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The Case for Healthy Pet Food

I am always talking about my issue with the major pet food companies and what they put in pet food. My parents laughed at my crusade against regular pet food until one of their cats got sick and was not able to eat dry. I gave them some good options of food and they chose Blue Buffalo Spa Select Tender Turkey & Chicken Entree. After a week my Mom called me and told me that both cat's loved the food and their dandruff was gone.

Within a month their coats were shining and the cat that was sick had gained back some weight and their overweight cat lost weight. The sick cat had also began actually eating with enthusiasm too.

She had to admit that the healthy cat food made a difference. I did act like a good daughter and not say I told you so.

I just wish everyone would try it for themselves. I found a few books that have some great information, as always their are always two sides to the story so do your own research. These books all are discussing healthy dog food but cat owners can still get great information.

Dog Food Dangers Click Here
Dog Food Secrets Click Here
Dog Food Miracle Click Here
Canine Cancer Click Here

And as an update, the cats are all eating happily now - hopefully they will give me at least six months of peace!

Slakk and Copy's Excellent Adventure

Today I had to take part of the four legged family in to the vet for their annual check up. I try to do it in batches so it is not too expensive and not too much for me.

So I got out the cat carriers a few days ago so they would not be suspicious of them. Well okay not Slakk, because Slakk does not care about anything, Copy on the other hand is a charter member of the tin foil hat and black helicopter crowd - so any change is a big deal to him.

I made an early morning appointment so after I put down their breakfast I shut all of the doors so Copy could not go hide. I always feel bad trapping him because he is so shy but it had to be done.

Luckily he was actually semi easy this time and I only ended up with a few claw marks. Slakk was following me around so he was easy to catch but not thrilled to go in the carrier.

I did do one thing different, for te first time I tried Bach Flower Essences Rescue Remedy Spray
on my vet's recommendation on both of them.

Slakk stresses out on any car ride which of course puts his blood sugar very high and can trigger his Diabetes and Copy, well he is just Feral. So between yowls and claw marks I gave them both their dose.

What a difference.

Slakk usually yowls and screams the whole time and drools and Copy shuts down. I am not going to say they were thrilled but definitely better. The vet trip went fine, Slakk is overweight and Copy is perfect but both were in excellent health. Slakk's blood glucose was higher than at home but no where near the usual spike.

The best part was that Copy stayed out all afternoon. Usually when I have to take him to the vet he hides under the bed for at least a week. I was so happy to not have to slide food under the bed.

If you have a stressed cat or dog I highly recommend Bach Flower Essences Rescue Remedy Spray 20ml.


Oh and Sam's Birthday Gift was ordered. With his arthritis he seems to like having his food bowl up a bit. I cannot wait for it to get here I hope he likes it as much as I do. I think I still have flashbacks from when we had our old house for sale a few years ago so ANY way I can keep it looking clean I am for it.


Wetnoz Metro Collection Pet Bowls Metro Duo 4" Green

Finally SUCCESS

In the quest to find a new food we finally picked a food. Okay I finally received a complete approval from Abbeylocks and the Three Black (and White) Bears.

I ordered three options for the trial. I was hoping that one would work and was so excited when my package got to the house. The first food we tried was Castor & Pollux Ultramix Indoor Feline Canned and the three boys (Slakk, Spudd and Copy) all liked it but Abbey refused to eat it. I decided to wait a day to try the next food choice.

Copy was still refusing to eat raw so he was VERY hungry for our next option. So we then tried
Newman's Own Organics Canned Cat Food Chicken & Rice the good news was that all of the cat's gobbled it up, the bad news was Mommy did not do her homework and the carbohydrate % was over 10% as fed.

With Slakk's well documented Feline Diabetes I really try to keep him under 8% carbohydrates as fed ad for some reason I chose a can with rice in it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this food choice for a healthy cat or even some diabetic cats, but Slakk's blood sugar will elevate.

Just to check I tested him (yes you can home test a diabetic cat just like human diabetics do) and his bloog sugar was in the 80s. His normal rate is in the 50-70 range so yes even one small can of a higher carb food will cause him issues.

In fact it is the reason Sam is not allowed any dry food because if Slakk gets into it his blood sugar skyrockets. After three years in remission and as he ages it is more important than ever to keep him in remission. His immune system is already compromised from the ravages of the disease so I have to be very careful.

So sadly we had to say no to the Newmans. I was down to my third choice, Evanger's Canned Cat Food - Organic Chicken. I set the food down and SUCCESS!

All of the cat's scarfed it down and then went and laid down and took a bath. In my cat world that is a great sign. So now everyone but Copy is getting their normal raw plus a tiny bit of Evanger's and Copy got just the Evanger's.

Our world is now at peace. Whew

A Great Bed For a Great Dog

My dog Sam is a great dog but sadly, he dangles at the bottom of the food chain.. We got Sam twelve years ago at a rescue and were told he was a Beagle cross. I think a Beagle crossed in front of him because never looked like a Beagle. He is a rare breed dog, Carolina Dog or Dixie Dingo. They are found in the southeastern United States and are actual wild dogs He is a wonderful, patient dog who never complains when the cats steal his food or lay on his beds…or on him.

As he gets older he has slowed down and gets really stiff if not using a good pet bed. His bed in my office has started to lose the firmness he needs and he has been stiff when waking up so last weekend I went online and searched for a new bed.

