I'm buying 2 kittens this week

[Blarg]

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They will be fixed (I think its required anyway), I will never declaw, although they will probably just be inside cats (although I may not fully appreciate the ramifactions of such a decision).

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fixed = good
declawed = good

I'm not a cat psychologist, so I don't know how it makes them feel, but I'll tell this:
we had 2 cats
they clawed [censored] (drapes, sofa, chair, other drapes, other chair, other sofa)
I told my wife either the claws go or the cats go
the claws went
the cats came home and peed on a cushion as a protest
we threw out the cushion
nothing else was ever ruined

if you're going to keep them inside they have exactly ZERO need for claws. safe your furniture!

FishNChips

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Declawing is not good. I don't think you have to be a cat pychologist to know how it must feel to get every last joint of all your fingers and toes clipped off.

Please ignore this fellow's "advice" as thoroughly as possible on this matter.

[Blarg]

I'm not at all sure I buy the premise that cats or any carnivores don't have enough instincts to drink as much water as they need. Or that cats, an animal that spends up to 18 hours a day or more sleeping, have such a high water need that having plenty of clean water about won't suffice.

Of course wet food will have more water content, but eating food is not the only way to get water into the system. The other way is quite natural and easy.

If you worry your cat is not drinking enough water, I'd just be extra sure to keep the bowl scrupulously clean, including the outside, to get rid of smells. Change the water often. And cats often like it cold, too. Cats can be extraordinarily finicky about clean food and water.

As to food that is tougher to eat helping clean teeth, that's self-evident. If you don't have a tootbrush handy when you're out and around town, eat an apple. You'll notice the difference.

[Los Feliz Slim]

On the subject of water, my cats have a cat fountain with a filter. They loooove it. It cleans the water, and since it's constantly running I think it's slightly cooler. And I only have to fill it every couple of days or so, it's got a reservoir.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

I think you got plenty of good advice here already, but here are my two cents:

- Keep them indoors. They will live longer, be healthier, be more playful, be cleaner and do less damage to the environment. Tell everyone who comes over that the cats are not allowed outside.
- Do not declaw. Just trim their claws and teach them to use a scratching post.
- Get a special container for food that keeps ants out.
- Feed them mostly dry food. It's better for their teeth and they will live longer.
- Be nice and gentle with them when they're young. If you play rough with them when they're babies, they will turn into attack cats when they're older.
- Get them microchips. If you get them from a shelter, the shelter will probably give you a deal - I got my cats chips at the shelter for 5 bucks a pop!
- Invest in an automatic litter box and some air freshener. Clean that [censored] often!

Welcome to heaven.

[colgin]

I understand that you are not alone in your opinion re dry food. I used to give my cats a combination of dry and wet. However, I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and believe that wet food is by far preferable.

Here is another excellent piece (in addition to the one I cited earlier) on this issue supporting wet food:

The Truth About Dry Cat Food

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I'm not at all sure I buy the premise that cats or any carnivores don't have enough instincts to drink as much water as they need. . . .Of course wet food will have more water content, but eating food is not the only way to get water into the system. The other way is quite natural and easy.

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I think you may overestimate the amount of such self-regulation. The cat won't literally die of thirst but it may take in less water than optimal. From the Bernard article:

"Cats evolved as desert creatures and are well adapted (still!) to survive in a dry climate, if fed their natural food. Cats are not thirst driven like dogs and are able to survive on less water than dogs. . . .When fed a dry food diet (which has less than 10 percent moisture), unless they drink a lot of water, which most cats do not, they are in a constant state of dehydration. Moreover, although a cat consuming a dry food diet does drink more water than a cat consuming a canned food diet, in the end, when water from all sources is added together — what's in their diet plus what they drink — the cat consumes approximately HALF the amount of water compared with a cat eating canned foods."

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As to food that is tougher to eat helping clean teeth, that's self-evident.

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From Bernard:

"Contrary to what most people have been told by their veterinarian, dry food does not clean teeth! When a cat chews dry food, it shatters into small pieces. In order to promote effective cleansing of tooth and gums, the food must remain in contact with the teeth and gums for a period of time. Nothing is going to provide effective abrasive cleansing than chunks of raw meat."

Plus, there is the whole excess carbohydrates in dry food that can lead to getting obese and other problems.

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THe lifespan of an outdoor cat is like a year and a half.

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I'm all for people keeping their cats indoors and not letting them roam the streets but that year and a half lifespan is BS.

[Blarg]

No it's not. Cats breed quickly and can die quickly too. What you're looking at is the survivors, or: the absence of all that. You cannot draw the conclusion that because you see some older cats living outdoors, that there are not many who have perished pretty quickly. You're not seeing either the incredible birth rate or the incredible death rate.

[Blarg]

I'll agree that food getting caught between the teeth causes decay, but not that it doesn't clean the teeth. The cat's teeth don't work like identically opposed pincers that release pressure at the moment the structural integrity of the food is compromised; a cat follows through and chews at least a little, like everyone else does. It veers into the absurd to say that abrasive foods will not abrade the teeth, or that cat food will not scrape down the teeth, you will find a way to get wedged between them. It's got to be one or the other. And since we know without question that food can get wedged between teeth pretty easily, ir follows that it must follow a path to get there -- by being chewed down the teeth in the exact same manner as would accomplish cleansing of the teeth.

I have a problem with the web site you listed. It seems to push its arguments much too far, and with more assurance than logic. Every paragraph feels like an agenda being stridently pushed. By my take, this lady thinks dry food and cereal based foods might as well be the root of all evil, and she injects thoughts on same even where inappropriate, much like a religious nut always manages to wedge Jesus into every subject.

I understand she has her feelings and ideas about things, but there is more than one vet in the world, and many don't follow her line. If I were to take confidence in her ideas, they would probably have to come from somebody else.

[Rhone]

Wow, tons of great advice in this thread. Pets seem to bring out the best in (most) people.

Anyway, there's one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, but needs to be: Litter Maid. It is awesome, and will change your life.

[HopeydaFish]

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Crystals in a cat's urine are idiopathic

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blarg knows everything. its offical.

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LOL...he has definitely convinced me to do a little more research about wet food, that's for sure. I'm lucky with my cats -- they'll eat just about anything I put in their bowls.