How does this sound...re-Feeding

[Desley (booktigger)]

How long have you had them? I woudlnt' worry too much initially, just dont leave the wet food out for too long.

[Steve1977]

Cheers for those threads, the rescue home are using some dry food called James well beloved?

But at the moment we have 3 bowels..one with dry food, one with water and one with wet food (meat)

But they dont seem to eat very often! The dry food is the dry food they have had at their rescue home and they have eaten a bit of that and a bit of the wet food but i was expecting them to eat the food until it ran out - then it would be upto us to top it up.

They dont seem to be in distress however they do cry when we walk away because they want to sleep on us, so cute They seem to go through a cycle of sleeping, then Saffi wakes up, then she wakes up Moss to play, then they bomb around the room for a few hours then its time for another sleep!

But after all this playing i would have thought theyd be gagging for some food.

[Mark]

I am really confused now. Procter & Gamble have joined up with the American Humane Society to give a yearly regarding alternative testing.

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/animal_testing_alternatives.html

[sixfurballs]

thanks for those links - I certainly will not be purchasing Iams again.

[Millys Mum]

there was an article in your cat magazine last month I think where iams had invited loads of journalists in to see the testing facility

That would be the taste testing area. Still no need for that either as what owners would turn down a trial of food to see how much their cats liked it!

[Mark]

I think any manufacturer that produces prescription foods will have to test on animals by law?  Not sure if it's a legal requirement (do prescription foods count as medicines?), but if they are producing a food that treats something like crystals or kidney disease, they will have to have scientific research to back it up, and that is probably going to mean testing the food on animals in the current climate.

It's very difficult when the big companies like P&G buy up smaller ones, as it makes it difficult to know whether the smaller ones remain not tested on animals.  JWB did say that they would continue to not test on animals and I'm happy to still use JWB.

Hills say they only feed animals with existing conditions - although that is open to abuse as if you fed them the wrong food, it would make things worse. I read about other companies artificially creating conditions like removing taurine from the diet to see how long it would take for an animal to go blind etc 

[Dawn F]

I know with human drugs it is a legal requirement so it may be the case for prescription food as well

[Gwen]

Off topic a bit here but I feed my dogs Arden Grange and if JWB is iffy then I am worried about Arden Grange now. Wonder if they test on animals without us knowing?

Arden Grange are on the good guys list 

I would like to change over. I have tried JWB & Burns loads of times but they won't touch it. I have also tried lots of other alternatives but they are greeted with disgust.

Thanks Mark,phew but I feed my cats JWB and won't be buying anymore in future

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I think any manufacturer that produces prescription foods will have to test on animals by law?  Not sure if it's a legal requirement (do prescription foods count as medicines?), but if they are producing a food that treats something like crystals or kidney disease, they will have to have scientific research to back it up, and that is probably going to mean testing the food on animals in the current climate.

It's very difficult when the big companies like P&G buy up smaller ones, as it makes it difficult to know whether the smaller ones remain not tested on animals.  JWB did say that they would continue to not test on animals and I'm happy to still use JWB.

[Mark]

cat mags are a bit like that a couple of months ago they had kate moss and boyfriend with a handful of kittens, they I saw a thread on here that showed they weren't such animal lovers

Anything to get the bucks in. I'm sure its the reason why newspapers won't print articles on these companies as they are the major advertisers.

[Mark]

Off topic a bit here but I feed my dogs Arden Grange and if JWB is iffy then I am worried about Arden Grange now. Wonder if they test on animals without us knowing?

Arden Grange are on the good guys list 

I would like to change over. I have tried JWB & Burns loads of times but they won't touch it. I have also tried lots of other alternatives but they are greeted with disgust.

[Dawn F]

cat mags are a bit like that a couple of months ago they had kate moss and boyfriend with a handful of kittens, they I saw a thread on here that showed they weren't such animal lovers

[Mark]

I think P&G are doing some clever PR. They have even created a website recently showing how wonderful & caring they are  Shame on Cat Magazine for promoting their propaganda.

[Gwen]

Off topic a bit here but I feed my dogs Arden Grange and if JWB is iffy then I am worried about Arden Grange now. Wonder if they test on animals without us knowing?

[Dawn F]

there was an article in your cat magazine last month I think where iams had invited loads of journalists in to see the testing facility - is it possible that they have changed the policy, does anyone know?  i'm afraid that I have to feed hills because one of mine literally won't eat anything else

[Mark]

Here are a couple more. As for Hill's, until I see some evidence, I will continue to feed it. But as for Iams, there is well documented evidence, not just vague accusations.

Accusing all takes the attention away from the real baddies.


http://www.pandgkills.com/main.html


http://www.iamskills.com/

[MBll]

'Pet' Foods and Animal Testing Policies

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood.htm

Brands to Boycott   includes Hills Science Diet


Iams... the suffering behind the 'science'
http://www.uncaged.co.uk/iams.htm

[sixfurballs]

I have just been reading through this and saw the comments about Iams - I was not aware of this and do sometimes feed their wet food or Hi-life wet as a treat - can you please tell me what they have done as I would not like to be supporting cruelty in any way?

