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Irritated Goat posted:Ok. Super dumb but whatever. Our little 10 yr old kitty eats 1 half of wet a day and dry food out all the time. We're considering moving to 2 wet a day because he's kinda whiny. What's a decent meal plan we can do for him? We just do a morning and evening feed with each getting half of one of the ~6oz cans. What kind of wet food is he getting now?
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Feb 5, 2016 19:33
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Sydin posted:Well, good news: she loving loves the wet Blue Buffalo. She wanted to eat it so bad she'd barely let me get it out of the can and into her bowl before going at it. I didn't check in after I posted stuff, but this was also the experience with my cat. She wouldn't really touch any of the other "good" ones, but gets very, very excited for her Blue Buffalo
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Feb 5, 2016 20:01
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Reik posted:We just do a morning and evening feed with each getting half of one of the ~6oz cans. What kind of wet food is he getting now? He's getting Fancy Feast right now. Yeah, it's cheap but we have enough to last for a bit longer before we can really move to something else. I'm not too worried about immediately changing to a better wet food as he's right around his OK weight according to the vet and is very active when he feels like it.
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Feb 5, 2016 20:15
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Irritated Goat posted:He's getting Fancy Feast right now. Yeah, it's cheap but we have enough to last for a bit longer before we can really move to something else. I'm not too worried about immediately changing to a better wet food as he's right around his OK weight according to the vet and is very active when he feels like it. It seems like all the information out there says that if the cat is healthy and around their target weight, there's no reason to switch up their food. We only switched recently because one of our cats had one of their kidney measures come back out of the normal range so we switched them all to wet food to help him stay hydrated and found food with lower phosphorous. Finding a wet food all 4 cats would eat took a lot of different brands/flavors.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:05
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I'm new at catting. Any reason why Blue Buffalo Variety Pack works out to be 50 cents an ounce while Wellness Complete only works out to be 20 cents an ounce? They're both listed in the excellent cat foods list in the first post here, but one is more than twice the price of the other. Is there anything I'd be screwing up by swapping from Blue Buffalo to Wellness Complete? The latter looks like it comes in a wider variety of flavors so I can keep my cat's food varied just like the Blue Buffalo. Edit: Also, how the hell can EVO be both dry and grain free? I'm feeding my cats both wet and dry food anyway since I doubt they somehow managed to put moisture into the dry food with their witchcraft, but I'm genuinely curious. demota fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Feb 9, 2016 |
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Feb 9, 2016 19:30
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demota posted:I'm new at catting. Any reason why Blue Buffalo Variety Pack works out to be 50 cents an ounce while Wellness Complete only works out to be 20 cents an ounce? They're both listed in the excellent cat foods list in the first post here, but one is more than twice the price of the other. Is there anything I'd be screwing up by swapping from Blue Buffalo to Wellness Complete? The latter looks like it comes in a wider variety of flavors so I can keep my cat's food varied just like the Blue Buffalo. The giant cans are generally cheaper per ounce, even looking at the same brand. I don't buy the big cans because I don't feed the whole can at once and have to refrigerate the rest. My cats won't eat it cold and are 50/50 on it when microwaved. It's fine to find the cheapest way to feed your cats as long as they eat it and you're happy with the quality. Like if your cats won't eat the Wellness, then it's not worth it. There's some moisture in dry food, just not a lot. Beef jerky is dry and grain free.
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Feb 9, 2016 20:48
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So another dumb question: is my cat hustling me for more food than she needs? She's 8lb 9oz as per the vet, so I started off feeding her 1 5.5oz can of Blue Buffalo a day (~154 calories). She was clearly starving on this: constantly going to her empty food bowl, nibbling at any stray morsel of food she could find, and devouring her meals in 2-3 minutes. So I moved her up to 1.5 cans a day, in three half can meals. That was okay for a few days, but now she's acting the way she was before: obviously hungry hours before her meal times, ravenously devouring anything she can get, etc. I know cats nutritional needs vary, and I do play with her quite a bit (exercise her for 3-4 15 minute periods/day), but two 5.5oz cans a day for an 8 1/2 pound indoor cat just seems like too much to me. Am I insane?
