Caturday: What is the Most Affordable Raw Cat Food?

I've been crunching some numbers to determine whether commercial premade raw cat food is cheaper than canned food. It seems plausible, cans are heavy and bulky, and feeding an all-canned diet becomes alarmingly expensive very quickly. I love collecting data, and I wanted to share my findings with you. Please keep in mind that this is not a complete list, it represents what is readily available either online or in my local stores.

Methodology

The foods included on this table are those for which I could find price, serving size, and servings per package. If I was unable to find the answer to those between the manufacturer's website, and various retail sites, I didn't add it. Serving sizes were determined using Solstice, a 13-pound cat that needs to lose some weight, and the feeding charts provided on the food packaging or manufacturer website. If they had a feeding amount calculator, I used it. Food prices were the lowest price I could find for the largest package available.

Freeze-Dried or Frozen?

My experience with raw dog food has led me to believe that freeze-dried pet food is super expensive, and that frozen raw food is much more reasonable. I was therefore quite surprised to see freeze-dried food as the three least expensive options. It's very interesting how the food prices cluster, first there's three freeze-dried foods at a similar price point, then five frozen foods followed by four freeze-dried foods. I'm sure these are coincidental though, since the price points for each cluster range quite a bit.

Conclusion

Is premade commercial raw cat food cheaper than canned cat food? Nope. Not even close. I am currently feeding primarily 4Health grain-free canned cat food at a cost of $0.79 per can, with some other brands mixed in when I can pick them up on uber-clearance for $0.30-.60 per can. Each cat eats one 5oz can per day, so their monthly feed bill is $23.70. It costs me $47.40 to fed The Hellions each month.

On Sojo's Complete, the most affordable raw cat food I could find, it would cost $0.98 per day to feed one of my cats. That's a monthly feed bill of $29.40 per cat, or $58.80 for both. Though the price difference between the various foods is just a few cents, it adds up really fast. Feeding Grandma Lucy's exclusively to two cats would cost me $67.80.

On the other end of the spectrum, I am truly amazed at how expensive raw cat food can be. Rad Cat is available at my local pet stores. It would cost me $4.25 per day to feed one cat. That's $127.50 to feed one cat for a month, or $255 to feed both. Yikes!

While crazy-expensive raw cat food is not going to be a staple of James and Solstice's diets anytime soon, I do like to vary their diets quite a bit. They aren't allowed to have frozen raw food because they can't eat it without making the entire house smell like a slaughterhouse, but I'd like to introduce them to the concept of freeze dried cat food.

Caturday: Instinct Limited Ingredient Rabbit Formula Canned Cat Food

I found these cans of Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Rabbit Formula cat food at my local auction house. Yeah, I know that's kinda weird. They sell a bunch of totally random stuff aside from the auction items, most recently I got several cans of Surge soda and a bunch of bully sticks for the dogs. Anyway, these were $0.40 per can, not expired, and a super great deal.

Nature's Variety offers some of the few limited ingredient diets for cats, and the foods they make are quite high quality. They're also super expensive, which makes me glad that neither of The Hellions has food allergies.

The limited ingredient rabbit food is made from rabbit, peas, vitamins, and minerals. Nature's Variety also makes an Instinct rabbit-based cat food that contains pork, and the labels are very similar.

I'm a fan of Nature's Variety and the Instinct product lines, they're pricey but worth the money if you're battling food allergies. Brisbane, who was allergic to everything, particularly loved their canned dog food. This company does not own their own production facility, their cans are co packed by CJ foods, along with several other brands.

This is a loaf-style food that will appeal to a lot of cats. Mine go crazy for it, but they also just love food in general. I would absolutely try this for a picky cat, especially if I really needed to get them to eat.

Caturday: What is the Most Affordable Wet Cat Food?

I've been considering switching The Hellions to mostly wet food for a while. While kibble seems to help keep kitty teeth clean, wet food provides a lot more hydration. It also makes portion control easier. Solstice is a fatty, so I'm hoping to help her slim down without making her feel like she's starving all the time.

Kidney Health?

Clearance rack cat food is the best cat food.

For years I truly believed that the dental benefits of dry kibble made it the superior choice for cat food. Then I started hearing about urinary tract and renal health, and started thinking that wet food might be the better option. Fortunately, I was determined to find some actual scholarly sources to back up my preconceived notions. What I found was FelineCRF.org. 

This site is put together by someone who, as far as I can tell, doesn't have an agenda other than presenting as much well-sourced information as they can about chronic renal failure. Their statements are backed up with articles from peer-reviewed journals. I love this, because so many websites and blogs have statements like "wet food is necessary for proper hydration, kibble will dehydrate your cat and eventually cause kidney failure!" This is apparently not true, the jury is definitely out on whether dry or wet food is better for cats with healthy kidneys.

Portion Control

We do know that cats tend to take in fewer calories when eating canned food. This can make it a good choice for slimming down a tubby kitty. It also provides its own portion control, because there's only so much in a can. I'm currently feeding them half a 5.5oz can, twice a day. 

