and very close to being put down as a result of the preservatives present in the dog's food.   "When I tell people exactly what happened they're just in disbelief about how that could happen," Adam said.

"It went from vomiting to rapid weight loss and the muscles in her back legs deteriorated to almost being non-existent.  She lost the ability to walk, she was literally on death's door."  A raft of blood tests, a spinal tap and MRI scans sent the vet's bill soaring to $12,000, before they realised the cause.
It was, without doubt, her diet.

Adam thought he had been doing the right thing - giving Annie fresh lean meat, kangaroo and beef mince, from his local pet shop everyday.  But veterinarian Dr. Rita Singh, who treated Annie, found the meat was loaded with dangerous preservatives - namely sulphur dioxide.  "We were able to prove in Annie absolutely, without a doubt, that her disease was caused by thiamine deficiency due to the food that she was being fed which had the sulphur dioxide in it," Dr Singh said.

Sulphur Dioxide is added to fresh pet meats and fish to preserve it, mask the smell and prevent discolouration.  It is not allowed in meat meant for human consumption.  But for pets, it can be a deadly diet, because it destroys vitamins essential to survival.  "If treatment is not instituted right away the dog or cat could be dead in four days," Dr Singh said. "Sulphur dioxide destroys vitamin B very rapidly - the brain requires vitamin B for energy production so without it the brain gets damaged."

Animals affected by sulphur dioxide appear to be disorientated, their heads tilt to one side and they walk weakly around in circles.  The effects are more noticeable in cats, but hard to diagnose in dogs and many vets do not treat the problem.  "I think the disease is much more widespread than we realise," Dr Singh said.

Dr Richard Malik, from Sydney University's Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science, said pets affected by sulphur dioxide were wobbly on their legs, they might have a head tilt and then it progresses to being paralysed.  "They can't get up and they start to seizure, so they have fits as well and when that's happening you've got a very short period of time until they're going to be dead," Dr Malik said.  "It's not the tinned food or dried food, it's the packaged food in fridges in supermarkets often called pet meat or mince."  Dr Malik said he was staggered no-one was doing anything to stop more animals from becoming ill.  "It's allowed in only a certain types of human food that make up only a small fraction of the diet," Dr Malik said.  "The danger from a veterinary perspective is when it's the whole diet of an animal, when the entire diet is deficient in thiamine because the SO2 has destroyed all of it… that's when it becomes life threatening."

Dr Malik's investigation revealed that:

* Just 400mg of sulphur dioxide per kilogram of meat destroys over half the thiamine in the food.

* 1000mg destroys virtually all thiamine.

Tests on 13 supermarket varieties from six different brands, containing beef, lamb, pilchards, or minced kangaroo showed around half have a high content of sulphur dioxide, some so high that all the vitamin B in the meat would be destroyed.  "It's been established beyond doubt," Dr Malik said.  "The abnormalities in animals that die of thiamine deficiency are very characteristic, so when a post mortem is done it can be ascertained that this is the cause." Labels on food for humans must state if they have sulphur dioxide, and it is usually in code as 220, 221 up to 228.

But the problem for pets is that labels on fresh packaged pet food do not have to declare preservatives, although some of them do, so usually you have no idea whether the product contains sulphur dioxide – and, if so, how much.

The experts said that:

* Fresh meat for human consumption from supermarkets and butchers was guaranteed to be safe,

* Pet owners should avoid feeding their animal any of the pet meats or minces that were labeled as fresh in supermarkets or pet food stores,

* When feeding a pet fresh meat, buy the kind that is fit for human consumption, because that does not have the sulphur dioxide preservatives in it,

* Buy fresh meat for humans from the butchers shops or supermarkets.

* Do not forget to feed pets raw meaty bones. The type of raw meaty bones you can buy for pets from the butchers have a whole lot of health benefits that make them an ideal source of food.
 

Pet food containing sulphur dioxide
Today Tonight found that 400 miligrams of sulphur dioxide destroyed 55 per cent of the thiamine in the food, while 1000 miligrams destroyed 95 per cent.

Brands of pet food which were found to contain sulphur dioxide include: