Category: Animal House
Hey Ya'll! Haven't been here for a while--life got busy... and it's about to get even busier, as next weekend, I'm moving about 3 hours away... and am quite excited about this! (better transportation/etc!) so I can't wait! so I had a few questions: my cat, Sara, has gained a few pounds; I've tried to play with/exersize her everyday... but still. now that it's been hot these past few days, she hasn't really been eating/wanting to play just because of how hot it's been; she's nibbling on her food, and she's drinking out of her fountain that I got her a few months ago a little, too... she still drinks out of the sink lol... but anyways; since I'm going to be relocating, the food that I'm buying her now is dry food, and it's a healthyer type of brand, needless to say, that I looked up the closest store to me, and it's 45 minutes away, and this food is quite expensive... so I was/am contemplating switching her food... I was talking to a few friends, and they told me to ballence out her diet, like give her wet/dry food, and alternate with it... my Grandpa's girlfriend recommended me a few brands to me as far as food to switch her too, because I really don't wanna pay the $$$ for her food, and I don't wanna go 45 minutes out of my way to the healthy petstore, when I have a PetCO right across the street, and I can just take the transportation service over there.. so any thoughts/suggestions/types of food recommendations you can recommend/any advice you can give would be appreciated... PS: the last time Saras weight was checked, she was about 9 LBS... and the food I feed her now is Kahutes brand and the brand(S) that my Grandfather's girlfriend recommended to me to possibly try on Sara are Meow mix for the dry food, and fancy feast for the wet... thanks for any help/advice ya'll can give me!
Amber
We feed Science Diet to our cats.. they've done well on it. If you're going to switch kitty's food, make sure that it takes place over a period of time... put half old food and half new food in her bowl and over a couple of weeks reduce the amount of old food until kitty is eating exclusively new food.
Also, 9lbs is generally not overweight for a cat... did your vet advise you to switch food?
Kate
Fancy Feast is full of preservatives and artificial flavors and coloring. You should have someone read labels to you and pick brands where the first ingredient is meat or fish and avoid what are called animal byproducts. I've never had a finicky cat so have never had problems switching foods, but I know some cats are finicky. I agree about always providing at least some canned food rather than all dry food. Some brands have formulas for overweight cats, although 9 pounds doesn't sound overweight to me. If your cat is kept indoors, there are formulas for indoor cats also that have fewer calories. If your cat is ten years old or older, there are also brands for older cats. Just use common sense and you should be OK.
Hey guys! Thanks for all the help/suggestions, I'll keep that in mind when switching her food.. thanks for the tip on fancy feast, too, I appreciate it... No, the vet didn't advize it, I'm just doing it because her food now costs about $50 a bag, and I don't really wanna pay shipping online, cause $50+tax is going to be expensive, and I'd rather just go across the street, and get the food at PetCo, because it would also save me from going 45 minutes out of my way to the store which has it. That's what I figured, that 9 LBS was okay for a cat... but I am just making sure lol... I'm going to Petco tomorrow, and am going to look at some food brands tomorrow, and we'll see what I find. I'm sure the folks at petco will have some suggestions for me, as well, if I really have trouble picking out a food brand that isn't full of crap and byproducts like most are... if anyone has anymore suggestions, please let me know! Thanks!
Amber
Oh, and another thing, Kate, when Sara came home from the shelter, she was bought home on Adult Science Diot; cause she's 2 (she'll be 3 in July) just thought it was interesting that your feeding your cats science diot cause that's what Sara used to be on; the adult version though... but we switched her food to this brand, cause it was a little more healthyer, but it is more expensive, so I'm trying to avoid the more expensive foods, and buy her food that isn't filled with crap/coloring/artificial flavors/etc.....
Science Diot is one of the premium food brand. In any case, it will be much much way better than supermarket brands like Fancy Feast etc. If you want to go something natural, try Felidae for cat, sister brand for Canidae, which is a grain free food for dog. I think, beside your budget, what you need to consider is the quality of health and life for your cat. At the end of the day, if you have a cat that eat cheap food, and end up sick or have a poor health, you might need to spend more money on vet and other stuff than on healthy food itself.
I also found that Felidae is quite reasonable price, as far as super premium grain free natural cat food is concern.
