Cat food - what's best?

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#834172 11-Jun-2013 13:39

ajobbins:

We've seen a couple of different vets at the clinic, and while they do sell a range of food there their advice had always been to just feed them whatever they are happiest eating, but keep it in moderation. They advised against some of the budget supermarket brands because they are more 'junk food', but basically said keep a mix of wet and dry and just make sure they are eating the right amount.

They did however advise against an all dry diet, as they are often very carby and it makes the cats fat. Apparently even the premium 'diet' biscuits that they put many overweight cats on just make them fatter.
.

That is basically the advice my vet told me too.

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#834299 11-Jun-2013 16:22

I have tried a varied diet but as all my cats are grazers, the wet stuff just goes gross during the day and they wont touch it if its been out for a while. Sometimes I will give them a single serve packet between all 4 of them so it gets finished but they would much rather go for the dry stuff.

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#836096 12-Jun-2013 23:05

We showed both our Ocicats so needed a nice glossy coat, good health n all other areas etc.

They used to win bags of 'premium' catfoods, Excellence included, but from previous experience with an allergic cat we try and avoid feeding biscuits with a lot of colours in them as they can get an allergy where they puke them up all over the house (messy).

I agree, stick with premium brands such as Purina, Proplan, Hills science dies, Orijem etc - there is a new one called 'Go' and 'Now' which are also meat-based. look for cat foods of either wet or dry that say '100% diet' as they give all the nurtrients your cat will need

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#836494 13-Jun-2013 18:28

mattwnz:
My cats discovered those temptations ....... Have to lock the fridge and doors to stop them breaking in as they can open doors and draws.

LOL. (pictures claw marks all through house..)

Also:

"NZSPCA currently recommends

Biscuits clean the cat’s teeth as it crunches through them."

Sorry, that's a good myth but it doesn't work.

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#2299380 14-Aug-2019 17:53

Opening this topic again after six years hiatus.

I have a 90% Turkish Van of social parentage who is 13½yr (Skipper) and used to be 9.5kg but after developing caries and having approx ¼ of her teeth removed and then developing kidney disease at the same time just over a year ago, she is now around the 5kg. She used to be a quite the guts and when her sister (Captain) was alive we had to put Captains food up as Skipper refused to climb or jump so that worked. Captain was a grazer.

But now post the last tooth clean and extractions the vet wont anaesthetise any more due to poor kidney health. Her water drinking has markedly gone up in the last six months and she prefers only mushy gravy wet food along with Hills j/d Mobility dry.

Unfortunately we acquired these two cats just out of kittenhood and they were already trained on supermarket canned wet food and cheap dry. Managed to get them onto Hills but never onto real meat products, Jimbo's or any real meat products.

Our problem now since loosing all that weight is about twice a week she has a good vomit. This vomit is not her usual fur ball vomit for which she will eat a bit of grass for but only food. She normally has about 3 to 4 85gm cans spread over 18 hr day and takes about 3 goes at each can over a period of ¾ hr. If she has decided to eat her dry then she will only get 2 to 3 85gm cans.

Our previous cat (General) lived to 18yrs and 3mths and had to be euthanised. We acquired her and her sister at 7 days old and for most of her long life had an ongoing bowl of dry with one meal of real meat; kangaroo, chuck steak, kidneys & liver and prior to each meal one Dr Martins Tibbs vitamin tablet for cats. (not made any more) Yell Tibbs and she ran through walls. It wasn't till her final two years she went onto Dine cans due to oral problems.

Note she is in no pain or discomfort and looks after herself very well, mostly eats, sleeps and toilets. Doesn't play anymore, though loves a good ear and head scratch on her terms. She is not a lap cat but is a bed cat at night.

Yes she has us trained. Unlike her predecessor, General, who just went with the flow and was a lap and then bed cat in night.

What is a good mushy food for seniors ? One that is gentle on the tummy. I am presuming a highly soluble protein fibre food that is broken down in the gut would be best. Don't know.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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#2301698 19-Aug-2019 13:32

We reed a RAW diet, cat loves it! Before we fed RAW the cat always use to throw his food up, we tried multiple brands incl vet food but nothing worked..

