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Bluedeanie posted:What do you guys think about "limited ingredient" formulas? My Aussir has been on a lamb and pea limited ingredient recipe from Simply Nourish for several months now and while he seems to be doing well on it, all this taurine business has me wondering if both he and my pet food expenditures might be better off on a more typical line of food. If your pet doesn't have food sensitivities or allergies it doesn't seem necessary.
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Dec 11, 2018 00:50
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Bluedeanie posted:What do you guys think about "limited ingredient" formulas? My Aussir has been on a lamb and pea limited ingredient recipe from Simply Nourish for several months now and while he seems to be doing well on it, all this taurine business has me wondering if both he and my pet food expenditures might be better off on a more typical line of food. You could try the Simply Nourish Lamb and Oatmeal formula, less expensive and less legumes. One article that I read regarding the legume/taurine issue said to avoid L.I.D formulas unless they are the only thing that works for your dog.
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Dec 11, 2018 18:04
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Thanks for the recommendations! I actually settled on transitioning him to the chicken and brown rice formula but will keep the other lamb one on my mind in case he turns his nose up at it for not being close enough to what he's used to.
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Dec 11, 2018 18:14
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GoodBee posted:Even the "worst" canned cat foods really aren't that bad. Don't feel bad about that. In the mean time though how much Friskies should they be fed per day do you think? They’re probably around 3 pounds now, I’ve been feeding them about 2/3 of a 5.5 oz cAN per day and sometimes give them extra kibble like yesterday because they were especially whiny. I assume Friskies prime filets (wet obviously) isn’t too terrible to feed kittens based on what you said but I just want to be sure I’m feeding them enough (guessing these two will whine for food no matter what lol).
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Dec 13, 2018 18:51
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I honestly don't know what best practice for kittens feeding is now. Maybe browse or ask in the rescue thread? I didn't give my kittens meals. I just kept the kitten kibble bowl full and let them eat whatever they wanted. Even if I fed wet food also.
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Dec 13, 2018 19:11
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Hi there! So, I have 2 kittens, ages (roughly) 4 months and 3 months. We adopted them from some neighbors whose cats got accidentally knocked up, and they weren't 100% sure of the ages, just that 1 is from a different litter and they think is around a month older. Anyway. I have been feeding both cats this "Blue Freedom Kitten Indoor Grain Free Pate Chicken". They currently each get one 3oz can twice a day, 1 in the morning, 1 in the evening. When I am out of town for work, I use an automatic feeder to feed them Whole Earth Farms Grain Free Recipe Dry Cat Food, Kitten. I have been planning on eventually switching them to 4health Grain-Free Shredded Chicken Dinner in Gravy for Cats because it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper ($0.13/oz) than the Blue Freedom ($0.40/oz). Ingredient wise, the 4health looks very good:  We fed our dogs 4Health dog food for years with no issues. My question is, at what age is it appropriate to transition them from kitten food to the 4Health, which isn't labeled as "kitten" or "for all life stages"? Also, I would imagine most manufacturers' recommended feeding amounts are higher than is best, to get you to buy more, so suggestions on how much to feed them would be appreciated. The older one, Nyx, was 2.5lbs at their most recent vet visit. Her little brother Noctis was 2lbs.  (Nyx is on the left, Noctis is on the right)
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Jan 4, 2019 19:21
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A year on kitten food is what I've always heard/done except with Dexter who started getting chonky early on. My kitten food question is this: Is there anything out there for wet food that doesn't make kitty's breath and poo poo smell god-awful? My two big kitties eat a raw diet (Darwin's) and their poo poo basically doesn't stink at all. Roswell is FIV+ though, and can't ever have raw food. I feed her Performatin Kitten wet food and I swear she produces a greater volume and MUCH greater stank than both my other cats combined. It this just my life now?
