What to feed a Maine Coon: TOP 5 nutritional features

Proper and balanced nutrition for a Maine Coon is the key to its health.

Try not to mix dry food and natural food (meat and dry food) in one feeding; do not mix canned food and raw meat! To digest these types of feed, a different composition of enzymes is required. A balanced diet is necessary to maintain the health and normal functioning of a cat. Unlike their ancestors, who obtained food in forests and fields. Our pets, Maine Coons, cannot independently provide themselves with proper nutrition and obtain food for themselves. Therefore, my dear owners, you should strive to feed your beloved Maine Coons correctly. Although each breeder and veterinarian still has their own concept of “proper feeding.” The main thing to remember is that there is no diversity in nature. Don’t get carried away with creating a menu for the week with multiple changes of dishes. This definitely won't lead to anything good. And one more rule - cats know when to eat in moderation; it is difficult to overfeed them, but it is possible. Mostly, problems arise due to the fact that mothers and fathers think that their cat is not eating well. so you need to offer him seven dishes in a row, maybe he’ll eat something, my love. And the result? problem with stool, too much protein in the diet, bad hair, etc. and so on...

Meat - meat

Although they claim on many websites that “beef is the healthiest variety,” I would not say so. Well, cats don’t herd cows in nature... not at all. Perhaps wild large felines can cope with such a large animal, but ordinary cats feed on smaller representatives of the “meat component”. In the diet of wild cats: mice, rabbits, snakes, frogs, birds, birds, birds, grass for cleaning the stomach, possibly other small rams and lambs. Therefore, all components of birds (chickens, ducks, quails, turkeys), rabbits are the main thing! Fish, squid, shrimp, as a replacement for reptiles, but strictly boiled and without bones. Remember: fish is suitable for feeding Maine Coons only when boiled. I would recommend any of the types of salmon and cod. Maine Coons love squid in any form. It is not recommended to give fish to castrated cats. You can also give pork. Sometimes. A brand of super premium food like Bozita constantly adds it to its food. I’ll say right away - the pork is strictly boiled and lean. Never give it raw. Lamb and beef are beneficial in terms of taurine. This is beneficial for all red meat and beef, pork or lamb heart. We also remember that chicken meat often causes allergies, so keep an eye on it.

By-products are a source of useful substances. All. Beef tripe. It is useful because it improves digestion and replenishes energy reserves. I’ll say right away that I haven’t tried it. Firstly, I couldn’t find it in stores, and secondly, after smelling it at the market, I didn’t dare try it. Kidneys are very rich in vitamin A. They are given twice a week.

I love day old chicks. They contain all the components: from fluff to cartilage. But no taurine. Therefore, in addition to chickens, the nursery will always add red meat.

Chicken heads are very useful, just remove the beak and sharp bones. Cupid paws - remove claws. Chicken wings - cut along the cartilage and give to the cat, she will diligently eat the meat and leave the bone intact, chicken necks - if you give them whole, beat them off. They contain round cartilage - it can get stuck in the throat.

It is better to give all meat and its parts in finely chopped pieces and raw. At the same time, look at your Maine Coon, raw meat may not be suitable for someone - everyone’s stomachs are different, and only your attention to the animal will help you properly establish its nutrition.

Mixed diet

A mixed diet is when the food is both dry and wet. The simplest and easiest way to provide your pet with adequate nutrition is to purchase commercial food. It is possible to find dry and canned ready-made food. Products that have a dry appearance are cheaper than canned goods, which can be stored for a long time.

Pets that eat dry food must always drink filtered liquid.

Canned wet food will be expensive, but it is nutritious and your pet will digest it better. Wet has a drawback - it has a limited shelf life of an opened can. Canned food should not be left in the cat's container for a long time, because the food will lose all its good qualities. Maine Coon should be given dry and canned food that belongs to the “Premium” class.

These animals are prohibited from feeding such foods as: KitiKet, Whiskas and Friskas. They do not contain high-quality meat or offal; mineral salts are added in small quantities. Labels must indicate the meat ingredient: chicken, rabbit, turkey or beef. The composition should not contain artificial preservatives.

Simply - products

A Maine Coon's diet can and should include cottage cheese, cream, kefir, and fresh plant foods. Fermented milk products should not be fatty (1-1.5%). No sweet products, condensed milk, cookies, chocolates (yes, yes, there are such things). No salty foods - chips, dried fish, herring, caviar. Cheese. I give you cheese. In the form of a treat. Some eat, some don't.