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Feb 16, 2016 22:43
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Just watch her weight and cut back a bit if she starts gaining weight. It doesn't seem like way too much if she's only eating wet.
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Feb 17, 2016 00:13
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How old is she? We feed our cats one 5.5 oz can a day and they all maintain their weights with that and they're all 10+ lbs.
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Feb 17, 2016 03:16
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GoodBee posted:Just watch her weight and cut back a bit if she starts gaining weight. I'll try it, then. Last Monday the vet said she was 8lb 9oz, weighed her this morning and my admittedly not-as-accurate scale says she's 8.5lb, so she's maintaining on the current 1.5 cans a day if not losing a bit of weight, so I'll see if adding another half can per day works out, thanks. Reik posted:How old is she? We feed our cats one 5.5 oz can a day and they all maintain their weights with that and they're all 10+ lbs. Not absolutely sure, she was feral before the shelter took her in. They approximated her at ~2 years old.
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Feb 17, 2016 04:29
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Sydin posted:I'll try it, then. Last Monday the vet said she was 8lb 9oz, weighed her this morning and my admittedly not-as-accurate scale says she's 8.5lb, so she's maintaining on the current 1.5 cans a day if not losing a bit of weight, so I'll see if adding another half can per day works out, thanks. With the relatively low weight (maybe we just have a bunch of fatties?) I thought she might still be a kitten. Like the other poster is saying don't worry too much about the calorie count as long as she's maintaining a good weight. What wet food are you feeding her? Just curious.
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Feb 17, 2016 05:01
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Reik posted:With the relatively low weight (maybe we just have a bunch of fatties?) I thought she might still be a kitten. Like the other poster is saying don't worry too much about the calorie count as long as she's maintaining a good weight. What wet food are you feeding her? Just curious. Yeah, she's pretty tiny. She was apparently even smaller when they first picked her up: the shelter paperwork says she was 6.5lb mid Jan. I'm feeding her wet Blue Buffalo Healthy Gourmet grilled chicken entree in gravy.
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Feb 17, 2016 05:05
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Do yall think my cats are getting enough food? They are ~20wks and 5-6lbs, I got then a month ago and transitioned them to all wet food (trader Joe's turkey and giblets, 180 Cal per 5.5oz), and feed 2.5 times a day. Portions (total, as even though I use two bowls thee inevitably share and change bowls) : 8am: 1 can 7:30pm: 1/2 can 8:30ish: 30 can They don't tend to bother me for food or anything...
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Feb 17, 2016 05:07
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Sydin posted:Yeah, she's pretty tiny. She was apparently even smaller when they first picked her up: the shelter paperwork says she was 6.5lb mid Jan. According to catinfo.org Blue buffalo has a lot more carbs than most high quality cat foods. I can't even find a source from blue buffalo of a calorie breakdown by protein/fat/carb which is pretty common on most high quality food sites.
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Feb 17, 2016 05:21
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Reik posted:According to catinfo.org Blue buffalo has a lot more carbs than most high quality cat foods. I can't even find a source from blue buffalo of a calorie breakdown by protein/fat/carb which is pretty common on most high quality food sites. It's in the OP list as being "premium canned food".  Don't know if this is the calorie breakdown, but according to the back of the can: 9% Protein 4% Fat 1.5% Fiber 82% Moisture 0.1% Taurine Also I have cans of Solid Gold and Wellness, and both of them have mostly similar ingredients. I know there are problems with dry BB, but I didn't think it extended to their wet stuff. Sydin fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 08:00
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I just noticed that they discontinued Innova. We switched from Innova to Orijen a few years back but we used Innova for a long time and didn't have any problems. What happened?