Hey! Thanks so much for your suggestion! Yeah I completely agree--I'd definitely want to feed her something she'll like, and that's good for her--cause like you said, it's better to get her a good food then have to go to the vet and spend $$$ because she's sick or whatever from the unhealithy food... thanks for the food suggestion.. she only likes grain free stuff--I tried giving her treats with grain once--when I first got her, cause I wasn't sure what kinda treats she'd like, so I tried many kinds, but needless to say that when I gave her the treat that was with the grain, she smelled it, and walked away, and didn't like like it--if I remember correctly, she licked it, too, and wanted nothing to do with it lol. The treats I give her--and the ones she loves are Whisker Lickin' those are her favorites! I'll definitely have to look at that food brand, then! if anyone else has anymore recommendations, please don't hesitate to jump in with them here!
Thanks
Amber
Blue Buffalo has a grain free formula too. Ifyou want to try canned foods, many companies, includingBlue Buffalo, have 3 ounce cans in addition to the larger 5 ounce cans. If I were you, I'd try the smaller cans and different flavors to see what she likes before buying more.
I make my own dog food now, and my own cat food, I use the same recipe for both, and supplement the dog with dog appropriate vitamins and the cats with cat appropriate vitamins, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to make a weeks worth of food, and it costs around 100 to 120 a month to feed 2 labs and 2 cats when before we were spending around 240 on cat and dog food.
If anyone wants to know more contact me off here at kittycatforever0214@gmail.com or skype chat kittycatforever
Science Diet actually isn't better than most of the supermarket stuff. if you read the label, it's still full of grains and vegetable matter which cats can't digest as they are obligate carnivores, and contains a low meat content and lots of meal and bi-products. i wouldn't waste my money on it.
Cats have a very reduced thirst drive as they are naturally desert animals, so giving them wet food and only minimal dry is quite important. Dry food has been linked with kidney issues, struvite crystals, obesity and diabetes in cats if you need any more reasons to avoid it.
If you want a good food, then get something wet with a high meat percentage and no grains.
As far as convenience goes, I'm sorry, but if you have a pet, you have responsibility for that pet, and convenience comes second to feeding it a high quality, species appropriate diet.
Hey guys! Thanks for the responces! I'm now feeding her Natral Ballence both dry and wet--per the vets recommendation--she said it was an excellent idea to feed her wet food. she seems to love it, so and+ natral ballence was the food she recommended.
what a interesting topic and a helpful one too, smiles.
I'm glad you've found some thing for your cat and that she or he is enjoying it, smiles.
Thanks! I have another question: Sara (my cat) when I give her the wet food--if I don't get the food in the middle of her dish, she won't eat it.. she like won't grab it from the sides of the bowl..I'll have to like scoop it out of the middle of the bowl, so that she can eat it... cause if I don't she'll leave a huge pile.... on the side of the bowl.. she likes when it's all broken up, too.. I find that if I smash it with a spoon, it helps to break up the big chunks, too... does anyone's cats do this? and if so, what's your solutions to fixing this so that they'll eat the entire half of the can? I've tried a little water, too with it, but still... I can eventually get her to eat it, once she realizes it's not all smooshed up near the edges of the dish.... I even tried putting it on a paperplate, suggested by someone I know... she told me she does it with her cats... but I don't know... she still didn't finish it. but otherwise, she loves her wet food when its not all in chunks lol!
I usually break up the wet food to small bits for my cat. Cat got very small mouth and they are not very good at picking up big chunks of food. Thats why you can see, with dry cat food, its also in a very small bits compare to say, the dog food. My cat can finish the whole small can in a setting, provided if i break up to bits for him. If not, he rarely touch it and only eat the bits tat he can get to it. With wet food though, i found that is better to give it in small serve, rather than a big serve. At least, in this case, you are making sure that you cat is eating each time, and also, you won't have any left over dried wet food. It is hard to clean, and the cat won't eat it either.
try to use a fork to smash it. When i lived back with my family, we mixed warm water with it just enough to get it kind of thin for the puppies to get use to eating it then slowly left it more and more chunky. Try to use a bowl that doesn't have corners, even in the bottom part. You can find bowls that are perfectly rounded out. This might help. They sell rubber mats, or you could use a cookie sheet, and put the food on it, maybe this would get your cat more space but I think a rounded out bowl might work fine.
Agreed. We have three cats, and they will not eat anything in big bits... even things like turkey and tuna that they all love.
That's weird. My cat loves the canned food and will lick the entire bowl clean no matter where the food falls.
I thought cats being predators would tear things apart and eat them. You're saying, give a cat a piece of meat it won't pounce on it, tear it apart and eat it?
How do they eat mice then?
just curious. Never heard of this before.
I think in the wild wild world they need to. But in a domestic pet setting, they got spoil rotten and refuse to eat but the best.
