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hogmartin
Mar 27, 2007
I had a cat drop dead out of nowhere from renal failure about 9 years ago, so I try to make sure they always have clean water and litter and get some quantity of wet food twice weekly. I also picked up a Drinkwell brand filter/fountain a while ago off an Amazon Prime sale. The claim is that moving water (like in nature) is more appealing than a stagnant puddle or bowl, and they do seem to take to it pretty readily. Does anyone know if the fountains actually do get cats to drink more water?

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Soaring Kestrel
Nov 7, 2009

For Whiterock.
Fun Shoe

hogmartin posted:

I had a cat drop dead out of nowhere from renal failure about 9 years ago, so I try to make sure they always have clean water and litter and get some quantity of wet food twice weekly. I also picked up a Drinkwell brand filter/fountain a while ago off an Amazon Prime sale. The claim is that moving water (like in nature) is more appealing than a stagnant puddle or bowl, and they do seem to take to it pretty readily. Does anyone know if the fountains actually do get cats to drink more water?

My tabby has a fountain, and it definitely makes a difference - we used to change her water 3x/day, so it wasn't like she didn't get fresh water, but the fountain definitely had her drinking quite a bit more.

hogmartin
Mar 27, 2007

Flying Leatherman posted:

My tabby has a fountain, and it definitely makes a difference - we used to change her water 3x/day, so it wasn't like she didn't get fresh water, but the fountain definitely had her drinking quite a bit more.

Huh, I just realized that I haven't seen anyone drinking out of the toilets at the new house and since I got the fountain. Ваня was a committed shitter-drinker at the apartment, but hasn't done it since moving, and I hear him slurping at the fountain all the time. Maybe the toilet water seemed fresher than the little bowl (even though it was refreshed regularly), or maybe he's just a toilet connoisseur and the new ones are not up to his standards.

Also jfc I came home and Лидия was chasing a fly around the house... I found paw smears 56" up the glass patio door. Girl can jump :stare:

Thin Privilege
Jul 8, 2009
IM A STUPID MORON WITH AN UGLY FACE AND A BIG BUTT AND MY BUTT SMELLS AND I LIKE TO KISS MY OWN BUTT
Gravy Boat 2k
^:ussr:

The only reason I haven't gotten my drippy faucets fixed is because the cats drink out of them constantly.

Ballz
Dec 16, 2003

it's mario time

Thin Privilege posted:

Ask your vet if they want you to add low sodium chicken broth to the food, my vet suggested it so i get one from Trader Joes which is 1.99 and lasts ~2 weeks. It helps them get more water into their system which is important with kidney stuff.

Thanks for the suggestion. Are you mixing the broth with the food itself or having it as a separate bowl for them to lap it up? Also, do you heat it up at all, or just serve it to them straight?


Dr. Capco posted:

a can of a newer supposedly higher quality stew type Hill's c/d wet food which still has wheat and rice in the first 6 ingredients which leads me to believe it's not the best quality either.

I'm a little curious about the "stew" cat foods as well. Since I've been experimenting with different prescription wet foods, my cat has definitely responded the best to the Hill's K/D ocean fish stew, which does seem to have a lot of vegetables for cat food. Anyone have any thoughts about it, compared to typical the gel-like paté alternative?


Dr. Capco posted:

I've been feeding my cats nature's variety dry and wet food their whole lives and I'm worried that my cat is going to have to suffer nutritionally now because of his crystal problem. They also said I could do royal canin wet food as well but they didn't have any at the vet for me to try. I also feel like I should have just put them both on pure canned food since they were little and maybe my cat wouldn't have had this problem in the first place. :smith: I know that if a cat needs a prescription diet then you should give it to them but I feel incredibly guilty feeding my cats poor quality food anyway.

Have you tried Royal Canin Urinary SO Moderate Calorie? It's dry cat food and should be available at Petsmart with the other prescription foods. Before my kitty got her renal failure diagnosis last week, she had been dealing with crystals for years, and the RC Urinary SO worked really well for her.

My cat also has a thyroid problem and needs to take a pill twice daily. :( I use a pill grinder to crush it up and then sprinkle tuna flakes on top of it, and she licks it all up happily. Old kitty problems.

