If you want to be extra safe, stick with stuff specifically intended for cats. My local pet store carries these small, cooked fish fillets that have only 1 ingredient.
Chicken filet plain cooked and shredded into thin strips. I make it for Surinam Bami and always give the cat some. When I make bami he is always close on the lookout for his share. It is gone in seconds, eats like a hungry dog.
Also chicken livers cooked and finely chopped or puréed.
FYI, the catnip that comes with scratching toys is often pretty shit quality. If you really want to treat him to the nip, get some high quality stuff. From the Field and Yeowww! are two brands that seem to usually be pretty high quality, and silvervine is a related plant that may be even more potent for some cats.
With raw meat you always have to be careful. If it’s super fresh cats can eat fish/chicken raw. However if you’re not sure about how fresh it is I’d definitely steam it because salmonella is a thing.
There’s special raw meat (chicken mainly) sold as food quality for cats l where I live and that one I’m feeding to my cats raw: They adore it.
However when I just buy chicken in the supermarket I’m always steaming it before chopping off some pieces for my cats because I can’t be sure about there maybe being bacteria or so that really should be heated to death first. There’s differences in how much the stores and such have to pay attention when labeling something “food quality in raw” vs “food quality after properly heating up”.
So… I would suggest steaming the fish unless you can get very fresh seafood. Alternatively, baking it on some parchment.
I’m not sure that raw fish is particularly dangerous on its own- but do check for bones and such. Especially the pin bones. Fish can be an allergen, but if you’ve served it before it should be fine.
I’d say go with whatever they beg for when you’re doing your thing in the kitchen.
Also give the birthday kitty some scritches for me!
I haven’t served raw/fresh salmon yet, but his dry food is salmon and his favorite snacks are as well. His wet food is a mix of basically anything, but also sometimes salmon. So I don’t think he’s allergic.
Thanks for the heads up regarding the bones!
He wants to try basically anything I eat. Even when I scratch my skin in my face hes like “huh?! What you got there??” so it’s hard to tell what hes really craving.
The beef and carrots amused me- my “time share” kitty- he’s an escape artist that used to get into my greenhouse and steal carrots. not that he was eating them- didn’t show up in his poo; what he was doing with them is a mystery.
A word of caution… cats probably won’t care if it’s super expensive “sushi grade” or whatever, and certainly not more than you would.
Sorry to go slightly off topic here, but do you have a male tortie?? Those are quite rare, because it requires 2 X chromosomes to produce the tortie coat.
I assumed he’s a tortie. He’s got that coloration. (Or I’m just an idiot. But he has black/brownish-tan.)
Didn’t know it was rare. Gonna have to ask his people about. (It’s probably something they knew… it he’s getup their in years so, they probably never mentioned it.)
Maybe you’re thinking tabby? Brown tabbies are often referred to as the “standard issue cat”, and are commonly found as both XX and XY cats. Torties are black/brown and orange, and their coloring is the result of having one X chromosome for black/brown, and a second one for orange.
My apologies, I just find their genetics so fascinating!
I thought he liked apples for a short while. I kept giving him small pieces and he at them. Then one day I decided to chop a whole 1/8 of an apple into small pieces and he barely ate any of that 😂 but yeah often he really seems disappointed when I offer him some of my food
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