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Jan 4, 2019 19:40
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Can you call your vet/vet tech and ask what their feeding recommendation for kittens is? I free fed mine when they were kittens.Wroughtirony posted:My kitten food question is this: Is there anything out there for wet food that doesn't make kitty's breath and poo poo smell god-awful? My two big kitties eat a raw diet (Darwin's) and their poo poo basically doesn't stink at all. Roswell is FIV+ though, and can't ever have raw food. I feed her Performatin Kitten wet food and I swear she produces a greater volume and MUCH greater stank than both my other cats combined. It this just my life now? As far as breath goes, how are your cat's teeth? My 15 year old cat doesn't have bad breath and she's got nice teeth. She had one cleaning a couple of years ago. My orange cat has stinkier breath and needs a cleaning every year. I should probably brush them myself but he's still got all his teeth at 13 so I think we're doing alright. I had a cat with kidney issues that used to leave giant stinky poops. He didn't bury them either because he was an rear end in a top hat. My mom had a cat with a medical condition (don't remember what) that also left giant stinky unburied poops. I think it had something to do with their ability to remove the water in their intestines? I've never had an FIV+ cat so I don't know if this just goes along with the territory. One of my cats doesn't do too well with beef though, so it could potentially be your protein source is contributing to the stink?
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Jan 4, 2019 20:03
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GoodBee posted:As far as breath goes, how are your cat's teeth? My 15 year old cat doesn't have bad breath and she's got nice teeth. She had one cleaning a couple of years ago. My orange cat has stinkier breath and needs a cleaning every year. I should probably brush them myself but he's still got all his teeth at 13 so I think we're doing alright. She's just six months and the vet says her teeth look fine. I like the idea of trying her on a different protein source, maybe her system just doesn't like chicken.
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Jan 4, 2019 23:43
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GoodBee posted:Can you call your vet/vet tech and ask what their feeding recommendation for kittens is? I free fed mine when they were kittens. What do you mean by free fed?
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Jan 5, 2019 00:22
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Annath posted:What do you mean by free fed? Sorry. I mean I left out a bowl of dry kitten food all the time so they could graze and fed them wet food meals. The wet food meals were less than the total feeding recommendations so the cats made up the calorie difference with the dry food. Some cats are fine regulating their food intake, some get too fat when they can eat whatever they want. I let my cats free feed when they were kittens, then I switched to measured meals for a while when one of them need to start watching his weight due to a heart defect. After the defective dude passed, I switched back to free feeding my two senior cats. They're getting small wet meals and access to dry whenever.
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Jan 5, 2019 01:13
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Thoughts on Blue Buffalo's wilderness like of dry cat food vs its standard line? Our cat has historically been on Wilderness, and we recently tried switching her to the wet version and turns out she is a priss and prefers dry. We got her the regular BB dry out of necessity and she likes it fine, plus she was chonky on Wilderness and lost a little with the Wilderness weight control formula but I wonder if a less rich line will be better or worse.
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Jan 25, 2019 01:39
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Bluedeanie posted:Thoughts on Blue Buffalo's wilderness like of dry cat food vs its standard line? Our cat has historically been on Wilderness, and we recently tried switching her to the wet version and turns out she is a priss and prefers dry. We got her the regular BB dry out of necessity and she likes it fine, plus she was chonky on Wilderness and lost a little with the Wilderness weight control formula but I wonder if a less rich line will be better or worse. BB Wilderness is their grain free & high protein line. BB Freedom isn't much different with regards to ingredients, it just has more carbs and fiber and less protein. BB Freedom wet is what we've been feeding our Noodle. It's an ok, middle of the road food that she's happy and willing to eat consistently after many many trials with other more expensive brands. If they're happy to eat it I think that's ultimately what matters. For what it's worth her coat is great, poops don't really stink, she's hydrated, has energy and is maintaining a healthy weight on it. An all dry food diet isn't typically ideal though.
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Jan 25, 2019 20:16
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owls or something posted:An all dry food diet isn't typically ideal though. I agree, but she was only eating the wet reluctantly and often leaving significant amounts of it to crust over altogether, and I was following feeding instructions carefully so I don't think I was overfeeding her. I'd rather she be eating than give her a higher quality diet but she underfeeds herself voluntarily. Good call with Wilderness being grain free, I will go back to that once this small trial bag runs out.
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Jan 25, 2019 20:22
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Annath posted:
First & most abundant ingredient is broth, which is why it's so much cheaper. I suspect you'll end up needing to feed more of it vs the BB as it's got less calories per can. Might not even be that much cheaper in the end.
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Jan 25, 2019 20:27
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Bluedeanie posted:I agree, but she was only eating the wet reluctantly and often leaving significant amounts of it to crust over altogether, and I was following feeding instructions carefully so I don't think I was overfeeding her. I'd rather she be eating than give her a higher quality diet but she underfeeds herself voluntarily. The freedom line is grain free too. It took us about 6 weeks to really break Noodle from her shelter grazing kibble addiction. Our own fault for reinforcing that behavior after we adopted her. She knew we'd have to give her kibbles if she held out and it wasn't a fun journey making the switch, but our hand was forced after she had a UTI. Now we have her exclusively on one 5.5oz can per day broken into two meals about 12h apart. I think her walnut sized brain has finally forgotten that kibble exists and resistance is futile. We wasted a lot of food though during that month or two and it really pissed me off plenty of times. It's like she was doing it to spite me.
