Site for pet food Fat / Carb / Protein values 

For those of you who have cats on restricted diets, this will really help!
www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html

High Quality Grain-Free Canned foods 

Where to get grain-free canned foods?

Wellness: (www.omhpet. com) Wellness is a complete, balanced diet.

No supplementation is needed and can be fed, as is, on a daily basis s the sole diet. Wellness is a very low carbohydrate (range epending on variety: 1%-12%), high quality canned food. Note: This company has chosen to start adding grains (brown rice) to some of the canned foods. This will increase the carbohydrate content. Be sure to look for a small yellow triangle on the front of the can stating that the food is "Grain Free".

Nature's Variety: (www.naturesvariety.com <>) Nature's Variety canned food is also a complete, balance diet that is great for daily use. No supplementation is need. This is also a very low carbohydrate food. Nature's Variety also makes a high quality raw food.

EVO: (www.naturapet.com) Innova EVO is a complete diet for daily feeding and only 3% of its calories come from carbohydrates. **Please note that this food is very high in phosphorus and would not be a good food choice for any cat that is showing signs of renal insufficiency.

Wysong's Au Jus Canned Meats: (www.wysong.net) Several of Wysong's regular canned diets have undesirable grains in them but the plain canned meats are grainless. These are referred to as "All Meat" or "Au Jus". These all-meat diets are devoid of calcium so they are not balanced for daily use. You must add Wysong's "Call of the Wild" supplement to ensure that the meals are properly balanced if used as a sole diet. Otherwise, use the Au Jus canned food, without supplementation, for a few meals each week. Not every meal needs to be balanced so this is an excellent use for this product. These products are relatively expensive and are sometimes hard to find.

Avoderm Select Cuts: (www.breeders-choice.com) This high quality product is a complete diet for daily use. Please disregard the Breeder's Choice website that urges the reader to provide dry food at all times. This is very poor advice.

Wysong's Archetype: This is not a canned food. It is a cold-processed grainless diet, containing high quality meats, bones, organs, probiotic cultures, and other supplements. You add water to hydrate this food and then serve. This product is relatively expensive and hard to find.

Merrick: (www.merrickpetcare.com) This company makes some varieties of canned products without grains but several of them do contain grains. Read the labels carefully.

Whole Paws: This is a Whole Foods Market brand and is only carried in their stores. I like this food because it is very basic and contains nothing other than a single meat source and broth. It is balanced for daily use and would be a very good 'hypoallergenic/ limited ingredient' diet to try for a cat with IBD or any allergy/food intolerance. It comes in 3 varieties: chicken, beef, and fish. Please note that beef and fish are considered to be common allergens in the cat so I urge you to feed the chicken variety only. Note: As of around mid 2006, WFM stopped making this food. I have no idea if they will ever start offering it again.

Country Pet: (www.countrypet.com) This is a frozen product that is not raw but also is not heavily cooked. This company blanches the meats prior to freezing. I feed this to my cats as a supplement to their raw meat diet for variety. I find it in a freezer cart in the pet food section at Whole Foods Market. Check their website for other sources. I feed the Chicken dog food and sometimes the Fish and Chicken cat food. I say "sometimes" because I do not like to feed a lot of fish to my cats and I never feed it to my IBD cat due to its tendency to be hyperallergenic in the cat. This is why I prefer the Chicken dog food over the Fish and Chicken cat food but we all know that commercially prepared (cooked) dog food, as a general rule, should not be fed to cats because cats need more taurine (an essential amino acid) than dogs do. I have checked with the company that produces this food and have been assured that there is enough taurine in the dog food to meet a cat's needs. (In fact, the cat and dog food contain the same amount of taruine.) That said, if I was going to feed more than 50% of the total diet comprising either of these foods, I would feel more comfortable adding in 50 mg of taurine to each meal for a total taurine supplementation of 100mg/day. (The other option is to just add 100 mg to one feeding/day. ) Taurine can be purchased in any health food store or Whole Foods Market or can be purchased online at www.iherb.com or other internet sources. Use the capsule or loose powder form and mix into the food. Some taurine is always lost even with minimal processing of the meat. This company does not add any extra taurine to either the cat or the dog food to account for any losses so it just adds to my personal comfort level to add some if this diet is going to make up more than 50% of the total diet.

