Cat food for thought.
Disclaimer: No hot dogs were harmed in the making of this picture.
I’m vegan. This is partially because I have never really been a big fan of meat, partially because I find slaughterhouse stories revolting, partially because I really like animals and helped along by reading Skinny Bitch.
It is absolutely AMAZING to hear the reactions from people when I tell them I am vegan. Sometimes they feel the need to defend their meat eating, as if I care. Some ask me “Well, what do you EAT, then?” Dirt. I eat dirt. What exactly do you think I eat? What do YOU eat that you think meat, dairy and eggs are the ONLY sources of sustenance?
My favorite is when people ask me if my cats are vegan.
You’re feeding me WHAT?
I am a lover of science. A devotee of evolution. A student of logic. I understand, know, and appreciate that cats are carnivores. Their little bodies are made to eat meat. I probably know more than I should about how they have different enzymes than humans do, to help process all the flesh they eat. How their stomachs are longer to digest, but have a smaller intestinal tract. Why would I buck the trend and try to perfect what Mother Nature already perfected? There’s a food chain. Some things are meant to be eaten. Some things are meant to eat. I could make the argument that humans are meant to be herbivores, but I’ll refrain here. Vegan conversion is not my goal, it’s my personal choice.
So yes. I feed my cats what they are supposed to eat. I am a little too squeamish to do the raw food diet, and with Taco’s Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, he’s on prescription food anyway.
Here is where I will rant. Cat food is CRAP. Total and utter crap. Grocery store brands? You might as well serve your cat roadkill that’s been sitting out for days and crapped on by other half dead animals. It’s disgusting. I’m sure there are plenty of people who think I’m ridiculous for only wanting to feed my cats organic food without chicken meal and grain and fill, but I wouldn’t stuff myself with fast food pink slime, so why would I do it to my cats? This prescription food he has to eat, it helps him not form crystals, avoiding a very expensive-to-fix blockage, but it is made with CRAP. My vet had an amazingly long discussion with me about my aversion to feeding him this ick. Because I trust her and because she had this amazingly long conversation with me about my aversion to feeding him this ick, I listened. In the end, he’s eating the ick. I’d rather not rush him to the emergency vet or have him die because I am too stubborn to feed him what is apparently the ONLY scientifically proven thing to help him. I tried feeding Mooshie the good stuff and Taco the prescription, but Moosh is a stupidly picky eater and will only eat the crap. He won’t even touch wet food, which I know is bad but I can’t FORCE him to eat it. I will shamefully admit that I have, once or twice, KIND OF smushed his face in it a little, just to nudge him into eating it. It doesn’t work. I just give them lots of water and leave it at that.
But I can tell the difference. Their coats aren’t as shiny. It’s amazing what they allow in cat food. It’s also amazing what they allow in human food, but hey, that’s why I’m vegan.
MEOW hear this! 
I fed my babies solid gold for a long time but they like blue wilderness much better so they have been on that for 6 months or so. Unfortunately they all have “meal” in them but as a vegan sister I cant bring myself to feed them raw meat which is apparently the best for them and their teeth. :). I agree that most food on the market is crapola!
I have a friend who swore by the raw food after hers got a crystal blockage…but after a 2nd crystal episode she gave in and switched to the prescription one too. They come frozen and wrapped, but it still makes me queasy!
I may try the raw diet eventually but the crystals are no joke..I am sorry you have to worry about that. 😦 BTW loving your blog! I have become such a cat lady! lol
If I didn’t have something to worry about, I don’t know what I’d do with myself. I’m glad you like it! I’m having a lot of fun writing it. As a fellow vegan, black cat lover and baseball fan, I’m enjoying yours too!
Thanks!
We have tried to change Giz’s diet so many times. We have cooked him organic chicken breasts, we have boiled him fish… I even made him a cat cake once.
He will only eat crappy wet food. He will sit outside the cupboard howling for hours on end, refusing to go anywhere near food that could be construed as even remotely decent. We have argued for almost 12 years about this.
He is very much like my boyfriend who throws tantrums when I cook something different for dinner and digs around in the freezer for oven chips.
As for being vegan, I think it’s wonderful. I will get there one day. It’s hard for me because I have stomach issues and the quickest way to resolve them are eating certain foods or drinking craploads of milk. I can’t always start sucking ginger when I’m not at home (mainly because I don’t have room to carry my ginger supply around and not many places sell it!) so I have to resort to other things. One day, though. I’m working on it.
They ARE brats. Boyfriends and cats. Mine will eat my cooking mostly but doesn’t consider anything a meal if there’s no meat to go with it.
Having been vegan for awhile now, accidental ingestion of dairy products will GIVE me stomach issues. I started the vegan thing slowly, but it wasn’t that hard because I don’t like cheese or eggs much anyway. I do mind missing out on most baked goods but my waistline thanks me, I’m sure.
My cat eats whatever she wants. Fortunately, she only wants one thing: Friskies savory shreds ocean whitefish & tuna in sauce. I’ve only had a cat for the last six years, and I thought that providing a mix would be useful. Nope. She wants only one kind of food, so that it is!