"Ask any mermaid you happen to see? What's the best tuna?........", "Charlie knows, the best tasting tuna is......", when it comes to your cat NEITHER!!

Surprised? So was I. Well at least years ago I was surprised when my vet had told me NEVER to feed "people" tuna to my cat. I never questioned why, I have this habit of listening to what my vet says much of the time without question so....I never fed either of my cats tuna.

Lately while reading other cat blogs that I follow, Facebook comments and reading various updates on Twitter, I am reading more and more about people serving their cats tuna, for purposes of this blog when I am referring to tuna I am referring to "people" tuna, "human" or "hooman" (if you are an "anipal") tuna, NOT tuna flavored cat food, got it? Good. Now that we are on the same page, STOP FEEDING YOUR CAT PEOPLE TUNA....NOW!

Why?

"Cats can develop yellow fat disease from having too much tuna" (from http://www.connollyac.com/) "Yellow fat disease occurs most commonly in young, overweight male and female cats with inappropriate diets." "Yellow fat disease is an inflammation of the fat tissue in the body due to a deficiency of Vitamin E. Dr.Richard Brancato (a Clearwater, Florida veterinarian) says "although it is (tuna) high in protein, tuna lacks sufficient amounts of certain amino acids, mainly taurine, to maintain feline health. There is insufficient calcium to balance the phosphorus; the ratio in canned tuna is 1-to-14.8 This results in bone disease."

From Yahoo.com "the most you should do is to use the WATER that is drained off from the can of tuna (not the OIL...for another reason), and drizzle it over their dry cat food once or twice a MONTH. They'll think they died and went to cat heaven...but without the danger".Another vet from Yahoo.com said "I've had to treat numerous cats over the years for pretty severe enteritis resulting from eating tuna meat. One of my own babies got so ill from it when someone else left it sitting out on the counter for 5 minutes while he turned his back to take a phone call, that I had to put her on IV fluids for 2 days, in addition to intestinal medications"

"Tuna-FLAVORED food is okay.....Tuna meat.......BAD! How many cats do you know that go swimming in the ocean to catch tuna and eat it as part of their natural diet?"

'Nuff said.

HorN Pets is sooooo excited to welcome Caren Gittleman Cat Blogger Extraordinaire Caren and her kitties are going to be regular contributors to HorN Pets and 'dog' know we need a strong cat voice around here! To learn more about Caren, and to read more of her fascinating cat blogs visit her Oakland Press blog 'Cat Chat with Caren Gittleman' Welcome to HorN Pets Caren!!!

Oakland County resident Caren Gittleman is a freelance writer who loves cats. Her blog is a labor of love dedicated to the memory of her first cat (Bobo) who lived until the age of 18. She now has a silver gray tabby (Cody) and a Sheltie (Dakota). Caren holds a degree in Rhetoric & Communication from Kent State University. She worked in Advertising at Ohio's largest newspaper (The Plain Dealer) for 21 and a half years before moving to Michigan in 2001.

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