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                                                 Feeding

Cats are quite fussy eaters and will not eat food that has been left down a long time and has dried out. You should always provide food in a clean bowl for each meal and ensure that fresh water is given each day and is always available.

Cats, like us, also need a variety of food - do not give them the same cat food meal after meal. Vary the flavours you give and the brands you use. Cat food comes in so many different flavours and portion sizes that you can quite easily vary the diet for each meal.

I do not agree with only feeding a cat on dried food, though some people will only feed their cats in this way. I am also a great believer in giving cats 'normal' food that we eat and not just tinned cat food.

Although our cats are fed on tinned cat food we also provide an extra meal in the evening that does not have a label of "cat food". We feed them a variety of meats including chicken, pork, beef and other foods such as rice, vegetables and small amounts of cheese (adults only).

You should be careful what you give to kittens, as some food will upset their digestive systems. This could result in sickness and diarrhoea.  They should not be given any dairy products (milk, cheese and cream) until they are older (6 months) and even then you should only ever feed them with special cat milk and not cow's milk.

We found that our cats loved mashed potato but it didn't agree with one of them and made them sick so we have stopped giving them potatoes of any kind.

How many meals a day?

Cats are not greedy like some animals such as dogs - they will only eat what they need and will not eat food just for the sake of eating. We usually find that at least some of the food we leave for them in the morning is still there that same evening. We always leave a bowl of dried food down as well so if they do eat all the cat meat, there is still some food available if they are hungry.