The Maine Coon benefits from vegetables and fruits. He asks - let's be sure. Just no mayonnaise, please. And that is, I have “salad lovers”

Healthy vegetables that can be included in a cat’s proper diet are:

carrot;
cucumbers;
White cabbage;
parsley and dill;
pumpkin;
zucchini;
beet.

Those who prepare natural food for their cats can grate them, put them through a meat grinder, then cut them into small pieces and mix them with food. There are different opinions among breeders: some insist on “fresh” ones, while others insist on welded ones. If we think about it, what we get: in nature, a cat does not bite carrots and does not steal cabbage from the beds. But the mouse and the hare make a living out of this. This means that their vegetables are already “processed”. Therefore, I am of the opinion that our cats should eat already cooked vegetables. Vegetables contain complex carbohydrates that complement the meat diet of the men coon, so add them to your diet. Beneficial bran is also added to sliced meat. Sprouted grass is very good. Pet stores sell special kits with seeds and light soil. Try it. All this helps digestion.

I only give quail eggs. Two times a week. Raw. If chicken, then strictly boiled.

I will write so that there are no questions: based on experience and long-term observation, cats raised on proper industrial nutrition and cats raised on proper natural nutrition are equally healthy. Here you need to decide for yourself which direction you will go. Only your observations of your Maine Coon will give you the right decision. Some feed only super premium dry food (mandatory), adding natural meat twice a week, some feed mixed food, some feed only natural food. It's your choice.

How to prepare food

Most ingredients found in regular diets are not processed at high temperatures. It is enough to freeze meat for several days, which has previously been chopped with a knife and packaged in portions for each day. Scalding with boiling water does nothing but calm the owner. Vegetables and herbs are washed well under running water, the tops are cut off and placed in the Maine Coon's bowl.

Here is a feeding schedule for kittens up to 3 months old:

Morning (breakfast)

Beef, turkey, beef heart - raw, finely chopped or rolled on a coarse grater, frozen in the refrigerator for at least three days or chicken (boiled breast), I give all other “spare parts” of the chicken raw (stomachs, necks, hearts, liver ...) canned meat for children (don’t buy a lot at once, try one jar at a time, your little one will like it), I use Dr. Klauder canned food. Now I am very pleased with our domestic canned food Best Dinner, I recommend it. Both kittens and adult Maine Coons.

Dry food and plenty of water are freely available throughout the day. It is advisable to purchase a bowl of water of one and a half to two liters, no less, since these comrades love to splash around in it and put toys in it. Change the water EVERY day!! If you see that paws have been washed in it, change it! If you have washed toys, change it! If you wash a piece of meat, change it! Place a bowl of water away from dry food - the food may get wet.

Features of feeding

For a Maine Coon to feel good, its diet must be strictly controlled. Breeders recommend following certain rules when feeding cats of this breed:

An adult healthy pet should eat about 0.5 kg of food daily.
It is recommended to feed the cat 2 times a day - morning and evening. If the pet is active and not prone to gaining excess weight, you can add one more feeding.
Maine Coon food should be served warm. Self-prepared food must be cooled to 35-40 °C.
The Maine Coon's daily diet should consist of 40% protein, 20-30% fat, and 30-40% carbohydrates. For normal digestion, the amount of fiber should be at least 2%.
When feeding dry food, it is allowed to have it constantly in the bowl - the pet will be able to eat when it gets hungry.
Your cat should always have access to clean water. For Maine Coons on dry food, this point is especially important.

Also, don't place your cat's bowl near the dining table. The pet may decide that it is allowed to eat with the rest of the family and will constantly try to eat “human” food.

Dinner (evening)

I fed it as for breakfast, but if the kitten eats dry food well, don’t add anything for dinner, add dry food for smell and change the water. You can switch places for dinner tomorrow! It has been noticed that a Maine Coon that has eaten meat at night sleeps more soundly, does not go out hunting for food at night, wakes you up later and is in a great mood

Be sure to give your cat a lacto-bifidobacterium complex, especially during the period of adaptation to a new home, for example Vetom! Half a teaspoon in food or meat. This is a white powder, sold in a veterinary pharmacy, stored strictly in the refrigerator. You can also use Zoonorm, which can be purchased at a veterinary store. Vetoma course - once every two to three months for 2 weeks. Or if necessary, if there are problems with stool.