Edit: Also, any drink fountain recommendations? Amazon's top suggestions seem to be the Drinkwell Platinum fountain and the Cat Mate 70 oz Pet Fountain.

Ballz fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jul 28, 2016

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit

Thin Privilege posted:

I use Royal Canin s/o dry food and wet food also, I mix it up on scheduled meals, sometimes wet sometimes dry. Keeps it interesting. RC It smells way better than Hills, sometimes I want to eat it :ninja: seriously though my cats are fine on it, it's been ~4 years and he's happier than ever.

Oh and you can get them all at PetsMart if it had a Banfield in it! Just bring in a script from your vet.

RC urinary S/O cat buddy here!

My cat basically refuses to eat, or at least will come pester me if I don't put out both the wet and dry food twice a day. If only she would eat both every time, some times she'll gobble up the wet food and none of the dry food, sometimes the opposite. Cats man.

Flying Leatherman posted:

My tabby has a fountain, and it definitely makes a difference - we used to change her water 3x/day, so it wasn't like she didn't get fresh water, but the fountain definitely had her drinking quite a bit more.

Other fresh water option, just drink your own water out of a mug, my cat will start drinking out of mine as soon as I stop looking, and sometimes will sneak up and start doing it when I am.

hogmartin
Mar 27, 2007

Ballz posted:

Edit: Also, any drink fountain recommendations? Amazon's top suggestions seem to be the Drinkwell Platinum fountain and the Cat Mate 70 oz Pet Fountain.

I have the Drinkwell Platinum and it works great, but:
- It's not cheap. I got it from an Amazon Prime sale so it was like $24. Amazon's current price of $39 isn't bad. I saw one the last time I was at Petco and it was $60 or something.
- You really have to be on the ball about cleaning it, usually every 1-2 weeks. Slime forms pretty quickly in the dark damp corners, and the tube that brings water up from the reservoir to the fountain is maybe 1/2" in diameter and 8" high, so you need a very thin bottle brush or something to clean it. e: cleaning is much less of a hassle than it could be; the pump power cord has a breakaway about a foot from the fountain so you don't have to move furniture to unplug it. The whole fountain breaks down pretty logically too, so really the tube is the only thing that's hard to access during cleaning.
- Even if it's otherwise clean, the screen between the bowl and the reservoir can get clogged with stuff, especially if you have a longhair cat. When this happens, water can't flow from the bowl back to the reservoir fast enough and the pump starts chugging like it's dry and the flow weakens. It was pretty confusing the first time this happened, because the tank was full and the bowl was full, but it was acting like it was run dry. It's easy enough to fix - just pull the screen and flush it in the sink, but it took a little while to figure out what was happening.

That's just stuff to be aware of though, it's really a pretty good fountain and the little guys took to it right away. If you go with that one, get the 12 pack of filters and swap them out every 3-4 cleanings when they start to look unfriendly.

hogmartin fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jul 28, 2016

Joburg
May 19, 2013


Fun Shoe
You can also DIY a fountain with an aquarium filter and a flat sided bowl. I use a 10 gallon filter and a short rectangular bucket, probably $20 total. I find the whole thing easier to clean than my old drink well fountain and the carbon filter replacements are super cheap.

Thin Privilege
Jul 8, 2009
IM A STUPID MORON WITH AN UGLY FACE AND A BIG BUTT AND MY BUTT SMELLS AND I LIKE TO KISS MY OWN BUTT
Gravy Boat 2k

Ballz posted:

Thanks for the suggestion. Are you mixing the broth with the food itself or having it as a separate bowl for them to lap it up? Also, do you heat it up at all, or just serve it to them straight?


I mix the two up together at once. I kind of mush it up but leave chunks. I put like 2 tablespoons of broth in there. They get 1/4 can at a time so remnants go in the fridge, so I microwave it next feeding time. Test that it's at least lukewarm and not too hot, for my microwave that's 18-20 seconds but may be different for you.

Thin Privilege fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jul 28, 2016

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.
Anyone have suggestions of good diet dog foods? My dog has plateaued on his diet about 2-3 pounds from where we'd like him so it's time for him to get put on a diet food to get the last couple pounds off.