Switched to a rabbit blend of RAW food based on feral cats and what they would most probably eat. We feed our dogs RAW as well and it makes a massive difference to their health. Cant recommend the stuff enough. All I can say is find a good supplier that uses qualtiy meats and has mixed blends.

Don't listen to the rubbish that adverts feed, cats and dogs are carvivorse, they don't naturally eat fruits or vegetables.

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#2301713 19-Aug-2019 14:22

We cook up a whole chicken for the cat, debone it and break it up into bits and then segment it off and put in the freezer. Also feed it tinned salmon and tuna, as well as meat in those pouches, but they are expensive compared to a whole chicken and tinned fish. Biscuits are only for treats, also because it throws them up. It is over 16 years old and hardly needs to go to the vet, and is an indoor cat.

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#2301742 19-Aug-2019 16:02

We only buy Hills Science Diet and so far they haven' t died., We have 2 spca rescue kittehs

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#2301760 19-Aug-2019 16:38

We used to feed our cat Hill's Science Diet but when the kids came along and we dropped to one income we switched to the lower cost Whiskas and the cat has never complained.

Sometimes we give him the offcuts of red meat which he seems to lap up. He doesn't like gravy though, whenever we've given him leftovers he ignores meat with gravy on it, fussy bast&rd.

I used to go out with a girl who's family had a really nice cat which they fed with rump steak every day. Had the nicest coat and good teeth. I think the cat ate better than the humans some days.

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#2301828 19-Aug-2019 18:35

tardtasticx:
Forgot to mention, keep the cats water and food separate, or offer two choices of water source.

My youngest daughter an animal extraordinaire told me that. Its true

When she was little, as in maybe 5 - 7 I took her up north to Zion Gardens. We went to Kellys Tarltons. The guy was giving a lecture on the LionFish but Sam interjected and took over! Proud as.

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#2301829 19-Aug-2019 18:38

I feed our cats, was 3 now 1, hard food. Good for teeth. She gets offcuts here and there, and soft food here and there, but hard food as in pellets is best for teeth. The brand that has 7 flavours of them. Soft food means dont need teeth. Hard food means need strong teeth.

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#2301833 19-Aug-2019 18:43

pctek:
mattwnz:
My cats discovered those temptations ....... Have to lock the fridge and doors to stop them breaking in as they can open doors and draws.

LOL. (pictures claw marks all through house..)

Also:

"NZSPCA currently recommends

Biscuits clean the cat’s teeth as it crunches through them."

Sorry, that's a good myth but it doesn't work.

Apples clean humans teeth, so hard cat food doesn't?

tdgeek

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#2301834 19-Aug-2019 18:45

psychrn: We showed both our Ocicats so needed a nice glossy coat, good health n all other areas etc.

They used to win bags of 'premium' catfoods, Excellence included, but from previous experience with an allergic cat we try and avoid feeding biscuits with a lot of colours in them as they can get an allergy where they puke them up all over the house (messy).

I agree, stick with premium brands such as Purina, Proplan, Hills science dies, Orijem etc - there is a new one called 'Go' and 'Now' which are also meat-based. look for cat foods of either wet or dry that say '100% diet' as they give all the nurtrients your cat will need

Ocicats, awesome. Are they hard to get? We had 3. Now 1 :-(

tdgeek

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#2301835 19-Aug-2019 18:48

mattwnz:
ajobbins:

We've seen a couple of different vets at the clinic, and while they do sell a range of food there their advice had always been to just feed them whatever they are happiest eating, but keep it in moderation. They advised against some of the budget supermarket brands because they are more 'junk food', but basically said keep a mix of wet and dry and just make sure they are eating the right amount.

They did however advise against an all dry diet, as they are often very carby and it makes the cats fat. Apparently even the premium 'diet' biscuits that they put many overweight cats on just make them fatter.
.

That is basically the advice my vet told me too.

Interesting, I would have thought dry food as we feed is less carb than wet.

There are about 1342 diets for humans. I will check the cats :-)

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#2301942 19-Aug-2019 20:08

I'm feeling a little guilty now. Not only am I feeding the cat low quality Whiskers, his feeding dish is one of those cheap supermarket ones with the water and food beside each other. This is close to his house too (he sleeps on the front porch in a little hut), so he's probably not too happy about that either. I thought he didnt come in the house because of the kids, but maybe it's me?

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