Real meat

When I was a child our cats were given boiled fish scraps and once or twice a week, or whenever they nicked it, cooked dog meat, which in those days usually meant beef that had been declared unfit for human consumption. They all lived to ripe old ages on this diet.

So did my first cat after I moved from home, but the present price of fish means that our present cat gets tinned cat food and dried food, plus the occasional tin of tuna and some raw mince whenever we are having anything made with mince.

He tops whatever is served off with the occasional mouse or two, and polishes off a saucer of cream while I drink my first cup of coffee of the day.

ps Kat also liked croquettes pour chat, local brand. She's still going strong age 16.

{grin}
But seriously, I only had to start to open a tin of sardines or tuna, and our cat would come from afar, waiting to get a taste.
Our border collie lived mostly on raw chicken wings and beef bones. The packs of 'viande pour les animaux' were even more enjoyed.

Human meat is easily obtained, like Burke and Hare got it, by paying doctors and funeral businesses.
This is an environmentally-friendly way of recycling used human beings and economical too. One 9 stone human yields 100 cat meals.
I have a large freezer in the garage...

Just wondering where you live, watermeadow and have locked my doors just in case!

hillwalker70 Indeed. tinned fish in BRINE has too much salt, that's why my cat has the fish in oil. He is fed 3-4 times a day, and the fish is only 1 meal, every other day. I cook the chicken thighs in the oven, in tinfoil. He also likes the occasional (1 meal, every other day) of Sheba wet food. My cat is about 15 or more, and I've had cats for 39 years.

The old stray who lives outside in its kennel loves a Sunday dinner. I mash left over roast potatoes and veg with gravy and add a pouch of Felix with a sprinkle of Whiskas " pockets " dried food on one side.
My own cats will only eat the Felix pouches but I get varieties of them ( rarely on offer ) such as the veg selection with jelly.
There's always a supply of the dried food that they help themselves to throughout the day.
Today they can have a little treat of chicken mixed with their teatime feed.
The three of them do very well, better fed than some humans.

Our cat loves the cheap cooked chicken from the supermarkets. He has never eaten meat, raw or cooked until recently but he has now turned into a dog, begging for scraps when I am cooking! He has any meat left overs, cut up small.

Watermeadow have the police been yet? You realise you will be outed on Gransnet when the press report on pensioners feeding human flesh to pets.

How would you make the change from commercial cat food to real meat/fish. Would it be better to do it gradually half in half style? Do tins of sardines and tuna have too much salt in for a cat? If it is cheaper and without pouches and tins to dispose of I would like to change over to meat/fish but being veggie I never cook either, do you poach the fish/chicken? I couldn’t manage to cook any other meat.

Tinned food for pets is actually quite a recent thing. Does no-one remember going to the butcher and asking for 'lights and a bone please'? Mixed with dog biscuits and gravy, it provided everything a dog needed. Cats were given fish guts, plus the heads and tails.

When I bought a Siamese cat, I was warned that their stomachs were very delicate and I had to cook dried meat and rice for it.

I have an old cat (18), that has had 'real' meat/fish and a little dried food all its life, he still seems to be in good condition and has all his teeth.

My cat also has fresh meat and fish. He has dried food (Purina) but chicken thighs, tinned sardines or tuna, in oil, and occasionally raw chicken.

So now I’m cooking human meat and he also shares a tin of sardines with the dog
Eek! I know its Fright Night on Strictly but even so ?????

More fish in the diet might be good. I buy frozen prawns for my cat and she eats them uncooked.