Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cat nutrition class

On Saturday, Karis and I attended a Cat Treats and Nutrition class through Waukesha County Technical College.


We learned lots of interesting things and our teacher was very knowledgable. Since we received way more information than I could ever share in a blog post, I will summarize a few key points and encourage you to take a pet nutrition class if you find one in your area.


-Our teacher, Kate, is certified as in Animal Nutrition, Human Nutrition and as a pastry chef.
-Cats don't like sweet things, only savory. When they're attracted to what you may think of as something sweet, it's really the fat that appeals to them.
-A cat's stomach is approximately the size of your thumb. Most suggested feedings are larger than they need to be.
-25-35% of cats in America or overweight or obese. This puts stress on their organs, bones and tissues.
-Cats need a diet rich in protein and fat. Carbohydrates should only make up no more than 15% of a housecat's diet.
-Our cat Karma gets sick when we are on vacation and a cat sitter only feeds him and his brother once per day. This is likely due to the fact that when cats aren't eating at their regularly scheduled time, they start to salivate and their stomachs produce an enzyme which makes them throw up in turn.
-This was the biggest thing I took away from the class, as Craig had read the opposite on the internet: cats need their food rotated (so buy a number of brands and slowly ease them into trying each new one by combining with the old), which will make them less likely to become allergic to certain foods. It can help strengthen their digestive tract and health.

Our teacher recommended some food brands in our packets and one of them that was the "most bang for the buck" was this Taste of the Wild brand.


She also had this dehydrated food on hand to show us what it looked like. I am definitely going to buy this because it would be easy to serve the cats. I think Karma will be the only one that eats it though.


*All of this information is from Kate Baumann, Certified Animal Nutritionist at WCTC.

Karis and I joined a mother and daughter to make salmon cakes. Much better than working with the chicken heart treat (ew).


Our recipe had sprouted buns for the bread crumbs, which was my job to grind up in the food processor.


They turned out good!


In the end, we all got to bag up a bunch of great treats for the kitties and take them home.


Here I am dishing out the salmon cakes.






The kitchens we cooked in were organized, designed well and they made Karis and I want to take more cooking classes there.



When I got home, Karma went right to the bags of treats and sniffed them.

Karma sniffing the cat treats I made in class

Tanzi wasn't interested in smelling or tasting them at all.

Tanzi resisting

Luckily, Karma won't let these treats go to waste!

Karma eating

I'm really glad Karis found this class and encouraged me to take it with her, because I feel a lot more informed on what we should be feeding the boys. I am also excited that we got a name of a holistic veterinarian to possibly check out.


  1. Chianti wouldn't eat any of the treats, and Merlot only ate one, which shocked me. It's the first time the fat cat has ever been picky. I brought the leftovers for friends' dogs who gobbled them right up though :) I bought Stella & Chewy's at Mad Cat in Madison this weekend...we'll see how that goes over.

  2. How interesting! I am afraid our cat wouldn't eat anything either--she taught our (now deceased) other cat to beg, then gave up treats herself! (Not that this made her thin ;-) )