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Alex doing his ball of fur with ears imitation, and being floppy
Louann, a Floppycats’ reader sent in the following. I love it when someone is getting their kitty off of dry food and wanted to share her experience and see if others might have more info to share on this topic.
“I have recently been getting my cats off dry, into more and more can food and as much raw as I can afford. One of my cats has been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel disease. My vet sent me to a website called IBDkitties.net that has a lot of good info about how to prepare raw food to closely resemble the balance of nutrients they would get by eating a mouse or bird. They call it building a “Frankenmouse”.
Another book I’ve had for years and is recommended by Jackson Galaxy, The Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier. She has a recipe of items you can get from the health food store to add to store bought canned food to fortify it into the “Frankenmouse” idea too. I have used her additive recipe in the past with great success.
[I then asked Louann if I could share her email as a blog post – to which she replied:]
By all means share this, and the IBDkitties.net link for their recipes. Sorry I don’t have a way to take digital photos. The only other thing I would add is when I see a good sale on meat I buy 5 or 6 lbs at a time. I divide it into aprox. 6 oz. portions and freeze it. Then I can put a frozen chunk in the bowl in the AM and they work on it as it thaws all day, and I don’t worry so much about it spoiling. (my cats are nibblers and will never finish their food all at once). I feed beef and poultry, not fish. The fish smells so bad in the bowl all day, and in the litter box afterward!
I’ve also noticed since starting this diet the cats don’t poop as much. My understanding is because more nutrient is staying in them and there is less by product/waste to eliminate. Short hairs become very smooth and shiny. Although our Ragdolls don’t mat much, other long hair breeds do and they become less matted on this food. Dander is pretty much eliminated and my friends who are allergic do not have as severe a reaction to my cats, if at all.”
– Louann, Alex and the rest of the non-floppy cats here
My tiny lion, Max.Jinx after Alex taught her to be floppy
Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags, I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other Ragdoll cat lovers around the world,
We lost our Maine Coon mix, Max, to diffuse neoplastic mast cell cancer of the small bowel, in June 2013. Our Ragdoll, Honeybear, died 3 months later from inflammatory bowel disease with secondary kidney failure, and the Maine Coon mix’s brother, Sammy, was diagnosed with IBD this past March. They were all eating Blue Buffalo dry. Unbeknownst to me, barley is the WORST grain allergen for a cat. Prior to this, they were eating Wellness dry and before that, Science Diet w/d. These 3 males were vomiting constantly on the dry food. Their vet said nothing about any of this vomiting – it was always, “Well, some cats are just pukers.” From what I’ve learned, that is NEVER the case. After Max’s diagnosis we switched everybody to Fancy Feast chicken feast classic which has no wheat gluten or grain. We introduced raw with it, but not everybody was on board with it. The vomiting stopped, but unfortunately, not before the damage was done. Cat parents, tell your friends and the world, do NOT feed your cats dry food, even the dry stuff that says “grain free” – the body is always in a state of dehydration from dry food and it’s bad for their kidneys. Feed a high quality canned with NO wheat gluten and no grain of any sort. Grain and gluten is literally poison to a cat’s bowels. I’ve done tons of research and learned so much, and how these pet food companies can continue to put grain and gluten in food is just mind blowing.
That is really good info and thank you for sharing it. Love the photos too. What you said about them not having BM’s so much I found to be true when I started feeding Hounds and Gatos that is pretty much all meat with no fillers. There is also hardly any smell at all! Isn’t that great? Plus, my IBS kitty, Grace, is not bothered by it. They also eat Addiction Turkey with cranberries that helps their urinary tract health! Would love to be able to try raw, but still am a little squeamish about it. Thanks so much for sharing.
oh yeah .. i forgot. since my cats have been on the wet food.. you are right, my 2 short haired cats are so silky now it’s unreal, my long haired cat has not had ANY mats, he no longer has dandruff on his back end, he’s even fluffier and his hair is shinier and they are all friskier. i really didn’t expect that but i’m thrilled.