I picked up a small bag of Fromm weight management today but I'm on the lookout for a plan B in case he doesn't like it or it messes too much with his sensitive stomach. Unfortunately the diet version of his current food (Acana) is only available in Canada or I'd go with that and call it a day.

Glass Hand
Apr 24, 2006

Just one more finger, Trent.
My 8 year old indoor cat, Chai, has been on Natural Balance dry food most of her life. Recently I began learning about the health benefits of wet food and started scoping out brands at the local pet food stores. By a complete coincidence, apparently one of them is celebrating "Cat Hydration Month" in August and gave me some free cans of Weruva "Cats in the Kitchen" food that a Weruva sales rep had given them. That brand's not in the OP, but I've seen some other people on this forum mention it, so I assume it's legit, being grain-free and all. She certainly likes it.

The thing is, I'm reluctant to go all-wet because of how well Chai already manages her weight. She's been completely free-feed since she was a kitten, I just put more food in when I see her dish getting low. Two years ago, when I took her for an annual vet checkup, she weighed 11.06 pounds; one year later, they weighed her again and she was still exactly 11.06 pounds. Not caring about how much I feed her has been pretty convenient, and I'd hate to lose the benefit of her uncanny ability to not balloon up like the cats my family had when I was a kid. Thus, I thought maybe I could use the wet food as a supplement, giving her some daily amount and still letting her have her dry food bowl to self-regulate. Is this sensible or retarded?

I have had no health issues whatsoever with her, I just want to avoid giving her early kidney problems or otherwise harming her via dehydration.

As for water, I replace her drinking water every day, but she doesn't have a fountain because she would never use them when she was younger. I used to have a fountain years ago, but she wouldn't touch it unless the motor was off, which sort of defeated the purpose of the fountain. As far as I can tell she has no interest in running water whatsoever. Should I try to get a different (quieter?) brand of fountain or something, or are there just cats that don't like them generally?

HazCat
May 4, 2009

My parents did the "free feed dry food, plus one meal a day of wet" and their cats both self regulated their weight.

I kind of free freed wet food - I'll put around 2/3rds of Onca's food out in the morning, and I'll cover it all with cling wrap (not wrapped around the plate, just pressed down on top of the food), with one corner peeled back to expose the food. Onca will pull the wrap off to get more food as he wants it. I put the last 1/3rd of his food out before bed so he'll have food there if he wants it. He's also self-regulating his weight.

Instant Jellyfish
Jul 3, 2007

Actually not a fish.



Aquatic Giraffe posted:

Anyone have suggestions of good diet dog foods? My dog has plateaued on his diet about 2-3 pounds from where we'd like him so it's time for him to get put on a diet food to get the last couple pounds off.

I picked up a small bag of Fromm weight management today but I'm on the lookout for a plan B in case he doesn't like it or it messes too much with his sensitive stomach. Unfortunately the diet version of his current food (Acana) is only available in Canada or I'd go with that and call it a day.

My dog does well on fromm weight management but also did fine on wellness and wellness core reduced fat. He doesn't really need the weight loss aspect he just does better on high fiber, mid protein foods. I like fromm the best right now.

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.

Instant Jellyfish posted:

My dog does well on fromm weight management but also did fine on wellness and wellness core reduced fat. He doesn't really need the weight loss aspect he just does better on high fiber, mid protein foods. I like fromm the best right now.

He's eaten four meals of half Acana/half Fromm so far and hasn't exploded from either end so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Kerfuffle
Aug 16, 2007

The sky calls to us~

Glass Hand posted:

My 8 year old indoor cat, Chai, has been on Natural Balance dry food most of her life. Recently I began learning about the health benefits of wet food and started scoping out brands at the local pet food stores. By a complete coincidence, apparently one of them is celebrating "Cat Hydration Month" in August and gave me some free cans of Weruva "Cats in the Kitchen" food that a Weruva sales rep had given them. That brand's not in the OP, but I've seen some other people on this forum mention it, so I assume it's legit, being grain-free and all. She certainly likes it.

