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Special Topics: At our workshops, we always tell caretakers to feed their ferals the best food they can afford. This maxim recognizes two important things - first, that good nutrition is important and second, the caretaker's budget is important, too. So like so many aspects of being a feral cat caretaker, you do the best you can without sinking your own ship. If you have the time and the money and a colony of 5 cats, and want to prepare fresh meals of raw chicken, steamed vegetables and vitamin-mineral supplements, then that's great and you should. But if you're pressed for time, are stretching to feed 30 cats and can barely afford supermarket brands of cat food, then that's great, too, and your sacrifice is no less.
Ground chuck costs less then even inexpensive cats foods and, given raw, provides excellent nutrition. Any food that lists byproducts of any kind is junk. Meat or poultry byproducts can be feathers, hooves, eyes - anything not normally associated with consumption. Any food (especially dry food) that lists corn meal as one of the primary ingredients is junk - cats don't digest it well - it's like feeding them a diet of potato chips. (The largest ingredients are listed in order of amount on the label). Cheaper foods may contain rendered cats and dogs and are cheaper for a reason - the ingredients are inferior. If you can't afford the higher quality brands, and many caretakers can't, there are easy and inexpensive ways to boost the nutritional value of lower quality brands of wet food. The simplest is adding raw ground chuck. Ground chuck is cheaper than even cheap cat foods and, given raw provides excellent nutrition. Remember that cats are carnivores and, in the wild, eat their prey raw,without barbecuing them first. Raw meat alone would be an unbalanced diet, but added to inferior food will definitely make an improvement. Just make sure the meat is fresh and hasn't been sitting out on the supermarket's shelf for more than a day. Also (very important!) add a teaspoon of calcium (either in the form of bone meal or calcium lactate) to each pound of raw meat - this is essential to balancing the high phosphorus content of the meat. Failing to add the calcium could lead to long-term ill effects. In Anitra Frazier's "The New Natural Cat," there is a recipe for a vitamin-mineral mix, easily and cheaply made, which makes a great supplement to any food, expensive or supermarket. Some steamed vegetables, like broccoli, carrots or zucchini, will enhance your ferals' diet, too. Vitamin C is also a real plus for the cats' health (see "Vitamin C to the Rescue"). Vitamin C to the Rescue
Vitamin C, the first vitamin discovered by humankind, is truly a friend indeed to the caregiver of a feral colony. An efficient healer and powerful protector, it works like a nutritional knight in shining armor fighting against invasions and battling stress of all kinds. Germs, viruses, dirt, x-rays and chemicals such as antibiotics, steroids, tranquilizers, anesthetics, pesticides and the preservatives in commercial pet foods have all been shown to use up large quantities of Vitamin C. Healthy cats can make some Vitamin C in their intestine. The operative words here are "healthy" and "some." Cats can manufacture enough C only if the diet is rich in all the other nutrients they need and only if daily stresses do not become too numerous, too extreme or too prolonged. Stresses such as extreme heat or cold, fighting, being wounded or hurt, being trapped or caged, loud noises, strong, unpleasant smells or forced change of territory use up Vitamin C at an alarming rate. Even a healthy, well-nourished cat couldn't produce enough to cover the kinds and amounts of stress faced by the feral on a daily basis. Depletion of Vitamin C leaves a cat easy prey to every germ or virus that happens along. The life of a feral cat, especially a city feral, is full of stress every day. Any trap-neuter-release program is bound to include being trapped, caged, cut and having a shocking number of chemicals used on the body. The smell of the cage cleaner alone is enough to reduce a cat's Vitamin C to the danger level. The rest of the veterinary procedures raise the stress level to astronomical proportions. Is it any wonder that many succumb to upper respiratory and other diseases shortly after their neutering experience? What we need here is a knight in shining armor to bring the cats safely through all this stress. Enter Vitamin C. Just as Rescue Remedy works on the emotional plane, Vitamin C works on the physical body. This inexpensive and easily obtainable supplement will greatly enhance any cat's chance for survival. The most common forms of Vitamin C are calcium ascorbate (which used in the buffered variety tastes nasty), ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate. Ascorbic acid is usually the cheapest and has the happy side effect of acidifying the urine. An acid urine prevents the growth of germs and the formation of crystals in the bladder. When found in its natural state in foods, Vitamin C is accompanied by bioflavonoids, rutin and hesperadin. Science has found that these nutritional sidekicks are provided by nature to help the body absorb the C and put it to work more efficiently. A cheap jar of ascorbic acid powder will certainly give a lot of support and protection and it will help acidify the urine. A C complex powder of ascorbic acid with bioflavonoids, rutin and hesperadin will do a lot more for only a little more money. Health food stores will have several choices available. I use Twin Lab Super C, yellow label. Vitamin C does not need
refrigeration but you must keep the contents of the bottle dry. Use a
clean, dry measuring spoon. C cannot be stored by the body so it must be
given every meal. A cat can absorb no more than 250 milligrams at a time;
in most brands that's 1/8th tsp. of powder. Because we are practicing prevention, caregivers may find it difficult at first to pinpoint a clear demonstration of results. The benefits are mostly about what does not happen. Cats do not die under anesthesia; wounds do not become infected; there is no outbreak of respiratory infections shortly after a new cat arrives in the colony. Resistance is high; the cats are more resilient. I would not feel even half as secure about managing a feral colony if I didn't have the help of Vitamin C, my trusty knight in shining armor, to back me up. |
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Nutrition for ferals is
particularly important given the rigors of their outdoor lives, and is the
single most important thing you can do to help regulate their health. That
said, it behooves any animal caretaker to gain a basic knowledge of
nutrition. We urge you not to simply follow what anyone, including your
veterinarian, says about nutrition, but educate yourself and make your own
decisions. Few vets study nutrition for more than
a few hours, and most just repeat what the supposedly
"scientific" pet food manufacturers tell them. Like most people,
they usually don't know how to analyze the ingredients on a pet food label, haven't heard of the
best brands, don't realize that dry food is just wet food baked to a crisp
(with the vitamins usually added before the baking and so ruined), that a
raw chicken neck will do more for an animal's teeth than 100 pounds of dry
food, and so on. You will know more than most about animal nutrition by
reading any of the following:
It is certainly easier, cheaper
and a lot more pleasant to prevent illness than it is to trap a sick cat,
transport him to a vet and then try to diagnose and treat the frightened
animal. 