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The largest animal eaten by these carnivores is a rabbit. This is light meat. Most other animals eaten by a cat are also light meat. Chicken, therefore, best simulates the cat's natural diet. Since a good day's hunting might be 3 chipmunks, the best quantity of chicken (chicken dinner for cats) to feed a cat is about 2 tablespoons 3 times per day. Chicken dinner for cats is meant for feeding to cats and is a nutritionally sound diet.
Constipation in animals is the product of their civilized living. Most pets do not work for a living and therefore tend to not exercise as much as they were born into this world to do. A "dab"
(1/4 the volume of a raisin) of vaseline on the tongue of a cat or 1/3 tsp on the tongue of the average 40 lb dog will help move the feces through the bowel. Vaseline,
since it doesn't mix with food, will not cause malabsorbtion of fat-soluble
vitamins and other substances as is commonly feared by many people.
Objects that are slow moving in the digestive tract are often surrounded by
fibrin by the bowel which further slows flow of ingesta through the bowel.
Vaseline decreases fibrin formation and, therefore, allows better propulsion of,
especially foreign objects, through the bowel. The stool is a special problem when the animal is shedding (when they are ingesting a lot of hair) and of course this is more of a problem in long haired or heavy coated animals.
Also in the winter, when animals snuggle up to heat sources, the gut movement
decreases, adding to the slowing of ingesta through the bowel. This often
causes "hair ball" cough in the cat and "reverse sneezing" in the dog.
Spaying of females is best performed at 5 - 6 months of age. This is because the female will
be less likely to become overweight and be more like a puppy. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but are probably related to the fact that at this early age the releasing hormone pathways are not completely developed in the brain. Therefore, removal of the ovaries will not cause the changes that might occur had those pathways been developed.
Castration of males is best performed at 8 - 9 months of age. This is a time when most of the epiphyses of the bones have fused and the growth of the bony structure of the body has reached its peak. The castrated male dog will still lift his leg to urinate but the castrated male cat will be much less likely to spray.
Dogs and cats have hairy coats so that they can have fun outdoors naked. They cannot do this in the cold weather, however, without shivering. Animals do not mind shivering and in fact, in the case of a cat who hunts standing still, shivering is an important part of the metabolic processes. During the act of shivering they mobilize fat from their fat depots. The resulting high concentration of fat in the blood is used, among other things, as fuel for the energy processes in the rapidly regenerating winter skin. The average civilized pet is not shivering much at all in the winter. If possible it would be best to put your cat outdoors even to shiver on the doorstep
or in the cold garage for a few hours each day in the winter.
Fat Supplementation:
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