From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition,misc.kids,misc.kids.pregnancy,
	misc.consumers.frugal-living
Subject: Re: baby formula and magnesium again (was Re: Magnesium...)
Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:07:28 -0700
Message-ID: <ad8ea4$ojh$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>

James Salsman wrote in message ...

>P.S.  In order to properly address what passes for Usenet etiquitte these
>days on m.c.f-l, I should point out that magnesium deficiencies in cats
>can cause pet overanxiety and other problems, as Mg is essential for all
>vertibrate life, and affects all mamals in essentially the same way.

Suuuure it does.  Which is why magnesium deficient rodents get hypotensive,
and magnesium deficient humans get hypertensive....

Any overanxiety your cat has on a properly "low ash" = low magnesium poor
diet, are likely due to the poor animal's fear that its idiot owner will
decide its metabolism is just like that of a monkey, and therefore Mg
supplement it into making struvite urinary tract stones.

SBH

From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.bio.misc
Subject: Re: instead of spaying or neutering is there a pill that would make 
	cats/dogs sterile
Date: 10 Aug 2005 20:17:15 -0700
Message-ID: <1123730235.651419.84830@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

bae@cs.toronto.no-uce.edu wrote:
> They probably recognize the pickup.  Our cats could identify the sound
> of our truck at a considerable distance, and come out to meet us at the
> road, where we parked, about 1/4 mile from the house.  Cats are very
> observant and have excellent memories for things that interest them,
> like prey, food and shelter.



COMMENT:

Yep. I've seen cats identify a PARTICULAR arriving car from inside a
house, when the human ear was not yet able to identify that any cars
were on the road, let alone the one of interest. You see this behavior
come out when a person associated with the particular vehicle feeds the
cats on arriving home. I have the impression that cats have a slightly
better aural memory and discrimination than dogs--- though I've seen
dogs do this also.

Cats, like dogs, also recognize human shape, body size, and something
about faces. I've seen a cat "recognize" a "strange" daughter who
looked like her mother, from reflection in doorway glass, in a
situation where smell could not have been involved, and probably not
sound. When a cat recognises a known non-threatening person, the tail
goes straight up without being fluffed. When this cat recognized the
error on close inspection of the face in the reflection as distance
closed (it was watching the eyes), the tail went down, eyes went wide,
and the cat took off. Cats, like dogs, do look at faces. You won't find
them staring at your knees or your chest.

SBH

From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.bio.misc,sci.med
Subject: Re: instead of spaying or neutering is there a pill that would make 
	cats/dogs sterile
Date: 11 Aug 2005 11:33:45 -0700
Message-ID: <1123785225.496065.166710@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

a_plutonium@hotmail.com wrote:
> When the food supply is large, such as my cats, then I notice an
> unnatural behaviour in cats not found in the wild. The behaviour of
> protecting and over-guarding of the home site. In the wild, the mother
> cat would be teaching the kittens mostly how to hunt and would be
> actively hunting. Cats fed by humans would teach their kittens, not how
> to hunt avidly but instead, how to cry and whine and beg when they
> sense that feeding time is near at hand.


LOL. I don't know if this happens in cats, but it may well happen in
humans.



> In the wild, cats would spend most of their time hunting, but as a well
> fed pet they spend most of that time guarding.


If you call lying on a pillow with all four feet in the air like
roadkill, "guarding."


> In the wild, horned owls and coyotes and foxes kept a check on cat
> litters and it was likely that zero or one kitten survived a litter.


Felis domesticus liters are already twice the size that N. African
desert cats (their ancestors) have in the wild. And their brains are
2/3rds the size. They are well on the way to parasitism. The females
are welfare queens, if you will.

SBH

From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.bio.misc,sci.med
Subject: Re: instead of spaying or neutering is there a pill that would make 
	cats/dogs sterile
Date: 15 Aug 2005 16:17:27 -0700
Message-ID: <1124147847.111714.82930@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

REP wrote:
> Not really. There are some good studies of feline behavior in feral
> colonies, if you're really interested. If you're not, in a nutshell:
> cats aren't solitary and form cooperative colonies, even when food is
> scarce. (By feral I mean either domestic cats either born wild or gone
> wild; not urban strays - that's another kettle of fish. So to speak.)


COMMENT:

Yes. The North African desert cat, from which our domesticus derives,
is somewhat social, like lion prides. Most cats are pretty solitary,
but not all.

SBH

From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.health+behav,alt.med.veterinary,sci.med
Subject: Re: Which food for a fat cat?
Date: 5 Sep 2005 19:09:06 -0700
Message-ID: <1125972546.487889.120840@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

5cats wrote:

> Just ignore him? Have you ever had a 23 pound cat determined to wake you
> for breakfast at 5 A.M.?  If only it were that easy.


Even 18 lbs (2 of mine) can hit tender spots.

But fat cats don't die if you limit their access to food to only 30 min
twice a day. They manage to eat enough to look pretty good. In the
intervening times, they're quite affectionate. ;).  And of course,
always have fresh water available, food or not.

Close the bedroom door.

The average vet will tell you that no cat that has had a urinary
problem should ever be given anything other than wet food, ever (for
the increased water content). But you can still limit it to twice a
day.  Even (gasp) once a day, if twice fails.

SBH

From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.health+behav,alt.med.veterinary,sci.med
Subject: Re: Which food for a fat cat?
Date: 6 Sep 2005 20:55:32 -0700
Message-ID: <1126065332.848665.34930@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>

buglady wrote:
> Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
> news:1125972546.487889.120840@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> But you can still limit it to twice a
> > day.  Even (gasp) once a day, if twice fails.
>
> ............Once a day?  You'd be better off giving food 3 times a day.
> That midnight snack will stop the 5 AM stomping.

COMMENT:

Yeah, but on the other hand, giving the day's ration at midnight (or
just before you hit the sack) will do that, too.

Feeding three times a day is killing your little carnivore with
kindness. I used to work in a lab where we fed mice (a FAR faster
metabolism than a cat) only every other day. And the whole weekend
worth on Friday (which was entirely eaten within 24 hours).

Not only did the mice do fine, they were healthier than mice with free
access. That's a general truism. In fact, it's such a remarkable effect
that there's a HUGE scientific literature on it.

SBH