i think i cracked the code on why people are reluctant to admit cats are an invasive species, like okay i used to be in the same boat bc i was like "what cats arent bad theyd never disrupt an ecosystem!" and i think its because we ascribe human morality to animals all the timeeee and like an invasive species doesnt say "time to ruin this ecosystems whole day >:)" theyre just...doing their thing and it has negative repurcussions for the world around them, theyre not "bad" in a moral sense. but yeah. keep your kitties indoors if you can, save some birds lives
& if "save some birds lives" isn't reason enough for u to keep your cat inside...
Your cat can get FIV+ (incurable) outside, it's transmitted through spit, mostly deep bite wounds but also if they eat or drink together. if a pregnant cat has FIV+ her kittens will most likely have it.
Your cat can get heart worms (incurable) because it's from *gasp* mosquitoes. As well as other worms, and can give worms to your other animals.
"But they get bored" get a toy then? put some effort into keeping your cat happy and healthy.
FIV isn’t transmissible thru drinking water or eating and seems to be rare from mom to kitten but yeah it’s not something you really want your cat to have. My cat has lived with FIV for 8-10 years now and has lip ulcers that constantly drip blood and pus that she can’t really groom off bc of the mass growing on her tongue so she just scratches at it and her paws are filthy. She lived with 3 other cats she was raised with until about a year ago and they’ve never come down with it but please keep your cat inside bc there’s not a vaccine for FIV
He took super good care of it, and because he’s into nutrition the cat ate like a queen. He loved that cat. But she killed native wildlife all the time (as well as one of his backyard ducks).
Unsurprisingly, she was hit by a car this past week. He knew having outdoor cats was bad, but he didn’t want her to be “cooped up.”
I keep hearing the grain free diets for pets is just a fad that isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. My cat’s food that I chose happens to be grain free but I more chose it because of the high protein and organs in the ingredient list then it being grain free. Is there anything inherently bad about grain free diets? Or are they just a way to up the price tag?
gettingvetted here.
Yep, grain-free diets are a way to up the price tag. They started out as a fad since so many humans were adopting a gluten-free diet, and these days brands often like to claim that dogs and cats should not eat grains as part of their diet since they wouldn’t do so “in the wild”. Since dogs and cats are domesticated, they shouldn’t be eating anything in the wild, and are so far removed from their wild ancestors that their ability to digest grains have substantially increased. More recently, grain-free diets have been shown to contribute to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM, or heart failure).
However, it’s not just about grain-free diets. The diets that are causing DCM are now referred to as “BEG” diets – boutique companies, exotic ingredients, or grain-free diets. The apparent link between BEG diets and DCM may be due to ingredients used to replace grains in grain-free diets, such as lentils or chickpeas, but also may be due to other common ingredients commonly found in BEG diets, such as exotic meats, vegetables, and fruits. In addition, not all pet food manufacturers have the same level of nutritional expertise and quality control, and this variability could introduce potential issues with some products.
A diet should not be selected based on ingredients (or lack thereof). Rather, a pet owner should be asking these questions of a company:
1. Does the manufacturer employ at least one full-time qualified nutritionist? This means a PhD in animal nutrition or board-certification (and, ideally, both) by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition or the European College of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition.
2. What are the qualifications of the person who formulates their food (if it’s not the same person as their nutritionist)? This expert should have the same qualifications as in #1.
3. Does the manufacturer own the plant(s) where their food is manufactured? Most small companies do not own their own plants which can reduce the control they have over quality.
4. What quality control measures does the manufacturer practice? These vary widely among manufacturers but strict quality-control measures are critical to ensure safe, consistent, and nutritious food for your pet. Saying it’s the highest quality doesn’t make it true. Nor does having a statement on the label saying the food is complete and balanced. In fact, many of our studies have shown nutritional deficiencies in pet foods that claim on the label to be nutritionally complete and balanced (and the foods that had those deficiencies would not have met the standards detailed on this list). Examples of quality control measures the manufacturers should be using include certification of a manufacturer’s procedures (e.g., Global Food Safety Initiative, Hazard Analysis, and Critical Control Points, or American Feeding Industry Association); testing ingredients and end products for nutrient content, pathogens, and aflatoxins; materials risk assessments; and supplier audits.
5. Are their foods tested with the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) feeding trials? (this information also can be found on the label – find out how). If AAFCO feeding trials are not conducted, the manufacturer should at least ensure their diets meet AAFCO nutrient profiles through analysis of the finished product (rather than by predicting they meet the profiles based only on the recipe). This information can only be determined by asking the manufacturer.
6. Does the company conduct any research? Do they publish it in peer-reviewed journals?
7. Can the manufacturer provide you with the amount of any nutrient of interest (for example, sodium, protein, copper, or calcium)? They should be able to provide this information not just as guaranteed analysis numbers (which will be only minimums or maximums and are nearly useless), but as the average (or typical) analysis. This should ideally be provided on an energy basis (i.e., grams per 100 kilocalories or grams per 1,000 kilocalories), rather than on an as-fed or dry-matter percent basis, which does not account for the variation in energy density among foods.
8. Can the manufacturer provide you with the number of calories for any of their foods on any requested weight or volume basis (for example, per cup, per can, or per kilogram)?
9. Does the manufacturer bash other pet food companies (especially using information that is based on myths, rather than factual information) in their advertisements or on their websites?
These questions are all based on the checklist from the WSAVA Nutrition Toolkit, which is a very cool set of resources!
The short answer is that grain-free diet verses grain inclusive doesn’t matter. What matters is:
1. Well-sourced ingredients
2. Quality ingredients (high protein levels, low carb levels, etc)
3. Minimal processing (low or no heat/pressure)
And importantly, the whole DCM report by the FDA has been debunked. The FDA release that targeted “BEG” diets was NOT peer-reviewed and used very bad data collection techniques, etc. Essentially, if anyone besides the FDA had released this, their career and credibility would be over.
You can read a peer-reviewed journal article that very neatly destroys the DCM myths that the FDA perpetrated, and that vets still parrot: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/98/6/skaa155/5857674
discoholicmusic
jacobvanloon
baratheonpilled
janainaart
blakekathryn
