“Kucing suka makan ikan” is a norm in Asian countries.
While fish is definitely not an ancestral food for cats because cats originated from Persia which was mostly arid desert land (not much water, hence, not many fish), we believe that Asian cats have learnt to eat fish because of the influence of the human community who feed and take care of them.
But I have a friend who would beg to differ about Persia not having fish as he claims that way back then (and we are talking about millions of years ago), Persia was not mostly desert. It was a thriving piece of land with lakes in abundance. I have no authority on historical geography to confirm this, but I do know that today’s modern-day Iran has several vast and beautiful lakes.
But never mind that, let’s get back to cats and fish.
Fish is tasty to some cats, and that is why they eat it.
But do all Asian cats like fish?
That’s a good question which we have no answer to, but let’s just look at our 16 cats now.
I think our Super Seniors, Cow Mau and Indy, have learnt to like fish. After all, they grew up with all kinds of foods, from kibble, canned, home-cooked to raw. Semua taruh, semua boleh.
Tabs prefers chicken but will also oblige by eating fish. Ginger too.
Then comes our “newer” cats.
Minnie and the Monsters were away at their adopter’s for 1.5 years where I supplied the food (based on what the adopter requested) and so they learnt to eat canned fish while they were there. Now, they also adopt the “Semua taruh, semua boleh” principle of eating.
And what about our “latest” cats?
It is not surprising that the Blondies do not like fish at all. After all, they grew up in the house. Samantha and Riley will tolerate it but still show a preference for chicken and other non-fish foods.
Gerald and Misty are outdoor CNRM cats so they will eat mostly what is served.
Next comes the question of bioavailability and digestibility.
I am not schooled in nutrition and Biology and Geography were my worst subjects in school, but I do have an interest in nutrition nowadays. But still, please take all this with a pinch of salt and do your own proper research on cat nutrition.
I used to think that ultimately all foods break down to their simplest form, ie. glucose, amino acids and fatty acids and the body can only absorb them in this simplest form. So, shouldn’t an amino acid from chicken be equivalent to the same amino acid from fish?
Yes, they may ultimately be the same amino acid, but we should also be asking how well our cat’s digestive enzymes break down food which are not their ancestral food and this determines the bioavailability of that food.
Tricky, eh?
I also used to think that cats should only eat rodents and birds as that’s their natural food, and I wonder why beef and mutton are used in commercial cat food too. How can a cat eat a cow or a goat? I asked a vet and she too wasn’t sure and said perhaps there are proteins in beef and mutton which are bioavailable to a cat’s digestive system.
The same goes for fish. If fish is not an ancestral food for cats, then how well does a cat digest fish in order to make the fish amino acids available and absorbable into a cat’s body?
These are questions I have no answers to, but I’m sure many cat owners will quickly attest to the fact that their cats lived a long, healthy life eating fish. I do not doubt that at all.
If I may digress a little, but I’m not totally out of point either, I don’t do so well eating wheat and I definitely digest rice better. A Chinese herbalist told me, “You have no business eating wheat. You are Asian. Eat rice!”. He was right. So our geographical origins determine which foods are best for us. We may travel the world or speak multiple languages or even migrate and live elsewhere, but ultimately, our bodies are still “ancestral” in nature. Our bodies do not evolve so quickly, in a biological sense. I think our body takes millions of years to evolve, if ever.
Gerald and Misty – semua taruh, semua boleh, but they like raw food. Ancestral primal instinct, right?
Lately, Ginger has been asking for canned food in the morning. I’ve also noticed the same with Tabs. Maybe they need the protein to be broken down. Cooked food breaks down the protein resulting in easier digestibility.
But using that same argument, Cow Mau still wants raw food!
So to each their own, right? A cat knows what’s best for them.
A typical behaviour of the Blondies – “I’m not eating for this meal.”
I thought of giving them some ikan bilis powder (cooked, not raw) as a topper but guess what, they didn’t like it. That’s when it finally dawned on me that the Blondies do not like fish! They have not learnt to eat fish. But they took to Coco&Joe’s and Cubgrub naturally (no fish). So it looks like cats have to learn to eat fish.
Or is it just the Blondies? Maybe.
But it’s unfortunate, though, that tuna is usually used as the base in most fish-based canned foods available in our country. The tuna is a large fish and therefore contains more heavy metals like mercury. Smaller fishes would be safer, ie. sardines or mackerels. The tuna is also a salt-water fish, so it has natural salt in it. That’s not exactly a plus point.
Talking about fish, I must repeat myself again and again in case there are new readers: NEVER feed raw fish to your cats, please. It contains thiaminase which will deplete the Vitamin B in their bodies and this can be fatal. Fish must be cooked.
In any case, protein rotation is good. Eating the same protein for too long can lead to sudden onset of an allergic reaction. Indy had that a few years ago and ended up with bloody diarrhoea for 7 weeks. I finally found an article online describing a shelter cat with the exact same symptoms as Indy. The shelter operator switched the cat’s diet to raw rabbit and the case resolved by itself…like magic! So I did the same for Indy and voila…the bloody diarrhoea stopped but that was after I had spent so much in vet fees trying to find a cure for him!
So, protein rotation is key, folks. Now, our cats eat raw chicken, duck, quail, turkey, rabbit and cooked fish (for Riley and the Blondies – still in training).
Trying to cut down Riley’s obsession with kibble by giving her canned food. She will only eat canned chicken, not fish.
Do note that some kibble and some canned foods may contain palatants, which are included to increase the palatability of the said foods. The more your pets like it, the more you’ll buy and you know the rest. Some pets might just insist on certain brands because of the palatants.
About palatants: https://www.brfingredients.com/en/blog/posts/palatability-fundamental-concept-for-pet-food/
I’m also “training” the Blondies and Riley to eat some canned food. The reasons are a few. Firstly, I might need help to feed them when I’m not around, so it’s easier for others to feed them canned food. Secondly, I might not outlive them and they would have to go live with their godmother. Again, I don’t want to trouble their godmothers to specially get raw food for them. Thirdly, I was told by a friend (who has more knowledge about nutrition than me) that it’s a good idea to get their stomachs acclimatised to different kinds of foods. “Give them some rubbish”, she said.