I just finished one as follows:
1 1/2 lb of Ginger *peeled and sliced*
1 tspn Cream tartar
5 cloves
1 lb of sugar
total 3 gallon on water

Put 1 gallon of water in a large stock pot, bring to a rolling boil. Put sugar and Tartar and cloves into the boil. Cut back heat to half of that, to a Simmer and put all of the Ginger into the pot. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, Cut off heat and let Steep for 1 hour.

After 1 hour strain into a "bottling bucket" with the additional 2 gallon’s of filtered water. Add a Ale Yeast to the mix, and then bottle the mixture. Will yield around 25 bottles of Ginger beer.

It takes about 2 days to create carbonation, and after that you have to open the bottles real slow otherwise they will explode in fizziness. Its a delicious drink and each bottle has around 30 mg’s of Ginger, Stronger than any Ginger Ale out there lol.

Great for upset stomachs.
My wife makes it all the time.
She loves it. I hate it. I’m not a big ginger fan though.
My wife makes it as well. No clove in her recipe, and she uses lemons as well.
It’s tasty, and makes a great mixer with dark rum like Goslings.

?

?

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use some spray paint to mark out where you want your walls and sleep on it a few days to make sure that’s where you want everything and the room sizes are good. A whole lot easier to change it before you start framing.

2" rigid foam glued to the walls, with all seams taped, then stick framing (with batt insulation if you want it nice and toasty down there).

if you have the head room, 1.5" rigid foam on the floor, with all seams taped, then 1/2 ply wood over top of that will give you a nice stable insulated floor.

what all would you like to know?> ask away…
I’m not exactly that handy unless it’s computers/electronics. But I’m ready to learn. Just don’t know where to start. Would I need a helper or could I do most of it alone?

Rough cost to finish a basement– walls, carpet, electrical? I know there are many variables in it, but I’m just wondering the cost of doing it yourself vs paying someone.
probably wouldn’t hurt to have someone to help you, especially someone who might know a little bit about what they’re doing.

cost depends on a lot of things, but yeah, it’ll probably be 25-50% cheaper if you do it yourself as compared to hiring a contractor.
In on "want to do this myself but no idea where to start" crew
I’ve done it. And will be doin it again – refinish, not a "new" finish.

For me, it takes 4-5 months. Many steps require a helper, mostly to hold shit – particularly drywall sheets while I screw them in – and in some cases two helpers to hold drywall sheets.

Takes so long because I have a job, family, and a life. Lots of it is a few hours here, few hours there, etc.

Savings is thousands upon thousands over hiring a contractor. Didn’t get bids on my last basement job, but I did for my bathroom. This was a complete tear out down to the studs and refinish. Lowest bid was $17,000. I did it myself for just under $5k.

Most of it is fairly simple if you’re comfortable with basic carpentry and electrical. May need to figure in the cost of buying some tools too depending on what you already have or whatever. Taping/sanding drywall is the trickiest in my opinion. I’m okay at it. I know when my dad did his house, he hung the drywall and everything himself. Hired a drywall guy for the taping/sanding, and then finished from there.

There’s a ton of books out there for the DIYer on just about any project. I would just check out a book or two and go from there. Lots of good info and shit. Will also point you at where to start – about what specific things would be good to hire out vs. DIY. Lots of times the best option for folks is to do themselves what they are comfortable with and hire for specific things they aren’t so good at or the more tricky things like running HVAC venting or something. I would never try that on my own…

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so post up how you guys cook them, in details please

I’d like em wet, no dry recipes

that’s a negative

I have a bbq, a wood box and some wood…or whatever you call that crap
Without a smoker I don’t think you will get any decent recipes. I’ve done it on a standard grill out of necessity, but I’ve been doing ribs for over 20 years. The trick to ribs is taking away direct heat- hence doing it on a regular grill makes it difficult. And you have to slow cook them bastards. Cook ‘em too fast and you might as well make jerky. Hard to keep that much heat going in a standard BBQ grill.
I did some spare ribs in my gas grill by keeping the heat low (around 200?) and keeping a packet of applewood chips on the burner for a few hours. I cut the rack in half and put it on one end of the grill while I had 1 burner (out of 4) going on low on the other end.

They turned out ok. The way to do it is do a rub, then in the last hour or so of cooking, slather them with sauce.
based on your posts, I am going to check the price of smokers

minus whale get one if it’s 100$ or so

anything I should look for in the smoker?
They’re not bad if you put them in the oven on real low heat for a few hours, then throw them on the grill for just a few minutes.

You can make them for way less than you’d buy them for. IIRC, Alton Brown has made them out of terra cotta pots, highschool lockers, and cardboard+foil.
Also check out alton’s rib recipe.

I’ve made these and they were some of the best ribs I’ve ever had.

I love Alton Brown’s shows… he’s by far, my favorite Food Network guy.

However… I made one of his terra-cotta smokers. Unless it’s at least 85°+ and sunny, a $25 hot plate wont generate enough heat to cook anything.

