My cats favorite raw meat is Head of Mouse

Moderation in all things, including moderation.

You'd think that a good balanced cat food would be enough, plus
just enough A/D to get Maxtor to take his lysine would be enough.
He would nibble on spider plants and kept eyeing the oncidium alliance
orchids.  Started keeping a tub or two of wheatgrass around the house
and he stopped munching on the houseplants.

Also because the little monster 1) has hayfever 2) gets the
occasional cold (approximately once a year)  3) has recurring gum
inflammation, that affect his eating habits, the occasional treat
is a quick check to see if a trip to the vet is needed.

Mine like to play with mice to and get upset when it finally dies.

Isn't it nuts what they'll eat?

We keep Coffee primarily on a dry diet, she recently developed polycythemia
and since then she gets wet regularly as well to help keep her weight up
(she just won't eat as much dry now, and she deserves some kind of treat for
taking the huge pills!), but she adores honeydew melon (a huge favourite,
you get it out the fridge and she is there in seconds sticking her head in)
and will cheerfully steal;

Weetabix (wheat cereal, no milk)
Frosted Shreddies (wheat cereal with sugar, no milk)
and cookie dough

then on her birthday when we buy her a tuna steak does she eat it? Like
hell!

Interestingly enough, I was just at a conference that included a guest
speaker
on nutrition. She's been studying it for 15 years and initially was very
much a
skeptic about the raw diet, but she's become a firm believer through her own
research and the results in her clinic. Some of the interesting things she
pointed
out that -I- certainly didn't know...

- It's the enzymes in raw meat that keep the teeth clean. No kibble is going
to
remove tartar and plaque no matter what's in it.
- Most foods that claim to have some vitamin or whatnot in it only have
enough
that they can put it on the bag... but not enough to actually do anything
for the
pet (her example was glucosamine).
- Non-human-grade foods include unsellable meat from markets... styrofoam,
plastic wrap and all. It also includes meat that's diseased or
contaminated -
cows treated with heavy doses of penicillin and the like. In some places,
dead
shelter animals are put into the food.
- Many foods increase their total protein by adding feathers. 100%
protein...
but also 100% undigestible.

I don't know her sources for all of these things, but she was swearing by a
book
called "Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats" and the author
is
a Dr. Pitcairn, DVM.

Anyway, her clinic buys ingredients in bulk and weighs all the ingredients
for every
bag they sell of the starter mix - all you need is the starter mix, a bag of
frozen
mixed veggies, and two pounds of whatever meat you want to use. I'll find
out next
week how the cooking goes for the cat mix. But they do send the mix all
across the
country, though they're more than willing to help people find the
ingredients and let
others do all the hard work.