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Feb 17, 2016 11:27
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Sydin posted:It's in the OP list as being "premium canned food". Looking at the ingredient breakdown there's potato starch and rice in there, which are probably contributing. The guaranteed analysis usually doesn't list the carbohydrates, but most sites do a calorie breakdown like this: http://weruva.com/catsitk-cans-nutrition.php Here you can easily see all their cans are less than 10% carbs by calorie. Also, Innova changed owners I believe
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Feb 17, 2016 15:09
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Lareine posted:I just noticed that they discontinued Innova. We switched from Innova to Orijen a few years back but we used Innova for a long time and didn't have any problems. What happened? The short answer is they were bought by Proctor & Gamble a year or two ago.
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Feb 17, 2016 18:08
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And they thought the Innova brand wasn't selling enough? Fair enough.
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Feb 17, 2016 18:51
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Anyone have any input on the quality of Trader Joe's wet cat food? We've been feeding strictly wet for our cat who has had a few cystitis episodes, and wow that gets expensive fast. Our cats both seem to really like TJ brand food, the breakdown is pretty good (18% protein, 3 fat, 1 fiber, 78 moisture) and the ingredients aren't too bad, mostly primary protein sources, broth, but some carbs in the form of rice. Wanted to confirm that my cats aren't going to get kwashiorkor or beriberi from the $0.80 cans of cat food. If it's significantly better to give them Blue Buffalo then so be it, but...
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Feb 19, 2016 03:54
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According to this chart (very bottom of page 23), all the Trader Joe's stuff is relatively low in carbs, but the fat to protein ratio isn't great. It's pretty good for $0.80 a can, though. Also as an update to the above, I looked into it and think I'm going to try moving my cat off Blue Buffalo. Reik pointed out above you can't find their actual calorie breakdown anywhere, and looking into it apparently they refuse to release it because it's "proprietary information."  Gonna try to find something that's at least 70/20/10 P/F/C as per the catinfo chart. Maybe that'll make her chomp at the bit less for more food.
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Feb 19, 2016 05:09
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The sites I've read seemed to indicate you want around a 60:40 protein to fat ratio and minimize carbs as much as you can. This is assuming you don't need to add anything like pumpkin or something to help with digestion. If you order online from chewy.com and set up an auto-shipment you can get a pretty good discount. That's what I do my cats.
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Feb 19, 2016 21:05
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I went out this morning and got her some Weruva "Paw Lickin' Chicken." It still has potato starch in it, but the macros are solid according to the chart (65/32/3) and it looks & smells way better coming out of the can than the Blue Buffalo ever did. It's a bit more expensive ($2.20/can vs $1.50 for BB) but the pet store that carries it has buy four get one free, so it shakes out fine budget-wise. Chewy looks good though, I can get big cases with free shipping of Weruva at <$2 a can, and that's before any auto-renewal discount. Thanks for the tip.
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Feb 19, 2016 22:23
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Sydin posted:I went out this morning and got her some Weruva "Paw Lickin' Chicken." I feed our cats something from the Cats in the Kitchen line by Weruva, it's a little cheaper and of the 10 flavors the only vegetable in there is pumpkin in the Junk in the Trunk flavor. All of their flavors have between 40% and 66% protein and less than 8% carbs. http://weruva.com/catsitk-cans-nutrition.php
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Feb 20, 2016 01:27
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I work at PetSmart and spend a lot of time looking at cans while stocking... I have it in my head that I shouldn't buy any canned cat food that's under 10% protein, but I noticed a lot of the supposedly "good" brands have flavors that are 8% or 9%, which surprised me. I did loads of nutrition research a couple of years ago when my cat was diagnosed with IBD, but it's been a while and brands/formulas have changed and new brands are out (like Simply Nourish), so I'm trying to do a refresher. PS, saw someone mentioned chewy.com and I'd like to put in my two cents - I absolutely love them. I even recommend them to customers when they come in for prescription food and we're out. Their prices are consistently lower, you can set up scheduled deliveries, and their customer service is fantastic. When we were struggling to find the right diet for my cat with IBD, sometimes we'd have to return a food. More than once they would refund my money and tell me to donate the food to a local shelter rather than actually return it. They also did this when they accidentally sent us the wrong food once, and sent us the correct food immediately. Super nice folks, very quick to respond. Fancy Feast has also been putting out some new wet food things - "Purely Fancy Feast" - that appear to have good ingredients and high protein, but since it's Fancy Feast I'm wary... what's the catch? They're advertised as "supplements," like a treat, and they're more expensive than regular FF cans. As far as I can tell they're actually decent quality. I'll have to go back and look at the rest... carbs and water content, right?