Just sayin’

IIRC, he was cold smoking in that episode. I ran out of propane once after a few hours on the grill when my ribs were still cool inside. I just popped them in the oven on a wire rack in a sheet pan on low heat and they turned out about as good as the ones smoked the whole time. After that experience I wouldn’t feel bad about cold smoking and actually doing the cooking in the oven.
thanks for the responses y’all

the only Alton Brown recipe for Ribs I could find involved the oven, but I haven’t searched that hard

as per Laurel’s suggestions, I think I am going to build a smoker, trying to find a metal barrel/drum now and I have found a few how-to’s on google, so we’ll see how that works out
I always make them in the oven, and they come out great.

holy old
lol

ya I found a recipe on youtube…and I love it
all my friends love it
they want to know my secret
but I won’t tell them

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Do stoves with grills exist for home use? Or does that just exist in FoodTV land since they’re on a set? I’m shopping for a stove/oven and it would rock if I could get one.
My girlfriend in college had one. It was really nice but can’t remember what brand it was. I’ll have to look into it. The owners of the house she rented renovated the house and put it in but I imagine it was somewhat pricey.

The Kenmore gas grill I just got for the house has a center grill too.

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Should I rent a good machine and do it myself OR pay Stanley Steemer and have them do it? I priced Stanley Steemer and it’s $251 to clean and deoderize all the carpet in the place. I’ve been trying to price machine rental but I can’t find any prices online.

The place has two floors. I want to do the stairs but I don’t know if rental machines come with attachments to do them.

Renting will certainly be much cheaper than paying someone to do it. We borrow a friend’s machine to do ours, I think he payed less than $250 for it and it has attachments. But cleaning solution is $$$.

Just wondering if their equipment and ‘skill’ will give better results…

Well, that’s what they count on you thinking.

Renting a machine from a hardware store is the way to go.
As said above the solution gets expensive. My parents bought a rug doctor, I think it’s the "mighty pro." Don’t know what they paid for it but they are $600 on the rug doctor website. I’ve used it multiple times and it does an excellent job, really convenient to be able to borrow it at my leisure instead of renting and trying to get the machine back on time.

I’m sure there are better steam cleaners/carpet cleaners out there and there are probably better deals too. I’ve heard the cheap steam cleaners are terrible though.

We just bought that one and freaking love it. Solution is a bit pricy, but we bought the Zeep stuff from Home Depot and it works just as good (if not better) than the Bissel stuff they sell as well. It shows it listed at $219 on the web, but I walked into a local warehouse and got one for $179.
If you pay I would go with Stanley Steemer, not because I worked there, but because their equipment is 100x better. There steam is real steam not just warm water. Its either 180f or 220f depending on if a heatbooster is turned on. It is powered by a 100hp Kubota motor with 20psi of vacuum and I wanna say 600psi of water pressure. Their solution is alkaline based, so it hardly leaves any residue behind; unlike dry cleaning or doing it yourself. Resolve leaves a ton of residue and attracts dirt right back to it. So basically the 90% water that is sprayed in, is extracted back out.

You are not going to get the same quality out of some POS electric rental.

Just my .02.

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I didn’t plan for this, so I haven’t been saving for this project. I really don’t think I have the money to do something fancy right now, but I figured if I could find something cheap (railroad logs?), I could always add fancy bricks in front of it later.

Any suggestions or tips are welcomed!

reason for the sudden dirt:
In-laws live across the street, they just completed an addition, then decided to extend their driveway and add on a carport. The workers had to "cut out" a section of the yard (also on a hill), and we needed the dirt, so they carted each load across the street and dumped it in our yard.
Did some reading, apparently doing a wall 5′-6′ high is a lot more complicated than one 4′ or lower. I think I’ll divide it into a 2 step terrace sort of thing.

I found cinder blocks on craigslist for .80/each. Also, someone on another forum suggested concrete molds available on e-bay, I could essentially make my own bricks for finished look (I suppose I could color them as well).

Anyone have experience with any of this?
You can probably pick up "recycled" concrete for free. Just stack it. It won’t be the prettiest, but it would probably be the cheapest option until you can afford something more aesthetically pleasing
You can use sandbags. The bags are super cheap and so is sand or if you are extra super cheap and it’s available the supplier of sand may have reject sand which will work just as well but is much cheaper and isn’t the nice pure sand but it doesn’t matter cause you’re gonna be bagging it anyway. Then face and top it with something nicer looking.
After some reading, I think I’m going to go with railroad ties. They’re cost effective, strong, look "good enough", and will hold up for several years (if perhaps it takes that long to get around to adding a face of nice bricks). Plus, for some reason I don’t like the idea of doing anything involving cement or mortar, I’d like to be able to take it down or replace a piece or two if necessary.

How/where are you finding cost effective railroad ties? Im not asking cause I dont think they dont exist, but Ive been trying to figure out where to go for some myself.
I asked folks on a local forum, and got a couple of leads. Someone claims to have purchased some for $8 each.

I haven’t got many prices yet, some of these places are small joints that don’t regularly answer their phone. One place has them for $10.95 each (no idea what kind of store this is, called "cash & carry"), and a big professional garden/landscaping store has them for $16 each. I still need to call a few more places, though.

edit: Another place, local landscaping company, says they have them for $8 or $12, depending on the grade (how worn they are, etc.).
We laid 16 ties down so far, got the first tier and almost all of the second tier done, but not back filled yet. It went better than expected, I didn’t have to change my plans at all, which is unusual. We overlapped at the corners for a stronger hold, and tied the first tier to the second tier as well (rather than just butting up against it) for strength. These things are very much worth the $8/piece that I paid.