Heavy and Expensive

The downside to feeding wet food is that it is bloody expensive. Also quite heavy. Trying to make this new concept work has been a challenge. James and Solstice each eat a 5.5oz can per day, for a grand total of 60 cans per month. Considering that most foods in the store cost more than $1 per can, that adds up fast. I have had some luck shopping the clearance shelf at Petsmart, I got a bunch of grain-free Wellness cans for $0.37 each. Surprisingly, the big cans of Wellness aren't a particularly better deal per ounce than their smaller cans.

My current cat food bill is around $30 a month for a bag of dry food. To match that with wet food, I'd have to find cans for $0.50 each or less. Barring opportunistic clearance food, I don't think I can manage that. However, I was quite pleased to find that Tractor Supply sells 5.5 oz cans of their grain-free 4Health brand for $0.70 each. At this point I'm pretty happy to find anything under $1 per can. I'll still get them some other stuff occasionally for variety.

4Health is so far the most affordable wet cat food I've found that meets my personal standards. That said, everyone's budget is different, and cats can be picky little buggers. If your cat will only eat the cheapest wet food at the grocery store, by all means feed that. Don't feel guilty about it, either.

Caturday: Barncats

We were having an enormous rodent problem at work. The barns, the sheds, the tack room, pretty much everything resembling a structure was thoroughly infested with mice and rats. It got so bad that I could spot half a dozen mice in the barn if I kept still for more than a few minutes. I'm a wildlife advocate, but seriously, rodents suck. They eat small amounts of your food, or animal feed, and then pee in the rest of it so nobody else can use it. Gross, gross, gross.

As a wildlife advocate, I am generally opposed to keeping outdoor pet cats. They kill tons of songbirds, and really mess up the local ecosystem. My cats stay indoors, where they can be happy and healthy without murdering small animals. Would they be happier and more stimulated with access to the outside? Probably, but to me personally it's not worth their potential impact on the wildlife I share their neighborhood with.

That said, I do love our barncats. The local shelter adopts out nasty-tempered cats as barn cats, they are free to approved homes, and come spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and microchipped. Keep them confined, fed, and watered for a week or two after bringing them home, and then turn them lose to rain carnage down on the local rodent population.

We got our first set of barn kitties in December. a set of three four-month-old littermates. They don't want to interact with people, but are perfectly content to lounge around nearby as long as we don't bother them. They tend to show up around dinnertime, and the three of them can nearly always be found together.

The impact of the cats has been tremendous. I have not see a rodent in the barn in weeks. Everyone who lives on the property has noticed a dramatic reduction in rodent activity in their homes. I spotted a kitty carrying a mouse last week. Go little hunters! Murder everything!

The cats have had an impact on other wildlife as well. I no longer see cliff swallows foraging on the ground near the feed bins, and the cats may be affecting our robust population of big fat fence lizards as well. That said, I know their range is limited, and they can't reproduce. They aren't pets allowed to roam and kill just for amusement, and the pest control they provide means no more traps or poison or spoiled feed. These little working kitties are performing the ancestral job that resulted in the domestication of cats to begin with, and that's pretty cool.

Caturday: An Escape-Proof Cat Harness?

It's Caturday, and I'm taking James out for a little stroll in his Ruffwear Webmaster harness. It was designed for dogs, but this is the closest thing I've found to to an escape-proof cat harness. It definitely feels more secure than PetSafe's Come With Me Kitty harness. Plus it has a handle, and cats should have handles.

Cat Physics

Cats are basically slow-moving liquids. They flow to fit the shape of any container, they spread out when left on a flat surface, and you can pour them. Keeping one in a harness can be a challenge. Most dog harnesses are not designed to be escape-proof. They fit comfortably around the chest and shoulders, and a determined dog can usually slither out of them. Cats are experts at oozing out of regular dog harnesses.

The Web Master harness is designed to be supportive, so it has an extra strap that fits further back on the dog's undercarriage. When fitted well, this strap sits behind the ribcage, around the abdomen. This prevents most dogs from backing out of the harness, because the belly strap is cinched down tighter than the ribcage.

Escape-Resistant

Cats are pretty amazing at getting out of harnesses, so I'm not going to declare this one to be escape-proof. However, the Webmaster does feel secure to me. I can pick up James by the handle, and he feels comfortably supported, not like he's about to slide out of the thing. Sometimes I hoist him up and stick him in trees just for kicks. I do put the harness on very snug, as tight as I can get it, for my own piece of mind.

Solstice is, unfortunately, too fat for the XXS web master harness. I can barely get the back strap buckle snapped, and she complains a whole lot about it. I'm currently looking for an inexpensive XS size to try on her, hopefully the rest of the straps won't be too big. She's basically got a normal-sized ribcage and then a giant expanse of catflab.

Other Options

I've heard good things about the Kitty Holster and Lupine's cat harness. Both of these prevent escape by adjusting snug around the neck, with no strap running up the chest between the belly and neck straps. I have not tried this style of harness on The Hellions yet, but they aren't particularly interested in escaping so they don't make very good product testers.

Do you have a harness for your cat?

Caturday: How to Keep the Dog Out of the Cat Food

It's Caturday, and we're fighting a neverending battle to keep the cat food out of the dogs. Lets face it, dogs love cat food. Whether it's wet or dry, they can't resist. A bowl of cat food left on the floor is definitely going to get devoured. Keeping the cat food in a dog-free zone makes perfect sense if you've always had a dog and just added a cat to the family, but I met plenty of cat people that got a dog and then discovered their pup would do anything to get to the cat food. How do you win this arm's race?