Cats are very picky about everything, and this is what they are famous for. But what causes the owner a lot of trouble is their pickiness in food, because some stubborn pets are ready to literally starve, and this is very harmful for the cat’s body. So, let's figure out why this happens. We have counted 7 reasons that can deprive a cat of its appetite.

What to feed a kitten

In order for a cat to grow up active and healthy, it is necessary to provide the pet with a balanced diet from a very early age. Until they reach the age of one month, babies are fed with mother's milk and there is no need to introduce new products into their menu. Experienced breeders recommend feeding a Maine Coon kitten according to the following scheme:

At 1 month, breastfeeding is combined with milk porridge and lean meat.
From 2 months, the amount of milk and cereals is reduced, the amount of meat increases to 30 grams. The total amount of food eaten is divided into 6 meals. Daily norm: 120-150 g.
From 3 to 6 months, the kitten needs to be fed less frequently - 4 times a day. The amount of meat eaten increases to 40 grams.
From 6 to 9 months, kittens are given three meals a day. The daily food intake is 250 grams.

From 10 months, the kitten is gradually accustomed to “adult” food. Vegetables, cereals, fish, fruits, dairy and fermented milk products are added to the meat.

The cat doesn't like the food

Indeed, the first thing that comes to mind is the pet’s personal preference. Like many other animals, cats are very conservative. Biologists even use the term neophobia, fear of new things. So if you've recently changed brands or varieties of cat food, this is most likely the reason. Due to the peculiarities of the psyche, a cat perceives the world differently than a person. For example, if we are forced to eat the same thing every day, we will experience discomfort, but this will not happen to a cat.

Common mistakes

Many pet owners do not know what the method of feeding their pets should be. Owners can give small kittens canned food, but this is prohibited, since this food must be given to a pet who is 6 months old. People can save money on food purchases by purchasing cheap brands. Such food will harm the kitten; the baby's digestive system will not work well. It is better to purchase feed that is of high premium quality.

Cat owners can give prohibited foods to their pet. Therefore, before feeding cats of this breed, you need to know what foods can harm your pet. People can feed cats, and the pets end up with excess weight. This should not be done until the cat is more than one and a half years old.

If the weather is hot, cats' appetite worsens. At home, you need to provide proper care for pets of this breed. So, the diet for purebred Maine Coons must be selected taking into account all the rules.

The main thing is not to harm the kitten and learn all the rules of feeding. Thanks to the care of the owners, cats will look good, they will not have problems with the intestines and digestive system.

For a review of food for the Maine Coon breed, see below.

"Sturgeon of the second freshness"

Maine Coons are not particularly good at distinguishing tastes. For example, during evolution, cats have lost the receptors that distinguish sweet tastes, but at the same time they experience real pleasure from fatty foods. Simply put, fat plays the same role for them as sweets and desserts do for us. However, cats have no difficulties with their sense of smell; their sense of smell is impeccable. We won’t even turn our noses at a slightly stale product, but cats will turn it away with complete contempt. And this is no longer a whim. The stomachs of cats, unlike, for example, the stomachs of dogs, do not secrete special substances that cope with putrefactive bacteria, because in nature cats do not eat carrion - only fresh meat. Consuming stale food for cats can result in serious poisoning. Therefore, instinct makes these animals avoid stale food.

What not to give to a Maine Coon

The animal's diet should be varied, but there is a list of foods that are prohibited for Maine Coons:

chicken bones;
fatty meats, such as pork;
spicy, salty, smoked foods;
chocolate, sugar and other sweet products;
potato;
beans.

What you should not give to a Maine Coon.
It is also prohibited to give the animal spices and any medications intended for humans. This can lead to an overdose, and, as a result, the death of the coon. A balanced diet is the key to your pet’s health for many years.

Bad associations

There is another very interesting feature of cats, closely related to the previous one. Cats not only try to avoid dangers to their health, but even “analyze” their causes. When an animal feels unwell some time after eating, even if the reason is not food at all, it can associate the deterioration in its health with the specific type of food eaten. A similar mechanism exists in humans. If you have ever been poisoned by something unknown, then you know very well that, remembering everything you have eaten during the day, you will definitely come across a product that will give you an unpleasant feeling of nausea. A person usually concludes that this is what poisoned him. To check their guess, people can use the complex logic of their thinking, but a cat is deprived of such abilities, and therefore associates a sharp deterioration in health with the last action it performed, and refuses food, often forever. After all, these animals have excellent memory - this is also one of their features.