i have been trying really hard to get my cats off dry food too and i’m feeding them “tiki cat” right now and they just love it! the ones they love are the fish ones though and you are right, stinky poop and i have to wash out the cans or my garbage will reek. they do eat it all at once so that frozen to thaw thing sounds good to me. a local pet shop that i go to has frozen chicken necks but i could probably do better at the grocery store. i do have a concern about the way they are processed though, i don’t even eat meat anymore unless i know exactly how it was raised and where it came from. maybe i will check my co op and see if they have no antibiotic and no hormones meat there for cats. i just can’t do the frakenprey though. i watched jennys video on that, almost lost it and couldn’t watch it again. i don’t think 2 of my cats would eat it anyway. i know one of them would but … just isn’t going to happen. thanks for sharing, you’re idea was one i never thought of and it’s a great one.
We lost our Maine Coon mix, Max, to diffuse neoplastic mast cell cancer of the small bowel, in June 2013. Our Ragdoll, Honeybear, died 3 months later from inflammatory bowel disease with secondary kidney failure, and the Maine Coon mix’s brother, Sammy, was diagnosed with IBD this past March. They were all eating Blue Buffalo dry. Unbeknownst to me, barley is the WORST grain allergen for a cat. Prior to this, they were eating Wellness dry and before that, Science Diet w/d. These 3 males were vomiting constantly on the dry food. Their vet said nothing about any of this vomiting – it was always, “Well, some cats are just pukers.” From what I’ve learned, that is NEVER the case. After Max’s diagnosis we switched everybody to Fancy Feast chicken feast classic which has no wheat gluten or grain. We introduced raw with it, but not everybody was on board with it. The vomiting stopped, but unfortunately, not before the damage was done. Cat parents, tell your friends and the world, do NOT feed your cats dry food, even the dry stuff that says “grain free” – the body is always in a state of dehydration from dry food and it’s bad for their kidneys. Feed a high quality canned with NO wheat gluten and no grain of any sort. Grain and gluten is literally poison to a cat’s bowels. I’ve done tons of research and learned so much, and how these pet food companies can continue to put grain and gluten in food is just mind blowing.
That is really good info and thank you for sharing it. Love the photos too. What you said about them not having BM’s so much I found to be true when I started feeding Hounds and Gatos that is pretty much all meat with no fillers. There is also hardly any smell at all! Isn’t that great? Plus, my IBS kitty, Grace, is not bothered by it. They also eat Addiction Turkey with cranberries that helps their urinary tract health! Would love to be able to try raw, but still am a little squeamish about it. Thanks so much for sharing.
oh yeah .. i forgot. since my cats have been on the wet food.. you are right, my 2 short haired cats are so silky now it’s unreal, my long haired cat has not had ANY mats, he no longer has dandruff on his back end, he’s even fluffier and his hair is shinier and they are all friskier. i really didn’t expect that but i’m thrilled.
i have been trying really hard to get my cats off dry food too and i’m feeding them “tiki cat” right now and they just love it! the ones they love are the fish ones though and you are right, stinky poop and i have to wash out the cans or my garbage will reek. they do eat it all at once so that frozen to thaw thing sounds good to me. a local pet shop that i go to has frozen chicken necks but i could probably do better at the grocery store. i do have a concern about the way they are processed though, i don’t even eat meat anymore unless i know exactly how it was raised and where it came from. maybe i will check my co op and see if they have no antibiotic and no hormones meat there for cats. i just can’t do the frakenprey though. i watched jennys video on that, almost lost it and couldn’t watch it again. i don’t think 2 of my cats would eat it anyway. i know one of them would but … just isn’t going to happen. thanks for sharing, you’re idea was one i never thought of and it’s a great one.
Thanks, Jenny & Louann for sharing such great information with all of us!
Louann, your Floppycats are AWESOME & BEAUTIFUL! Lurve the pictures of your Three Amigos! 🙂
Big hugs!
Patti & Pink Sugar 🙂 <3