The thing is, I'm reluctant to go all-wet because of how well Chai already manages her weight. She's been completely free-feed since she was a kitten, I just put more food in when I see her dish getting low. Two years ago, when I took her for an annual vet checkup, she weighed 11.06 pounds; one year later, they weighed her again and she was still exactly 11.06 pounds. Not caring about how much I feed her has been pretty convenient, and I'd hate to lose the benefit of her uncanny ability to not balloon up like the cats my family had when I was a kid. Thus, I thought maybe I could use the wet food as a supplement, giving her some daily amount and still letting her have her dry food bowl to self-regulate. Is this sensible or retarded?

I have had no health issues whatsoever with her, I just want to avoid giving her early kidney problems or otherwise harming her via dehydration.

As for water, I replace her drinking water every day, but she doesn't have a fountain because she would never use them when she was younger. I used to have a fountain years ago, but she wouldn't touch it unless the motor was off, which sort of defeated the purpose of the fountain. As far as I can tell she has no interest in running water whatsoever. Should I try to get a different (quieter?) brand of fountain or something, or are there just cats that don't like them generally?

Wevera is a good food, but it isn't AAFCO approved because it doesn't meet certain nutritional requirements. Since you're not planning on feeding exclusively wet food you should be fine feeding it as a supplementary food.

Re: dry/wet food: My elderly family cat had to go on an all wet food diet because he is Old and his kidneys aren't as good as they used to be, but up until that point he did great on self regulating a set amount of dry food as you described. If she does get fat just cut back on the amount you put in the bowl.

As for the fountain if your cat is fine drinking out of a normal bowl I don't see much use in getting a fountain. If you haven't already move her water bowl away from her food bowl. Cats don't always like drinking next to where they eat for whatever reason.

Echeveria
Aug 26, 2014

Hey guys, I need a bit of help with my food situation. I'll explain what I was thinking of doing, and you can confirm, dent, criticize and edit.

I have three cats. Hektor, who is a normal weight and has no health problems. Kitty, who is obese, and Abel, who is a great weight but is in stage 2 kidney failure.

I was feeding them Nature's Variety Instinct with freeze dried raw kibble, 2 scoops in the morning, 2 scoops at bed, and a can of Weruva split 3 ways after dinner. Split 3 ways, kitty was geting about 220kcal a day, max. I've had several medical leaves over the last few years and I know her eating habits quite well. She doesn't eat a ton of kibble, and she eats all her wet food. Abel is a loving hog and eats a ton of kibble. Because of Abels kidney disease, I recently switched to a slightly lower protein kibble, a local brands store brand called Performatrin Ultra (ingredients and other here). The ingredients aren't bad, and Abel has cut back on drinking water all the goddamn time.

I need to address both health concerns at once, so I thought I would find a decent wet food, or couple wet foods, feed wet 3 times a day, and provide a lower protein kibble for Abel and Hektor up high, where kitty can't jump to.

My main concerns right now are that my husband just lost his job, so I need to find an affordable wet food, and that obviously I can't give Abel too much protein or his kidney's will poo poo out. I can also get a MODERATELY high protein, low carb wet food and add extra protein for Kitty.

Before you ask, I have tried a million diets and as you may have guessed, they are all poo poo. Nothing has worked for her, but she's getting older and arthritic and I really want her to lose a couple pounds from her frame. I've been doing some reading and I know my best bet is to jack up her protein, cut her carbs, and try and get her more active.

Ideas are welcome, and specific brands or foods or ideas are greatly appreciated.

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




Is EVO still considered a good dry cat food since the buyout? I've seen varying opinions and complaints about it. The new cat was on hill's grain free at the shelter due to supposed diarrhea with grain foods. At first I switched her to taste of the wild chicken dry, but it gave her horrible death farts. I read in several places that the farts could be caused by chicken, so the switch to EVO salmon was made. She eats it just fine but had started barfing after a while (one a week later, 3 days in a row another week later) which I attributed to her starting to like greenies. She hasn't had greenies in 2 weeks and finally barfed again today so I'm starting to think about switching foods again and that maybe she has a fish allergy. Barfs just seem to be liquidised food with a couple bits of freshly eaten kibble.