It's in the bowl!

It also happens: the cat has no complaints about the food itself, but the bowl causes discomfort. And there may be several reasons for this. The bowl may be too deep or too shallow, it may not be clean enough, or it may be made of a porous material that has absorbed the smells of the previous dinner or some completely foreign odors. There are also materials that enter into a chemical reaction with certain substances, causing an unpleasant taste. For example, certain types of medicated food become bitter in metal containers. And there are materials that in themselves are unpleasant for the cat. In addition, the bowl may be inconvenient and small, so the Maine Coon’s whiskers touch the sides of the bowl when he eats. Since a cat's whiskers are very sensitive, this can irritate your Maine Coon. So if you suspect this is the reason, try replacing the bowl with a wider and shallower one.

Dominance of other cats

If you have more than one cat, a hierarchy inevitably builds up in the cat community: someone considers himself more important, which inevitably causes conflict with varying degrees of mutual aggression. A cat that is afraid of letting its guard down and being ambushed may want to avoid visiting the cat cafeteria. And considering that in the wild, cats are able to starve for several days without harm to the body, such voluntary abstinence can last quite a long time. If you have a lot of cats, make sure there are several feeding areas in the house and arrange them so that your pets feel safe while eating.

The cat is sick

Loss of appetite is the most common symptom associated with many feline ailments. If your cat does not eat or does not eat well, and in addition there are other signs of poor health of the animal, immediately consult a doctor! Do not self-medicate, as this can be dangerous to the animal’s health or even lead to death. Over-tightening can also make your cat's condition significantly worse. Therefore, grab your carrier and head to the clinic.

Additionally

Vitamins - specialized, preferably with the addition of calcium and taurine.

Chondroprotectors for bones and joints are a must! Likes: Beaphar Junior Cal; Beaphar Irish Cal; Anivital CaniAgil AniVital CaniAgil. There is a wide choice on the market, just read on the Internet, but be sure to add medications for bones and joints to the diet of a growing Maine Coon.

Sometimes your favorite Maine Coon may ask for something from your table. It could be a piece of sausage or cheese, milk porridge or dumpling. For example, I have a cat who really loves baked goods and fresh bread. Do not deny him this little pleasure, which will increase many times over if you let him lick your plate.

If you decide to switch completely to natural feeding, do not do it suddenly. Everything is gradual. And remember, with natural feeding (without adding dry food), a complex of vitamins is required: a complex of vitamins and minerals, namely: calcium preparations, vitamins for wool, B vitamins, ascorbic acid, taurine, essential unsaturated fatty amino acids Omega-3 and Omega-6, microelements.

A common type of natural food, the so-called “Kun porridge”, is one of the recipes:

1 kg. chicken neck, 100 g chicken liver, 100 g. chicken stomachs, 100 gr. chicken hearts, 400 g beef, 400 g. chicken breast, large carrots, half a bunch of lettuce, 10 per. eggs

Grind everything coarsely in a meat grinder or chop finely, mix, divide into portions and place in the freezer. You can feed breakfast and dinner three times. Add vitamins, protectors, vetom to the “porridge” - everything that is needed for the normal growth of the Maine Coon.

Diet from six months to a year

Starting from six months, Maine Coon kittens are recommended to be fed three times a day, and the daily food intake is approximately 240-260 g . The increase in the total volume of the diet is due to maximum physical activity and enhanced growth processes at this age.

The diet of a growing animal must include fish, as well as poultry and lean beef. It is very important to alternate meat and plant foods. After feeding, it is strictly not recommended to play with kittens, as increased physical activity can cause regurgitation of consumed food.

The only difference between a teenage Maine Coon and a fully developed pet in terms of diet is the frequency of feeding. Small balanced meals allow food to be better absorbed. Of particular importance are the protein components of food, which are important for the proper formation of the animal.

It is equally important to provide your pet with a sufficient supply of calcium contained in any fermented milk products, and the animal should receive phosphorus from boneless fillets of sea or ocean fish.

Only the optimal amount of microelements contributes to the proper development of the musculoskeletal system and teeth of a Maine Coon kitten. Of course, many substances affect the condition of the pet’s coat, claws and general well-being, but in any case, feeding a fast-growing Maine Coon kitten requires variety.