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Mar 3, 2016 20:44
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baxxy posted:I work at PetSmart and spend a lot of time looking at cans while stocking... I have it in my head that I shouldn't buy any canned cat food that's under 10% protein, but I noticed a lot of the supposedly "good" brands have flavors that are 8% or 9%, which surprised me. I did loads of nutrition research a couple of years ago when my cat was diagnosed with IBD, but it's been a while and brands/formulas have changed and new brands are out (like Simply Nourish), so I'm trying to do a refresher. The percentages on cans for protein are pretty much worthless. A breakdown by calorie is really what you need to know if a certain food has a good protein/fat/carb ratio. Somewhere around 55-60/45-40 Protein Fat with no carbs is what I've seen recommended.
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Mar 7, 2016 20:06
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I wouldn't say percentages are worthless; you just have to compare values on a dry matter basis, which means without water. For example, a dry food might list 30% protein and 7% moisture. The protein % on a dry matter basis is 30/0.93 = 32.3% protein. A wet food with 9% protein but is 80% moisture is then 9/0.20 = 45.0% protein. The wet food wins.
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Mar 8, 2016 03:11
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Solid Gold Indigo Moon killed my cat. Within 3 days of switching him over to it, my cat went from 100% perfectly healthy (clean bill of health from the vet a week before, with full bloodwork and everything) to acute renal failure. We're not sure what the hell is in it that he reacted to, but keep in mind when switching foods that this kind of thing can happen. We should have just stuck with the blue buffalo wilderness. Gonna miss my cat. 
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Mar 14, 2016 21:25
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Kurr de la Cruz posted:Solid Gold Indigo Moon killed my cat. Aww, man, that sucks. Sorry to hear that.
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Mar 15, 2016 02:47
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Kurr de la Cruz posted:Solid Gold Indigo Moon killed my cat. I'm so sorry for your loss. I've never heard of anything like that.
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Mar 15, 2016 16:57
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Kurr de la Cruz posted:Solid Gold Indigo Moon killed my cat. I'm sorry, that is horrible . Could it be possible there is some contamination or spoilage of the food? If you contact Solid Gold, they might want to analyze any that you have left.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:01
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I gave the food to a friend because she can barely afford to feed her cats, so I can't get a sample. My other 2 cats had absolutely no problems with the food at all, which is why I thought it was an allergic reaction. My vet has no clue what caused it, he said that this is usually something that happens over a period of months or years, to see it occur in less than a week is just baffling. No one has any answers. They've got him on fluids but his bloodwork is showing no signs of improvement. Today he gave me his recommendation, and it's euthanasia. He said he could refer us to a specialist, but that'd just be more diagnostics and tests, there's no way to fix the underlying problem: he needs a new kidney. I'm left with a bunch of questions and no answers. If it wasn't the food, what was it? We don't have any plants in the house, no rat poison, the cleaning supplies are in child-proof cabinets, and he never ever went outside. We just wanted to do right by him, make sure he's getting the proper nutrition and then this happens.
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Mar 17, 2016 15:38
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Kurr de la Cruz posted:I gave the food to a friend because she can barely afford to feed her cats, so I can't get a sample. My other 2 cats had absolutely no problems with the food at all, which is why I thought it was an allergic reaction. My vet has no clue what caused it, he said that this is usually something that happens over a period of months or years, to see it occur in less than a week is just baffling. I assume they checked for any urinary tract blockages? No infections? Most online sources seem to indicate acute renal failure can be reversed if caught early, and 3 days might be early enough. Worst case scenario with a specialist you have the same result in euthanasia, best case the specialist knows or sees something the general practice vet didn't.