Put the Cat Food Up High

They were just sitting on my lap like that.

Dog can reach the counter? Put the cat food on top of the refrigerator. Dog can get on top of the refrigerator? Put the cat food on top of a tall bookshelf. Dog can get on top of the bookshelf? Mount shelves on the wall. I had been feeding my cats on a windowsill until Godzilla discovered that she could climb on furniture to get up there, now I feed them on the cat shelves I added a few months ago.

Make a Cats-Only Zone

You can use a baby gate to keep your dog out of one room, but I still highly recommend putting the cat food up high anyway. That way your dog won't have an incentive to bulldoze through the gate for an easy snack. If your dog is bigger than your cat (I'm looking at you, Ru.), you can also put a hook or a nail in the wall near the door frame, and loop a string from there around the doorknob so the door only opens a crack. This works well if you have a dog that can jump babygates. Again, put the cat food somewhere inaccessible so your dog won't have an instant reward for thwarting your plans. 

The string and door method also works for cabinets, and can help make a dog-proof place at ground-level for cats with mobility issues.

Technology

There are some interesting products out there for solving this particular issue, though I have my doubts about them. SureFlap now makes a SureFeed bowl that reads your cat's microchip and only opens for the right cat. This seems like a good solution for feeding two cats separately, or keeping your small or mildly interested dog out of the cat food. I can't imagine it would thwart a large or determined dog. There are several other smart feeders out there, I plan to write more about them in the future.

The Feed-Safe is a plastic dome that you stick your cat in to feed them. You can lock the main door, and there is an escape flap that will let them out but cannot be opened from the outside. This doesn't allow the cat the access their food anytime though, you have to put them inside there. I can also imagine a large dog knocking this thing around like a giant puzzle ball.

Go Big.

No matter what you do to keep the cat food out of the dog, make sure you do something effective. Take several different measures if you can. The last thing you want to do is enter an arms race where your dog continually learns new skills. Example: Cat food on floor of bedroom with large piece of cardboard across doorway. Dog learns to push down cardboard so you replace it with a pressure-mounted babygate. Dog learns to push that over so you put the cat food up on a dresser. Dog learns to push down babygate and stand up to reach top of dresser, so you move the food to a higher shelf. Dog learns to climb on top of dresser to reach shelf. If you had started with both the babygate and the food on the shelf, the dog probably wouldn't have had the motivation to learn how to push the babygate down in the first place.

Do you have both a cat and a dog? How do you dog-proof your cat's food?

Caturday: What Color Is Your Cat Really?

It's Caturday, and we're geeking out about coat colors and patterns and genetics. Well, technically I'm geeking out and the cats are just chilling. They're not that into genetics. Anyway, I recently pondered whether there was a feline equivalent to Dog Coat Colour Genetics, my favorite website for learning about this kind of stuff. Sure enough, I found MessyBeast, a site maintained by someone who, I can only assume, is the very best kind of cat geek.

Feel the love!

Color Charts

The first cat color chart I ever saw was this magnificent illustration by Joumana Medlej. I'd love to reproduce it here, but I haven't asked the artist's permission so I recommend going and looking at it yourself. Seriously. 

The first time I laid eyes on that chart, I was compelled to figure out precisely what color cats I had. I was visiting a cat-loving friend at the time, and we were both excitedly picking cat hairs off our shirts to examine. 

From that chart, I learned that James is a brown tabby. I had always described him as grey, but technically he is a brown tabby. His pattern is mackerel, and he has a white chin and belly and feetsies, so he is a brown mackerel tabby with white. Specifically, he has grade 4 white spotting.

Solstice is a tortoiseshell, which I've always known. There are a bunch of special tortie colors and patterns though. If they have tabby striped, they can be called a 'patched tabby' or a 'torbie' depending on where you live. 

Kitty colors and patterns can be affected by dilution, and various patterns can be combined. You can have a dilute tabby, or a tortoiseshell color-pointed cat (like a Siamese) that's mostly cream-colored with black and orange blotched points. The way all the different aspects combine tickles my brain in the most delightful way.

Behold, Science!

MessyBeast goes a step further, and actually illustrates all the color and pattern combinations. They also explain the genetics and developmental conditions behind various colors. Like, the reason your piebald cat's black spots look like they fit together like puzzle pieces, is because at one point during embryonic development, they did! MessyBeast even delves into hypothetical colors that have not been seen in cats, like tan points and merle, and colors observed but lost to history, like Barrington Brown.

So, what color is your cat?

Caturday: What About Purebred Cats?

We all know that dog breeds were developed to perform specific tasks, and refined from there into the purebreds we know today, but...what's up with purebred cats? As far as we know, cats basically domesticated themselves, and selective breeding of cats is a much more recent phenomenon than selective breeding of dogs. Europeans bringing deliberately-bred dogs with them largely wiped out indigenous dog populations in the areas they colonized over the past several hundred years, so in North America at least, the vast majority of dogs are some sort of combination of purebreds.

Louie Armstrong, my mother's Persian cat.