Since it is in a part of the house viewable to anyone who walks in, I wanted it to be not only comfortable for him, but stylish for me. We run our business out of our home so I have customers and business associates in the house and I do not want or need a smelly rumpled pet bed in my office. Some people don’t like animals – amazing I know. I like my home to be smell free and not have pet accessory eyesores. And I found it - Natural Rhino Wicker Pet Bed a great natural pet product and a great price. sweet!


I was so happy when it got here on Friday, it matches my furniture perfectly and is such high quality. Sam immediately put his claim on it as the cats circled – he is not willing to give up on it. He must really like it.

My friend Heidi was over today and walked by my office and stopped and pointed at it and said, “Where did you get THAT?” I started to laugh and told her I bought it online. She whipped out her phone and saved the information on it. Heidi is one of the top realtors in town and is always bemoaning how turned off people get by seller’s pets.

She was really impressed with the style and how it looked less like a dog bed and more like a piece of furniture. In fact, she liked it so much that she is buying a few to put in with the furniture she leases to her home sellers. That is about the highest seal of approval you can get.

My happiness comes from the look of my graying puppy dog, sprawled out, snoring happily (and loudly) and hopefully keeping the cats away from his bed.

You want to know why your cat is obese?

My one-eyed feral brat aka Copy Cat has decided to go on strike against his regular food. Now if I was a one-eyed feral who won’t let anyone touch him despite being a house cat for THREE YEARS I would be happy just to be fed. But he lives in our house so he goes on strike and sits 10 feet away from me and looks pathetic.

So I am on the hunt for food. This happens about once every six months where one of my cats decides it is time for a change. So I pullout my favorite bookmark, Janet and Binky’s Cat Food List. This is a great resource for calories as well as carbohydrates “as fed.” We try to feed food under 8 carbs as fed for Slakk's blood sugar to stay in the zone.

From Slakk’s Diabetes I learned that the labels on the cans are about worthless so I rely on this list for my information. The rule of thumb for the amount of calories a cat should intake everyday goes something like this:

(13.7 x Optimum weight) +70 = daily calories

My cats are ummm good converters, so they actually stay at around 170 calories per day, sometimes up to 200 but a normal weight 12 pound cat should figure eating around 230 calories per day.

So for some reason I went on a website for commercial cat food – VERY well known brand (no I am not going to name them because they do not deserve the publicity) and they recommend 1 can of their over-processed, slaughter house reject, pesticide filled cans of death, oops I mean cat food per every 2.5 pounds. Doing the math that is 4.8 cans per day…FOR ONE CAT.

After I got up from the floor I looked at the calories – about 435 total, assuming any cat could shove all of that in their mouth in a day (Slakk has offered to try), that is 200 calories OVER the optimal calories – and these are the people telling YOU they understand nutrition and you should trust them?

And then lets do the math, each can of death is $.079 times 5 (because you know you will feed 5 cans not 4.8) equals $3.95 PER DAY. That means in 30 days you would spend $118.68 not including tax, but hey you could forget your gym membership BECAUSE YOUR CAT WOULD BE SO FAT PICKING THEM UP WOULD BE A WORKOUT. If you have four cats like me then you would spend more on cat’s food then groceries

So then I look at a better alternative Evanger's Canned Cat Food - Organic Chicken 5.5 oz. Can at $1.49 for a 5.5 ounce can. That is approximately the same calorie count as one day’s allotted calories. I feed this sometimes and honestly my big pig cats only get about ¾ of a can because quality calories mean less calories, but to be fair I will use the proper amount. So that equals $44.70 a month a whopping $74 dollar difference IN FAVOR OF A QUALITY PRODUCT.

Amazing huh?

If you really want to see your head explode look at the as fed calories for dry food, one cup equals 350-650 calories – ONE CUP. I will not even discuss the carbs...you know that is bad.

Raise your hand if your idea of feeding your cat is to take a bag of kitty crack and dump it in a self feeder…Don’t worry that was me before Slakk went diabetic. I ask you this - Do you think your cat is only eating what they need or are they gorging on the calorie heavy, carbohydrate-ridden pesticide filled bags of death (yes, related to the over-processed, slaughter house reject, pesticide filled cans of death).

So back to the web, I went to one of the lower calorie, yet highly-publicized dry cat food bags and read that my darlings should eat one cup or 362 calories – yes 150% of the recommended calories for a healthy 12 pound cat. Assuming my cats would self regulate at one cup (yeah sure) the kitty crack would cost a smidge over $1.20 per day.

Well until Slakk’s diabetes went out of remission and I was spending $100 dollars on his insulin alone. But again the cancellation of the gym membership would help out. Until one of the others went on the juice too...

But if you are feeding your cat on the calorie heavy, carbohydrate ridden pesticide filled bag of death or over-processed, slaughter-house reject, pesticide filled cans of death know this. IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. We have been told that these companies know best and love our pets - well they are loving our pets to DEATH. My husband has banned me from the pet food aisle because I become an evangelist for proper feeding.

Kudos to companies like PETCO.com who have seriously started not only offering, but showcasing healthy alternatives to the cans/bags of death. Baby steps folks, babysteps.

I was in your shoes at one time and it took almost losing my sweet baby Slakk to learn his food was killing him. But now I know better and know feeding healthy is CHEAPER and your cat feels better and your vet bills go down and their coat shine goes UP. And maybe just maybe they will shed some weight.