Main ingredient: Mouse!

[SMF11]

I am dealing with an elderly, very fragile cat. Pancreatitis is one of his issues. Apparently cats’ pacreatitis is usually triggered by a food allergen, often chicken. Which is in most cat food. (I consulted a veterinary nutritionist).

So I started thinking that cats are meant to eat mice, which would agree with them much more than chicken. So I started googling, and low and behold:

Muridae Pet - Mouser Pet Food

I got some, and my cat went from picking at his food, seemingly on death’s door (I had booked the euthanasia appointment!) to returning to normal!

I don’t know what role the food played, because he has other issues and is getting other treatment too. But I figured this could help someone else dealing with a cat with digestive issues. Or just a picky eater.

I have a follow up appt with the nutritionist this week, and I’ll ask her opinion of it.

[hoopoe]

looking forward to hearing abut your journey. It has always been a joke about mouse cat food, someone finally took it to heart.

[Simkie]

Wow, I’m honestly surprised at the cost. $65 for a case of 24 5.5 oz cans is high but not really any higher than any other premium food. Which flavor are you feeding? It looks like mouse is the second ingredient behind chicken, turkey, rabbit, etc?

Did your nutritionist give you a fat % to stay below given the pancreatitis? We try to keep under 5% with our kitty prone to it. I’ve wondered if there might be more to it, like maybe the gums or thickeners that are so common in wet cat food (but aren’t in this one.)

Glad you’ve seen such an improvement!

[SMF11]

I’m feeding “BrushHunter”, whose other ingredient is rabbit.

No, the vet didn’t talk about fat levels (before I found this she had given me a recipe for homemade cat food, which included safflower oil and fish oil. But my cat absolutely refused to eat it, ever).

My cat also has kidney disease, and can’t have a high level of protein, so I am mixing the Brush Hunter 50-50 with sweet potato, which my cat will eat. (The homemade diet was 30% boiled ground beef, 30% sweet potato, 30% rice, plus several oils and supplements).

[Simkie]

Wow, you know, I never even googled around about fat and pancreatitis in cats, I just took my vet’s word about it. Fat is certainly an issue in dogs, so I never even thought about it. But!

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/nutrition-and-pancreatic-disease-in-cats

“Unlike dogs, cats do not seem to have pancreatitis because of a high-fat diet.”

Mind = blown.

[beowulf]

That’s really not so bad. I pay $48 for Weruva for the equivalent of 120 oz of food - sounds like this is about 132 oz.

Very interesting! I’m in my own cat food journey with my cats, so this is something to keep an eye out for if my current stitch fails me. I’ve always wondered why there weren’t more biologically appropriate diets. I assumed the cost; but now that there’s a whole feeder industry for reptiles, I guess cat food can’t be far behind. Cats don’t really eat chicken and turkey in the wild. Mouse and rabbit seems much more appropriate!

[OzarksRider]

I’ve always thought foods that cats naturally eat in the wild are what they ideally should eat, and a large part of their diet in the wild is mice and other rodents. Years ago I read somewhere that mice are the ideal food for cats. I’m lucky that my cats can go out and hunt, and they eat a LOT of mice and the occasional baby rabbit in the spring. Mice and rabbits are plentiful and in no danger of extinction, so I don’t mind that they satisfy their predator instincts that way.

[MunchingonHay]

That is awesome! The rabbit/mouse combo would be my pick if I was a cat.

At $2.40 a can if you can get it in the case for an average sized cat, is really good. I would rather pay higher in food costs, than push pills, pay for meds, etc

I have a friend who has 9 cats. She feeds them a dry kibble and they get may be 3 oz of wet food for dinner. 3 of her cats are diabetic or have some sort of issue that I feel could be resolved or lessed by a better diet. She won’t listen to me, says I am not a vet. She paid 11 GRAND to the vet this past year. $11,000!! for meds, visits, blood tests, etc. I feed a raw diet to my dogs, spent $3000 for the year on food and only a vet check up/office visit per dog to keep them current on vaccines.

[Texarkana]

Years ago, I had a house sitting client who fed her cats primarily whole, thawed feeder mice, along with some other raw protein sources plus homemade supplemental concoctions.

She had, hands down, the healthiest indoor cats I have ever seen. In all the time I knew them, they thrived.

I’ve never been brave enough to try it with my own cats.

[SMF11]

I started my research thinking I would buy frozen mice and feed them, but the little reading I did made it sound like there were some risks. Like, you couldn’t warm the mice up because of possible bacteria in their gut, so I was really glad to find the processed mouse cat food.

[Texarkana]

@SMF11

I started my research thinking I would buy frozen mice and feed them, but the little reading I did made it sound like there were some risks. Like, you couldn’t warm the mice up because of possible bacteria in their gut, so I was really glad to find the processed mouse cat food.

That’s easily avoided by thawing them in hot water right before feeding.

I had a snake for years and always had a freezer full of mice.

I just worry I don’t have the mental capacity to keep up with the additional supplementation necessary. The woman I house sat for was obsessive, to say the least. She fed all of her animals raw. They all did great, at least while I knew them, but she put a lot of effort into curating their diets.

[2DogsFarm]

Not insinuating you don’t, but both the wild mice & rabbits carry tapeworms, so cats that eat them need worming for that.
My barncat got praziquantel - cheap tablets - every Spring & never shed any tape segments in the 10yrs I had her.

Curious:
How pricy are the frozen feeder mice?
I have an uber-picky 10yo that won’t touch any canned food. He lives on 1/2 a Delectables treat daily. At 8# he’s in good weight, but if I could add a mouse I’d think that’s better nutrionally.
My other Sr - also 10 - gets canned Friskies, 1/4 can mornings. That’s how he was fed at the shelter & it seems to agree with him.
Both get Iams Urinary kibble, free choice.

[Texarkana]

@2DogsFarm

Curious:
How pricy are the frozen feeder mice?

Depends on where you source them.

If you pick them up at a pet store, you’re looking at $1-$2 per adult sized mouse.

If you are purchasing them online, you can find them for about $0.25-$0.50 per mouse + shipping.

[betonbill]

Feeder mice should be available at most pet stores, or at least the ones that carry reptile supplies. Since the mice are raised domestically, they may not have tapeworms. Do reptiles get tapeworms?

Domestically raised rats carry far more edible meat on their bodies. Wonder if there are some substitutions going on.

Very interesting.

[UrbanHennery]

What’s the texture? Is it pate or more like ground meat? My cat eats almost exclusively rabbit but she doesn’t like pate so I’ve been struggling to find her options for when she gets bored with her usual preferred food. She is picky and is currently giving food service around here 1 . I’d like to get back to at least .

[SMF11]

It’s mostly pate-like. Not as gelatinous as some canned cat food I’ve fed though. You buy it by the can, so you could always get one of each flavor and see if it passes muster.

[Kyrabee]

There is rodentpro.com or perfectprey.com

Long ago, I did an experiment and gave my two pinkie mice as treats. One quit eating them and I decided that I would stop them. The one that liked them was the one I thought wouldn’t like them.

[barnesthenoble]

This may be the push I need to order some of this food! I’ve been intrigued by it for awhile but hadn’t seen any feedback from trusted sources. My cats are primarily on homemade raw, but I like to keep some canned in the rotation so they don’t go on a total hunger strike if I run out and I’m not up to making a new batch right away, I need someone to house sit, etc.