Am I on the right track? She's very nearly free fed, I put out 1/4 cup twice a day and most of the time there's 1/4 of it left when the next meal rolls around. I have a fountain and she likes that thing a lot. Going to try Instinct protein next.

Reik
Mar 8, 2004

Echeveria posted:

Hey guys, I need a bit of help with my food situation. I'll explain what I was thinking of doing, and you can confirm, dent, criticize and edit.

I have three cats. Hektor, who is a normal weight and has no health problems. Kitty, who is obese, and Abel, who is a great weight but is in stage 2 kidney failure.

I was feeding them Nature's Variety Instinct with freeze dried raw kibble, 2 scoops in the morning, 2 scoops at bed, and a can of Weruva split 3 ways after dinner. Split 3 ways, kitty was geting about 220kcal a day, max. I've had several medical leaves over the last few years and I know her eating habits quite well. She doesn't eat a ton of kibble, and she eats all her wet food. Abel is a loving hog and eats a ton of kibble. Because of Abels kidney disease, I recently switched to a slightly lower protein kibble, a local brands store brand called Performatrin Ultra (ingredients and other here). The ingredients aren't bad, and Abel has cut back on drinking water all the goddamn time.

I need to address both health concerns at once, so I thought I would find a decent wet food, or couple wet foods, feed wet 3 times a day, and provide a lower protein kibble for Abel and Hektor up high, where kitty can't jump to.

My main concerns right now are that my husband just lost his job, so I need to find an affordable wet food, and that obviously I can't give Abel too much protein or his kidney's will poo poo out. I can also get a MODERATELY high protein, low carb wet food and add extra protein for Kitty.

Before you ask, I have tried a million diets and as you may have guessed, they are all poo poo. Nothing has worked for her, but she's getting older and arthritic and I really want her to lose a couple pounds from her frame. I've been doing some reading and I know my best bet is to jack up her protein, cut her carbs, and try and get her more active.

Ideas are welcome, and specific brands or foods or ideas are greatly appreciated.

You should check out this website if you haven't already for feline kidney disease: http://felinecrf.org/

The jury is still out on low protein vs regular protein diets, but everyone agrees limiting phosphorous intake is important. They have tables on that website and on https://www.catinfo.org where you can find the phosphorous content of both wet and dry food for lots of different brands.

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPhosphorus9-22-12.pdf

I really like Weruva Cats in the Kitchen. It has quality ingredients, the percent of calories from carbs ranges from 2.0%-7.6%, the percent of calories from protein ranges from 40.5%-66.0%, and 3 flavors with less than 200 mg/100 kcal of phosphorous. For the CKD kitty you would want to stick with their La Isla Bonita, Fowl Ball, or Chicken Frick 'A Zee flavors

http://weruva.com/catsitk-cans-nutrition.php

Boogalo posted:

Is EVO still considered a good dry cat food since the buyout? I've seen varying opinions and complaints about it. The new cat was on hill's grain free at the shelter due to supposed diarrhea with grain foods. At first I switched her to taste of the wild chicken dry, but it gave her horrible death farts. I read in several places that the farts could be caused by chicken, so the switch to EVO salmon was made. She eats it just fine but had started barfing after a while (one a week later, 3 days in a row another week later) which I attributed to her starting to like greenies. She hasn't had greenies in 2 weeks and finally barfed again today so I'm starting to think about switching foods again and that maybe she has a fish allergy. Barfs just seem to be liquidised food with a couple bits of freshly eaten kibble.

Am I on the right track? She's very nearly free fed, I put out 1/4 cup twice a day and most of the time there's 1/4 of it left when the next meal rolls around. I have a fountain and she likes that thing a lot. Going to try Instinct protein next.

I've switched to Orijen for when I put dry food out for them.

Culex
Jul 22, 2007

Crime sucks.

Boogalo posted:

Is EVO still considered a good dry cat food since the buyout? I've seen varying opinions and complaints about it.

Well I just talked a few days ago with my regional Mars PetCare representative. Not much info past what you can easily find online, but maybe some useful detail here?

