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Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / February 2006kitten food for barn cats?
The weather here has been brutally cold over the last few days. We give kitten food to the stray cats who come to our door. Is kitten food beneficial to these fully-grown, but still young animals? Yes, since it is high in protein and fat. You are wonderful to feed them. Gail > The weather here has been brutally cold over the last few days. We give > kitten food to the stray cats who come to our door. Is kitten food > beneficial to these fully-grown, but still young animals? > Yes, since it is high in protein and fat. You are wonderful to feed them. > Gail Thanks. The resident possum, who apparently believes he is a cat, thinks so, too :-). He loves the food. The cats look at him like he is nuts, but they share the foodbowl with him. I was really wondering if adult cat food would be better for them. Obviously, they like the kitten food a LOT! If it won't harm them and regular food isn't really any better for them, we'll keep on giving it to them. Some of them are really wonderful, friendly cats. I wish I could find homes for each of them (of course, the farmer might look a little askance at that idea). We've managed to catch a few of the kittens and get them adopted out, but the larger cats look at me like homeless waifs. We've lost several to coyotes and at least one darling female to the cold. BTW, the farmer leaves out generic kibble and a large (but filthy) dish of raw milk daily for them in the stalls in the barn across the yard, so they aren't completely uncared for. There are several outbuildings where they can shelter, plus we've constructed three shelters for them from designs I found on the 'Net. It's a rough and short life being a barn cat. It's too bad you cannot at least have them spayed and neutered so they don't keep reproducing. You are terrific to help them. Can you place straw in the buildings so they have some warmth? Gail >> Yes, since it is high in protein and fat. You are wonderful to feed them. >> Gail [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > designs I found on the 'Net. It's a rough and short life being a barn > cat. > It's too bad you cannot at least have them spayed and neutered so > they don't keep reproducing. You are terrific to help them. Can you > place straw in the buildings so they have some warmth? Gail Using the term loosely, the cats "belong" to the farmer. He considers them a utility to catch vermin. Not all of them do, but at least three of the dozen-or-so we know are _very_ good predators. The farmer wants to ensure a continuing supply, so he encourages them to breed. They happily oblige. The kittens we caught were spayed before adoption. All the outbuildings have hay stored in them. And we put fresh hay weekly in the shelters we built. We also bought 5 Snugglesafes <http://www.snugglesafe.ca/index.htm> for really cold days like we have had recently. Those things are pretty amazing. Sometimes the cats won't leave the warm shelters even for chicken. Yes, I know the Snuggle Safe pads. They are great!! Again, thank you for taking such an interest in these cats. Gail >> It's too bad you cannot at least have them spayed and neutered so >> they don't keep reproducing. You are terrific to help them. Can you [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > amazing. Sometimes the cats won't leave the warm shelters even for > chicken. |
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