Meet the pets!

Sitting here wondering what to write about and the answer got directly into my lap. 

I have two cats, both are black and yes, I can tell them apart.

Luna is 13 years old;  she was adopted from the humane society after the loss of one of our other kitties (RIP Boo). Luna is getting old and going blind, so she is a source of amusement and worry for us.  We have had her since 2003; she was around 3 years of age when she was adopted.  She is mentally unstable and is highly needy after she had been abandoned.  She was at the humane society for more than a year; I guess that would make me a little needy as well.  She would have been put down but she was so loving that they held onto her until my mother adopted her for us.   Luna is the type of cat that is always in someone’s lap or demanding attention.  If she can't be with a human she will be curled up on our blankets or a jacket something that smells like us. If she is not doing that she is running away from the brat that we wrongly brought into her house (in her opinion).

Onyx brought himself home.  He put himself right in front of me and acted adorable. I picked this small kitten at a farm and showed him off to my husband.  My husband promptly fed the little snot cupcakes.  That was all it took, we left the farm with a kitten.  He has been a pain in the butt ever since.  He is currently just over three years old.

My pets are my children for right now.  Since at this time I can't get pregnant, I fill the void with these too.  Poor Onyx is often picked up and held on his back like a baby.  He graciously allows me to do this without clawing, maiming or biting me, most of the time Onyx will even purr for me. He spends his days pouncing Luna and getting into everything we own.  He is one of those brat cats that will be all cute the second he is in trouble, but once someone isn't looking he is back at whatever he was doing wrong.  His favorite games are to pounce everything and shred toilet paper. 


I thought I would introduce everyone to more members of my home.  I will leave you on a few questions.  What type of pets do you have?  How did you get them? 

Is your pet food affecting your life?

Cat boxes or poo patrol can be bad enough but is your pets' food making you sick?

For people who are highly sensitive to gluten I bet some of you didn't think to check what you are feeding your pet right?  If you have pets like my two cats they will eat the kibbles just about anywhere.

 This is behavior that comes from having more than one pet or having a pet that is used to being around other pets.  When there is a shared food bowl or a perceived shared food bowl often times the animals will take what they want and move it elsewhere to eat.  The can leave crumbs everywhere.  We used to have a very large, very dominate male cat who owned the food bowl.  Only he could eat there, that didn't stop the rest of the cats from being able to eat, just they couldn't eat in front of the bowl.  Now even after we lost my big boy, the other two cats still act the same. They take the food and eat it everywhere else.  I have found little cat food bits on the table (which they are not supposed to be on.) on the counter-tops (same as the table) on the couch and loveseat, even in my keyboard (am I still confused to this one.)  This got me thinking.  Not only is the food around the house but it is also in their mouths so what I am feeding my pets.  Yep that's right gluten, one of those things that I can't have and I am feeding it to my cats. 

Looking at cat food A lot of brands contain either corn gluten or wheat gluten as filler.  The reason being is it is a cheap source of protein.  I wondered how good for my pets this food really is?  I looked and found that cats and dogs should not have almost any carbohydrates, they need protein.  Well how well does that stack up with the food I have been feeding them?  This is the ingredient list from my cat’s dry cat food as pulled from the web site.
ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, beef tallow (preserved with mixed tocopherols), soy hulls, brewers rice, animal digest, turkey by-product meal, salmon meal, ocean fish meal, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, dehydrated alfalfa meal, phosphoric acid, choline chloride, brewers dried yeast, salt, titanium dioxide (color), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate [source of vitamin B1], riboflavin supplement [source of vitamin B2], pyridoxine hydrochloride [source of vitamin B6], menadione sodium bisulfite complex [source of vitamin K activity], vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), minerals (ferrous sulfate [source of iron], zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), taurine, yellow 6, red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, rosemary extract.

So not Gluten Free and it looks so appetizing, I would probably not buy this to feed to my family why my pets?  So if you have reaction at home, check the ingredients on your pets' food.  Even wet foods have gluten in them.  If your pet food is not gluten free it may be the cause of the continued illness.  This could be a source of cross contamination. Just another small thing to think about in the long journey of being completely gluten free. It looks like I am in the market for a new pet food brand.