[Mark]

According to some sites, Waltham, Purina, etc etc all do testing which rules out people buying Whiskas, Felix, etc etc.

I think Iams/P&G are the real baddies. Who knows?

[Mark]

Yet again, here is Hill's policy which if was untrue, would surely be challenged in court by uncaged etc

http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/company_info/company_info_general.jsp?JSESSIONID=G58agBCDEEs9wttF4H1u271fv28mp8KPlIrFzh2o0YlWU6gniH4x!1672769195!167846932!7005!8005&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302052861&bmUID=1190755354255&bmLocale=en_GB

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

There's testing and there's testing though.  If it's taste tests etc that's different from inducing disease in animals to see how the food helps.  I don't know about Hills but I feel confident about JWB.  It's a difficult issue really because when people have posted links to cruelty free foods in the past they've mostly been dry foods which I'm not happy feeding, or poor quality and/or veggie foods.

But anyway, I digress!

Steve - I agree that you should start off by feeding them what they are used to, then it's up to you whether you want to try and get them onto something else.  I personally would try to feed at least some wet food in the diet (provided they will eat it) as cats need water and tend not to get enough if they are fed on just dry food.  Lack of water in the diet can be a contributory factor towards crystals and urinary problems, so it's good to get them eating some wet food from the outset.  Dry food is convenient for us owners slaves but it isn't an ideal food for a cat.  A combination of wet and dry is a compromise that a lot of people go for - eg feeding a couple of meals of wet food each day then leaving dry down for them to snack on between meals.  If you do opt to feed dry I'd recommend choosing a premium qualit dry food rather than supermarket brands (eg whiskas, go cat) as they are much better quality, and measuring out how much you leave out (once they're adult at least) as cats can become overweight very easily if they overeat dry food.  I feed my 10 year old cat wet food only, and my younger cat (2 in December) gets 3 meals of wet with a little dry sprinkled on top.  They eat it as soon as it's put down so no problem with flies!

It's up to you in the end, and there are cats that live long and healthy lives on dry food only, but I would always advise some wet in the diet.

Here are a couple of links explaining why cats benefit from wet food that you might (or might not!) find interesting.

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

http://www.catinfo.org/#Cats_Need_Plenty_of_Water_With_Their_Food

[tez2384]

i only fed kitty iams once and thats coz i got some vouchers when i got her which entitled me to a free bag of it,

Its still sitting here now as she hates it 

[MBll]

yey desley  hills do test on animals ...when you say they test on other things...wont be on animals? 

[Desley (booktigger)]

Not a lot of people know RR, and I dont know if Hills do any animal testing. I personally still feed JWB despite it being bought out by a company that does test for other things.

[MBll]

I can never understand why anyone wants to feed  Iams, Hills & the like at the expense of the suffering of other animals?

[tez2384]

id say stick with what they have been used too,

When i got kitty from a rescue centre they were so busy and forgot to tell me what she had been used to so as she was under a year i got her some kitten food but as she had been used to normal felix it gave her very bad diarohea and sickness,

I then rang the centre and started giving her felix since then i have introduced loads of different foods both dry and wet and she is fine with wat eva i give her now,

Introduce new foods slowly over 4-5 days.

[Desley (booktigger)]

You might find a lot of resistance to feeding Iams on here, there have been stories for years about IAms and animal cruelty, and to be honest, there are dry foods that are much better quality for the same, or cheaper price. I personally use James Wellbeloved or HiLife. IT is much better for cats to have wet food than dry, it can help their health later in life, and is a bonus if they ever need medication. mixing wet and dry can also cause problems, it can't be left down as long, and some cats dont like it. I would start with feeding them what they are used to, and reading some of the many posts about diet on here. Good luck with them!!

[katbuzz]

You should start off by feeding them with what they are used to eating at the rescue centre/breeder, they usually give you some of the food to get started with.  If you want to change them to a new diet, introduce a new food gradually. Its the same with the cat litter that they are used to using, get the same brand so that its familiar to them.

Do you know you can send off for free kitten packs with Whiskas and Felix? http://www.freekittenpack.co.uk/ and http://www.catslikefelix.co.uk/ I don't work for them I just love freebies!! 

Enjoy your new bundles of fun 

[Steve1977]

Even before we had a cat we brought some Whiskers tinned cat food and also a dry mix (both for kittens)

However, the person who we collected them from suggested it would be good if we could get them onto Iams due to the fact that because its try, you wont get flys and thus pose a hygene risk. Plus it will go a longer way than the meat moneywise.

At the moment they are given a choice and so when they arrive here we were thinking of giving them some whiskers as a treat and when they have eaten it, to give them the dry food if they get hungry throughout the night (we'r getting them 6pm on Friday night).

Then on Saturday we were going to start with the Whiskers meat and then go onto the dry food (Iams) and then leave it at that...only giving them meat as a treat every saturday. (I say this because we always have bacon and eggs on Saturday morning and so dont want to make the cats feel left out with all the smell of meat.

I suppose they may immediately shun the meat and just go to dry. But if they dont, what is the best way to try and get them to side with the dry food? Maybe always give them dry and then mix it with meat when we wish to give them meat?