FOOD & NUTRITION

Cats in general are happy to eat the same food day after day, say the veterinary nutritionists at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. However, owners can inadvertently give their cats an opening to train them into thinking that a lack of variety in the diet is unacceptable.

In the typical household, cats are fed in the exact same spot at each meal, with the food doled out once or twice a day. And if theres more than one cat in the household, they tend to be fed together. But a cats natural preferences are just the opposite. They would rather eat multiple small meals a day - alone.

Many cat owners consider their pets to be part of the family, so it can be a natural extension to want to indulge their every whim. There are human foods that cats can eat - but a list of absolutely forbidden ones, as well. In a multi-pet household, some might think that cats have similar nutritional requirements as dogs, but this is not the case. Each species requires their own well-balanced diet designed just for them.

A study of 2,000 cat owners in the U.K. found that one in five were not aware their pets were carnivores and required animal products in their diets to thrive. There are many cat owners in the U.S. who also arent aware. Veganism simply cannot be a lifestyle choice you make for your cat, even if you make it for yourself.

Can you please settle once and for all whether cats can safely drink milk? Thank you.

When you do an Internet search on how to feed a cat with cancer and come upon a website that says to buy your pet a supplement designed by the person running the site, your instinct to feel suspicious kicks in automatically. Or when you click on a website that says not to feed your cat a diet with grains because cats are not naturally grain eaters, and the site points out that you dont see cats grazing in grassy fields. (For the record, cats tolerate grains just fine.)

My wife likes to pure vegetables- like peas, carrots and sweet potato - and mix it into our cats canned food. Is this okay to do? Are there any vegetables that should never be added to the cat food? We also add some cranberry powder (made for cats), along with some hairball powder. We trying to be to health-minded, but could we be causing potential problems?

Pet Nutrition: General Information vetnutrition.tufts.edu/petfoodology - visit Tufts Cummings Schools Petfoodology site, with information on everything from whether you should give fish oil to your cat to what to feed your kitten if she has a health problem to diets for certain disease conditions. You can look for any nutrition topic using the search bar. …

A study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology sheds new light on optimal nutrition for our pets and disputes the common notion that cats want and need a protein-heavy diet.

I am writing in hopes that you may have a suggestion regarding my three-year-old Persian cat. I adopted her through an agency when she was about two years old, but nothing was ever mentioned to me about her eating issues.

Firstly, you need to consider this to be an affair of the heart AND the head. If coffee and cats sound like your perfect cup of tea, there are quite a few things to consider before pouncing into the cat caf business. When Sergio Castillo, co-owner of Purringtons Cat Lounge in Portland, OR, was asked what inspired him to open a cat caf, he said, One day my wife, Kristen, announced I want to do that! They then sat down and talked about everything it would take to be successful - including leaving their jobs - to run not just a new business but a new idea.

As I settle into the easy chair and sip a cup of tea, Mr. Moo plays with toys, Fernando lounges on the futon and Tiggy Bella is blissfully curled into a cubbyhole mounted on the wall. An afternoon tea break and snuggle time with my cats is my usual routine - but this isnt my living room, nor are these my cats. Mr. Moo, Fernando, Tiggy Bella and a handful of other cats temporarily reside at Purringtons Cat Lounge in Portland, OR while they (briefly!) wait to be adopted into their forever homes.