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-   -   Cat Food "Beginner" (http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=75268)

Miaow February 13th, 2011 10:51 PM

Cat Food "Beginner"
 
Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, I found it because I've been doing a lot of reading about cat food. Currently our five cats are on free-choice dry food, which I've recently learn is not the healthiest form of feeding! We are considering switching to a wet food diet but I'm trying to learn all I can about it before making the switch. I've always fed my cats a diet of dry food, but recently we lost our beloved Siamese Sassy to kidney failure which I have learned can be caused by the dry food, we would like to make the switch for the health of our cats. Also, we have been fostering a cat for a rescue which I think we would like to adopt, except he is very overweight and has gained 2lbs since being in our care over the past 3 months. I'm worried for his health and only would like to adopt him if we can provide him with a healthy feeding regime to help him lose weight.

Our cats:

Damien - 5 year old male siamese (good weight) 12lbs
Dublin - 5 year old female siamese (slightly over weight) 13lbs
Digby - 2 year old male tabby (good weight) 12 lbs
Dewey - 2 year old male DSH (good weight) 14 lbs
Eddison - 6 year old male DSH(very over weight!) 19 lbs

Now my questions, I have been reading a lot and they talk about why wet food is better for cats but not a lot about how to feed it.

How often should you feed a cat ideally? Is it better to feed more small meals or just twice daily?

How much to feed each cat for maintaining a good weight? And for losing weight?

What brand do you feed you cat(s)?

Thank you for your time!

14+kitties February 13th, 2011 11:27 PM

Welcome Miaow. It's great that you want to change your cats' food to something healthier for them. Our food gurus on Pets recommend reading [url]www.catinfo.org[/url]. It has some astounding information and makes for great reading.
When you first start transitioning to wet foods; either canned, raw, or cooked; you may find some of your dry food addicts won't cooperate well with you. There is a section on the website that gives great tips on how to transition a dry food addict to canned.
Ideally a cat should have between 20 to 30 calories per pound a day to maintain weight. That would work out to be around 4 to 6 ounces of a good quality food such as Wellness, Natures' Variety, Merricks, etc. Some cans have the calorie count on the side of the can. It takes some time and effort to find the foods your cats will eat but it is worth it in the end. What you are looking for is grain free, by product free foods.
As to how often to feed your cats - it depends on your cats. Some do well with two to three feedings a day. Some like to graze. Canned food can be left down for 12 hours with no ill effects to your cats. You will probably find that it will not last that long anyway with feeding multiple cats. Your cats will let you know if they are being fed enough.
The important thing to remember is that although you have a cat, or two, that may need to drop a bit of weight you don't want them to lose it rapidly. That can cause many health issues. When a cat loses one pound of weight it is equivalent to a human losing 20 pounds. Using that correlation think about the amount of time it would take for a human to lose that much weight. What you want to achieve is a slow steady weight loss. You have said your biggest one is overweight. Does he look overweight or is he a big boy? One of mine is a monster kitty at around 19 pounds but I would not call him fat. He is just a very big boy.
I hope this is enough info to get you started. I'm sure there will be other folks around soon to help you out.
Oh - we like pics here at Pets please. :D

Miaow February 14th, 2011 07:02 AM

Thanks for the info, I have always fed my two siamese a little bit of wet food as a treat and they LOVE it. I think they actually prefer it over dry food, I just didn't think it was healthy for them to have all the time. Our foster kitty just loves food, and any wet food he has had he scarfs down. It is my boyfriends two cats that I think are going to have the most trouble, when we give them some they pick at it a bit but never finish (to the delight of the other cats!)

Eddison is probably not hugely overweight, he is a large cat and very tall. But he does have a large belly, and rolls :D He is still very active, and I'm worried if he gains any more he will not exercise as much and he may become obese. He has gained 2 lbs in approximately 3 months with us.

Love4himies February 14th, 2011 08:01 AM

If you can transition your kitties quickly to canned that would be great. The website 14+ kitties has given you is a great one to read :thumbs up.

You may find that your kitties will loose weight naturally when on canned, Jasper did.

Here are my favourite cat foods:

1. Nature's Variety Instinct, no grains, no potatoes
2. Wellness, grain free varieties
3. Go Natural, grain free varieties
4. Fromms 4 Starr
5. Organics, by Nature
6. For a treat: Almo Nature (not nutritionally complete.

I think you will be amazed once you get them on a quality canned ;), their fur will be nicer, and they become less lethargic. As you can imagine, being chronically dehydrated, as cats are on dry, doesn't make a body feel very well.

Good luck. :goodvibes:

pattymac February 14th, 2011 03:37 PM

Great advice from 14+..she definately knows her kitty stuff! You will probably hear different from vets. They told me that Noella should eat mostly dry to keep her teeth healthy. I don't very often listen to vets re food.

I have both for my kitties. They eat Go senior dry, which they always have access to and they get Natural Balance canned once a day. Right now they're all enjoying a bit of kitten food too....maybe it makes the older boys feel young again :), as we have a little girlie kitten right now.

