by Lawrence Wilson, MD
© August 2014, The Center For Development
Cats are fine animals, and can make excellent pets as they are fairly clean and quiet. Cats are a little more selfish than dogs, but more and more cats are enjoying better health with nutritional balancing science, and this may help them to be less selfish.
Unlike dogs, cats are more like wild animals in that they can often survive in the wild. Dogs usually do not survive long. This may be because cats have more of their natural killer instincts than do dogs.
Cats carry more diseases than dogs, and everyone needs to know this. For example, many, if not most of them have some toxoplasmosis, a parasite that can be transmitted to human beings.
WHY KEEP CATS INDOORS?
DIET FOR CATS
This is a new finding, and most interesting. I find that most cats have a parasite. Perhaps it is toxoplasmosis, or some other. This is true even if the cat has been given anti-parasitic drugs. The parasite remains because the cat’s health is not good enough, so the parasite thrives even with drug treatment, and cannot be killed with drugs. So do not try to just get rid of the parasite. It will not work. The only way to destroy most of them is with a nutritional balancing program, in my experience, so far. This is described below.
When the parasite is present, cats do well on canned cat food, or at least it is not too bad. However, once the parasite is gone, or at least reduced a lot, then and only then cats can eat some raw meat and cooked vegetables. You will still need to cover the vegetables with a gravy or sauce the cat likes (see below for recipes), but they will eat them and they are excellent at this stage.
Therefore, if you are starting a nutritional balancing program for a cat, most likely the cat will need canned cat food. The dry food is not as good, as it is usually high in grains, which is not a natural food for cats. The canned food is higher in meat, fat, taurine and maybe even some vegetables, and in general this is better.
Cream. When a cat has the parasite, cream, raw butter or even a little raw milk is good. Pasteurized milk is not nearly as good. When the parasite is gone or much reduced, most cats do not want dairy products, interestingly.
Fish and fish problems. When the parasite are present, as they usually are, cats love seafood and fish of all kinds. I am not sure why this is so, but it is.
As the parasite is killed off, cats usually lose their taste for some fish. This is good because most fish such as tuna, crab, salmon, and others all contain much too much mercury and chlorine, today.
The mercury is found in all fish, but particularly the larger ones, including salmon. Sardines and other very small fish are better, in this regard.
Seafood such as shrimp, crabs, scallops, lobster and others should not be fed often to cats. They are high in toxic metals such as cadmium and lead, in addition to mercury and chlorine if the seafood is raised in many fish farms.
The reason for the chlorine is that some farm-raised fish are crowded in so tightly that most fish farmers use chlorine bleach or other chlorine products to disinfect the water. Otherwise, diseases would sweep through their fish farm. This type of “factory fish farming” is rather disgusting and very unhealthy for anyone or any animal, but it is the raw material for many brands of cat food, if not most of them.
Other foods. Cats will often eat leaves, bugs and other little things when they go outside, or even eat house plants. This is normal. Some cats enjoy certain textures and flavors, so it may not be a nutritional matter. Most cats love onion skin, for example, and will play with it for a long time. This is not a problem, although eating things outside often makes cats sick, as explained above.
Recipes for fish sauce and cream sauce. Fish sauce is often tastiest for a cat. To make fish sauce to mix with a cat’s food, mash up a can of sardines. Buy the ones in water, not in oil. Skinless and boneless is lower in mercury, but not necessary. Mash with a fork and use as a topping.
The alternative is to use a cream sauce with foods like cooked vegetables for a cat. To do this, simply mix some fresh and preferably raw cream with the meat and vegetables.
Pureed vegetables. Once the parasite is gone, cats really need cooked vegetables. Try to puree them, as cats do not have teeth for chewing vegetables, but they need the cooked vegetables badly, in most cases.
Eating less. Some cats will eat less if you feed them your own home-cooked vegetables and meats. This is not a problem. It is because they need less of it than of the canned foods.
Commercial cat food. Brands of canned cat food that are usually fine are Avoderm, Nature’s Variety, MBFF or My Best Feline Friend. Other brands of canned food may be okay, but are not as consistent.
Look for chicken, turkey, lamb and a little beef flavors. Do not feed much beef. Once again, do not feed much fish, as it contains too much mercury and chlorine. Freeze-dried chicken from a health food store may also work well for a cat.
Food to avoid. Do not feed cats on dry cat food, such as Purina and the others. This will shorten your cat’s life and may cause disease, no matter what the ads say. I would also avoid Science Diet, I am sorry to say. It is not as good as advertised. Most dry cat food contains far too much grain, a rather unnatural food for cats, although some seem to thrive with it.