None of the things I was worried about posed a problem:
1. chainsaw not cutting through the ties due to creasote- no problem, sliced right through!
2. drill bit (bought a 1/2" auger) wouldn’t drill, were told it would gum up and shred- no problem, drilled right through!
3. measurements/expectations way off- no problem, everything lined up very well!

We didn’t put gravel under the bottom ties, the landscaping guy we bought our stuff from said that it wasn’t necessary if we had a good, hard-packed surface that doesn’t get slushy in rain. We drilled and hammered 18"x1/2" rebar through any ties on the ground, and 12"x1/2" rebar to hold two ties together.

Between 5 of us (including the 2 female spectators/cooks), we went through about 34 beers.

Some crappy cell phone pics:

Looking down hill, the second tier will be getting one more layer or ties

Looking from the bottom, wife and I shoveled all that dirt in there, used an iron rake to distribute/level

Wife’s idea, to move dirt down to the first tier, we built a small dirt ramp for the wheelbarrow. You can also sort of see how the top tie of the first tier is incorporated into the bottom ties of the second tier:

Getting dirt to the lower portion, I used a board as a ramp to get the wheelbarrow high enough to dump. Notice the interlocking corner, and the hole left for the French drain.

Here is my original Google Sketch Up drawing (first time using this program, it’s neat). The lines representing the railroad ties are not the correct size, and the ramp was just a general idea of where I’d like to add the steps, if we go that route. But we stayed pretty darn close to the original measurements, give or take 9" (the width of one tie).

I’m hoping Ida doesn’t wash out a lot of the remaining dirt.
No deadmen or cribbing?

This is how you build a railroad tie wall that will last.

this is the wall before it was backfilled, notice all the tie backs/ tie ins

different wall

I can’t see photobucket at work, but no deadmen (not sure what cribbing is). I’m purposely keeping all walls under 3′, I was told by several people and read many sources that said it wasn’t necessary unless it was over 3′ high.
cribbing ties the deadmen together behind the wall, deadmen without cribbing don’t do very much because only the pressure above them is acting upon them, building the wall like that the dead men will only keep the wall from leaning forward. The cribbing keeps the wall in place.

As for anything under 4′ not needing deadmen, I dont know about that. Anything over 3 ties high (18") we use dead men and crib every other if its not going up that high.

Even though your walls may be only 3′ high each wall is holding up not only the soil behind it but the wall above that one and the soil behind it. I come across it a lot, guys will try and get around having an engineer look over the plan (or most don’t even have a plan for the walls) by building it with two smaller walls with some space in between them. I’m sure your wall will be find but I wanted to contribute to the general knowledge here about this subject.

If I were you since you are to far along to add the proper support I would dig down to your second from the top tie in the corner and toe nail in a tie on a 45? angle across the corner about 2′-3′ from the corner to the center. also in your corners drill some small weep holes in each tie to help out with any pressure from the water behind it.

I’m sure your wall will be find but I wanted to contribute to the general knowledge here about this subject. I see a lot of walls that do not stand the test of time, because of poor design, install and just sometimes using the wrong material.

For example here is a job we did about 5 years ago, we did the two walls that run towards the right of the photo, the other walls that run the other direction (three of them) were built by another company. In the course of 5 years the bottom wall has fallen over twice and has been rebuilt one other time when we pointed out it was going to fall over again. The two walls on top are also probably going to fall over soon. Why? because they thought they could get away with retaining a 15′ elevation change with 3- 5′ walls built out of blocks designed to edge a garden. And the home owners have opted to take the cheapest route each time.

For the drainage, I’m going to go back and dig up 6" of fill behind the wall perpendicular to the house and install a French drain, rather than using weep holes. Or do you think it could use both?

Also, you say that "each wall is holding up not only the soil behind it but the wall above that one and the soil behind it", reference this pic (I don’t think I posted it earlier):

This is how the ground was prior to the project, which continues up the side of the house to the driveway at roughly the same grade. I could build my second tier wall without having the 1st (lower) tier wall there at all, and the height would still the same, which leads me to believe that the 1st tier is not holding up the 2nd tier at all. Is that correct?

(if it isn’t clear, I’m not trying to be argumentative, just trying to get more info)

Could you explain this in more detail? I’m not sure what "toe nail" means here. Are you essentially saying make a triangle to the corner? And what would be the best way to affix it to the ties at that angle?

where is the drain going to drain to? I would run it along the house at the height of the original grade, then run it along that center wall ( the one that runs perpendicular to the house) then right up against the tie on the outside wall and either plunge cut a hole for the pipe to pass through the wall or go under the wall and then run it out away from the wall until it becomes above grade (hard to explain) Use a 4" perforated pipe (the thin white PVC they sell at home depot will work but I would go with SDR 35 green pipe)

Back fill the trench with clean gravel and use landscape fabric between the soil and gravel, come up to 6" below the top of the wall fold the fabric over the gravel and cover with soil.

Do the same on the lower wall, run it against the house then along the bottom wall, end it the same way as the top. It may be over kill but you will never have a water issue in this area.

yes and no, the pressure from the middle wall (the one perpendicular to the house) is transfered to the soil in front of it. yes the wall itself is displacing some of that pressure, however without dead men and cribbing holding the wall back its not as strong as it could be, like I said before your project is so small I’m sure it will be fine.

yes. and on the out side wall nail into the cross piece or get some long screws designed for railroad ties.

