Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'v eowned cats my whole life. In the last few years I have gotten into a lot of other animals and run a small reptile breeding business. Today I was feeding my cat and thinking "Wow, this is my favorite animal and I have no idea what I am feeding it." So I did a little research like I would do for myu other pets and found out that I'm not the only one thinking this. Whole prey items. Why didn't I ever think of that? Well, I have a large breeding colony of mice, rats, minnows, and goldfish. If I were to feed my cat these items (which I know are clean) what else would she need. Would I be supplementing with cat food or is there something missing that I'm not thinking of? As far as I know, a carnivore doesn't need anything besides whole prey items, right? Sure works for all my carnivorous reptiles. What about my rodents' diet. They are fed on labaratory grade rodent chow. Is there anything in this that my cat should not be eating?

I know that this has probably already been discussed on this forum but I don't have time to search through the archives right now. Any info. and/or opinions would be great.

Thanks.

It sounds like your rodents are well-fed and therefore would be good food for your cat. Cat food is processed which kills the taurine in the meat - a natural enzyme cats need to survive. If you are planning to feed the cat something like this it will need to be uncooked.

I can't think of any other reason not to feed your cat fresh mice as long as you aren't squeamish about it. I do know that some catfood manufacturer did try a mice-flavored cat food and the cats refused to eat it. Don't be surprised if your felines turn their noses up at what is probably a treat for most cats.

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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Wouldn't it be kind of messy to feed your cats whole mice. Bones and all.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

. Don't be surprised if your felines turn their noses up at what is probably a treat for most cats.

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Babba wouldn't eat them,i would just have a bunch of his friends running around the house.He loves to play with them.He thinks there his toys.
Lou

>>I'v eowned cats my whole life. In the last few years I have gotten into a lot of other animals and run a small reptile breeding business. Today I was feeding my cat and thinking "Wow, this is my favorite animal and I have no idea what I am feeding it." So I did a little research like I would do for myu other pets and found out that I'm not the only one thinking this. Whole prey items. Why didn't I ever think of that? Well, I have a large breeding colony of mice, rats, minnows, and goldfish. If I were to feed my cat these items (which I know are clean) what else would she need. Would I be supplementing with cat food or is there something missing that I'm not thinking of? As far as I know, a carnivore doesn't need anything besides whole prey items, right? Sure works for all my carnivorous reptiles. What about my rodents' diet. They are fed on labaratory grade rodent chow. Is there anything in this that my cat should not be eating?
>>
>>I know that this has probably already been discussed on this forum but I don't have time to search through the archives right now. Any info. and/or opinions would be great.
>>
>>Thanks.

You're not the only one to have thought of this! I too am a snake breeder, and we always have hundreds of mice in our freezer. We've discussed feeding some to our cats, but have decided not to, simply because we often have plates full of mice out thawing and while we try to put them out of reach of the cats, they also don't show any inclination to try to get at them. We're concerned that if they come to think of rodents as food, it'll be difficult to keep the catsfrom trying to eat the mice we are thawing for the snakes. This wouldn't be a problem back when we had the reptile room, but we've downsized our housing since then.-- Jennifer
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