Stuff Your Cats Like

v R,

Sorry about your cat. It's tough losing them. But be aware your cat was a "Tuna Junkie".

"A cat's sense of smell is 8-12X that of a human. Tuna oil to them is fresh cod liver oil to us, only they LIKE it- and it's addictive. Know how you feel when you enter a kitchen where a pie's baking in winter and coffee's brewing? Fish is a salivary gland kick starter for cats. If you feed your cat that same "˜smell' daily, it loses it's effect over time. It may be best to not abuse it, so that if you ever need to use it as an appetite enhancer, it still has that effect. To break a tuna junkie addiction -feed variety, add tuna juice to other meats, gradually decreasing until none is needed."

I realize you used the water and not Tuna oil but I think it's still not good on a regular basis.

Here is an excellent article about Tuna and cats

Having said all of this I did something similar. For the past 25 years I've had one inside cat ( though I once had two ). Among my first was Fat Cat ( who was skinny! ). I spoiled her terribly as I do all my inside cats. For about 6 months I had her on an exclusive diet of the best Tuna in oil and of course she loved it. Then I wondered if this was a good idea and I switched to Tuna in water. But when I went to the Vet, she said this was a very bad idea. Tuna once a week is fine but as a 7 day a week diet it is very bad as described in the article. AAMOF the Vet said that dry foods without fish is generally the best diet.

Of course I couldn't take Fat Cat off her Tuna "Cold Turkey" so I weaned her off slowly and eventually to a diet of solely dry food ( not fish based ), with an occasional wet meal ( not fish ) and treats of course. She lived a happy healthy life to the age of 17. Her successor, Little cat was on a similar diet and lived to 19. The current inside cat is Squeaky. I've gotten older and softer. Squeaky's primary diet is a premium IAMS dry food ( without fish ), But I give her a can of premium wet canned food ( not fish ) 3-4 times a week. I hope she reaches 20 years old.

You should enjoy this. I've posted before that my block loves cats. There are many on the block that belong to us all. Some neighbors have even gotten many of the outside cats fixed. And they never lack for a meal. AAMOF its gotten quite competitive. I used to put out decent quality dry food like Purina. Then others on the block started putting out premium dry foods like Science Diet and Iams. Soon some bastards started putting out canned foods. The cats looked on with amusement. It's good to be a cat on my block

Well, wouldn't you know it, some big timer ( could Vox have been in Texas? ) wanted to win. I think he has a lot of money and he's been putting out Sheba canned food. That stuff is expensive ( like $.79 a can ), and he puts out a lot. The cats love the competition.

I can't compete with 100s of cans of Sheba but I think I'm going to catch the SOB. I called my Vet and she said "Why not go to a butcher and get fresh meat ground up". I did and the cats love it ( they are true carnivores you know ). I'm waiting to see what the SOB does to one up me. The cats are smiling.

Also, von Rothbart, sorry to hear about your cat's passing. When did this occur and how old was she? It sounds to me that she was a lucky cat.

Igor, my Maine coon that died back in February of this year, loved half and half in the morning. I'd get up at six a.m. and start the coffee grinder, and as soon as I turned around, he'd be up on the bar - yawning and staring into space. I'd give him a teaspoon of half and half in a ramekin, which he would finish and then go back to bed with my wife. I loved that routine.

Oddly, Igor also loved olives - as long as they were dark olives, instead of green ones. He'd nibble the flesh off of the pit and then proceed to swat the seed around. I guess it was the fat content of the olive that he liked.

He also loved to be picked up and held. Sometimes he'd get so worked up about being held that he'd drool on my shoulder; and he was always put back on the ground because I didn't want to hold him anymore - not because he wanted to be put down.

This story makes me want to believe in reincarnation - where I come back as a cat on your block.

I've had my Maine Coon for almost 10 years now. He originally belonged to a g/f who moved to a place that didn't accept pets so I took him. She fed him canned food and I coverted him over to dry. To this day though, when he hears the can opener he comes running, even though there's always food in his dish.

For a while I would give him a bite or two of whatever I was eating, but then I began a notice a correlation between him being table fed and throwing up, so I cut that out. Now he only gets his food and cat treats when I brush him.

He was an outside cat when she had him and has been strictly inside since I've had him. When he lived with her, if she didn't feed him quickly enough he'd go troll other people in her apartment complex for food. He would sometimes come home smelling like perfume, and once she saw him laying in a nieghbor's yard while the neigbor was weeding or something. The neighbor said, "Oh, yeah, that's my son's cat. His name is Timmy." End of mystery of where he was spending his nights.

What a whore!

Yeah, neighbors would always tell me that they would come home, or step out of the bedroom after waking up - only to find Igor chilling or sleeping on their couch.

Mine whore all the space and sleep on top of the heater when it gets cold.

v R, very sorry to hear about your cat's passing.

The RJ cat liked just about everything. He had been abandoned and had to live on the streets for a while, so he was pretty happy with any food he got. He did like lobster, though. We got him some souvenir cat food from Italy (ShinyCat brand, which is an awesome name) which had calamari and fish in it -- he ate all the fish and left all the little calamari rings. The Italian cat foods also had flavors like Tuna and olive or Chicken and Cheese with little cubes of cheese. He liked those too.

I miss the RJ cat.

He hated the vacuum cleaner, his archenemy, and would hiss at it when I wheeled it out. Once I had to go on a trip and wheeled out my wheeled carryon. He hissed at it, and then I realized that with the handle extended, it had the same general shape as my vacuum and he must have mistaken it for the vacuum!

Our female hates the vacuum, but Giant Cat seems fine with it. Giant Cat loves some cat treats my wife buys. Almost every night after dinner, he will sit at her feet and whine until he gets treats. As he gets more frustrated, he will put his front paws on her thigh, and rub his head in her lap...with his back feet on the floor. He is indeed Giant Cat. She will toss the treats to him, and he often catches them in one paw and eats them off his paw. The female loves the smell of spices. If I'm making something spicy, I let her smell the empty dish that held the spice. She always goes into raptures and shrimps around on the floor in pleasure. A recent picture of Giant Cat:

My cats seem to like puking on my sofa. 'Tis a shame.

Do you guys generally declaw your cats?
My cat likes clawing the shit out of things.

I don't have any real problems with the cats clawing things. I train them to use a scratching post. Declawing is a little cruel, IMO, as it's basically cutting off the entire tip of their front toes.

That's my understanding as well, which is why I haven't done it. My cat likes scratching his scratching post and also my legs.

Our cats are pretty gentle. Even when playing kind of rough, they always watch their claws.

On the other hand, if you've really pissed off your cat - he will tell you with his claws. Can't do that if the cat lost them.