Purebred Cats are Rare

Purebred cats, on the other hand, were never widespread or ubiquitous enough to replace indigenous populations. Indigenous breeds would develop due to geographic isolation, and settlers and traders would bring cats from home with them to new places, but these indigenous breeds were not nearly as distinctive or refined as dog breeds. 

What I'm trying to say here is, your fluffy striped random-bred cat looks like a Maine Coon because the founder of the breed chose random fluffy striped cats to develop their breed, not because your cat is all or part purebred. There aren't tons of purebred Maine Coons running around knocking up random female cats, those traits are just common in the general feline population. (There's even a DNA test if you think I'm wrong!) Your solid gray shorthair cat is not a purebred Russian Blue, the Russian Blue breed was developed from random blue cats. 

That's how cat breeds happen. Either a breed-developer decides on a set of traits and selects for those traits among a certain population of random-bred cats, as is the case for most "natural breeds", or the breed-developer finds one cat with a unique mutation and develops a breed around that mutation. The Cornish Rex, American Curl, American Wirehair, German Rex, LaPerm, Scottish Fold, and Munchkin breeds were all developed from a single cat with a unique mutation. These are all very distinctive-looking cats, while most of the "natural breeds" look a whole lot like random-bred cats you'll find in any shelter. Take a look at Wikipedia's list of cat breeds, there's a good chance you'll find a breed that resembles your random-bred cat. 

Cat Personality is Genetic

So why would anyone bother paying big bucks for a purebred American Shorthair or Norwegian Forest Cat if they just look like a regular cat? Why buy a cat when there are zillions of homeless ones dying in shelters, and neighbors giving away free kittens all over the place? The answer has everything to do with behavior. A large chunk of a cat's personality is determined by the genes they inherit from their parents. Early handling and socialization can make a big difference between a comfortable cat and a stressed cat when people are around, but it's not going to turn your feral-born kitten into a social butterfly. 

My family has raised two kittens with feral parentage from a very early age and both are extremely aloof. Meanwhile, The Hellions and their siblings are incredibly gregarious, bordering on overly friendly with strangers. Adopting or rescuing a cat is awesome, but it's also a total crapshoot. Will your brand new kitten grow up to be a purr-happy lapcat? Or will they take up permanent residence under the bed? You can hedge your bets by adopting an adult cat, but the temperament they express at the shelter or in a foster home may not be the temperament you see when you bring them home.

Purebred=Predictability

Aside from physical aesthetics, the purpose of buying a purebred cat is to get a predictable temperament. Most cat breeds have been developed in the last 60 years, but that's six decades of breeding for temperament. Unless it's in the breed standard, seriously aloof cats don't make the cut when it comes time to choose who gets to pass along their genes. Just like dogs, purebred cats have predictable traits. Why are so many social media star cats purebreds? It's partly because of their distinctive looks, and partly because they have winning personalities.

Years ago, my mother was given a Persian cat by her neighbor. She absolutely adored that cat, and was heartbroken when he disappeared. In researching the breed, I found that most of the little idiosyncrasies and personality quirks she loved about that cat were common to the breed in general. We found a breeder and got her a Persian kitten a few months later, and little Louie filled the void in a way that none of our random-bred cats could. His similarities to his predecessor were no accident, but the deliberate result of careful breeding.

There are tons of homeless cats out there, and I think cat rescue is absolutely awesome. Most people don't need or want a purebred cat, and every spring there is a huge surplus of kittens to love. However, if personality and temperament are important enough, a purebred cat may be worth the cost. Want to geek out about the genetics of cat breeds? Check out this awesome study!

Caturday: Rachael Ray Nutrish

It's Caturday, and my cats are sampling some Rachael Ray Nutrish wet food. This is the best the grocery store has to offer, and as pet foods go, it's not bad. There's no by-products, no mystery meats, and no cheating with gluten meals to boost protein content.

Powdered Cellulose?

So what is in there, besides meat, broth, vegetable oil, and stabilizing gums? Powdered cellulose was the only thing that caught my attention on the ingredients list. A quick google search brings up a whole lot of horrified pet owners calling it "sawdust" and stating it has no nutritional value. It's a "filler", right? Completely useless? Actually, as I learned from Dog Food Logic, there's really no such thing as a "filler". Powdered cellulose is a form of insoluble fiber, which acts as, you know, fiber. It helps your cat poo.

You can find powdered cellulose in people food too, it's frequently in canned Parmesan cheese to keep it from sticking together. It can also be found in various high-fiber and low-fat foods. Powdered cellulose can be made from a number of different things, and it's worth noting that calling it "wood pulp" is entirely inaccurate. It could be made from apples, or corn husks, or, yes, actual wood. It's just refined down to the point that there's none of that left. I'm not sure what that means for allergies, so it's something I might avoid if that was an issue.

Ainsworth Pet Nutrition

Nutrish is actually made by Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, a company dedicated to putting high-quality pet foods in grocery stores. I really appreciate this effort, as I know plenty of people who would never even dream of walking into a pet-specific store to get cat food. This isn't the best food out there, it's possible they are getting some ingredients from China given their lack of advertising to the contrary. Still, it's worlds better nearly anything else in the grocery store. This is a product that fills a need, and it means plenty of pets are eating better. I have no problem feeding it to my cats occasionally.

