Feeding

[Leanne]

I've decided to keep Jess on the puchy thing of meat in the evenings, and the hills science during the day, but going to give him less. We've not taken him to the vets yet so might take him next week and see what they suggest as well.

Thanks again everyone for your advice and help 

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

  Ela!

[Ela]

Oral diets

When I saw this comment I thought how else is a cat supposed to eat if not orally then it clicked what the topic must be about

[Desley (booktigger)]

Kittybabe - I think vets forget to mention that Oral diets can actually be higher in calories than normal dry (Hills is, I dont know bout RC), which explains why Lexy put weight on with it. Mine would eat purely dry if they were allowed, but I limit the dry in favour of wet due to their age.
Milly's mum - studies have been done on UTI's - neutered overweight black and white males are at more risk, and I did read something the other day that said UTI's are a purely pet cat problem, they never see ferals with that - whether that is a study that doesn't have a good control group or not I dont know, but ferals aren't likely to be eating lots of dry food, nor are they likely to be overweight.

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

I agree Susanne. Lexy put on weight when she was only on dry food and it was an Oral care food as well. I was concerned that even despite reducing the food she still put on weight. It was on here that I got advice on this and I changed her to a dry/wet diet and she's steadied out.

Her teeth, well, she gets some Logic gel every other day or so, but even when she's gone over a week without the gel, she has suffered no bad breath and her teeth were ok when the vet visited last...not what I was told by the vet when she was seen the time before that when I told the vet I had changed her food to a mixed diet. Vet was not happy.

I do like my vet though, and she accepted that the change in diet was what I was going to do so just helped me adjust quantities. 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I agree with Milly's mum.  Dry food contains a high percentage of carbohydrate (more than 50% in some cases) which is something that cats don't eat much of in the wild (just the stomach contents of their prey) and which they aren't designed to eat.  Dry food is not ideal at all consisting of only about 10% moisture and since cats have evolved from desert animals they don't have a strong thirst mechanism.  That means that cats eating a lot of dry food rarely get enough water.  Lack of water is implicated in kidney and urinary diseases so is very important.  Dry food is responsible for most obesity in cats too - partly because it's so easy to over feed (and over eat) but also because of the high carbohydrate content.   If anyone's read this months Cat World magazine there's an article by Richard Allport (holistic vet) who blames commercial dry food for diabetes in cats. 

A few articles if anyone's interested

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=whycatsneedcannedfood

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=1&cat=1399&articleid=3328


It's also a bit of a myth that dry food is good for the teeth - in fact I've read a few articles claiming that dry food is acdtually worse than wet due to the high carbohydrate content - as the kibble just shatters at the tip of the tooth and so has no impact on the gumline.  I actually don't think sugar isn't a huge problem in cat dental problems - gingivitis and peridontal disease are more likely causes of dental problems I think.  That isns't a huge issue for me (Jaffa swallows the pieces whole anyway) though as I consider food for nutrition and other stuff such as logic gel for dental care.  Here's a couple of articles about why dry food isn't good for teeth

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=doesdryfoodcleantheteeth

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php

The second article quotes

Today, domestic cats often suffer from dental disease, primarily build-up of calculi. Consequently, Veterinarians urge cat owners to feed their cats solely a dry, commercial cat food. The theory is that the crunching of a dry food, and the friction created on the teeth when biting on pellet like feed, will reduce plaque and inhibit tartar build-up. And, a theory it is because in real life, dry cat food has proven to have marginal tartar fighting properties. Since cats purposely avoid biting on hard bits, dry food pellets are subsequently swallowed whole. The grain based make-up of dry cat food gives a hard baked, cracker nature, which, if actually crunched to bits and moistened with saliva, will more likely clog the dentition, as well as leaving a starchy coating which encourages plaque growth.

sorry about the lecture!  I realise that some cats do fine on dry food or refuse to eat wet food but it makes me mad when vets actively encourage people to feed their cats dry food instead of wet.

[Millys Mum]

Its grains that contribute to dental problems, and theres nothing grainier than dry food!
The crunching of kibble also doesnt help to remove tartar.
If a dry/wet food package states complete, then they will be of equal nutrients.

I reckon if a study was done on cats with UT problems then a high proportion would be neutered males fed a predominately dry diet.

wet food all the way!

[fleur]

I was told by the vet to give my boys a small amount of wet food because they are big and are therefore more prone to UTIs, so it helps to up any water intake, but that (decent) dry food is a much better food generally. It is more complete and doesn't contain the vast amounts of sugar added to all wet food, even stuff like Nature's Menu, which I thought must be better quality. Cats not only get addicted to the wet food because of the sugar (and can get fussier), it also causes a lot of dental problems. I thought that must be why dental treatment is excluded from insurance claims, because most cats are pretty much bound to get tooth problems. This is only speculation on my part though!

[Kezza]

My Barney has 2 of the kitten felix pouches a day (moring and evening) and Jameswell beloved biscuits during the day... he does like his food LOL!!

[Leanne]

Well last night Jess decided that he didn't want him meat and only licked the Jelly off, so I've left him Hills this morning and we'll see whats left later.

Hills science plan was recommened by the people we rehomed him from, the vet nurse I work with didn't recommend any food either way.

Thanks for all your help we're really grateful 

[Desley (booktigger)]

I am really amazed at the amount of vets still recommending a mainly dry diet - cats simply wouldn't eat this kind of food in teh wild, they might get crunchy food, but that would the bones!!
Jess, if the Hills food recommends 100g, I would guess that is if you are feeding purely dry food - I know Whiskas recommendations are knocking 20g of dry food off for each pouch you feed, which is the rule I have always worked too. At 7 months, you prob dont need to worry too much about weight, but it is better not to let them get overweight than try and deal with it after the event.

