Speed Read | Tiki Cat Raw Cat Food, Walmart Pet Rx, Chewy's IPO

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Tiki Cat Introduces Raw Cat Food
Walmart Opens Pet Pharmacies
Chewy.com Prepares For IPO

Tiki Cat Introduces Raw Cat Food But There's No Sushi

Tiki Cat raw cat food will be available 

from retailers later this spring

Tiki Cat raw cat food almost sounds like a fish out of water. The brand cats love for its chunky, chewable seafood is now making raw food. But don't expect sushi. Tiki Cat's new raw cat food is chicken and turkey, not fish.

It's available frozen in eight- and 24-ounce tubs from independent pet supply retailers.

Flying Into The Future With Insect-Based Cat Food

Cats love eating bugs but will they

love insect-based cat food?

So your cat just caught a fly and ate it. Eeeuuu... But it turns out that cats like the taste of bugs, whether they're on the fly or in insect-based cat food.

Researchers recruited 20 taste testers and offered them food that contained either black soldier fly larvae meal or oil. Ugh...

The cats ate both, although they seemed to like the kind with meal better than the food with oil. 

In a world where our cats dine on white meat chicken and fresh caught fish, pouring insect-based cat food into their bowls may seem to fly in the face of convention. But our planet is running out of the resources it needs to feed animals and humans. And if nothing else, insects are plentiful and leave a teeny carbon footprint, if they leave a carbon footprint at all. 

Insect-Based Cat Food: It's All About Sustainability

The Daily Cat Quote

"I realized that cats make a perfect audience, they don't laugh at you, they never contradict you, there's no need to impress them, and they won't divulge your secrets.”
--Elle Newmark, The Book of Unholy Mischief

Yes Cats Know Their Names | Now There's Proof

Study shows cats know their names although 
they may choose to ignore them.

It's official. Our worst suspicions are confirmed. A new study shows cats know their names. So if they don't come when you call, they really are ignoring you. 

A team from the University of Tokyo watched 76 cats listen to recorded words that included their names. 

Although the cats seemed to tune out most of the human conversation, they all reacted when they heard their names, no matter who was saying them. 

But that didn't mean they ran into their loving humans' arms. They showed recognition by moving their heads or ears or twitching their tails

Cats Know Their Names And Understand Words With A Purpose

The Daily Cat Quote

"Cats randomly refuse to follow orders to prove they can.”
--Ilona Andrews, Magic Strikes

Clean Meat For Cats | A Kinder Way To Feed Our Friends

Manufacturers are working
on clean meat for cats.

Talk to your cat about sustainability and clean meat for cats, and he'll probably yawn and go back to sleep. For an animal who loves nothing more than stalking tiny rodents, compassionate eating is pretty much a nonstarter. 

But to a growing number of humans, the cruelty involved in the production of our cats' food is becoming a major concern. In an online survey, nearly 600 people said they're interested in feeding their animal companions a plant-based diet, mainly because they're concerned about farm animal welfare. 

The only thing that's stopping them is the worry that a diet containing no animal protein will provide inadequate nutrition for their cats and dogs.

Clean Meat For Cats: Cruelty-Free Food For Our Obligate Carnivores

The Daily Cat Quote

“It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can't see.
-- Eleanor Farjeon

An After Hours Vet To Take Your Call When Your Vet's Not There

GuardianVets provides
24-hour vet triage by phone.

It's 3 a.m., and your cat is coughing nonstop. You're beginning to panic. Should you take him to the ER? Can this wait until tomorrow? If only there was an after-hours vet to give you some advice.

Enter GuardianVets, a company that sounds almost like a throwback to the old days, when you could call your vet in the middle of the night and actually get your vet, not a voice mail message. GuardianVets provides an after-hours vet who will talk with you when your vet's office is closed.

The company won the grand prize in Purina's Pet Care Innovation competition at this year's Global Pet Expo.

An After-Hours Vet When You Need One

The Daily Cat Quote

“Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds.”
― Jean Burden, Celebration Of Cats

Health Insurance For Cats | Is It Good News Or Bad News?

Will your health insurance for cats cover that ER visit?

Accidents happen. Especially in the middle of the night. But now, if your health insurance for cats is with ASPCA or Hartville, you can find out how many high-credit limit cards you have to take with you as you rush your cat off to the ER.

Owned by Crum and Forster Pet Insurance Group, the companies aim to relieve the sticker shock of an ER visit by letting customers know ahead of time whether the cat's procedure will be covered. They also provide an estimate of how much of the bill will be reimbursed. I can see where the answers to those questions could cause even more sticker shock. But isn't that why we have credit cards?

Care Credit Pussyfoots Into The Health Insurance For Cats Market

The Daily Cat Quote

“When Rome burned, the emperor's cats still expected to be fed on time.” 
-- Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue

California Attempts To Ban Declawing Cats -- Again

There are better ways to protect furniture
than declawing cats.

In the Never Lose Hope Category, California hopes to become the first state in the nation to ban declawing cats. But it has some competition. Bills banning declawing are also under consideration in New York and New Jersey.

While this may seem like a no-brainer to many of us, vets in New York and New Jersey are fighting the proposals tooth and nail.

Running a vet clinic is expensive, after all, and cats can help foot the bill by sacrificing their claws.

Pouncing On The Usual Excuse For Declawing Cats

Study Shows Today's Cats Are Bigger Than Their Wild Ancestors

Study shows today's cats are bigger than
their wild ancestors were.

Most species, including dogs, get smaller when they become domesticated. But, perhaps due to their sometimes perverse nature, today's cats are bigger than their wild ancestors were. 

Why are cats different? No one knows for sure, but experts theorize the reason might be as simple as regular meals.

And it's possible that this applies only to cats in Denmark. That's where researchers had the grisly task of sifting through bags of ancient animal bones looking for some that belonged to cats. 

The Vikings And Seafaring Cats 

The Daily Cat Quote

If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.” 
-- Mark Twain, Notebook

Meet Mousr, The Robotic Cat Toy & Your Cat's New Best Friend

Petronics' Mousr

The price may seem a bit steep for another cat toy that's just going to lie around on the floor doing nothing. But hey, isn't your cat worth it? That $149 buys a robotic cat toy with artificial intelligence and its very own app. 

Petronics introduced Mousr, its smarter-than-most-robotic-cat-toys, at Global Pet Expo last spring and left the event with high honors. It won both the American Pet Product Association's Best New Cat Product Award for 2018 and the Fear Free Best Cat Enrichment Product award. 

Playing Cat And (Robotic) Mouse