How I would run your pipe (of course give it a slight pitch) Red being your walls green being the pipe.

detail of fabric and gravel

how to run the pipe into grade (of course you can run it into the woods so its not in the middle of your lawn.

some actual pics of the drainage behind a wall. These walls were over 8′ high so the drainage field behind them was much wider. you only need 4"-6" wide of gravel.

wow this is beautiful!!!

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I have a farm cat named Toto that my boyfriend has had since she was born. This cat’s mother was huge and in turn, Toto is also huge. Toto is an indoor cat, so she doesn’t have much activity. Two years ago, my boyfriend and I moved in and now Toto lives in our new house.

For Toto’s whole life, she was fed Friskie’s wet food. She would not eat dry food, according to my boyfriend. For the first year, we were feeding her Friskies, but we noticed that she was just getting too fat and we were worried for her health. So we started to buy different diet foods and giving them a try for a few weeks at a time. Toto seemed very receptive to all forms of wet and dry food. At one point, we bought some holistic food that had carrots and potatoes. Toto would stare at us for a few minutes before eating that stuff, as if to say "seriously, wtf". Regardless of what we tried or how much we played with her, she was lazy, fatigued, and getting fatter and fatter.

One day, I took a look at a Fancy Feast can at the grocery store and noticed 2% crude fat, 78% moisture, and 0.05% Taurine on the nutritional label, which is the best nutritional label of all the food we tried. Some of the diet food we tried with the same nutritional %’ages did not work.

Magically, Toto now ferociously eats her Fancy Feast every day. She eats a little bit of diet dry food too. It has been two months since we’ve started feeding her Fancy Feast, and her coat is incredibly soft and doesn’t get in huge knots anymore. She is 300% more active and playful all on her own. She has also lost a little bit of weight. Her sides look quite a bit less swollen.

I am shocked an appalled that this cat has not had the opportunity to be this healthy her whole life and I am beginning to wonder why Friskies had her in such a sad state of affairs. Even all these expensive diet foods didn’t do the trick. Something so common as Fancy Feast was the answer, surprisingly.

Cliffs:
-cat eats Friskies her whole life and is lazy and fat
-cat gets fed Fancy Feast and within two months is active, healthy, and has a very soft coat

Have any of you had similar experiences with Friskies or Fancy Feast? Any thoughts on the quality of either food?

Update: I bought two cans of the Blue Buffalo Wilderness wet food (turkey and chicken) for my cat Toto to try. She devoured it with a vengeance. I will keep buying it and see how it goes.

Pictures of Toto:

I wouldnt feed your cats either. I wouldnt feed your cats wet food, I never have. It is bad for their teeth.

If you feel the need to, I would stay away from both of those brands. They are generic grocery store brand and the equivalent of feeding your child McDonald’s for every meal. I would look into Iams, Eukanuba, and Nutro. Those foods are better quality and will improve the health of your pet.
I totally agree with Felixx, but with Petsmart now carrying Blue Buffalo, there’s no reason not to feed that. It ended up costing us significantly less than feeding our Siamese Royal Canin and it has all-human-grade ingredients, and they’re all real stuff and not fillers. We too have a picky, huge, used-to-be overweight siamese. He now has more energy than he used to (meaning that he’s more active indoors) and likes to squabble with our 65lb Malamute mix. Perry gets a mixture of 4 parts Indoor formula mixed with 1 part wilderness and goes nuts for it. Cats need a certain amount of fat for healthy skin and coats, and 2% isn’t enough for them. Wet food also gives them tartar buildup on their teeth and smells bad/creates a great deal of stinky waste.

FYI- the best way to get your cat to lose weight is to feed it less.

An honest question: Where do you base this statement on? What makes this food unhealthy?

Friskies clearly is not healthy for my cat. But since I’ve fed my cat Fancy Feast she is more active, her coat is incredibly soft, and she is losing weight. How then can this food be bad for her if all these positive signs are appearing?

Thanks Laurel. My cat has had very bad breath recently, and now I know this could be why.

The reason why the cat was on wet food was because my boyfriend’s parents (previous owners) told us she would not eat anything else. She does eat dry food with us, hower. Maybe she changed with age and the parents never noticed.

We do not exclusively feed her wet food. She gets a little less than a handful of dry food as well, two times a day.

What dry food do you use and what portions? I cannot follow the instructions on the packages, because they go by the weight of the cat. If we fed her that much dry food, she would probably explode. I don’t think the instructions apply to overweight cats.

I would like to try a dry food that you suggest, but I am hesitant since she has never had this much energy since the Fancy Feast. I would be very sad to see her go back to her old state. However, if you have had success with your cat, I would be willing to give it a shot.

x 10000

We never feed our cat wet food. For kicks we tried to give her some and she won’t eat it. Why? She was never raised on it so she doesn’t care about it. My mom used to feed my old cat that wet food all the time and she developed all kinds of kidney problems. It is just too rich for cats (this is what the vet told my mom so take it with a grain of salt).

When you are looking for cat food, ignore the brands, ignore everything but the ingredients. The first ingredient should be chicken or some kind of meat. If it isn’t, don’t buy it. If the first ingredient is corn, defiantly don’t get it, it is all filler bull.

Right now we feed all our cats and dog Kirkland brand dry food from costco. The first ingredient is always meat. The price is actually cheaper then buying the crap at the super market full of corn and god knows what.

