A Healthy Diet on the Cheap

Hey all, I have a cat named Butters, she's a very sassy orange and white tabby who spends lots of time outdoors.

Last year, her cousin Aero developed kidney stones and had to go through all sorts of traumatic surgery and vet stuff. Around this time we started to pay more attention to Butters' diet. When Aero's owners went on vacation last month, we looked after him for a week and had to feed him this super-special vet-recommended food. I checked out the ingredients and it's basically regular cat food with less sodium and water added to it.

Same as humans - a surefire cause of kidney problems is too much salt and not enough water in the diet - and some cats just don't like to drink water for some reason.

Solution: I started adding water to Butters' regular cat food, as well as a few drops of olive oil, some pepper and oregano from the garden, and a bit of tuna in the mix on occasion. Now? She's healthy as ever (with a shinier coat) and refuses to eat her food the old way (unless she's starving).

I'm wondering, do you have any homegrown diet solutions for your cat's health?

 

I had a cat who developed bladder stones and the vet was able to dissolve them with some special (and expensive) food, but that sure is better than surgery. I started syringing my cat with a couple of mL's of water a couple of times a day to make sure she got enough water. I think she developed an allergy to the rubber in the syringe though, so I had to quit doing that. She has special food she must eat to avoid the bladder stones and it's been working pretty good for about a year now. She is a challenge in that she also has a lot of allergies so I have to be careful as to what food she gets her nose in.

On occasion I will cook up some human food grade chicken or hamburg and give it to my cats as a treat. I make sure the label doesn't have additives. Some of my cats love it, and others won't touch it. Go figure. How can they not like pure chicken? If you really look at the prices, it is much cheaper to cook up real meat rather than give them expensive treats. Real meat is not a complete diet for them, but as a treat now and then, it's ok.

 

But heck, that special food is so expensive! It seems like a racket to me. But at the same time, if a vet told me that I should feed my cat that food, I would be compelled to do so. To do otherwise would implicitly make me feel like I was a bad owner and playing fast and loose with my cat's health. That's how they get ya, those specialty cat food manufacturers, ya know?

 

Now this makes me wonder. Is it possible that the tendency to develop kidney stones comes from the processed cat food itself? I visit my vet very often and I see a lot of cats being treated for this problem. All the cats involved are pampered cats which presumably had been living on processed cat food all their lives.

 

It is hard sometimes to cough up the money for her food, but if I don't do it then I'll eventually have to take her to the vet because she'll get UTI's and they'll have to do x-rays and what not, and vet bills are quite expensive. So one way or the other, I'm going to pay money to keep her healthy. I tried the UTI dry food they have at the big box stores, I think it was a Friskies brand, but it didn't stop her from getting sick.

 

I'm not really sure. My other 2 cats had never had UTI's and they eat dry food all the time. There is some research on line that suggests that dry food can be a contributor, but why that would affect 1 of my cats and not the others, I don't know.

 

I often contact those specialty companies and get on their mailing list for free samples and coupons. It helps out my wallet and my cats love it when free food and treats are coming in the mail!

 

Sounds like a good idea. I will have to look into that. Every little bit helps. Thanks for the tip!