Caturday: Houseplants I Am Feeding My Cats

It's Caturday, and I've expanded The Hellions' little window garden. I acquired their first plant back in October during the Enriched Life Challenge, and since then I've learned how to keep my cats and houseplants co-existing peacefully...mostly.

Plants vs. Cats

• Choose only non-toxic cat-safe species
• Hang plants so they can only nibble the tips
• Use very heavy pots that can't be tipped, avoid plastic

I don't have a large enough space for a full-on kitty salad bar like Chirpy Cats, but I've found a way to fit a few green snacks into my small space. 

In the past, the Hellions have tackled plants to the floor, wrestled them in submission, and messily devoured them. Decorative plant stands are definitely a no-go around here, the only way plants are going to stay put is if they're anchored securely. Very heavy pots are definitely the way to go.

My cats also have zero sense of portion control, and will happily eat an entire houseplant in short order. Hanging the plants securely from walls and windowsills not only keeps them in place, it also limits access. The plants last a lot longer when the cats can only nibble the tips!

Maindenhair fern looking nibbled.

The Tastiest Plants

• Maidenhair fern
• Boston fern
• Spider plant
• Basil
• Catnip
• Wheatgrass
•  African violet
• Air plants

So far, the Geek Garden only includes the first three species. However, I'm getting more creative with finding places and ways to hang them, so I hope to expand the list soon. I'm particularly fond of African violets and air plants, but basil will probably give the kitties nice breath!

Caturday: Do My Cats Need an Exercise Wheel?

I've been seeing kitty hamster wheels all over the internet, and I am intrigued. I don't know who came up with idea, why it's spreading, or why cats even run on wheels. I guess it's not really that weird though, I mean people and even some dogs like to run on treadmills, right? I'm not sure if I could convince my indoor cats to walk on an exercise wheel, or where I'd put one if we got it. Those things take up a ton of space!

Still, I am in love with the idea, and will likely implement one of these when we eventually get our own place. Here are the options I've found so far:

One Fast Cat

Pros

• Freestanding modern artsy design
• Open-sided wheel for claustrophobic kitty comfort
• 48" diameter, helps avoid bending kitty's spine too much
• Easy to move, wheel sits on base and can be separated
• Less than $200

Cons

• User-assembled, and based on their Amazon reviews, it's quite the chore
• Manufacturing defects are common, pieces break curing assembly
• Company seems to send out dirty, ripped boxes and possibly used products
• Returns are a huge hassle, customer service seems to be lacking
• Lack of a central axle means this wheel is prone to instability

GoPets

Pros

• Very sturdy
• Arrives fully or mostly assembled
• Stable enough for sprinting
• Comes in medium and large sizes if you have a monster cat bigger than the 25-pound limit of the small wheel

Cons

• 40" diameter on small wheel, bigger is more ergonomic
• Kinda industrial-looking
• Costs around $500

Do-It-Yourself

Pros

• Lots of tutorials and ideas available
• Can be made to fit your space and budget
• Color and aesthetic entirely up to you

Cons

• Inevitably going to be heavier than the above options
• You have to have a little bit of carpentry skills and stuff
• And power tools, definitely power tools

What do you think? Brilliant idea? Or another expensive toy for the cats to ignore like...well...cats?

It's Caturday! Does Your Cat Really Need a Fountain?

It's Caturday, and I'm considering buying a kitty water fountain for the Hellions. Several friends purchased them because their cats just love drinking from dripping faucets. James and Solstice aren't huge drippy faucet fans, but giving them fresh, moving, filtered water seems like a nice idea.

Remember those little tabletop fountains that made your desk seem like a tranquil zen garden? Pet fountains are basically the same thing. They run on a little aquarium motor, and move water around in order to aerate it and make it more interesting and ward off vampires and stuff.

Reasons to Acquire a Water Fountain for the Cats:

• They come in a zillion different shapes, sizes, and materials, including easy-to-clean ceramic, and stainless steel that my cats cannot possibly break. (There's some really amazing ones on Etsy!)
• Probably tastier and more exciting than a bowl of stagnant water.
• Maybe my cats will drink more. Adequate water intake is important for urinary tract health, and dry food diets can make for dehydrated cats. Neither of the Hellions have ever had an issue before, but they're eight years old now so it doesn't hurt to treat their organs a little more kindly

Reasons Not to Acquire a Water Fountain for the Cats

• They are universally a pain in the ass to take apart and clean.
• The vast majority of them (and all of the cheap ones) are plastic, which sets off James's cat acne.
• They require filters cartridges which must be replaced in order to get the full benefits of using the fountaind.
• Unless it actually hooks up to a hose, it's not providing your cat with continuous fresh water, it just moves the same water around and around.
• You have to refill them, and if they run out of water the motor can burn out. (You can buy replacement pumps for most of the nice ones though.)
• I can get the same fresh clean water effect minus the movement by having several water bowls so I can put down a fresh clean one every day.

So that's where we're at right now. I'll let you know when I narrow down the options a bit. Do your pets drink out of an electric water fountain?

It's Caturday! Here's Some Cat Wearables!