The animals love it and are healthy.
Daria – this is the ingredients list for Fancy Feast
Brewers rice, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), ground yellow corn, soybean meal, animal liver flavor, fish, shrimp, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, natural and artificial flavors, potassium chloride, salt, brewers dried yeast, choline chloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red 40 and other color), natural filet mignon flavor, zinc sulfate, taurine, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite

I’ll go over the first several ingredients considering that they’re really what makes up the food.

Brewers rice is useless and not particularly good for your cat. It’s a by-product of the brewing industry and used because it’s a cheap filler.

Beef Tallow if cow fat, not the most healthy of fats (saturated)

Soybean meal – Soy is problematic and causes allergic reactions in many animals

My guess regarding why your cat is losing weight is a result of not getting decent nutrition. If you ate a hamburger and then a bag full of cardboard each day, you’d lose weight too. It doesn’t mean that it’s a healthy way to lose the weight.

I feed my cat Blue Buffalo. It’s HUMAN GRADE products. Here is the ingredients list of the "indoor" formula, but they also have a weight loss formula which may be good for you.

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Ground Barley, Fish Meal, Oatmeal, Whole Ground Brown Rice, Whole Potatoes, Chicken Fat (preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols), Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg, Dried Cellulose, Whole Sweet Potatoes, Whole Carrots, Cranberries, Blueberries, Flaxseed (natural source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Barley Grass, Dried Parsley, Alfalfa Meal, Kelp Meal, Taurine, L-Carnitine, L-Lysine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Green Tea Extract, Turmeric, Salmon Oil (natural source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Black Malted Barley, Dried Chicory Root, , Oil of Rosemary, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin C, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Beta-Carotene, Calcium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Folic Acid, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Calcium Chloride, Zinc Amino Acid Complex (source of Chelated Zinc), Iron Amino Acid Complex (source of Chelated Iron,) Copper Amino Acid Complex (source of Chelated Copper), Manganese Amino Acid Complex (source of Chelated Manganese), Potassium Amino Acid Complex (source of Chelated Potassium), Cobalt Proteinate (source of Chelated Cobalt), Potassium Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Salt, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bacillus subtilis, Bifidobacterium thermophilum, Bifidobacterium longum, Enterococcus faecium.

Deboned Chicken – I eat this, I have no problems with my cat eating it.
Chicken Meal – Basically dried chicken, ground up
Whole Ground Barley – a good whole grain that doesn’t produce allergic reactions in pets. I’d eat barley.
Fish Meal – Just like chicken meal, just dried fish that’s ground up
Oatmeal – good grain, lots of fibter
Whole Ground Brown Rice – once again, great whole grain
Whole potatoes – healthy starch, skins are full of vitamins
Chicken fat – not too bad for the cat
Flavor – ??
Dried Egg – lots of protein

Look at how much you’re feeding your cat also. I have a 17lb (not fat anymore, just loose hangy skin) Siamese. He has a big frame and that’s just how he’s built, he doesn’t have extra junk in the trunk. He eats 1/3 of a cup in the morning and 1/3 of a cup in the afternoon. He’s healthy and has a high energy level. Feeding less food also decreases the amount of poop that the animal creates. The reason I’m able to feed so little is because the food is nutrient-dense. There aren’t cheap/useless/damaging fillers in the food.

I switched him over from Royal Canin Siamese Blend about a month ago and the cat’s constantly dry, sort of flaky skin went away also, I assume he was having a reaction to something (probably the corn) in the Royal Canin. The Blue Buffalo is also cheaper per pound, and I feed the same amount.
Just give them dry food. They’ll cry and complain for a while, but they’ll eat it when they feel the hunger set in.
thank you very much Laurel. I will try to find this brand and try it out on Toto. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I feed our cats the high quality line of food from Nutro. They were on the dry food for a long time, but one of the females ended up with FLUTD (feline urinary tract disease) that was being caused by her dry diet, low water intake, and one of the other cats being a shithead to her all the time. On the vets suggestion (after a $239 visit), we switched them all to wet food, so I went from Nutro dry to Nutro wet.

Nutro seems to be one of the higher quality brands of cat food out there.

You can do a search on their site for retailers. Petsmart recently began carrying their products and as far as I’ve found locally, they severely undercut the smaller shops in price and have a much larger selection.

I’m not saying to only buy this type, but look at the ingredients. Also look at the serving guides (I just feed the largest cat serving amount) If it’s not a whole grain, or is corn, soy, etc, make sure that it’s not in the top ingredients.

did any of your cats have weight problems?

for Toto, the vet recommended mixing the wet food with the dry food and adding a bit of water to the mix, just to make sure she gets enough moisture in her diet.

The vet also recommended a water fountain for the cat, if she’ll take to it, to encourage her to drink more water.
She took to that and I THINK it’s working. Lots of huge cat pee lumps in the litter.

I think what I’ll do is try out the blue buffalo dry food to see if she’ll eat it and make sure she doesn’t get sick or have diarrhea (of course she may have some at first). I’ll also have to try to introduce a more healthy wet food.

Edit: I’ve checked out the wet food from Blue Buffalo and the fat is 5.5% and the moisture is 78%, on top of the good ingredients, so I will try to ease Toto into the wet food and mix it in with the dry.

The one that developed FLUTD has always been a little on the pudgy side, but every time we’ve had her at the vet we’re told that she’s still in a healthy weight range.

