6 replies to this topic

[stocks]

As a cat lover/owner, I'm still obsessing over the cat food scandal. The source of the poison cat food is in wheat gluten from China. The amazing thing, to me, is why are pet cats eating so much wheat gluten? Have you ever seen a cat beg for a piece of bread? I have, but only stray, starving cats who will eat anything. Cats are carnivores. They don't need wheat or corn or "garden vegetables". My cat's favorite veggie is catnip, which he eats until he passes out in a happy stupor.


After ruminating about it for a few days, it finally hit me. The best meal for a cat is a mouse. After all, that's why they were first domesticated about 5,000 years ago. It wasn't because they make great lap warmers, or for their quirky personalities. It was because they were hunters -- and rodents were their preferred prey. By that time, humans had made the dietary shift to a grain-based diet, and huge stores of wheat and barley were endangered by ravenous, multiplying hordes of rats and mice. The rodents attracted cats and the cats saved the day.

http://www.americant...cat_food_1.html

[mss]

keeps Moles,Voles, and Chipmunks out of your garden as well as some snakes. Great to have an outdoor type cat that will also lay in front of the hearth warming in front of a fire. If you feed a cat "junk" it will become useless for anything. Feed your cat meat, even if it is canned.

[calmcookie]

Along same topic - When I first got my pet rabbit, fed him dry pellets along with a few carrots, apple bits and other fresh stuff. Lately he's been getting tender, crunchy bean sprouts (made from mung beans) ... actually have no idea whether these are good for him, or not .... but now he won't eat any dry food until he gets at least a few fresh sprouts. He only eats those dry grainy pellets as a last resort (smart bunny - I also love the sprouts). Most packaged food can't match fresh stuff (whether meat (for cats) or veges for rabbits) .... or meat and fruits and veges for humans! My new food treat is pomegranates ... jeepers they're tasty! Cheers, C.C.

[Rogerdodger]

San Bromista Cat Ranch has the answer:
Porcinefund.com LINK

The Opportunity Because of steadily increasing demand for fur clothing, a good cat skin will fetch three dollars on the European fur market. A good Mexican cat skinner can skin ten cats in an hour but makes only a dollar an hour. The opportunity is obvious.


Raw Materials

Stray cats are extremely common in Mexico. Within a short period of time, a large number of cats can easily be rounded up and placed on a ranch. Once established, the cat population will expand through the naturally high cat reproduction rate. In this manner, the supply of cats is essentially free. But what about the cost of feeding the cats?

Food Supply

Rats are even more common in Mexico than cats. Rounding up rats is even easier than cats. With the right initial rat bait, the ranch would literally be covered with more than enough rats to feed the cats. As natural enemies, the cats will quite easily feed on the rats. But what will the rats eat? After each harvesting of cat skins, the remaining cat carcasses will have no commercial value, so it makes sense to feed the cat carcasses to the rats. The rats will thrive with the cat carcass food supply. And because rats reproduce even more rapidly than cats, the food supply for the cats will be virtually unlimited.


The Value Proposition

Because the cats and rats provide the food supply for each other, the entire operation is self-perpetuating. The only expense is for the cat skinners, and at a dollar an hour that cost in nominal. Since the harvested skins have a negligible cost, the operation is nearly all profit. In a nutshell, the cats eat the rats, the rats eat the cats, and we get the skins.

[mss]

Ever had a catburger, sorry, hamburger, in Mexeco? The rats don't eat all the cat carcuses.

[OEXCHAOS]

Have you ever seen a cat beg for a piece of bread? I have, but only stray, starving cats who will eat anything. Cats are carnivores.

Mine loves bread and will eat through a bag to get at it. He also LOVES prosciutto. Canned food? Sure. IAMS, sure. Cheap food? Thinks it's treats. Live fresh Bunny heads? Yup. Dead cold bunny? nope. Live Cicadas? Not so much, but his sister LOVES them.

M

[stocks]

Amid the goods found in the stores, there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: their cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons.

When a bodega cat is on the prowl, workers say, rats and mice vanish.

To store owners, the services of cats are indispensable in a city where the rodent problem is serious enough to be documented in a still popular two-minute video clip on YouTube from late February (youtube.com/watch?v=su0U37w2tws) of rats running amok in a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village. Store-dwelling cats are so common that there is a Web site, workingclasscats.com, dedicated to telling their tales.

But as efficient as the cats may be, their presence in stores can lead to legal trouble. The city’s health code and state law forbid animals in places where food or beverages are sold for human consumption. Fines range from $300 for a first offense to $2,000 or higher for subsequent offenses.

http://www.nytimes.c...B kNXy8U7eXxx1Q