WELCOME
Cat Lovers' Advice Facebook Group welcomes you to our Meouwful website where you'll find all manner of advice for your kitty plus great ways to save money through our partnerships with major cat-loving companies!
Feeding
Adult cats are best fed twice per day with a wet diet. Kittens should have food available 24/7 for their first three months or so or several small meals throughout the day, increasing the amount as they grow. Our kitten page has kitten-specific feeding information.
Problems with Kibble and Fish
Kibble is not a good feeding option. It’s fine to feed dry kibble occasionally however having more than, say, 5% of your kitty’s diet as kibble is quite unhealthy because most kibbles contain large amounts of fillers including vegetables that cats can’t even digest so they gain no nutritional value from those ingredients plus they lead to smelly poops. Large amounts of kibble in the diet can also lead to UTIs (Urinary tract infections – link to UTI). Sure, you’ll hear of cats that live into their twenties on a kibble diet; these kitties are by far the exception rather than the norm. Michu have some lovely grain-free kibble varieties, again you save 10% storewide when you enter our code PETLOVERSADVICE at checkout. .
A note on feeding canned fish that’s intended for human consumption and raw fish: research has shown that these foods can deplete essential vitamins and minerals from your kitty. While it’s fine to feed these as snacks, giving these as entire meals should be avoided.
CatChi make fresh food for cats. We work closely with our vets to formulate recipes and use 100% human grade ingredients, that are gently cooked & freshly frozen with 95%+ meat and no fillers. Everything your cat needs and nothing they don't.
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All of our recipes are gently cooked to maximise the nutrition available for cats and to ensure the best flavour and texture for their picky palettes. By gently cooking our food we're maintaining the benefits of real, fresh food, while also protecting against the risks associated with raw feeding, like salmonella, E. coli and listeria. After cooking, we freeze our meals immediately, locking in the freshness with absolutely no preservatives.
And all of our meals are vet formulated to be complete and balanced according to the nutritional levels established by AAFCO for all life stages.
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Catchi generously give you 20% discount on their starter packs until 28th February (after which it will be 10%). Just use the code catloversau
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Freeze / Air Dried
Freeze / air dried food is a great feeding option as it’s usually just all the good stuff dried which you can serve as a topper or you can rehydrate it. We recommend Michu’s freeze-dried products which are all-natural and grain-free. You save 10% storewide at Michu when you use our code PETLOVERSADVICE at checkout! Check out their wildly popular clumping tofu kitty litter while you’re there.
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Raw Feeding
When buying ready-made meals, ensure the meals are balanced which means they contain 80% muscle meat, 10% secreting organ (kidney / liver), 10% bone. Please remember that heart is muscle meat; it’s also an excellent source of taurine. Look out for nasty preservatives that can cause significant health problems in cats; the main preservatives to avoid are: 220 – sulphur dioxide; 221 – sodium sulphite; 222 – sodium bisulphite; 223 – sodium metabisulphite; 224 – potassium metabisulphite; 225 – potassium sulphite; 228 – potassium bisulphite.​
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When doing DIY please ensure you follow the percentages: 80% muscle meat, 10% secreting organ (kidney / liver), 10% bone. Please remember that heart is muscle meat; it’s also an excellent source of taurine. While you need to follow the percentages, it’s not essential that every meal has this combination; a balance over a number of days is suitable although it wouldn’t be good to have all the bone or all the secreting organ content in one meal.
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Also be sure to give your kitty a variety of meats so they don’t become bored plus each meat contains different vitamins and minerals. Suitable muscle meats include: lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, kangaroo, venison, rabbit, heart (any species), goat, tongue.
Transitioning to Raw Feeding
When transitioning your kitty onto a raw diet, do go slow. Introduce around 5% of the meal as raw to begin with then increase to 10% after a couple of days then to 15% at the end of the first week and so forth. It’s important to not force the food onto your kitty nor to allow them to go hungry for longer than 24 hours and the food must always be fresh; presenting rejected food 24 hours later may not be a winner.
In terms of cost, buying ready-made meals is more convenient but can be more expensive. DIY does take a bit of time to put together but can work out at much less cost when you buy meats at around $8kg; just be mindful of how much freezer space you have available for this.
Apart from kitty being ever so much healthier, a predominantly raw diet will eliminate stinky poop smells which makes everyone happier.
Meal Topper
Veterinary Nutrition Group (VNG) offers a range of meal completer supplements (CompleteMe) for healthy cats and kittens and those with medical conditions. Browse what’s on offer here to ensure that the meals you’re preparing for your cat or kitten are complete and balanced..
CompleteMe is suitable for use with either raw or cooked homemade meals. They also have some delicious freeze-dried treats (Hey Bird) that will make your felid even more frisky and practise impressive snatching, bunting, and occasional biting.
Explore the delicious options using the following link VNG offers a 10% discount across their range of products when you use the code ‘COMPLETECATLOVE’ at checkout.
Bowls and Water Fountains
Michu also has a water fountain plus ceramic bowls for avoiding your kitty developing acne; you can read more about cat acne here. To claim your 10% discount storewide at Michu, just enter our code PETLOVERSADVICE at checkout.
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Hot tip: if ants are getting into kitty’s food, put a small amount of Vaseline all the way around the underside of the plate / bowl; this creates a barrier that the ants can’t cross. Alternatively, you can place the food bowl into a bowl or plate that has a couple of millimetres of water because fortunately, ants can’t swim!