Toto looks like she ate 3 chickens.
I thought that some wet food was necessary for cats because they don’t drink enough water on their own. in the wild their ancestors would get a fair bit of their fluid intake from prey. This is what the vet told me.
Some cats need to have wet food because they don’t drink enough water. Many cats have healthily adapted to dry food and consume plenty of water.
My mom got her cats a water fountain bubblier thing and they love it. They do seem to drink more water from it.

However, my cat hated it.

not laughing at your comment but laughing thinking about my cat. she’s definitely not one of those healthily adapted cats. I wish I would have had her as a kitten

my in-laws’ other cat is so afraid of it. she won’t even go in the kitchen when it’s on. Toto is drinking more water now that we have one though.
My cat is really skinny and a pretty light eater. No matter what food I get he always just sits in front of his bowl pulling one piece of food out at a time but never eating much. My cat also won’t eat in the morning unless some one is standing next to him. He has tons of energy and is always moving. Any ideas on what I should get him so he will eat more?

I’d get him a high calorie food. I totally don’t sell blue buffalo, but I’ve had only great experiences with their product line. Their Wilderness line is very high protein (designed for active kitties) which should be good. I’m not sure about other foods, but BB has calorie content listed on the back somewhere. I’d just get the highest calorie food you can find. You could also try pouring something tasty that the cat likes, such as chicken stock or something over the food.

If I put chicken stock on his food should I stick with low sodium? On another note how bad is it for him to have human food like raw meat every now and then.

raw meat is fine. Make sure it’s chicken or beef though, pork can cause problems if it’s not frozen for long enough at low enough of a temperature. You’d want to use low sodium. If the cat likes meat, look into implementing a raw diet, there’s a ton of information on the net about them.

Ingredients. It’s all about the ingredients. If you were to take an agriculture dictionary and compare it to the ingredients of the food found in generic brands, you would be absolutely sick to find out what you are feeding your pet. They put road kill, scraps off the factory floor, and dead farm animals in some of that food.

I had to take some pet nutrition classes a few years back when I was working in a pet store and because of that I will never buy a generic food for my pet again.

You can put bacon grease on the food, take the water from a can of tuna, or anything else that doesnt add much extra to the food but will improve taste and smell that could make it more attractive to them.

Nutro is a fantastic food. It is one of the highest rated foods in regards to nutrition by ounce and the amount of stool produced.
Back when I had my Siamese cats, their diet consisted of meat cereal whenever they wanted it (Royal Canin), Fancy Feast when they asked for it, lots of grass (which I never saw them throw up, interestingly), and all the fresh meat they could catch. They were the happiest goddamned cats on Earth.

EDIT: As an interesting side note, apparently grass doesn’t make cats puke; it actually settles their stomachs. The reason they usually puke after eating grass is because they already weren’t feeling well, and the fiber didn’t go to work fast enough. My cats ate grass every day, and they never had any problems. (Except the one time they ate Easter basket grass by mistake.)

this is totally false. Dry food is actually bad for their teeth as it builds up on their teeth. cats really ened to have their teeth brushed to avoid tarter buildup. My cat has been on wet food her entire life and has 1 solid poop a day and it’s not stinky.

not really. Nutro is medium grade…but it’s good for the price. Innova and other foods like that are better, but they are only sold at specialty pet stores and more money. I feed my cat Wellness and it costs $30-40 a month to feed her.

The thing about the buildup is interesting, I’ve always read that the dry food abrades plaque and tartar helping to reduce buildup.

My comment about the stinky waste was not in regards to poop, but the actual waste produced by packaging of the wet food.

there are tons of articles to the contrary and why all cats should have wet food. Most cats swallow their food whole, so the chewing action doesn’t do anything. There are some chews, like C.E.T. that are larger so they will reduce plaque.

I know what you mean about the can…it is a pain.
Yeah, that logic fails when there are no bones involved. Cats like to crunch on the bones for a reason.

I know that isnt true. I have owned many cats in my life and have never once fed them wet food. Their teeth are always in great shape even at old age and hardly any buildup.

On the other hand, my mom feeds her cats a diet consisting of mainly wet food and their teeth are in bad shape by the time they are middle aged.

The dry food is hard and when they bite into it is creates friction on the teeth helping scrape off any plaque or other build up. Wet food obviously doesnt do that.
Yeah i’ve never had a vet tell me to give my cat wet food. I have had them tell me to not do it though due to kidney issues.

google it…read the articles. Cats swallow dry food whole unless it’s the larger dry food formulated for dental issues. Dental stuff is usually genetics…your cats just got lucky/unlucky I guess. according to the articles one food is not better than the other.

I dont need to Google it. I am basing this off my own experience, advice from my vet, and pet nutritional classes I have sat through.

My cats also chew their food. One of my cats actually takes a few morsels of the dry food out of the bowl, chews them into very, very tiny pieces, and then swallows them.

most vets don’t know much about pet nutrition as they aren’t taught much in school. Vet schools are sponsored by Hill’s Science Diet food and most vets push that food in their offices and if you look at the ingredients…it’s really crap food (except for the fact that they have good Rx food).

I spent about thirty minutes looking at all the labels of all the food at Petsmart a few weeks ago. I was looking for cat food that was high in protein, water content, and as-free-as-possible of fillers like rice and vegetables.