Apartments that take pets 

People ask us what apartments allow pets in Brevard. We found it in a local pet magazine in the vet's office!

Melbourne area: Bridgewater Pointe, Caribbean Isle, Charleston Place, Cypress Cove, Golden Point Apts, Grand Oaks at the Lakes, Hampton Greens, Harvard Apts., Hickory Pointe, Lake in the Woods, Lake Pointe, Lakes at viera East, Lighthouse Pointe, Paradise Cay, Park Townhouses, Plantation Club, Portofino Villas, Rivercrest, Sabal Palms, Saratoga, Sugar Mill, Summerset, Sun Breeze, The Harbours & Hidden Harbour, The Park Town Homes, Tradewinds, Via Tuscany, Wickham Club, Wickham Village, Windover

Viera: Mission Bay

Palm Bay: Madalyn Landing, Malabar Lakes, Palm Bay Club, Park at Palm Bay, Pinehurst, Harbour Bay Apts. (formerly Riviera Terrace Apts.), The Landings, The Pines, Windwood Apts., Woodlake Village

Rockledge: Rockledge Villas, Southgate Apts.

Titusville: Park Villas, River Breeze, The Villas at La Cita

GREAT info on vaccines 

http://www.felineparadise.com/viewArticle.php?articleId=48

So you want a cat...do some research.... 

PAWS is committed to finding the best possible homes for our foster cats and kittens. To this end, we want to "match" the cat or kitten based on your lifestyle. Please allow us to help you determine what is best for you and best for the cat. We have lots of satisfied adopters who agree we are very good at this!!

We have found a GREAT article which the author, Barbara C. French, gave permission to reference on our site.

www.breedlist.com/faq/young.html

Other websites you should review:

www.newyorktails.com/boredcat.htm

www.listnow.com/helpingpaws/articles/article_63.html

www.perfectpaws.com/help2.html

www.de-clawing.com

www.sbpixiebobs.com/FAQ.htm

Thanks for doing YOUR research before adopting!!!

 
A letter from one of our adopters, on FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) 

To Purrs and Whiskers:

Thank you so much for caring for Monty till we found each other.

He is the most lovable and playful cat I have ever had. I feel very lucky to have Monty since he tested FIV Positive (FIV+). I know that many shelters, etc will not keep an FIV+ cat and that many people are afraid to adopt them.

I would like to urge those considering adoption of an FIV cat to not let that factor stop them. FIV is not transmittable to humans and with otherwise good health and care, the cat can live a wonderful, long life.

My last cat was FIV+, and he was 16 yrs. old when he died, a ripe old age for any cat. I have had FIV+ cats with non-FIV cats together living in my home and FIV did not spread between them.

There are two things I would like to pass on to a prospective FIV cat owner:
Pick your veterinarian wisely. Opinion on FIV among vets varies. Make sure you have a vet who is comfortable treating FIV cats and has current knowledge. I had to change vets twice within the same animal hospital, and again after I moved, twice. Call the office and tell them you have an FIV cat and see what the response is. You’ll know when you hear it whether the veterinarian is right for you.

Second, is not to let any health issue go untreated for any length of time. FIV causes a weakened immune system. So, in my opinion, getting treatment early is a key to long life for the FIV cats.

So once again, thank you Ms. Mona and Purrs and Whiskers for caring for Monty. He is a lover. He enriches my life in a truly wonderful way.

If anyone would like to email me about owning an FIV cat, please feel free to send a note to southernbeauty50@hotmail.com and put FIV adoption in the subject line, so I don’t delete it as junk mail!

Carol Timko and Monty (aka Poufy)
1-11-08