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FEEDING CATS
A kitten of about eight weeks requires four
small meals a day. The more mixed the diet the better. An all-fish
diet may bring on a skin disease.
Raw meat is
really essential. Good raw beef given scraped or minced, cooked
meat such as veal and lamb, but not too fat, cooked rabbit,
chicken, a small quantity of liver, heart, cooked white fish
free from bones, tinned pilchards and raw eggs are all good
items to include. Most kittens like their food mixed with
one of the breakfast foods such as cornflakes or a little
crumbled brown bread. The meals should be given moist but
not too wet, as this tends to encourage diarrhoea. A heaped
tablespoonful for each meal should be sufficient for an eight-weeks-old
kitten, the quantity increasing with the growth of the kitten.
The early morning meal could be of porridge, or of one of
the well-known baby food preparations.
Some kittens can take
cow’s milk without any ill effects, but others may suffer
with looseness after it, and if given at all, it should be
given very sparingly. There should always be fresh water to
drink. Proprietary cat foods may be introduced gradually into
the diet, and the effects noted.
Half a teaspoonful of fluid
magnesia added to the milky meal is a good preventative against
digestive troubles and teething upsets. A few drops of halibut
oil included in the diet daily will help to prevent rickets.
Vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, spinach and green peas
may be mashed up and given in small quantities with other
foods. Care must be taken to see that all small fish, meat,
rabbit and chicken bones have been carefully removed before
the meal is given to the kitten, although some kittens like
a large raw bone to chew on.
The number of meals may be cut down gradually but increased
in quantity, until at about six months the kitten is having
two large meals a day, dependent upon the particular kitten’s
appetite. Any uneaten food should not be left down. A small
milk drink could still be given at mid-day.
A cat or kitten that catches rats and mice still requires
feeding, as a diet of mice alone is not sufficient. These
cats will require regular worming.
If a cat has no access to a garden or open fields, a pot of
coarse grass should be provided. This can be grown quite easily.
Cats like to chew grass as a natural emetic which helps to
prevent fur-balls. A weekly dose of a large teaspoonful of
liquid paraffin is also helpful against this, particularly
for the long-haired cats.
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Cat
insurance 