Natura (EVO and California Naturals and Innova and Healthwise) was bought by Procter & Gamble back in 2010. P&G started dismantling a lot of the variety of the kibbles & cans, particularly on EVO. I don't know why, maybe supply problems. Apparently at some point they started cleaning the Natura factory with just water? At any rate, something was amiss and there was a huge Salmonella-based recall of all Natura product in 2013. P&G admitted they had no idea how to handle pet foods, and put all their acquisitions up for sale (Natura, Iams, and Eukanuba), which Mars PetCare bought up since they have their own long-running brands Nutro & Greenies. And of course Mars hyper cleaned up the factory and haven't had problems since, and do tons of inspections on their delivery trucks before they can enter the facility and onward. Like what Diamond did after their own Salmonella party in 2012!

Essentially most of the issues people had, that I've been aware of (talking with lots of educated customers, and online articles), were upset about how P&G was handling Natura and thus EVO, not what Mars has been doing.

Not to say I love Mars's pet products or anything, I have no experience with it myself. I just wanted to point out that there's been two buyouts and one was horrifically mishandled. 'Cause I really don't like P&G.

ohnobugs
Feb 22, 2003


Boogalo posted:

Is EVO still considered a good dry cat food since the buyout? I've seen varying opinions and complaints about it. The new cat was on hill's grain free at the shelter due to supposed diarrhea with grain foods. At first I switched her to taste of the wild chicken dry, but it gave her horrible death farts. I read in several places that the farts could be caused by chicken, so the switch to EVO salmon was made. She eats it just fine but had started barfing after a while (one a week later, 3 days in a row another week later) which I attributed to her starting to like greenies. She hasn't had greenies in 2 weeks and finally barfed again today so I'm starting to think about switching foods again and that maybe she has a fish allergy. Barfs just seem to be liquidised food with a couple bits of freshly eaten kibble.

Am I on the right track? She's very nearly free fed, I put out 1/4 cup twice a day and most of the time there's 1/4 of it left when the next meal rolls around. I have a fountain and she likes that thing a lot. Going to try Instinct protein next.

If you can find it anywhere. In my area both the locally owned pet shops and the large chains refused to carry Evo after so many recalls, but one of my cats loves it, so I kept buying it online, until earlier this year when for a few months no one carried it anywhere, so we made a hard switch to Wellness Core. I see Evo's selling on Amazon now for twice the normal price. I'd stay away at this point.

Culex
Jul 22, 2007

Crime sucks.

AuntBuck posted:

If you can find it anywhere. In my area both the locally owned pet shops and the large chains refused to carry Evo after so many recalls, but one of my cats loves it, so I kept buying it online, until earlier this year when for a few months no one carried it anywhere, so we made a hard switch to Wellness Core. I see Evo's selling on Amazon now for twice the normal price. I'd stay away at this point.

Apparently Mars PetCare has decided to only sell EVO through small 'boutique' type pet food stores, or small regional chains. Don't ask me why. The ones left on Amazon are the very few left, and when those are gone there won't be any more EVO you can buy online either. It's supposed to help out the few companies they allow to sell it.

ohnobugs
Feb 22, 2003


That's too bad. They've purchased a great product. Not sure why they don't want to sell it. Evo's been such a great food for getting cats to eat, especially terminally ill cats.

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




This is a small city with a huge university so there is no shortage of chintzy, overpriced pet supply stores. Fortunately easy to find EVO and all of the other premium stuff.

Ballz
Dec 16, 2003

it's mario time

Reik posted:

You should check out this website if you haven't already for feline kidney disease: http://felinecrf.org/


Thanks for this link, it was extremely informative!

So as an update, I tried literally every prescription variety I was given for Shadow, and the end result is she really, really likes the Hill's C/D stew (both tuna and chicken varieties). She's not at all thrilled with pate wet food varieties, so the stew it is, although they only come in the smaller cans.

One thing I learned from that site was minimizing phosphorous in the diet. But in addition to the early stages of kidney disease, Shadow also has a tumor on her thyroid that is kept in check with daily medication (felimazole). Rather than struggling to force a pill down her throat twice a day, I've come up with getting her to lick it up by crushing the pill, and then covering it with some tuna flakes.