Whilst researching dog GPS trackers, I found a variety of nifty gadgets you can use to find your cat. Loosely referred to as "wearables", these wearable bits of technology are sort of like a smart watch for your cat. Or maybe like one of those radio tracking collars they put on bears and mountain lions before releasing them into the wild. Either way, here are some high-tech ways to keep track of your tiny murder-machine:

TabCat

Intended for locating your cat over relatively short distances, the best description I've found is that TabCat is a Geiger counter for cats. You know that nifty device in old movies that they wave around, and it makes more or less noise based on the presence of radiation? This radio tracking device works just like that. You put the tag on your cat, and use the little handset to play a game of hot and cold to figure out where he's hiding. This is made by the UK-based Loc8tor company.

Pros: The device comes with one handset and two tags. Highly accurate over fairly small spaces, maximum range is 400'. The tag itself beeps when you start tracking it, and many cats learn to run home when they hear it. Does not require a subscription or service plan.

Cons: Facebook and Amazon are filled with customer complaints of durability issues, and batteries sliding away from contacts inside the devices. Notably absent is any sort of customer service response. Basically, TabCat may or may not work, and may or may not fall apart within a few weeks of using it, and if something goes wrong, the company won't care.

Marco Polo

This is a pricier radio tracking system that seems to be much more durable than TabCat, though it has a hefty price tag. Marco Polo includes some features found in GPS tracking devices, like a programmable safe zone and alerts if your pet leaves that zone.

Pros: No subscriptions or additional fees. Range of up to two miles.

Cons: The price of a system is over $200. Must have the handset with you to receive alerts that your pet is outside the safe zone.

Pod

The Pod tracker is super tiny, small enough for cats and even birds to wear. This is a cellular+GPS tracker. It comes with two batteries, so you can always have one on your pet while the other is charging. Pod seems to have very responsive customer service, and they are actively improving their product with discounts for customers who want to upgrade. Unfortunately, they only use 2G cellular networks, so there's an ever-increasing lack of coverage for this device.

Pros: Requires a service plan, but comes with a year of free service. Small and unobtrusive. Allows you to set a safe zone and be alerted if your cat leaves that zone.

Cons: No 3G coverage, so won't work in many places as networks shut off their 2G.

On the Horizon...

PawTrack

The first 2G and 3G cellular GPS tracker just for cats...probably. Currently shipping in January 2017 if everything goes according to plan. Like Whistle, but for cats. Pretty pricey at $225 for the 3G version. Not sure why they're even offering a 2G version given that pretty much every network is planning to kill 2G by 2020. It's basically a product with a death date.

PetTracer

This German-based smart collar for cats was fully funded on Indiegogo two years ago. It looks cool, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for its eventual release.

Weenect Cats

The only GPS device I've seen so far that actually lets you call your cat up and talk to him. This one appears to have been available sometime in 2015, but is not currently available for sale anywhere. You can preorder it from the website, but no ship date is given so who knows? Also there is a glowing Danish review of this product using pictures of the journalist's cat and touting the product as waaaaay better than Pod. That exact same cat is splashed all over Weenect's website, which gives me unpleasant feelings about this company and their marketing tactics.

GPCats

Funded by Kickstarter, this is a GPS device intended to be small enough for even tiny cats. Shipping was supposed to happen this month, but has been delayed due to unsatisfactory results from preliminary testers. They're doing a mighty fine job of keeping their backers informed though, so I have a lot of hope for this one.

It's Caturday! Here's Some Cats in Christmas Trees!

Nobody loves Christmas like cats love Christmas! We haul entire trees into our homes and deck them out in dangly shiny baubles, who else could we possibly be doing this for?! I come from a family of cat-lovers, and it's basically a family tradition that kittens spend most of December living in the Christmas tree. (Also, it's the first night of Hanukkah tonight, but my Jewish best friends went out of town before I could get pictures of my dogs in yarmulkes with a menorah. Oy vey.)

Solstice is filling in for the star here.

The Hellions were probably born in September, so they were quite young and ridiculous for their first Christmas. That was the last year I tried putting breakable ornaments on a tree. 

James in his natural habitat.

One year I tried putting up a tiny 2' tall tree, hoping that they would ignore it since they couldn't climb it. Nope. They wrestled with it, chewed on it, and could not rest until it was laying flat on the ground.

Not pictured: kitten.

About ten years ago, while living with my parents, I brought home a tiny orange kitten that my brother named Schrodinger. We suspect Schro was the offspring of feral cat, and a lot of cat personality can be genetic. Schro has always been a bit wild.

Pictured: kitten.

That was the year I either weighted the tree stand down with sandbags, or tied it to the wall.

Ravel lives here now.

I got the Hellions from my irresponsible neighbors that let their unaltered female cat have litter after litter. Six months prior to the birth of my hellbeasts, that poor kitty had a litter of black and white kittens. The neighbors were giving them away to anyone, so I picked out a pair and gave them to my father for Father's Day. 

Pamina just hanging out.

He was annoyed for about half a day ("What made you think I needed kittens?!") and then fell in love ("I have babies!") Somehow, Pamina and Ravel are just super sweet, personable cats. I suspect the Hellions had a different dad. An evil dad.

Tucker loved Christmas!

Our first Christmas tree-dwelling kitten was my sister's Tucker. He was born in November of 1999 or 2000, and was just a few weeks old when he discovered the holiday spirit.

"If you need me, I'll be in the tree."