Also avoid pasteurized milk, and only give a cat some raw milk or raw cream.
Some commercial canned cat food is too high in salt, and contains too much fish, which destroys the cat’s kidneys with mercury poisoning, eventually.
Also, be careful with any food that has synthetic vitamin A or retinol added to it. Some cats cannot handle this ingredient. Natural vitamin A from fish oil is fine, however.
Drinking water. Cats like to have two water dishes at all times. One can contain tap water, and the other should contain a spring water from the supermarket or health food store. The cat will choose what it needs.
DISEASES OF CATS
Cats are prone to many problems:
Parasites. As stated earlier, I believe most all cats have a parasitic infection that is not easy to eradicate with drugs. Cats are also prone to getting a variety of worms from their food, or from scratching around outside, in particular. So beware and look for worms, eggs or segments of worms in their feces, please.
If not controlled, a cat can spread worms around your house, and could pass them to you and your children. Fortunately, our research so far indicates that a proper nutritional balancing program can eradicate most parasites harbored by cats.
Tumors, diabetes, and more. Cats can also get tumors, cancers, diabetes, arthritis and many other diseases of their owners. This is true of all animals, but perhaps most true of cats.
A normal cat should live 15 years, and a well-cared for cat can easily live 20 years or more. However, most cats don’t last nearly this long because they are fed dry cat food that is terrible for them. Please keep this in mind if you love your cat, which many people do.
LIFESTYLE
Cats can live easily indoors. So do not let your cat go out of doors. This is best for them, as they will pick up many fewer diseases this way. Cats love going outside, but unlike dogs, cats cannot be easily placed on a leash. Even if they are on a harness, which is the equivalent to a dog leash, they still can pick up diseases easily, so it is not a great idea to do it.
Toys. Unlike dogs, who often just love people, cats love toys and they love pretending to hunt. So please give your cat toys that move around, make noise, and look like mice or rats, for example. I do not know why this is so, but cats seem to need to pretend they are predators, which in the wild they certainly are.
Sleepy cats. Cats can sleep all day if nothing is going on to interest them. This is fine, and should be encouraged. Most animals need a lot of sleep, more than human beings, as this is part of their level of brain development.
SUPPLEMENTS FOR CATS
Do not guess about supplements for a cat. You can do a lot of damage. Instead, contact one of the Approved Practitioners listed at the following link and get a hair analysis (or fur analysis) on your cat. Many people ask me if we have animal specialists. We really do not at this time, though we are working on it and a few of our “people consultants” have told me they wish to specialize in animals, but it is not happening yet. Here is the link to the only practitioners I suggest:
http://drlwilson.com/do%20hair%20analysis.htm
General metabolic information only about cats. For general information (and not for setting up a program), most cats are fast oxidizers, and most have a high sodium/potassium ratio. This may be due to eating too much grain, or other dietary issues, although perhaps it is their normal state. It is somewhat dangerous for a cat to have a very fast oxidation rate. They become aggressive, and can easily bite or scratch a person very badly. The ideal Na/K ratio for a cat is about 0.4.
As a result, most cats will need some calcium, magnesium, zinc, and copper. Cats that have the parasite also need a little more taurine. This is added to most, if not all commercial cat foods. To get rid of the parasite, a cat also needs a little garlic, such as half a tablet of garlic daily. These are the most important supplements, most of the time.
As with dogs, do not give cats lots of nutritional supplements. This is very rarely needed or helpful. Cats have very delicate digestive tracts that are easily damaged by giving them herbs, homeopathy or too much of any nutritional supplements, no matter how wonderful they sound.
INTELLIGENCE OF CATS
Cats are often very smart animals, as smart as some dogs. However, they are rather temperamental, and for this reason may not seem very smart. However, today many cats are quite smart and capable of helping heal human beings, particularly children.
NUTRITIONAL BALANCING FOR CATS
So far, having worked with about 100 cats, a properly designed nutritional balancing program will heal almost any ailment of a cat unless it is a problem that requires surgery. These include a broken bone, an intestinal blockage, or perhaps a very severe infection that needs a lot of medical intervention.
Nutritional balancing is also excellent for prevention. So please consider placing your cat on a complete program with one of the Approved Practitioners listed at the following link: Practitioners. At this time, we do not have practitioners who solely specialize in cats.
These are among the newer findings of nutritional balancing science, as it applies to cats. Standard books about the care of cats are good enough for most other issues related to cats. I will expand this article as new information becomes available.
