INDOOR CATS
 Due
to an increasing trend towards keeping cats indoors, many
pet food companies are now producing diets specifically for
indoor cats.
Burns Ocean Fish variety and Chicken and Brown
Rice for Cats both contain controlled levels of protein and
fat. They are free from colours, chemical preservatives, wheat,
dairy and Soya. We would recommend feeding these to indoor
and outdoor cats although the latter may need more food due
to activity levels.
Weight
An indoor cat does not have the opportunity
to hunt and burn off excess calories; therefore you must be
careful to ensure they do not overeat. Although, the popular
consent is that cats will not overeat, this is untrue.
To encourage weight loss or prevent weight
gain:
• Gradually introduce a low fat, low protein diet such
as Burns to your cat.
• Cut out all treats and tit-bits (make sure ALL the
family members agree to this).
• Feed the recommended amount for your cat’s ideal
weight, not his/her ACTUAL weight.
• Do NOT free feed. Any food not eaten after 10 minutes
should be picked up.
• If your cat is particularly greedy then you may find
that smaller more frequent meals help, in the wild cats may
eat up to 20 tiny meals per day.
• Overweight cats are more likely in multi-cat households
as they may finish off food left by the others. You may need
to feed these cats separately or moistening the food can help
slow a greedy cat down and let the others finish first!
• Increase your cat’s exercise. Play with your
cat more often and encourage games.
Odour control
Many of these ‘indoor cat’ diets
claim the benefit of having increased odour control so that
the cat’s faeces do not smell so strong. However, on
a natural holistic diet such as Burns the cat should produce
less waste and there should not be a strong smell. A strong
smell (from the faeces or urine) means that the waste is very
concentrated and the cat is not digesting its current diet
as well as it should.
Environmental enrichment
Destructiveness and damage, such as clawed
curtains may be prevented by supplying toys for your cats
to play with when you are out. Scratching posts and climbing
frames are ideal and there are many interactive toys you can
buy now.
Litter trays
As a rule of thumb it is suggested that you
should provide a litter tray per cat and then one more. Indoor
cats cannot go to the toilet outside so it is critical that
their trays are kept clean at all times. A dirty tray will
cause a cat to ‘hold on’ this may result in urinary
infections such as cystitis.
Water
Cats often do not like the taste of tap water
and many will choose to drink out of a puddle or pond. They
generally prefer to drink out of large bowls or trays (i.e.
your bath or shower tray!) where their whiskers do not touch
the sides. You should offer an indoor cat many sources of
water around the house. As some cats prefer drinking from
running water, water fountains are now available.
Burns is a dried food which easily softens
when moistened, this may be beneficial for increasing water
consumption.
|
