This month Dr. Jacqui writes about Helping Your Frugal Feline

With the country in a recession, many people are looking for ways to save. If you are trying to tighten your feline budget, here are some tips about where you should and should not pinch your pennies.

Food

• Make sure your cat is eating a feline nutritionally balanced diet to maximize its health and longevity. Cats have different nutritional requirements from people and dogs and an unbalanced diet can result in serious illness or even death for your cat.
• Feed your cat a commercial cat food and ideally one with the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) approved nutritional guarantee on the commercial cat food label. This guarantee, often called the "AAFCO statement," means that the food is considered to be complete and balanced for either "all life stages" or for a specific life stage (e.g. kitten, adult) of your cat. There are many affordable AAFCO approved complete and balanced foods for cats.
• It is challenging and costly to create a properly balanced homemade cat food. So unless a home cooked diet has been recommended and approved by your veterinarian, this is not advised as a cost saving option.
• Save money on cat treats. Instead of buying commercially available treats you can cut up small pieces of cooked meat (e.g. chicken/steak/pork) or fish (e.g. tuna/shrimp/salmon) and use them as special treats. Since onions and garlic are toxic to cats, avoid using meat or fish that have been cooked with these ingredients. Remember treats should compromise less than 10% of your cat's daily intake.
• Any dietary changes should be done gradually and after consultation with your veterinarian.

Healthcare

• Vaccinate your cat against the common feline diseases so that you can avoid paying the high costs of treating your cat for those same diseases.
• Keep your cat indoors: this reduces your cat's exposure to diseases and vastly reduces the incidence of trauma related injuries.
• Do not use medications labeled for dogs or humans on your cat. Differences in dosing and tolerability can result in fatal consequences for your cat. Always consult with your veterinarian before giving any medication to your pet.
• Consider investing in pet health insurance. There are a wide variety of policy types available to fit different needs.

Litter

• The best way to economize on litter is to find a clay based litter that clumps the urine (often called "clumping litter"). Not only do some cats prefer this type of litter, but it allows you to scoop out both the solid and liquid waste so the urine doesn't accumulate at the bottom of the box.
• Another way to extend the life of your litter is to use a litter with maximum odor controlling ingredients, like carbon. Fresh Step® scoopable litter product contains this patented odor controlling technology that not only helps you provide a positive litterbox experience for your cat but extends the life of your litter product.

Toys

• Revitalize your current cat toys by rotating your cat's access to them. Pick up all the toys and hand out a few "new" toys every week.
• Create toys out of simple, inexpensive, everyday household items:
  • Place large empty cardboard boxes or open paper bags (with any handles cut off) around the house. Your cat is likely to spontaneously explore these novel areas and treat them like a fort.
  • Save empty tissue boxes, tear off the clear plastic at the opening and then put a ball inside the box. You can encourage play by wiggling the box to make the ball move. Your cat's job is to get the ball out. The bigger the ball, the more challenging the task.
  • Save the cardboard center of toilet paper rolls. Poke a hole in one end, attach a string and then pull the cardboard roll around the house. You can also stuff the cardboard rolls with small cat toys such as plush mice/balls for your cat to try to get out.
  • Ping pong balls or wiffle balls placed in an empty bathtub can create a fun chase game for your cat as the balls roll up and down the tub's edges.
  • Place newspaper or tissue paper on the floor, tent it up and then wiggle the paper slightly. Your cat is likely to pounce on the moving paper so make sure your body parts are out the way!

Love

• Of course the best things in life really are free: spending an evening at home, snuggling with your cat is an inexpensive and rewarding way to end your day.