Ah sounds like humans. Only spoiled humans can in fact tear things apart and break them. Hmm.
LOL Mr. Crazy set out tuna for our three cats yesterday. One of them went stupid crazy, doing a kitty happy dance at the prospect of tuna; another one was just happy to eat it; the third was quite curious about it, sniffed it, and huffily walked away.
Go figure,
Kate
Thanks guys! I'll definitely try that... ah-that explains things... especially if they aren't used to eating things that are in big chunks... I've tried adding water to it, and she licked it up... and then left a huuuuuuuge pile of food in her bowl--did the same thing today... she used to eat the entire thing--I wonder if it makes a differents when using the big cans VS the small cans??? I bought her the big cans, and I've been using those--cause they come in like the 20 pack, instead of getting like 5 cans.... but I don't know... lol... with the smaller can, she ate the whole thing, but with the big can, she'll leave the half can that I give her at the bottom of the bowl/dish... I'll definitely try breaking it up with a fork, though and see what happends. Thanks for your suggestions, guys!
Amber
awe that was funny and no pet cats don't tend to jump or pounce on their bowl of food though they can go crazy when you bring the food out as our one will meow and rub up against your leg.
Our one doesn't eat all his food at once, he eats some and leaves the rest and comes back to eat more when he feels hungry again, smiles.
Here we have the cat meat in pouches which are slightly decreased in size to what a can is so maybe if you have them in your country you could try them out and see how your cat goes with them.
Let us know how you get on.
When you add the water, use a fork to mix the water with the food rather than just having a lake of water and a chunk of food. Use the fork to really break up the food for the cat.
Some ats struggle to get food right at the edges of the bowl. My Persians and Himmies do, but that's because they have flatter faces. It's less of an issue when you smush it down for them as they can lick it out from the edge.
Leo, cats do have the ability to tear things apart, but the instinctual drive to do so isn't there with wet food. I can give one of my girls a big chunk of raw shin beef or a chicken wing and she'll happily chew and eat it (it's great for keeping teeth clean by the way folks), but leave her wet food chunky and she'll go hungry.
If you decide on a wet tinned or pouch food, keeping it in the fridge even before you open the can really helps keep the smell down so it doesn't smell awful when you open it. (You can get one of those plastic lid covers if you buy the larger cans to reseal the cans if you buy larger cans: I think they are about .50c at the pet food store and are dishwasher safe).
good information that has been given out, I like it, smiles.
The problem is trying to find something that's good for the cat, and something you can afford. The cats we adopted were eating Purina Cat Chow for their dry food, and Friskies for their wet, before we got them, and that's about the lowest of low quality cat food. I wanted to switch them to Blue Buffalo, but that's expensive, so now it's Science Diet. It's not as high quality as I'd like, but it seems better than Cat Chow.
fair enough but be careful as I hear that if you switch food to much it can cause them to have issues but at least you've found some thing that isn't to expensive and I'm sure they will enjoy, smiles.
Our one likes friskies dry food but also likes the meat that comes in pouches especially meat ones, smiles.
Whatever food you decide to switch to, make sure you introduce it slowly. Mix it with the other food, and gradually bring the mixture down to only the new food. So at first mix seventy five percent old food twenty five new. Do that for five days, then fifty fifty. Then twenty five seventy five, then all new food. It makes sure their digestive system adjusts to the new food without any bloating, vomiting or diarrhea. I have both a dog and a cat, and I feed them both dry food. Different people will argue for different diets. It is personal preference. Good luck with the move. Also look online to see if you can order the food delivered to your house. Just a thought.
I'm not sure about the original poster, but this is the only food switch I've made with the cats. I had wanted to do Blue Buffalo, but knew I couldn't afford it, so never tried that. wouldn't switch it multiple times. Yes, I introduced the new food slowly, over a period of like ten days. I know it can upset their tummies if you try changing too fast. And yep, already get the food delivered to the house. Ah, the joy of online ordering!
Hey! Yeah I only switched her food once.. and I found out why she wasn't eating her wet food. she didn't like it... she doesn't like the patay flavored food, she likes the food with the gravy in it... she eats the natral balance wet and dry food, she loves the natral balance chicken,fish,etc kinds of wet food.. anything with gravy though, she'll lick the bowl clean lol.. sometimes, I can't even open the can, without Sara going crazy for her food lol.. and I do keep it in the fridge after I use it... and I give her half in the morning, and half at night.
lol awe and yeah ours loves jelly meat and meows at us when we bring out the pouch that contains the meat in it, smiles.