Notes, in note format

[phinnia]

Silk is at the vet, getting fixed. We've managed to find ourselves a holistic vet, who recommended a raw food diet and is cool enough to show us where to start with that, and who gave Silk Rescue Remedy when he was freaking out. They have fleas, which apparently we can deal with naturally - there's a natural defleaing service he uses that will come in and deflea your house without causing horrible smells that will cause Phinnias headaches. I've always been curious about raw feeding (I know tviokh and manhattan have had good luck with that) but most of the information I've found is dogs, not cats, so it's good that we found this vet. (Admittedly I'm probably looking in the wrong places.) And I don't have to cook the meat, which is a serious bonus for me. I hate cooking meat. That's about 40% of the reason I'm vegetarian.

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Speaking of Silk, he sprung the lock on his carrier and got out the window of the cab last night on the way to the vet, having an adventure on Milwaukie Avenue. He is, fortunately, fine and none the worse for wear, just scaring us and himself in the process.

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Seaners got mail today - a book from Seedlings: they're giving away free braille kids' books in a drawing. Seaners got the 'Spot Counts from 1 to 10' in print-braille. Is cute.

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I didn't know Tanglefoot had a new album out. *hm* I'll have to get that one, and A Grain of Salt - I don't have either. Ooh, and a live one, and a DVD.

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Josh is being a pain in the ass right now. Of course, I suppose it's not really very fun remembering ones' own death scene. But really, we're so past that now.

Comments

[tviokh.livejournal.com]

A lot of what applies to dogs also applies to cats. :)
Cats just need significantly less vegetable matter in their diet and obviously can't eat the larger bones that bigger dogs can eat.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember chicken bones are bad because they splinter ... do you give cats bones at all? Our vet was saying something about a mix that he blends in with raw meat ...
The whole thing makes logical sense, I mean, they're carnivores and meant to eat raw dead things.

[tviokh.livejournal.com]

Cooked chicken bones (or any bone) splinter.

Raw chicken bones rarely do.

Leg bones are most likely to break into sharper pieces though.

We feed necks, wings, legs, and thighs to our cats. They have no trouble going through them.

The raw meaty bones part of a raw diet is extremely important. If left out there'll be vital nutrients missing, especially calcium. Bone meal and egg shells can replace it but not as well.
Ground RMBs provide the same nutrition but you lose the dental cleaning benefit.

That blend is most likely unnecessary; it won't hurt the cat, but it's not needed and is just extra money.
One of the biggest things new raw feeders do wrong is panic and oversupplement. :)

Our cats get a meat mince with supplement mixed in maybe 2-3 times per week, other than that it's RMBs and organ meat.

Speaking of organ meat, I need to make more offal...

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

Hi there. Would you do me a favor, if you don't mind? We've been researching natural ways to deal with ants (other than just catching them and setting them free outside, as we've been doing. Store-bought ant-traps are NOT cat-safe. I'm wondering if your vet would know anything about this.

If not, it's not a huge deal. I haven't seen a single ant in weeks, and even when I did, it was maybe one or two every couple of weeks. Not like we're having a huge problem with them, but if they come back, I'd be curious if there's anything we can do.

Sorry to bother.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Eee. I get this after I get home from the vet ... I'll try and remember next time I call them and ask - they're closed now. :-)