No, I know without any doubt I prepared the eggshell correctly: -
washed shells, stored in fridge, baked 15 mins @ Mk 2, ground finely,
stored in fridge. It's a simple method, not much room for mistakes!

I think you have to accept there are some cats who will not tolerate having supplements or medicines added to their food. I have had several cats like that in the past. My neighbour's two cats can also detect the tiniest trace of supplement or medicine added to their food, and refuse it outright, even though to us humans there is no detectable odour or taste.

It really is not an unusual situation, and all I can say is if you've never come across a cat like that before, you have been lucky. Let's leave it at that.

Anca -- thank you for the suggestion of Calc. Carb for babies -- it's a good idea. Will try the pharmacy.

I gave my cat Taurine yesterday and he has diarrhoea today. Nothing else has changed in his diet so I suspect the Taurine. He is not prone to diarrhoea, the opposite in fact.

I remember the same Taurine supplement gave one of my previous cats diarrhoea but as he was an old boy I assumed it was due to his digestive system being less tolerant.

I will contact the makers and see if diarrhoea is a recognised side effect of Taurine supplements.

Combining the calc carb & the taurine in one capsule would be ideal as the calc would prevent diarrhoea, but infortunately not possible as calc carb must be given separately from any other supplements or medicines, as it blocks absorption...

@Hobbs -- you're right about Pet-cal..... I phoned Pfizer's advice line and they confirmed it's not suitable as a replacement, only as an add-on to a balanced diet. Well done, for pointing that out.

So I'll be getting a calcium supplement for humans, for him.

As for taurine, I think he probably gets enough in his diet. In the days when there was no manufactured catfood, people fed their cats a home cooked diet of cheap cuts of beef or lamb, all kinds of offal, and boiled fish heads. When I was child this is what my mother fed her cats, and they were very healthy and long-lived, certainly didn't have sight loss, or heart problems. And most outdoor cats supplement their diets with a mouse or so a day.

Giving a taurine supplement to him is problematical because of the unpleasant taste which makes him refuse it in his food. Giving it in a capsule before a meal possibly makes him feel nauseous (as it does me).

So again, thanks for the advice.

I think the point you make about eating mice and birds is a key one which to some extent may make up for deficits in an outdoor cats diet. Google Pottenger's cats to see the results of feeding a controlled diet of cooked meats and organs.

Yes, interesting about the Pottenger cat study -- I just re-read it, and
some critiques of his work, such as this excellent one.


Lesson of the Pottenger's Cats Experiment--Cats Are Not Humans


Scientists now know it is likely all the degenerative illnesses, skeletal changes etc which Pottenger noted from generation to generation of the cats, were mainly due to a diet lacking in Taurine, and not caused by being fed a diet of cooked food/milk, as opposed to a raw diet. i.e. the significance was not whether the food was cooked or raw per se.

Also I have a theory that Pottenger's cats were not fed enough food for their needs, hence many may have been suffering from varying degrees of malnutrition, which added to the lack of taurine in their diet, could account for some of the illnesses he reports.

In such circumstances, those cats on the raw food diet were bound to be healthier, as they were getting more nourishment from their food. It is
known that cooking food 'denatures' it, e.g. makes protein less digestible, and reduces levels of some amino acids etc. To offset this, the cats being fed a cooked food diet would have needed larger quantities of food, and/or supplements.

Additionally the cats in Pottenger's experiments were laboratory cats, basically used for experiments, with all the stress that implies. Although they apparently had access to outdoor runs, they were hardly leading a normal life.
We do not know how well they were treated by the lab staff, or how closely they had to live with other cats, in terms of perhaps being in overcrowded pens. In such unnatural circumstances they would probably have been constantly under stress, and without a highly nutritious diet even more likely to suffer malnutrition.

Also the original cats were donated cats, often strays, whose health histories were unknown. Many of them may have come with existing health problems.

None of this denies the point you were making, which is the importance of taurine in the diet. To be on the safe side with my boy I would give him a supplement, but as I cannot get him to take it hidden in food, it is difficult. I can put pills down his throat but prefer not to, if I can get enough taurine into him by diet. I'll continue to try and get him to eat some raw meat, and also try him with prawns which I believe are high in taurine... He is the only cat I have ever had who won't eat any raw meat....


Minx