First world guilt over feeding an outside feral cat

[jen-s]

Let me preface this by saying that my crazycatlady friend and my bestie/vet think I’m nuts. :lol:

I have 1-2 ferals that I feed outside. True ferals. My indoor cats get mid-range, grain-free food. However, feeding the ferals crappy Cat Chow (or some equivalent) seems just wrong. If I wouldn’t feed it to mine, why would I feed it to other kitties? (This is where the “jen-s is nuts” part comes in. ;))

I’m not willing to provide canned food, but can someone recommend a less expensive brand of not completely horrible kibble that I don’t have to buy in HUGE amounts for the ferals? Storage for a 30+ pound bag isn’t an option. Not when one of my cats can open doors and cabinets and some latches. Never again do I want a super smart kitty…

[Louise]

I feed my outside feral Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s not great, but it’s not bad, either. You can get it in 5 or 15 lb bags. I get the 15 lb size and have a little garbage can out in the garage that I keep it in. See, you’re not the only crazy one.

Oh, I also have a couple of picky eaters who seldom clean up all of their wet food. Rather than throw it away, I freeze it in empty yogurt containers. When I have a full container, and the weather is warm enough so it won’t refreeze, I thaw the container out and dump it outside for the feral.

[DMK]

think of it this way - your ferals are getting plenty of the “ideal” food for an obligate carnivore: small birds and mammals. The “cheap” dry food is supplementing an otherwise perfect feline diet.

[drawstraws]

I’ve thought the same thing. I joined Costco last year and started buying the Kirkland brand - around $20 for a decent sized bag (20 pounds?) and I split it between the house cat and the barn cat (he(?) showed up one day a few years ago and never left - I still can’t get closer than a couple of feet to him). They each only get 1/4 cup twice a day so while more expensive than Friskies, it’s doable.

[GoForAGallop]

:lol::lol::lol: I have the same terrible, terrible guilt. Particularly because my feral has been around for four or five years now. (Attempted to make him a house cat, and out of the 30+ ferals I have tamed, this big tom was having NONE OF MY SHIT. Lasted a week before I caved and put him back out. :lol:)

Because of all the critters running around my property, I don’t leave much dry out for him, so he gets Chicken Soup for his dry. In the winter, I want to keep him bulked up, so I feed him a can of wet food daily…which he gobbles right up. I was doing Friskies for a while, but then checked out the store brand of my local grocery store, and found that it was actually pretty decent in terms of meat being high up on the ingredient list. So I swapped to that, which had the bonus of being even cheaper than Friskies, while making me less panicky about not forking up the money to feed him EVO. :lol:

I don’t know the basis of the desire to not feed wet food, but for what it’s worth, wet food in general is better quality than dry, so it’s easier to find a cheap-but-decent wet food.

[JoZ]

I buy Diamond Maintenance cat food. It’s in the same ballpark as the Kirkland and Chicken Soup types. There seem to be lots of recalls but they have never affected the plant from which my feedstore gets it. I wish I could ratchet it up a notch but I have 6 barn kitties and their feral/semi-feral visitors and dinner dates…

[jen-s]

DMK–I will absolutely confess that none of the ferals that I’ve seen in my neighborhood look like they are missing meals. But if I won’t do fast food for myself, it seems so wrong to do crap food for kitties…even ferals. I know, I’m weird. But at least I’m not the only one!

I’ll admit to never really looking at CSFTS food, but I’ll swing by the pet store next week and take a look. For now, the feral is getting TOTW which seems to be the only kibble that my IBD kitty can tolerate. Luckily the others like it too.

[Go_Fish]

I have one feral that I feed Friskies Special Diet Beef and Chicken Pate. I buy it by the case at Petsmart and it breaks down to about 43 cents a can with my membership card. I feed him 2 cans a day, so less than $1 a day to feed him.