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Mar 17, 2016 17:53
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Did you guys know there is a blue buffalo class action lawsuit settlement? https://www.petfoodsettlement.com/ You can get $5 back for every $50 purchase, no proof needed up to $10 back. (But don't abuse it; that is illegal.) A lot of people seem to buy their food here so I thought I'd mention. Mathematics fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 20:18
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quote:Some supermarket cat food brands may cause 'severe illness', study finds http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-21/some-supermarket-cat-food-brands-may-cause-severe-illness-study/7263634 No names being named til they complete a wider study. :\
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Mar 22, 2016 05:38
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I'm hoping a dog food nerd can help me out. My American Eskimo Merry has been on Acana Pacifica for 5 years. She is a rescue with terrible teeth, so I started soaking her kibble in hot water before meals after she had a few teeth pulled. Two weeks ago, she was in the hospital for idiopathic vestibular disease. Due to the nausea, she didn't eat anything for a few days. She's better now, but she won't touch her kibble. We are now scrambling to find her new food that is healthy and get her to regain that kilogram she lost at the hospital. I need a soft food that won't break the bank that is really healthy. We are in Canada. Sojo's Beef/Lamb: She loved this stuff, but I worried it isn't calorically dense enough. She is a pretty light eater as it is. Should I buy this and supplement it with chicken and rice? The Honest Kitchen Turkey/Parsnip: She wouldn't even try this. Blue Buffalo Wet Beef/Salmon&Potato: Moderate success, but she licks pate style food. Nature's Variety Homestyle Salmon & Wild Rice: She liked this chunky stew consistency. Is this high enough quality? Too many additives? I love the idea of a Salmon recipe because I think the omega-3 is better for her coat Orijen Freeze Dried Tunda: She ate it! I like that it's made in Canada. Cons that they don't have a fish formulation.
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Mar 23, 2016 03:03
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Have you asked your vet? Canned Hill's prescription i/d food smells horrible but in my experience even the most nauseated dog will eat it. Maybe try that for a bit till she puts the weight back on then slowly transition back to kibble.
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Mar 24, 2016 02:04
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My dog is eating now (her nausea has resolved), she just doesn't want to eat kibble. I don't blame her, since she only has a few molars. I would like to switch her over to food that is easier for her to eat. It is just stressful since I don't get a slow transition, as I don't want to let her lose any more weight at this point. I am mostly concerned about the nutritional value if I switch her to Orijen Tundra with canned dog food long term. Thanks for the help and feedback!
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Mar 24, 2016 17:48
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Help me please, thread. I have adopted a ten-year-old cat. It was my fiancee's grandparents' cat, but they didn't want her anymore and were otherwise going to euthanize her. I've had her for a couple months now, and although she hasn't gained weight since I got her, I realized she's pretty overweight already. I've done some searching and I guess I'm basically doing everything wrong in that I'm leaving a full bowl of dry Iams (or some other common brand) cat food around at all times. So: I want to keep this poor cat healthy, which I am obviously not doing now. It sounds like I shouldn't do anything too abruptly, though. What's a good regimen for switching her over to something like Blue Buffalo, and how much should I feed her? Here's a picture in case you need to judge how obese she is. 
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Apr 13, 2016 16:22
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Pillow Hat posted:Help me please, thread. Wet food is better because it's less calories/volume than dry food. It also helps with dehydration and kidney function. Timed feedings are also better because you can control their intake easier. Is this your only animal? I generally recommend not Blue Buffalo, but any of the other top wet food brands would work Nature's Variety Wellness Weruva (They have multiple lines: Truluxe, Cats in the Kitchen, etc) Tiki Cat Merrick As far as a regimen for switching, when we switched our cats from dry food to wet food we just picked up the dry food and start doing a wet food feeding once in the morning and once before bed. Once we found flavors they all liked everything went fine. Have you taken her to the vet since you got her? Given her age it might be a good idea to do some blood testing to check for things like kidney function and diabetes before committing to a new diet. Also she is an adorable, albeit fat, cat. Reik fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 17:16
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