circa Tue, 15 Jun 2004 18:53:46 -0400, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
MadHatter (devil_m@y_care.lost) said,

They *do* have a more acute sense of smell, but it's the taste buds
that are the issue. Think about how food tastes to you when you have
a stuffed up nose. Well, basically, that's how food would taste to a
cat if the cat had the same sense of smell as people do, because of
the fewer taste buds. So, since they have fewer taste buds, they need
*more* "smellability", and food that is non-stinky doesn't stimulate
their sense of smell and thus, taste very well.

In a nutshell, the majority of your taste buds' ability to "taste"
comes from the sense of smell in conjunction with the taste buds.
With fewer taste buds to stimulate, cats need more stinkiness to do
the stimulation.

Or at least that's what I've read. :-)

Laura

circa 20 Jun 2004 08:08:32 GMT, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
MacCandace (maccandace@aol.comlitter) said,

That's why I said "most". :-)

My cats eat corn, in fact.

Laura

Nothing is labelled casserole, nor looks like one.  They do have
ample odor, just not a foul odor like most canned catfood.  The canned
chicken and turkey smell like human-food canned chicken and turkey,
and the canned seafood flavors smell like a mixture of human-food
cans of tuna/shrimp/crab/sardines.

Unfortunately, it's expensive stuff.  About a dollar per 5.5 oz can
from the local animal hospital.  On the net, you can find it around 75
to 80 cents a can, but shipping brings it up to about a dollar a can.

But my cats are elderly, one with diabetes, and one with a history
of sensitive stomach and occasional IBS flare-ups, and this food
causes less problems than anything else they've ever had.

My cats (12 and 16) were happy and healthy on a premium dry all their
lives, until the younger one was diagnosed diabetic in January.
I switched them both to low-carb canned foods.  The vet started
LeMieux on Science Diet canned kitten food while he was hospitalized,
which they liked for about a week, and then behaved as if they were
waiting until they were starving before they would eat it.

I bought cans of several kinds of canned food with low carb profiles
(http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmpeerson/canfood.html) from
PetsMart, and the only one they didn't avoid eating was Iams kitten,
so they ate that for a few months, and then started avoiding that.
The non-diabetic also eventually became flatulent on it -- for a while
I mistakenly thought he was pooing in places that I couldn't find,
until I realized he was just farting up a storm.

About a month ago, I located a local animal hospital that stocked
Wellness, and they just love it.  I bought a can of every flavor that
didn't include beef (it took me years to realize they always threw
up anything with beef, and I've never seen a cat take down a cow).
I didn't want to extend feeding the Iams that they didn't like any
more by mixing them in transition, so I just gave them the Wellness.
I believe that throwing up a change of food has more to do with
poorly digestible grain content (Wellness has none) and beef content,
rather than an effect due to just changing the food.  Of 7 flavors,
the only one that made one cat throw up was the one with lobster,
so I didn't buy that one again.

They almost lick the food bowls clean of the Wellness.   They are
also less constipated than on the previous canned foods (only one
likes pumpkin), and the litterbox is less stinky than on the other
canned foods.  The one with the sensitive stomach typically threw
up randomly once or twice a week (without hairballs) on every food
he's ever had.  Except for that one can with lobster in it, he hasn't
thrown up for a month on the Wellness.  For that matter, neither one
has barfed a hairball since, so I think it might aid in passing those
through as well.

circa Tue, 15 Jun 2004 21:41:01 GMT, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
Mary (rosefan@email.com) said,

<snork> That's a helluvan introduction. ;-)

Laura

Just keep it in the liter box, okay!