He was pretty bony when I started feeding him about 6 months ago and he looks great. Now, if I could only trap the little bugger to get him fixed and released. I can’t get near him and he won’t go anywhere near the trap.

My vet prefers that I don’t feed anything with fish in it, especially since my house cats are older. I guess it contributes to thyroid issues (iodine) as the cats age. When you think about it, fish is NOT in a cat’s natural diet.

[jen-s]

[QUOTE=Go Fish;8054093]
My vet prefers that I don’t feed anything with fish in it, especially since my house cats are older. I guess it contributes to thyroid issues (iodine) as the cats age. When you think about it, fish is NOT in a cat’s natural diet.[/QUOTE]

My Ferdinand would disagree with you. I got the kitties a fish tank for Christmas and he decimated my guppies. https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.stout.5688/posts/10155153097815029

[french_fry]

Daily deliveries of feeder mice

(ducking and running!)

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=jen-s;8053877]
Let me preface this by saying that my crazycatlady friend and my bestie/vet think I’m nuts. :lol:

I have 1-2 ferals that I feed outside. True ferals. My indoor cats get mid-range, grain-free food. However, feeding the ferals crappy Cat Chow (or some equivalent) seems just wrong. If I wouldn’t feed it to mine, why would I feed it to other kitties? (This is where the “jen-s is nuts” part comes in. ;))

I’m not willing to provide canned food, but can someone recommend a less expensive brand of not completely horrible kibble that I don’t have to buy in HUGE amounts for the ferals? Storage for a 30+ pound bag isn’t an option. Not when one of my cats can open doors and cabinets and some latches. Never again do I want a super smart kitty…[/QUOTE]

I think you are nuts, actually. All our cats have lived into their teens on nothing but kibble. One my mother in law had was 19 and had nothing but wal mart special kitty kibble. My current cat ( indoor/ outdoor) is 7 years old, 17 pounds and has been healthy as a horse and eats kit n kaboodle ( purina) exclusively.

Yes, there are some bad , cheap, worthless, crappy brands out there that I wouldn’t feed, but not all is bad for the cats. Your feral cats will do fine on any of the recognized brands and be happy to get it. Expensive doesn’t always mean better.

[DMK]

a lot of people live long lives on fast food, but I think we have gained enough knowledge to realize there are better ways to eat. Cats are obligate carnivores and while most may do OK on the fast food equivalent of cat food, tha tdoesn’t mean it represents a good nutrition standard for them.

That said, ferals ARE probably getting a decent amount of protein/fluid from live prey, and I wouldn’t for a minute begrudge anyone feeding a budget food if they are working within their means to take care of their cat to the best of their ability.

But that is a different statement altogether than making a blanket statement about expensive foods not necessarily being better. No they are not, but yes, there are many reasons to not feed a cat dry food that is primarily grain based, unfortunately a side effect of not feeding corn is $$$.

[Horseychick87]

Want to feel real guilt?
Try having a feral show up who had had his jaw broken at some point and couldn’t eat dry kibble. We later learned he’d been hit by a car and survived, someone took him to the vet and had him fixed and ‘repaired’ then dumped him…lovely.
He could not eat kibble, but he liked it. Poor guy would nose at it and lick it, but couldn’t chew/ bite it.

My indoor cat gets 2-3 cans of Fancy Feast daily as that’s all his royal highness will eat besides a handful of kibble and a few treats daily.

So I would save his ‘leftovers’ and make the outside feral ’ Snippy’ a mash twice a day every day, it’s all he could eat and he thrived on it. We lost him last year to old age.

He would get bored with certain flavors and we’d have to change it up, but he did best on of all things Meow Mix! I’d tried the more expensive food, but nooo, he’d either turn his nose up at it or he’d look like crap. With the Meow Mix he had a glossy coat and was a very happy, if not fully mobile cat.
Of course the MM was mixed with the FF and a few ‘treats’ like Temptations or Party Mix and he’d gobble it up. I would soak it for an hour in warm water and then mash it up with a potato masher, occasionally I’d throw in some pureed chicken meat. He never would leave the yard (Couldn’t imagine why;)), we set up a small dog house for him with blankets and a heat lamp in the winter and we became ‘his’ people.