[Millys Mum]

our vet nurse based here, who incidentally said they don't need wet food.

I assume they also told you to use Hills too?! They make alot of money from this and it never fails to annoy me!

Wet food is important, afterall a mouse isnt dry and crunchy! A dry diet is easier to overfeed, therefore leading to obesity.

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

Hahaha what a little darling.
Mines are house kitty's so no fighting for me (apart with each other hahaha)

Sarah x

[ccmacey]

Yeah she is just an all round scared cat! Her big and little bro's sort them out, she is my only princess, don't think she would allow another female in the house, LOL.  I'm sick of Ted fighting though, he used to be topcat where we used to live and he's not going to let that title go!

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

Poor little Macey

Hope her brothers and sisters sort they cats out lol

xxxx

[ccmacey]

I feed my cat's 2 saches of 100g wet food a day, I also leave a bowl of biscuits for them in the morning and refill on the night. But the boys don't get a look in with the biscuits, Macey gobbles down half the bowl. Macey has really put the weight on since I moved and does little exercise, I don't like her to go outside as she gets bullied off the neighboring cats. Her and Ollie are house cats now, which is strange as they used to love going out where I lived before.

[Leanne]

Jess is our little one, his an indoor kitten 7 months old. When we adopted him we were told to give him a handful of biscuits and a tin of meat a day but we thought that was alot and he wasn't eating it.

Because we are out the house about 10 hours we can't feed him lunchtime, so i've been weighing out the biscuits in the morning and giving him the meat as soon as we get in, he seems to prefer the biscuits to the meat anyway.

He seems to have put on a little weight since we've had him but not loads, i've been playing with him lots in the evening (running round the sofa good exercise for us both  ) so i think i'll see how he goes. Jess only seems to want to eat when he wants to.

I'm lucky with the veterinay advice I work for a dog charity so I can talk to our vet nurse based here, who incidentally said they don't need wet food. Jess seems to drink plenty though.

Oh this being a fur baby mummy is a worry 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

It doesn't mean they're not a good vet, seldom - just that vets don't get much training in nutrition so unless they have a special interest in the area or are feline specialists they may not be up to date with latest thinking.  Vets like human doctors tend to focus more on diagnosing and treating disease and aren't always too good with the preventative stuf and/or nutrition.

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

Thanks Susanne

I did think it was strange of our vet to say this, they were actually recommended as a top vet in a magazine which is why we chose them 
Haven't really had any other problems with them so far though.

Sarah x

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

That does sound like a lot of food but if he's active and growing and doesn't appear to be putting on too much weight I wouldn't worry.  I do find the feeding guidelines on packets to generally be more than the average cat of that weight needs.

Mosi is just turned 1 and he has 100g wet food per day plus about 30g JWB dry.  He's an average size indoor cat and although he's 1 he's still growing (he's a Somali - mature a bit slower than moggies).  I think I'm going to increase his food intake soon.

seldom_use - I think your vet is wrong (and rather irresponsible) to tell you to wean them onto dry food only.  dry food has a very low water content so they need to drink a lot of water with it (and many cats don't drink enough) and a more carbohydrate than our little carnivores need.  And contrary to popular opinion (among vets!) it doesn't help clean their teeth either (unless it's special prescription dental diet).  At least some wet food in the diet is beneficial.

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

I have been told so many different things when it come to feeding my two.
They are just ovr 3 and a half months now and we give them half a kitten pouch each in the morning (wet food) then about 50g of dry kitten food around 12:30pm and then another half pouch each around 6:30pm.

My vet advised me to try weaning them onto dry food only, however I'm confused because some people say the wet food would be better.
We're still feeding them 3 times a day at the moment as they're still babies.

Sarah x

[carl (billy and baggys dad)]

And she is no Kate Mogg...

 

Bilbo and Baggins get 2 sachets of wet food each, and I leave some biscuits down all day. They are both active cats though, and are out for a few hours each day.

[Christine (Blip)]

 

That does sound rather a lot to me - don't believe that stuff about cats regulating their food intake  . Our Blip has one pouch of wet food in the morning and another one in the evening, with Hills Indoor Cat dry food left down all the time (she doesn't eat much of this). And she is no Kate Mogg...

I personally have no experience of kittens' needs though - others on here do, or why not give your vet a call and ask one of the nurses?

There is a strong school of thought (I for one subscribe to it) that a predominantly wet diet is preferable, to ensure good fluid intake.

What is the little one's name? Is it Jess?

[Leanne]

Thank you

I thought it seemed alot as well to be honest but that is going on what they suggest on the back of the packet. Its not like Jess gobbles them down but he does know at 6:15am that his going to get fed again!

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

Does the Hills package not state the recommended daily amount? Usually at the back it gives you a rough guide for the weight of the cat, age and indoor/outdoor?

100g sounds like a lot to me if you are feeding something else, my sisters large boy only has 70g a day of his diet food and he's 2.  He only eats dry food though with an odd treat here and there

[Leanne]

Can some please advise us, our little man is 7 months old. We've been giving him 100g of Hills Kitten Science Plan biscuits a day (which do last him 24 hours) and a little tray of Felix kitten wet meat (think its 85g) in the evening, is this enough or too much?? He has the odd felix treat during the day which we hide for him so he only gets them if he finds them.

We don't know if we are over or under feeding him? We give him the meat when we get in from work about 6ish and its usally all gone by the time we get up in the morning.