Would the tuna flakes have any phosphorous in them? I get them on the cheap from the local Asian grocery store and there's no mention of it on the ingredients, but I want to make sure I'm not scuttling her prescription food diet with it.

Da Mott Man
Aug 3, 2012


Ballz posted:

Thanks for this link, it was extremely informative!

So as an update, I tried literally every prescription variety I was given for Shadow, and the end result is she really, really likes the Hill's C/D stew (both tuna and chicken varieties). She's not at all thrilled with pate wet food varieties, so the stew it is, although they only come in the smaller cans.

One thing I learned from that site was minimizing phosphorous in the diet. But in addition to the early stages of kidney disease, Shadow also has a tumor on her thyroid that is kept in check with daily medication (felimazole). Rather than struggling to force a pill down her throat twice a day, I've come up with getting her to lick it up by crushing the pill, and then covering it with some tuna flakes.

Would the tuna flakes have any phosphorous in them? I get them on the cheap from the local Asian grocery store and there's no mention of it on the ingredients, but I want to make sure I'm not scuttling her prescription food diet with it.

Tuna is considered a very low phosphorus food. Better than chicken.

Echeveria
Aug 26, 2014

Reik posted:

You should check out this website if you haven't already for feline kidney disease: http://felinecrf.org/

The jury is still out on low protein vs regular protein diets, but everyone agrees limiting phosphorous intake is important. They have tables on that website and on https://www.catinfo.org where you can find the phosphorous content of both wet and dry food for lots of different brands.

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPhosphorus9-22-12.pdf

I really like Weruva Cats in the Kitchen. It has quality ingredients, the percent of calories from carbs ranges from 2.0%-7.6%, the percent of calories from protein ranges from 40.5%-66.0%, and 3 flavors with less than 200 mg/100 kcal of phosphorous. For the CKD kitty you would want to stick with their La Isla Bonita, Fowl Ball, or Chicken Frick 'A Zee flavors

Thanks for the links. I've been doing a fair amount of research. BFF is made by the same people as weruva and the cats like it. It's on my list of reasonable foods to include in my switch, including GO, Wellness grain free, Weruva, and select Merrick varieties. Today I went to 4 different pet store in my area to price out my options. Looks like the store I;m a regular at has the best prices, except for one or two variances. Petland is almost entirely over priced like crazy, except for their BFF and Weruva. And they were on sale even further, so I picked up about 24 cans. I don't really like supporting Petland, so when my husband has a job I will stop shopping there. For now, though, I gotta feed my cats.

I also picked up a trial pack of Nature's Variety raw bites to add protein for my fatty. I will now work on implementing a feeding schedule. I'm also hoping that eliminating the kibble bowl may reduce some of the aggression Abel has towards Kitty.

Thin Privilege
Jul 8, 2009
IM A STUPID MORON WITH AN UGLY FACE AND A BIG BUTT AND MY BUTT SMELLS AND I LIKE TO KISS MY OWN BUTT
Gravy Boat 2k
Yeah it was impossible to find EVO cause that's what my picky cat only eats. I have to figure out how to switch. Got some suggestions about similar food already but if there are any more I'd love to hear them

Thin Privilege
Jul 8, 2009
IM A STUPID MORON WITH AN UGLY FACE AND A BIG BUTT AND MY BUTT SMELLS AND I LIKE TO KISS MY OWN BUTT
Gravy Boat 2k

Culex posted:

Apparently Mars PetCare has decided to only sell EVO through small 'boutique' type pet food stores, or small regional chains. Don't ask me why. The ones left on Amazon are the very few left, and when those are gone there won't be any more EVO you can buy online either. It's supposed to help out the few companies they allow to sell it.

This is all marketing nonsense and it's stupid as gently caress. I HATE marketing.

Echeveria
Aug 26, 2014

I checked out all the phosphorus levels for the foods I like and that are affordable, and it looks like BFF and Weruva have the lowest phosphorus levels while maintaining adequate protein/carb levels for my cat cat to lose weight. The BFF is consistently under 1% phosphorus, while a few of the Weruva creep over, they are still mostly under 1%. Wellness and Go are still reasonable options, but they are in the 1.10 to 1.50 phosphorous ranges. I can't find phosphorus levels for Merrick.