We lost Tucker to cancer a couple of years ago, but his memory lives on in my family's somewhat peculiar tolerance of kittens climbing Christmas trees. There's not really any good way of keeping them out, short of suspending the tree from the ceiling, so there's nothing wrong with embracing their kitten-ness, putting the breakable ornaments away for a season, and letting them enjoy the holiday. Just stick with non-toxic decorations, and avoid tinsel.

It's Caturday, and There's a Learning Curve

It's Caturday, time to talk about my cats! James and Solstice, collectively known as The Hellions, are eight-year-old littermates. They are unusually destructive, especially for mature adult cats. Two months ago, I built them some wall shelves for more vertical space in which to rampage.

James has finally gotten the hang of it.

Despite a lot of training time spent gently coaxing them from one platform to the next, The Hellions were hesitant to use their new shelves. This was a bit weird, because normally they climb on anything and everything no matter how much effort I take to ward them off.

Maybe the concept of empty shelves was too alien? I figured they needed something truly irresistible to entice them, so I bought a small potted fern and set it on the highest shelf. Exactly two hours later, Solstice climbed all the way up there, ate the plant, knocked the pot down, and then spent the rest of the afternoon surveying her kingdom from on high. Solstice is a very relaxed cat, she knows neither strangers nor fear.

James took a lot longer to decide that the shelves were a good idea. He is generally a more cautious cat, and it takes him a while to warm up to new things. He started out using one or two of the shelves, but it took him a full six weeks to decide that the cat shelves were safe, fun, and inviting. I like to keep track of this sort of thing, as it pays to know how long it takes my cats to get used to something. Now that I know James can spend six weeks acclimating to a new thing in his environment, I won't be too quick to decide that my cats don't enjoy a new toy or piece of cat furniture.

It's Caturday! Let's Talk About Cat Acne!

It's Caturday, time to talk about my cats and their cat acne! Actually, only James gets cat acne. I had some very basic knowledge about this common feline skin condition, but only what was important for managing James's issue. When I began to delve into more scholarly sources, I found that there wasn't actually a whole lot of scientific attention pointed toward cat acne. As this 2010 paper points out, it's something that basically every vet deals with all the time, but everything from the causes to the treatments is almost entirely anecdotal. Very few people have really studied cat acne.

The retrospective study linked above came to some very interesting conclusions. First, they found that cat acne affects shorthaired cats almost exclusively. Though for some cats it seems to be related to the food dishes they use, there is currently no clinical evidence for food bowls being causative.

For James, cat acne manifests as scabs on his chin. The first time it happened, his lower lip also swelled up alarmingly. I can easily manage his issue simply by using clean stainless steel bowls. Anecdotally, this seems to work for a lot of cats. Why does it work? There are two hypotheses to explain the relationship between plastic dishes and cat acne.

Contact Dermatitis

One theory is that some cats are allergic to plastic. It causes skin irritation on the part of the cat that most often contacts the plastic. Switch to a metal, glass, or ceramic bowl and the problem disappears. This hypothesis would explain why James is prone to cat acne, but Solstice is not. They use the same dishes, and they are littermates, so it makes sense to conclude that they would have similar reactions if hygiene was the sole cause. 

Hygiene

Dirty bowls harbor bacteria, which infect the part of the cat that most often contacts the dirty food bowl. Plastic is nearly impossible to clean because it develops tiny scratches that can harbor bacteria even after a trip through the dishwasher. Bowls made from stainless steel, glass, or ceramic are much easier to properly sanitize. Once a cat is using a sanitary food bowl, their cat acne tends to improve or disappear.

My Hypothesis

I think that hygiene is the biggest factor with James and his cat acne. Dirty bowls make him break out. We only have stainless steel cat dishes, because the Hellions broke all of my cute ceramic and glass kitty bowls.As long as I wash his dishes every day, James has no trace of acne. Why didn't the study find any correlation between acne improvement and changing bowls? Well, this was a retrospective study of past cases, so there is now way to control for all the variables and make sure everyone was switching dishes in an orderly and scientific fashion. There are no details given about how the bowls were changed, but I find it likely that most of the cat owners involved believe the type of bowl was the issue, rather than the cleanliness. 

I would love to see a study where owners of acne-prone cats are instructed to put their cat bowls through the dishwasher every day. I own multiple sets of kitty dishes so that a couple can be in the wash at any given time. Does your cat have cat acne? Does their chin always seem dirty or scabby? 

It's Caturday! The Furminator Will Change Your Life

It's Caturday! Here are my cats! My family has had cats longer than they've had me, my parents, brother, and sister are all serious cat people. I have a theory that loving dogs is genetic though, and this is supported by the fact that my paternal grandmother and my aunt both raised and showed dogs for many years. Know who else did that? My father's long-lost sister who was given up for adoption at birth. She found our family just a few years ago, and it turns out she has a long history of showing and breeding dogs. Coincidence? Nope, the dogs are in our genes.

Angel, one of my childhood cats,  frequently slept like this.
 We called it the Brain Damage Position.
How could he possibly be getting enough oxygen?!
(Please excuse the scruffiness, he was at least 20 years old
when this picture was taken.)

Anyway, back to the cat people of the family. Our sole grooming tool for my childhood cats was a sturdy metal comb. It served to get some hair off the cats, so I spent most of my life believing it to be an effective grooming tool. Then came...the Furminator (*insert dramatic music here*).