I did always feel guilty for not feeding him better quality food, but he just would not eat it. I finally had to accept defeat and hang my head in shame as I’d go through the checkout with a 25 pound bag of MM.

[wendy]

Please don’t feed feral cats. Anything. It’s very illegal in most places to feed feral cats. The idea is to GET RID of the feral cats, not feed them so they can kill even more endangered bird species and out-compete the native predators. If you really feel concerned, catch it and bring it indoors. Or shoot it.

[wireweiners]

[QUOTE=wendy;8054586]
Please don’t feed feral cats. Anything. It’s very illegal in most places to feed feral cats. The idea is to GET RID of the feral cats, not feed them so they can kill even more endangered bird species and out-compete the native predators. If you really feel concerned, catch it and bring it indoors. Or shoot it.[/QUOTE]

No Wendy, its not illegal in most places to feed feral cats. If you don’t like cats stay off the feral kiity threads.

[Casey09]

[QUOTE=wendy;8054586]
Please don’t feed feral cats. Anything. It’s very illegal in most places to feed feral cats. The idea is to GET RID of the feral cats, not feed them so they can kill even more endangered bird species and out-compete the native predators. If you really feel concerned, catch it and bring it indoors. Or shoot it.[/QUOTE]

Our city shelter adopts out feral cats for free, with the requirement that you provide food, water, and some type of shelter. I’d love a feral cat to show up in my barn and stay. I’d have said cat altered, and then I’d most definitely feed the cat.

I have the same guilt about the cat that I feed. She actually started out feral, but she has definitely calmed down from several years of feeding. She is current on vaccinations, has been spayed, and spends most of her time in a relative’s garage. She really keeps the mice population down - I don’t know what he’d do without her. I do remind myself that she eats a lot of mice, which probably provides her with some of what a housecat would be getting from higher quality food. I am able to get Nature’s Domain from Costco at times, but it is probably a larger quantity than what you need.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

I feed my ferals. Proudly. Thank you. They get fed a mix of canned and dry twice a day. In return, they keep my outbuildings rat- and mice-free. OP, they get MeowMix dry and usually 9Lives canned. I did think I would have to have the mamma kitty on a special kidney diet for a while, but after she got spayed this week, the vet ran bloodwork and said she’s fine.

And Wendy, to make you feel better about it, I live in the country, they are all dumped cats, and no one really cares if I feed them or not. Except the cats themselves. And when I see the gratitude in my old feral tom’s eyes, even though after six years I still can’t pet him, I know I’m doing the right thing.

[shiloh]

I feed my eight outside cats Meow Mix. I give them just enought to keep them from actually being really hungry but still sharp enough to catch mice and gophers. One of my boys brings me a gopher a day. All my cats are either dump jobs or from the idiot across the orchard from me who does not believe in spaying or neutering (dummass). Cats look great and apparently feel great as they are a pretty busy, playful bunch.

[Scaramouch]

The TSC 4health brand ($8 for a 5 lb bag) is very, very similar to Taste of the Wild ($12 for 5 lbs). They’re both made by Diamond.

My barn cat gets the 4health exclusively. I switch between the regular adult formula and the grain free formula (same price, 4 lb bag) just for variety, but I’m sure that benefits my feelings more than anything!

[shakeytails]

I tried 4Health for my dogs- it upset their stomachs. I didn’t realize it was made by Diamond. My dogs do very well on Diamond Puppy Food.

Anyway, I tried buying dry cat food. The cats prefer the Diamond Puppy to supplement whatever vermin they’re eating. They’re fat and shiny so assume everything’s peachy. I don’t feel guilty because if they weren’t my barn cats, one would be dead and the other would still be in a cage in the feral section of the shelter.