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1. Meat, especially raw beef, rabbit, lamb or kangaroo minces or bite size pieces. Chewing is good for their teeth.

2. Dairy Products

A. Milk – Carnation preferably for kittens reduced to cow milk for cats or cat’s milk by Whiskas or Pet’s Own. Many cats will often develop a dislike for milk and it can be replaced with fresh water. However, milk is extremely nutritious and it is often useful to keep a cat liking milk by giving them the milk with leftover breakfast cereals that you eat each morning – the fibre is also good for them. It is useful to remember that only about 20% of cats are allergic to milk i.e. lactose.

B. Yoghurt – most cats like yoghurt and it is useful for settling down upset tummies as well as very nutritious. Cats seem to like both the plain and flavour varieties.

C. Ice Cream – the occasional dish of ice cream will not hurt your cat and the fat in ice cream is beneficial for their good health. Too much can make your cat overweight.

3. Canned Cat Foods – any of the name brands is fine especially Whiskas, Snappy Tom, Dine, and others. It is useful to have your cats like canned foods especially if you are planning to travel with them, as often in country areas as there is not a great selection of pet food places.

4. Offal – liver, heart, kidney or brains – no more than once a week preferably raw but pate’ never goes astray.

5. Cheese – grated tasty is great but the most expensive the better they like it especially Brie, Camembert, or Blue Vein.

6. Chickens – roasted chickens is fine from most takeaways as well as cooking chicken dishes at home and in microwave.

7. Fish – grilled or takeaway is fine but also can be cooked in microwave. My cats eat a lot of fish, chicken and cheese as we do. Fish is great protein food for cats; but I find that like me, my cats like white fish i.e. not oily or fishy tasting but fish of this nature is especially good for them for the Omega 3 oils. Raw fish should never be fed more than once a week as cats can develop nutritional deficiencies in eating it more often. Raw fish can however improve dandruff in a cat’s coat.

8. Dry Cat Foods – it is essential for good teeth for cats to have some daily. A named brand is fine but I do not recommend giving them only one. Many imported foods have ingredients that are illegal in Australia and are addictive so be a good cat owner and give a variety from supermarket brands to super premium brands and your cats will love you for it.

9. Rice and Noodles – it is good to give cats some rice, noodles or food with fibre in them on a daily basis in small quantity. Most of my cats love fried rice, pizza especially with meat toppings, and toast with strawberry jam or vegemite

10. Vitamins – a drop or two of infants Pentavite is essential for kittens under the age of 6 months and can be given in food and should always be given to cats under stress or sick.

11. Calcium – there are many calcium syrups available now from pet shops and it is easy to put a drop or two in food while the kitten is under 6 months and like vitamins should always be given to cats under stress or sick. Calcium and vitamins are not retained by the body and cats cannot manufactured them from other food sources so a bit extra does help in time of stress and illness.

12. Variety is the spice of life and so is it with your cats. It is better to have a wide and varied diet than to eat the same old foods – remember that cats are not small dogs and cat food manufacturers do not know all there is to know about cat food requirements so variety will help that. It was not all that long ago that cat food manufacturers did not realize that taurine is essential for cats and many cats suffer heart disease by eating only cat foods so giving cats the table scraps and some times the table’s goodies is great for them. My cats will quite often feast like us on seafood or pig-out on takeaway’s fish and chip or chicken.

A normal meal for a Burmese should include:

1. A small bowl of milk or cheese or yoghurt.

2. A small bowl of moist food like canned cat food or pet mince plus calcium drops and Pentavite.

3. A bowl of dry food and water always available especially as Burmese can have a tendency to be potassium deficient and dry food is always enriched with potassium and taurine.

A special note as to diet is that a Burmese, unlike many other cats who may tend too overeat, doesn’t so supply should be greater than a single mealtime consumption.

It is essential to remember that cats are obligatory carnivorous. They cannot be vegetarians as they cannot convert vegetables to the essential nutrition that they need. It is not however not unusually that cats will like some vegetables such as pumpkin or green beans but the only nutrition they are getting from this type of food is fibre. Most Burmese will try anything that you are eating and in small quantity occasionally, this is fine. The odd potato chip or snack food they often will like. However, do not feed cats either chocolate or alcohol as these are deadly toxins for cats and dogs.

Please Note: All drugs for cats should be prescribed by a veterinarian or on the advice of chemist specializing in animals care or on the recommendation of the breeder.

Lastly, aside from all this food, a Burmese requires a lot of love and affection which they will equally return.