I gave Kitty some of the Nature's Variety chicken bites and she ate them up, so that is a success. Now let's just see if I can remove the kibble bowl without being murdered.

Da Mott Man
Aug 3, 2012


Echeveria posted:

I checked out all the phosphorus levels for the foods I like and that are affordable, and it looks like BFF and Weruva have the lowest phosphorus levels while maintaining adequate protein/carb levels for my cat cat to lose weight. The BFF is consistently under 1% phosphorus, while a few of the Weruva creep over, they are still mostly under 1%. Wellness and Go are still reasonable options, but they are in the 1.10 to 1.50 phosphorous ranges. I can't find phosphorus levels for Merrick.

I gave Kitty some of the Nature's Variety chicken bites and she ate them up, so that is a success. Now let's just see if I can remove the kibble bowl without being murdered.

From the data I could find. Wet food Merrick is all 1.23-3.25. Dry is 1.63-1.83.

Echeveria
Aug 26, 2014

Thanks. I'm really hoping eliminating the kibble bowl will also curb some of his aggression.

The blue bunny
May 29, 2013
Choice did some tests on cat wet food. They test Weruva cat food

https://www.choice.com.au/catfood

Echeveria
Aug 26, 2014

Uh they recommending friskies and whiskas and fancy feast so I'm not really taking that as an authority.

CheddarGoblin
Jan 12, 2005
oh
Has anyone used the hairball specific food before? And did it work? My cat has starting barfing up hairballs every day lately.

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr

n.. posted:

Has anyone used the hairball specific food before? And did it work? My cat has starting barfing up hairballs every day lately.
Are you sure they are hairballs? If there's not a big, formed mass of hair in the barf, it's not a hairball. Having hairballs every day is not normal. If you have a long haired cat and it's really hairballs, maybe shave your cat and/or get serious with brushing daily to reduce hair ingestion. If there's not a big, formed mass of hair in the barf, it's just plain old vomit, and your cat is probably sick.

CheddarGoblin
Jan 12, 2005
oh

Crooked Booty posted:

Are you sure they are hairballs? If there's not a big, formed mass of hair in the barf, it's not a hairball. Having hairballs every day is not normal. If you have a long haired cat and it's really hairballs, maybe shave your cat and/or get serious with brushing daily to reduce hair ingestion. If there's not a big, formed mass of hair in the barf, it's just plain old vomit, and your cat is probably sick.

yes they are hairballs

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr
shave your cat

CheddarGoblin
Jan 12, 2005
oh

Crooked Booty posted:

shave your cat

i'm not shaving my cat, can anyone just answer my question about cat food in the Pet Nutrition Thread? she's a short haired cat that's just been grooming/shedding a lot lately

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




Get a furminator and brush the poo poo outta her. You have a bonding experience, she learns to love brushing, and you don't have to go through the pain, runny poops, and potential rejection of food changing.

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CheddarGoblin
Jan 12, 2005
oh

Boogalo posted:

Get a furminator and brush the poo poo outta her. You have a bonding experience, she learns to love brushing, and you don't have to go through the pain, runny poops, and potential rejection of food changing.

I have one and use it, though to be honest I forgot about it until a couple days ago and started using it again. She coughed one up this morning but maybe that was from hair already in her gut before I started brushing again. The other thing is that she only really likes it along her back, and it does collect a poo poo ton of fur but she spends a lot of time licking her sides/belly too. I can't imagine any cat would tolerate a furminator on the belly. Then again I don't think their bellies shed nearly as much as their backs but I could be wrong.

I really don't think she's sick, she doesn't act like it at all. Just the hairballs, usually in the morning. A couple of times when she did it right after eating a bit of food did come out after the hairball, but 99% of the time it's just a hairball and nothing else. She seems a bit itchy lately too which could be contributing to the over-grooming. No sign of fleas or anything though and her coat looks and feels healthy. Maybe it's an allergy?

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