Cats to feed them or no?

RicardoSmith

ondafly

If you feed them - they will come back, tis simple. Altough cats are well able to look after themselves, unless they are my cat (Kerry) whos a lazy cow !

If you do feed them - watever you do - dont give them milk/cream, very very bad for cats, especially young cats. Buy a box of cat bicuits from your local shop (probably cost you 2euro), and put that out (not the whole box in one go mind ! ) with a bowel of water. They'll love the stuff

thedrowner

for a year and a half they shouldn't still be kitten sized. but they could just be small cats

krankykitty

If you think they are being not being fed properly, and you have the cash and time, by all means feed them, as ondafly said the cat biscuits are good value.

the fact that they are still quite small sounds like they are malnourished.. I know a gang of wild cats, who wouldnt necessarily be fed properly at all, and most of the kittens take ages to grow and then end up a very small size.

koneko

I always wonder about this. Why do people get cats, dogs or any pet really if they aren't going to be around to feed them, or play with them? Cats are great that way, a piece of string and they're over the moon.

Get some of the dry food that comes in boxes. Easy, no mess, they'll love it. They will definitely be over your place more, they'll be waiting outside for their treats

If their owners are hardly ever around I would say they're underfed. They will be skinnier than house cats because they are out all day, instead of lazing around the house, but they should still look/feel healthy. As someone else mentioned, cats are great for taking care of themselves, cool little critters, but that doesn't mean people have to neglect them.

thedrowner

that sounds like a good idea. just be careful what you say to your neighbours coz they might take offence if you offer to buy their animals!

koneko

Yeah I'd be very delicate the way I approach that one. Be friendly, not forceful

ondafly

some good kitten info here

http://homepage.eircom.net/~pawssallins/spcare.html

Illkillya

Originally posted by ondafly
watever you do - dont give them milk/cream, very very bad for cats, especially young cats.

I've had cats in the family since I was born, and have never had a problem giving them milk. We often gave our cats and kittens milk and cream and have never had a single health problem with any of our cats... they were always strong and healthy and happy and lived long. In fact, there were some kittens that were abandoned by their mother (or their mother died or something.. can't remember) next door so we took them in... they were too young and shouldn't have survived but we fed them ordinary milk and soggy bread through an eye dropper and it kept them alive, and they grew into big strong healthy cats also.

Does what you're saying apply to only some cats who are lactose intolerant, or is it a myth or exaggeration?

thedrowner

yeah ive heard that cats are lactose intolerant

is that true?

Cake Fiend

You could try to convince your neighbours to install a cat-flap or a cat-kennel so the cats at least have some source of shelter while the owners are away.

Kolodny

I was in a similar situation recently. There's two young cats that hang around in my garden a lot. They look reasonably well fed but they are obviously shut out during the day and sometimes at night. I got into the habit of letting them into my house and occasionally feeding them a bit (they're very friendly and quite hard to get rid of once you've let them in!) but wasn't really sure if it was the right thing to do.

Didn't have a clue who they belonged to until a few weeks ago when a neighbour from a few doors round dropped around and asked, seeing as the cats were so fond of my house, would I mind keeping an eye on them while they were away for a few days. They dropped a few cans of food around and that was that. The only problem is the cats have now started to treat my house as their second home, which I don't really mind at all, but my housemates aren't big cat fans. Still, I think it's seems fair enough to give cats a bit of food and attention if they're shut out a lot.

Ms Taken

of course you should feed them! if they aren't good hunters what do you expect them to do? starve to death!!!! My cats get two meals a day! keeps them at home so they won't go wandering onto the road.

D nominater

Not feed them, why not?
We've had cats for years but never ones that just stayed in the house,in fact they were never allowed into the house because of our dogs mainly,so i don't know about house cats that stay in almost all day(do they exist?).
Anyway, in my experience cats are their own owners more than anyone else and you are merely being used yes used.Cats tend to have many people who think they own them and actually go round to their different owners frequently,there the semi-wild ones mostly.Males wander more than females.What was my point exactly? Oh yeah, owners might think they own cats but in general they do their own think and go where they like if they can. So feed them if you want.

There is a major problem with bringing in new cats though if you alreadly have some, firstly they might not get on well with the resident cats,males fight more than females,they multipy like mad as well, and a big downside is that a lot of cats carry diseases like eye diseases that they may not actually suffer from but can infect your cats with, some of these are hideous(diseases not cats).

I also heard that milk was bad for cats, I think it can effect their immune systems cause mucus build up and leave them susceptible to getting worms, and also they have less energy(i think?!?),i'm not too sure about the specci's but i'm pretty sure it's bad for them.We have a very reliable source...the pentagon, nah the mother...