The way I see it, cats in the wild would eat birds and mice, so they should be eating as close as possible to that diet. They aren’t getting that in dry food, because dry food by it’s nature can’t be mostly meat. Plus cats don’t drink water on a regular basis, they expect it from their food.

I chose Fancy Feast because it had the least amount of fillers and wasn’t very expensive. The Fancy Feast chicken variety pack labels look nothing like the labels you quoted. Their fish cans do look very different, though, and maybe that’s what it was.

I found the Fancy Feast ingredients to be closer to what I was looking for than any of the more expensive organic or "human grade" wet foods, and much cheaper as well. I don’t remember if my Petsmart carried Blue Buffalo or not, but it sounded familiar and I think that was one of the foods that I examined.

So are you telling me beef jerky can’t be mostly meat because it is dried?

Dry food can be mostly meat, nothing prevents it from being so be it dry or not. One HAS to look at the ingredients listed. The food I feed my cats, which is dry, is mostly meat (chicken, not chicken meal). The protein content of said dry food is also high. Something doesn’t have to be wet for it to have this or that ingredient, with the exception of water.

Wild cats do not equal domesticated cats. If you mean feral cats, they drink water. Even if their primary method was though food, cats are highly adaptive. It won’t hurt them to get water via water bowl instead of water via food.

What will hurt them is crap food though. If you like Fancy feast, then cool beans, as long as you know what you are putting into your animals. In the end, that is what really matters.

How long has the cat been eating like this?

I will update the first post.

I think my Toto spits out the bones. I’ve found some bones in Friskies before, but I only found them after I fed the can to Toto and noticed little white chips at the bottom of her dish. All the food was out of her dish, except for the little white chips. After that, I looked more closely at the Friskies food and found more white chips. I don’t know how she manages to spit out those tiny chips. When she eats, it’s like she’s inhaling the food

what?

Nailed it

I don’t get it

From the Office. Andy messed up the Kit Kat Bar jingle.

Yes, Science Diet is crap. It isnt any better than any generic food other than the prescription diets. I live in the Kansas City area where Hill’s is located so it is pushed pretty big here. I see a Hill’s truck about every single day.

My vet is well-versed in pet nutrition but I know some that arent. I have actually corrected my mother’s vet before in regards to pet food which I find sad. They should be experts in that area IMO.

Not all rice and vegetables are fillers. Brown rice and whole grains are a necessary part of any cat’s diet, as are vegetables which give them much needed fiber, vitamins, and minerals. If you want to compare "in the wild" feeding behavior (which is really quite far from a domestic animal’s needs), they eat animals that consume vegetable matter, and as a result, while eating the animal (they eat most of the digestive tract), they consume partially digested vegetable matter which gives them the vitamins and minerals that they need.

My cat has eaten like this his entire life.

How are the dietary needs of a domestic cat different than a wild cat?

Good point on the food being in their stomach. However, wouldn’t they get the same vitamins and minerals from the flesh of the animal with an empty stomach without partially digested food?

I’ve heard the quote before that everything a human body needs is in a human body. Meaning, eating human flesh is supposedly the best food for a person. It’s made up of everything we need. Wouldn’t that be true of a cat’s prey?

ok that’s good. I was just concerned that if he has been only eating like this recently he might be sick.

some people feed their domestic cats whole prey and their cats are healthier. I frequest and there is a raw food forum. This way of feeding is time consuming and messy though. the cat has to get every part of the prey to have a balanced meal, as different parts have different nutrients. The bones help their teeth.

Food (wet or dry) has to have more than just meat to be wholly nutritional…most will have some grain, a vitamine mix and some fruit. The fruit is usually to aid in urinary health. Some cats (mostly males) can get very painful urinary issues. Cats that have had these issues are better off on wet food because of the water content.

The bottom line is to feed your cat a balance of what they like and what is good for them. If you have an awesome food that your cat won’t eat than who cares? Cats are finiky. I feed nutro dry to supplement wellness wet because my cat loves nutro dry and it’s cetified for UTI health (even though nutro isn’t the best dry brand by itself). She also loves wellness but I stay away from fish flavers because of her urinary issues, and she hates the turkey flavor.

I watch my cat like a hawk because he did once have a urinary blockage and he seems to be fine.

Yeah, cats can get major UTI issues, especially males. I actually had a cat die from a urinary tract infection.

Their urethra’s are very narrow and can easily clog. Using the scoopable cat litter than produces lots of dust can cause a lot of problems with it as well.

it’s VERY serious is males and less so in females. My vet told me that in males a UTI can cause a blockage in a matter of hours and kill a cat very quickly…in females it’s less urgent and a slower process and a lot harder to get an actual blockage.

Just imagine how narrow their urethra has to be and it is easy to see how it can happen. Anytime my cats start showing any signs, I am off the vet ASAP.
K not to rebump an old topic but wanted to post that I changed my mind about not giving a cat wet food.

Now I do give my cat some wet food but only a little amount (1.5 ounces which is half a little can). I put in a teaspoon of powered kitten milk (full of vitamins and protein plus it makes her coat super soft and shiny).

Still always check the can. Avoid wet food with a lot of ash or other fillers. I went with Fancy Feast in the little 3 ounce cans because it seems to have a good mix up ingredients and my cat loves it.

Whatever she doesn’t eat I put in the fridge in an airlock container and then reheat it later for a few seconds (not burning hot but not cold).

What brought on me feeding her some wet food vs none was she had a period where she stopped eating and drinking water. She then got really sick.