A regular comb is nice if you want to sort of pet your cat while removing some hair and making sure they don't have any tangles. The Furminator is nice if you want to remove every single hair your cat could possibly be considering shedding in the near future. And then some. If taking hair off the cat is your goal, the Furminator is your solution. The first time you use it, you will probably end up with a pile of fur bigger than your cat. You will wonder how the hell your cat could lose that much and still have fur. Just don't use it on their belly, as it can rip off their tiny kitty nipples.

I brought a Furminator along when I went to visit my aunt and cousins in Idaho last fall. I found my aunt lovingly coming one of her cats with a wire comb, so I left the Furminator with her. It was magical.

It's Caturday! Let's Talk Teeth

This may sound completely crazy, but brushing your cat's teeth is a really good idea. I know, right? But seriously, how many elderly cats have you known that didn't have some sort of horrible dental issue? That bad breath? That means bad teeth. Bad teeth means a constant stream of bacteria assaulting your poor kitty, stressing their kidneys and making them feel icky all the time. I've known some older cats that had to have all their teeth removed, and were much happier afterwards.

The Hellions like windowsills. Especially windowsills full of breakable things.

Fortunately, most cats don't need to become toothless wonders. This is fortunate, because pet dental surgery costs an absolute fortune. How can you save yourself a thousand bucks in vet bills? By brushing your cat's teeth.

How do you talk your cat into letting you come anywhere near them with a toothbrush? (Actually my cats are incredibly stupid and somehow continue to suspect nothing despite having their teeth brushed on a near-daily basis.) Cornell University put together a really neat series of videos on how to introduce your cat to the concept, and work all the way up to brushing their teeth with a weird little pointy toothbrush.

Caturday! Cat Grooming Bags, Because Cats Should Have Handles

A cat grooming bag is the solution to most of life's problems. Trust me. It's basically a gimp suit for your cat, because sometimes kitty bondage is necessary. But seriously, this is the best device ever created for immobilizing your cat for grooming and medical care. Anyone who has ever attempted to restrain a cat knows that they are basically slow-moving liquids capable of oozing through your hands. They don't have legs so much as they have pseudopods that can be retracted at will and then popped out at another location. They are also sharp on five out of their six ends.

What is a Cat Grooming Bag?

A grooming bag is a bag you zip your cat into with only their head poking out. It neatly contains almost all of their pointy bits, and limits what shapes they can morph into. The bag also has several conveniently placed zippers that allow you to access pretty much every part of your cat's body whole keeping the rest of their fury safely contained. 

Why Do I Need a Cat Grooming Bag?

Does your cat have claws like fishhooks? Is he personally offended by your attempts to make them less pointy? This is basically the reason grooming bags were invented. See, there is a zipper in each corner for easy access to individual feetsies. Unzip them one at a time, pull out the nearest pseudopod, and clip away without interference from extraneous limbs. 

Does your cat need eardrops, insulin injections, or something else you know they hate? A grooming bag can make the job a million times easier. Most bags have additional zippers for belly and tail access, so they are useful for coming out yucky belly fur, washing cat butts, and whatever else you need to torture your cat with.

Do you ever wish that you could carry your cat around like a briefcase? Grooming bags have convenient handles that allow you to carry your cat from place to place with a minimum of fuss. 

Where Do You Buy One?

I actually have no idea where to buy one of these. Probably Amazon. I spotted this one at a thrift store and was way too excited about it. James and Solstice are both lovely about nail trims and various other handling things, but grooming bags are so nifty that I bought it just so I could share it with you.

How does your cat feel about having their nails trimmed?

Caturday: Lotus Just Juicy Stew for Cats

It's Caturday, and the Hellions are in with with Lotus's Just Juicy canned cat food. I got a couple of cans from the Lotus booth at SuperZoo, and I also got to sit down with a representative and see some pictures of their production facility. I even got to see some of their employee training material! The process their meat goes through before becoming pet food is pretty much what I'd want my food to go through.

Lotus Pet Foods

Lotus is a company started by independent pet store owners that were tired of  the good foods selling out to big businesses. Does thaat sound familiar? Yesterday's Food Friday feature was Grandma Mae's, a pet food company with the exact same story. Well, not quite the exact same story. See, Lotus actually provides names and places to go with their story, which makes it much more believable for a skeptic like myself. Go Lotus!

So basically, meat arrives at the Lotus Pet Foods micro cannery ooking like a big slab of meat you'd buy from the grocery store. Said meat is then slapping on a cutting board and carefully chopped into little cubes by a real person with a real knife. This allows them to check each piece of meat and make sure no yucky stuff ends up in the food.

Just Juicy Stew for Cats

The Just Juicy product line consists of chunky stews thickened with potato starch and agar-agar. The ingredient lists are very short. Unlike a lot of canned cat foods, this stuff actually smells pleasant. You can see the cooked meat, and it really reminds me of something I'd make at home in my crock pot.

Naturally, James and Solstice devoured the Just Juicy stew as fast as they possibly could. This is a chunky food, so it may not be accepted by the diehard pate lovers. However, the consistency is so much more like people food, and not icky wet cat food, that I think it's worth trying a can even if your cat is super picky.