The very first feeding chore I do every morning before I eat is to make a warm meal for the five barn cats that are usually waiting at the door. If the weather is cold and blustery, they stay in the barn and I bring them their small pot of food. I don’t mind doing that one bit. These cats aren’t lazy and pampered. They are my little army of mousers. A friend likes to kid me and says I feed my cats better than most people feed themselves.
Farmers are known to continue the tradition by keeping cats on hand to minimize the mice, and sometimes rats, who invade our barns for warmth and shelter and who eat many of the same foods we love and grow. Mice can be very destructive, so having a few cats around is essential on a farm.
My barn cats are happy and healthy. They are not overly fat and are not scrawny. I can pet them when they’re eating, but they don’t want to be picked up. They get “home-cooked” warm meals morning and evening. During the day they sit outdoors and watch for rodents by buildings and fences.
It would be easy to buy bags of cat food and just give them pellets. Do you know what’s in the stuff?
Coloured kibble bits are not for the benefit of the cat or dog. They are to make them more appealing to you!
Cats and dogs don’t care what colour their food is, this is simply another marketing trick to catch your attention in the myriad of pet food labels.
Artificial colours are synthetic chemical dyes that have no place in pet food. Cases have linked artificial colours to cancer and other ill health effects.
I make cat food that consists of saved vegetable and potato water, food scraps, fat, meat, bread, that’s mixed in with a few ounces of calf milk replacer. Potato and vegetable water is never dumped down the sink. I buy turkeys and cuts of meat when they are on sale. Turkeys have a lot of waste, which is ideal for making cat food.
A common misconception about barn cats is that they don’t need to be fed. True, they will be catching and eating mice, but they need more than that. It is not true that a well-fed cat will no longer hunt. In fact, a healthy, happy, and full cat will be more inclined to hunt, even if it hunts for fun and not to eat the mice.
Cats and dogs love real food instead of the grain-based meat-flavoured stuff that has many additives. Do pet lovers ever wonder why so many pets get cancer nowadays?
I know there are those who say it’s too rich a food for pets and it lacks vitamins and stuff. That’s what the multinational pet food makers would like you to believe.
What to avoid when buying manufactured pet food
•Words such as “By-products,” “meat and/or bone meal,” “animal digest,” most other descriptions including “digest” or added sugars.
•Chemical preservatives, including BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, and propyl gallate
•Corn meal as a filler
•Excess of carbohydrate “fillers” Dry food can contain as much as 50 percent grain.
More on this in a future column.