We were able to get her eating again by mixing up her diet with wet/dry food. She also increased her water intake quite a bit.

It all comes down to finding out what your cat likes, giving them good food, and managing their diet.

I wouldn’t re-heat cat food. Put a few tsps. of boiling water to warm it up.

Why not? I put it in the microwave for about 5-7 seconds then stir.
I feed my cat this (I also feed my dog the canine version). It’s about the best dry food that you can buy, and although it’s a bit pricey, I noticed a big improvement in their health and coat after switching them from Science Diet.

If you prefer wet food to dry food, this company also makes a pretty wide selection of wet foods as well which are also of very good quality.
My cat gets a mixture of the blue buffalo wilderness and indoor "spa" mixture, and the dog gets their large breed kibble or a homemade quasi-raw diet. It’s great stuff. They are active and have very nice coats.

lol @ not reheating cat food. Next we’re going to argue about good heat vs. bad heat. It’s heat! It makes things hot. End of story, tune in next week.

I continue to stand by the dry food / raw meat diet I gave my cats. That, and the best thing you can do for them is let them go outside. I don’t care if it’s risky, cats need to prowl. They will not get enough exercise indoors, it doesn’t matter how hard you try. They will get bored with your games and sleep too much. Cats actually don’t sleep much more than humans when they have stuff to do, it’s just that when they’re off doing stuff people don’t notice so they think cats sleep all the time because that’s all they ever see them do when they’re inside.

Do you love fat people too? Are fat people generally happier and healthier than thin people? No? Hmm.

I’ve heard great things about Blue Spa and horrrrible things about Science Diet (I think they’re part of Iams and test on animals in bad ways). It’s not really that expensive. My wet food is like $1.39 a can (ouch) but I buy it buy the case with a 10% discount and then alternate with nutro dry, which is cheaper.

Fat people vary too much to love or hate all fat people as a whole. I love having a funny fat guy at a party, but I certainly hate fat chicks who dress like they aren’t.

But fat cats, they always have an awesome personality and deliver a whole different brand of lulz than what your normal cat offers. I’ve taken care of a lot of cats in my life, and the fat cats generally seem to be just as happy and healthy as their skinnier brothers and sisters.

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I’m just talking about inside the firebox itself up to the damper leading to the flue, not the chimney or the outside of the fireplace.
There has to be a way to replace single bricks… Can’t just replace an entire brick fireplace if one gets cracked in an accident or something.

I’d keep asking around.

you can its just a pain in the ass and there is no easy way to do it, and if most of them are cracked you may as well replace them all.
so, i had an actual mason take a look at it and he said it isn’t worth it to fix it. it is in good shape and the work involved in redoing the inside is pretty complicated. he said replacing single bricks would end up causing more trouble than just leaving it and even pointing it will make an incredible mess in the house.
So what do you do? Just not fix it? Can’t use the fireplace?

I’ve got similar issues in my fireplace and was wondering how much it would cost to fix…
have it inspected…fixing a fireplace is very expensive

no, to be more clear, the mason said it was unnecessary. the fireplace had seen a lot of use over its life and was still in good shape.

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I have one at 24.99% that I’m trying to pay off. Never was late or missed. Long story why it’s that high but it won’t be an issue for much longer.

Other than that 15% is a good number to aim for in GENERAL. Obviously you can get 0% transfer or 0% introductory for a year or 20% with tons of "perks/benefits".

ps: Unless you are paying off your balance every month, points/perks/benefits are almost never worth it. Hence why they do it.
call and see if they’ll lower it before you worry too much, my experience is that credit card companies can usually do better if you have a good payment record but will try to see if you care if they raise it.
Here’s a thought: Don’t buy sh&t you can’t afford
you by any chance a USAA member or eligible to become one?

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After 9-10 years of use though, it’s starting to get worn out. The back cushions need new stuffing/foam, and something in the springs came loose. I love the couch so much though, I really want to just have it re-stuffed, repaired, and maybe reupholstered, and keep using it rather than buying a new one.
your best bet is to actually go out to a furniture store… I mean, I know normally you get better deals online, but by the time you pay for shipping and whatnot you’re not going to get a much better deal. And if you get it and decide you don’t like it, you’re pretty much screwed because shipping it back for a return will destroy any money you’ve saved by buying it online.

I found my couch and loveseat at a going out of business furniture store for $800… went in looking for a coffee table, sat down to take a rest and fell in love with the couches. I am repeatedly told how they are amazingly nice couches… and they are sometimes more comfortable to sleep on then my bed. Overstuffed microfiber…
Mine is New Vintages by Bernhardt, but I guess they don’t sell this style anymore (or that only describes the fabric, not the style, I’m not sure).

Listen to r3j3ct though, with the slow economy furniture stores are always have huge sales.
furniture stores are pissing me off all of the couches they have look really flashy and are uncomfortable but I think its because I live in miami
If you’re still looking, I have a microfiber sectional couch that is by far the most comfortable couch I’ve ever sat on. It’s almost 30" deep and it is perfect for sleeping on. I frequently sleep on it overnight rather than moving to bed because it is just that comfortable. Plenty of room for 2 to lay side by side on the left side (in the pic below). I’ve had 2 visiting friends sleep on it for a week multiple times and they had no complaints.

Try searching ebay for "Microfiber Sectional", they have some that are VERY similar to this one on there for under $1000

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