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General Management Feeding


Adult cats require less food in proportion than kittens, for two

reasons. One is this: a kitten is growing, and therefore extra bone,

flesh, skin, hair, and all else has to be provided for; while in the

adults, these are more or less acquired, and also they procure for

themselves, in various ways in country or suburban localities, much live

and other food, and no animal is the better for over or excessive

feeding, espe
ially if confined, or its chances of exercise contracted.



I have tried many ways or methods of feeding, biscuits of sorts, liver,

lights, horseflesh, bread and milk, rice, fish, and cat mixtures, but

have always attained the best results by giving new milk as drink, and

raw shin of beef for food, with grass, boiled asparagus stems,

cabbage-lettuce, or some other vegetable, either cooked or fresh. Good

horseflesh is much liked by the cat, and it thrives well on it. I do not

believe in either liver or lights as a flesh or bone maker. Besides the

beef, there are the "tit-bits" that the household cat not only usually

receives, but looks for or expects.



My dear friend, Mr. John Timbs, in "Things not Generally Known," avers

that cats are not so fond of fish as flesh, and that the statement that

they are is a fallacy. He says, put both before them and they will take

the flesh first, and this I have found to be correct. I should only give

fresh fish, as a rule, to a cat when unwell, more as an alternative than

food.



As raw meat or other raw food is natural to the cat, it is far the best,

with vegetables, for keeping the body, coat, and skin in good condition

and health, and the securing of a rich, bright, high colour and quality.

On no account try to improve these by either medicinal liquids, pills,

or condiments; nothing can be much worse, as reflection will prove. If

the cat is healthy, it is at its best, and will keep so by proper food;

if unwell, then use such medicines as the disease or complaint it

suffers from requires, and not otherwise. Many horses and other

animals have their constitutions entirely ruined by what are called

"coat tonics," which are useless, and only believed in and practised by

the thoughtless, gullible, and foolish. Does any one, or will any one

take pills, powders, or liquids, for promoting the colour or texture of

their hair; would any one be so silly? And yet we are coolly told to

give such things to our animals. Granted that in illness medicine is of

much service, in health it is harmful, and tends to promote disease

where none exists.



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