Do you have pics of your gang..would love to see them!

Miaow February 17th, 2011 02:08 PM

Went to Petsmart last night to price out some food. I liked Authority, the ingredients seemed pretty good and affordable at .95 per can. Anyone else feed it? Currently my cats eat free choice Science Diet weight control (who knew it was so bad!) I thought I was buying them the best. :frustrated: I bought them their last bag of food last night and I would like to get them started on a small amount of wet food am/pm and slowly limit their amount of dry food. What is a good amount to start with, half a can morning and night?

14+kitties February 18th, 2011 12:45 AM

[QUOTE=Miaow;986260]Went to Petsmart last night to price out some food. I liked Authority, the ingredients seemed pretty good and affordable at .95 per can. Anyone else feed it? Currently my cats eat free choice Science Diet weight control (who knew it was so bad!) I thought I was buying them the best. :frustrated: I bought them their last bag of food last night and I would like to get them started on a small amount of wet food am/pm and slowly limit their amount of dry food. What is a good amount to start with, half a can morning and night?[/QUOTE]

Sorry Miaow that no one has answered you yet on this.
You feed multiple cats so my best suggestion to start is one half can in the morning, monitor to see how quickly they eat it. It it's gone fairly quickly then another half can. With 5 cats if you get the large can it would probably be safe to assume they would eat at least 2.5 cans a day depending on energy level, age, etc. For instance - your two year old would likely eat more than your six year old. But then your six year old is a large cat so that may not hold true. You would want to monitor closely for a while to make sure all of your cats are getting enough food to maintain good health. If you have one or two that graze it is important you leave food out so they can come and get it when they want it until you get them used to having set meal times.
As for Authority - I have not heard of that one. I don't go to PetSmart in our area because they do not have any good food choices. Hopefully someone will be able to answer that question for you.

Love4himies February 18th, 2011 07:59 AM

I haven't heard of Authority either :shrug:. I don't measure out my cat's food, I just kind of know how much they eat. If I was to estimate it would be about 2/3 of a 5.5 oz can added with the equivalent amount of raw and 1/4 cup of water, 3 times a day. :shrug:. It looks about 2-3 mice per kitty per feeding.

14+kitties February 18th, 2011 09:28 AM

[QUOTE=Love4himies;986428]I haven't heard of Authority either :shrug:. [/QUOTE]

Ok, did some looking last night. Authority is PetSmart's brand manufactured by Mars or Menu. I would think not so great. I don't know what the ingredients are like though. Will have to try to find a list.

Miaow February 18th, 2011 11:43 AM

So an average cat will eat around 2.5 of the 5.5oz cans per day?

Found the ingredients for a can of Authority on another post and copied it:


Authority Chicken Canned Food
Chicken Formula
Ingredients: Chicken, Chicken Broth, Chicken Liver, Ocean Fish, Brewers Rice, Egg Products, Guar Gum, Salt, Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E, A, D3, B12 Supplements, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Taurine. Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein (min) 10.0%, Crude Fat (min) 6.5%, Crude Fiber (max) 0.8%, Moisture (max) 78.0%, Ash (max) 1.9%, Magnesium (max) 0.025%, Taurine (min) 0.07%, Omega-6 Fatty Acids* (min) 0.85%, Omega-3 Fatty Acids* (min) 0.15%.

Love4himies February 18th, 2011 01:30 PM

I think what I feed my cats works out to 1 - 5.5 oz can of food per day. 4/3 can, 3 times a day, divided by 4 cats. or I guess 1/3 of a can each kitty 3 times a day.

Miaow February 23rd, 2011 10:01 PM

[QUOTE=Miaow;986463]So an average cat will eat around 2.5 of the 5.5oz cans per day?

Found the ingredients for a can of Authority on another post and copied it:


Authority Chicken Canned Food
Chicken Formula
Ingredients: Chicken, Chicken Broth, Chicken Liver, Ocean Fish, Brewers Rice, Egg Products, Guar Gum, Salt, Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E, A, D3, B12 Supplements, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Taurine. Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein (min) 10.0%, Crude Fat (min) 6.5%, Crude Fiber (max) 0.8%, Moisture (max) 78.0%, Ash (max) 1.9%, Magnesium (max) 0.025%, Taurine (min) 0.07%, Omega-6 Fatty Acids* (min) 0.85%, Omega-3 Fatty Acids* (min) 0.15%.[/QUOTE]

Just bumping this.. So the main ingredients seem pretty good. How would you rate this food? Thanks!

Love4himies February 24th, 2011 08:06 AM

Not bad ingredients, do you know if the meat used is human grade quality?

Miaow February 25th, 2011 08:58 PM

I'm not sure, can I call the company and ask?

Love4himies February 26th, 2011 08:29 AM

[QUOTE=Miaow;988423]I'm not sure, can I call the company and ask?[/QUOTE]

I would.


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