My cat ate cooked chicken and then he caught a fly and ate it

Trapped Tiger!

Only domestic cats can do this: eat human food such as cooked chicken as a treat and then break off from eating it to catch a fly in mid-air and eat it immediately; then return to the cooked chicken, enjoying both equally. The domestic cat is directly between wild and fully domesticated and when they are fully domesticated will the only eat our food?

You could hardly have two disparate types of food. If you can call a fly food. What makes this more confusing is that I have bought my cat high grade raw food which is frozen and which is thawed out before use. I carefully sourced this cat food as a product which should automatically be more healthy for him. But he won’t eat it. I guess it doesn’t smell or taste interesting enough because it doesn’t contain the usual additives which cats find so attractive. Even when I mix it with other foods he refuses to be interested.

Also my cat has gone off one of his favourites, a high quality wet food. He prefers dry cat food if there is a choice. I find this disturbing but not surprising because the manufacturers of dry cat food make it almost addictive.

A cat likes a certain food not because he knows it is better for him but because it smells and tastes nicer.

I had a thought. Perhaps the domestic cat has evolved beyond the point where raw cat food is suitable. Could it be possible that raw cat food, the pinnacle of what should be desirable as cat food, is now unsuited to the domestic cat?

This is a reasonable supposition. The domestic cat is evolving. For example, the cat learns from us. They have learned how to communicate with us. They have become quite sociable when once they were solitary creatures.

My cat caught a bird. His first prey. He didn’t eat it, though. He just wanted to catch it and play with it.

Most domestic cats prefer human treats to regular cat food. We can’t give them it regularly because it would be an unbalanced, unhealthy diet for a cat. So why don’t we add a supplement to cooked chicken which makes it a balanced cat diet and call that cat food?


The photo is of Gabriel by me. He likes to go under things for a while.

5 thoughts on “My cat ate cooked chicken and then he caught a fly and ate it”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I tried, desperately, one time to wean a cat from dry food only without success.

    I acquired her as a 1 year old from people who were moving and her fate would have been… you can guess.
    But, I offered her can after can of wet food and cooked chicken and fish, only to have her snub it.

    I gave up on all that and decided to just find the best dry food available if that was the way it was to be.

    She snubbed each premium brand that I brought home and would only eat the cheap store brand that she had been raised on. I so hate that manufacturers create such irresistible “junk”.

    But,in spite of it all, she lived to be 19 years old.
    Go figure…

    Reply
    • It is nice to know she lived long and well. Thanks Dee. They make dry food very palatable even though it is not as healthy as the best wet foods. I wanted very much to get him on raw but he has conclusively turned up his nose at it!

      Reply
  3. I don’t think that raw food is “unsuited” to cats, and we do know that cats who are on raw food have less health issues. I think it may have to do with cats becoming addicted to dry food because of the animal digest spray.

    It can take a lot of patience, and strategies to wean a cat from dry food, but it can be done. Cats are like children, and we are like parents. It’s a job that requires “tough love”. Or we just give in, and regret it later on.

    There are many strategies online for weaning cats from dry food, and I think most of them use a method of putting the food that the cat likes on top, with a little of the good stuff, like cooked chicken, underneath. Over time, the dry stuff becomes less and less with the good stuff increasing.

    Supplements can be added to ground chicken and turkey before cooking, but I’d start with a small amount.

    I’ve also noticed that some days my cat will eat something that she won’t touch another day. She seems to like cooked salmon, so when I make some for myself, I don’t season her portion. She almost always eats this.

    I’d say don’t give up, especially if you have the time. Your efforts will pay off in the long run.

    Reply
    • The thing is Sandy he gets very little dry from me. I feed him high quality wet with a little bit of dry for grazing. One problem is that he was feed on dry at the rescue center and that may have been for a few weeks. This may be having an effect.

      I have tried mixing it. He rejects it.

      Thanks Sandy for the support.

      Reply

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