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Jan 25, 2019 20:55
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Question: Adopted my first ever cat. 8.2 lbs per the adoption medical report with a “4 - Lean” on the BCS chart. Planning on going to a vet and will ask some basic questions as a first time cat owner but she is due for vaccines in two weeks so I figure to avoid two office visit fees I’ll do a check up and vaccine visit in two weeks. In the meantime my question is related to how much to feed her. Have some wet food that says 3 cans for 6-8 lb cat. She is 8lbs, but lean. Should I shoot for a “target weight” and feed a little more? 9–10 lbs? Meet the beauty. 
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Jan 25, 2019 21:55
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owls or something posted:The freedom line is grain free too. We're pretty much resigned to the fact that if she ever develops a food allergy, she's going to need a feeding tube for the rest of her life. CancerStick posted:Question: But as someone else with an underweight cat, I have three pieces of advice: 1. How much you need to feed your cat can vary based on her activity level and how well she handles the food (you'll pick up on cues in her coat, her breath, her bowel movements, and her activity level while on the food). Sometimes the amount can change on a weekly basis but it will likely change at least on a seasonal basis. 2. Track the amount you're feeding her by the kcal amount, not the number of recommended cans. Our 8.2 lb cat (elderly, not as active as a kitten) is eating a little over 200 kcal per day right now and is gradually gaining weight, but we're giving her as much food as she wants, that just happens to be where she stops herself. I have another cat who's getting 180 kcal per day of a different food, and that keeps her hovering around 10 lbs. 3. Buy a baby scale. I've had this one for years https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Salter-914-WHLKR-Toddler-Scale/dp/B00009KX5U/ and it's the only way we've been able to track how much to adjust feeding amounts. I can't emphasize enough how life-changing a baby scale is for a cat with sensitive weight. Weigh her at least once a week and adjust how much you're feeding her by small amounts. Drastic changes in weight can also be an early signal that something is wrong even if she's acting like everything is fine.
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Jan 27, 2019 22:26
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Thanks for the tips. I'll look into getting a scale that makes it easier to monitor her weight as we get her to a healthy weight. These cat food companies definitely want to sell as many cans as they can, huh? Did some research about using k/cal and that made a lot of sense. We adopted her last Saturday and we initially got a dry food (Solid Gold Indigo Moon). Then as we read more about the benefits of wet food we looked at cost effective ways to use primarily wet food with maybe a little bit of dry to help keep the cost down. Per the wet food we have: 84 k/cal a can; instructions are 3 cans per 6-8lb of cat a day The dry food: 455 k/cal per cup; instructions are 1/2 cup for 7-9 lb of cat a day. We have been doing the 3 cans, but figured we would do 1/4 cup of dry a day to help get more food in her since the 3 cans was "only" for 6-8 lbs of cat. Doing the math I have probably been giving her 360-370 k/cal a day. Whoops. I'll just monitor her like you said and try and get some frequent weights to see how she is doing. Even though she has been receiving a higher amount of calories per day you would think she is starved. Can't go into the kitchen without her following and meowing at us. The second you get the cat food out she is amped and eats till its gone then proceeds to go back to her food bowl and lick it dry a handful of times over 30 minutes post feeding.
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Jan 28, 2019 01:19
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CancerStick posted:These cat food companies definitely want to sell as many cans as they can, huh? Did some research about using k/cal and that made a lot of sense. CancerStick posted:We adopted her last Saturday and we initially got a dry food (Solid Gold Indigo Moon). Then as we read more about the benefits of wet food we looked at cost effective ways to use primarily wet food with maybe a little bit of dry to help keep the cost down.
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Jan 30, 2019 03:18
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I feed my cat live feeder mice vet says it's the most natural diet. Plus once you get past the squirm factor they are just adorable when they stalk.
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Jan 31, 2019 21:13
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it's like 8 - 12 mice a day but it's ok because you really only need to buy two to get started.
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Jan 31, 2019 21:14
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Turtlicious posted:I feed my cat live feeder mice vet says it's the most natural diet. Plus once you get past the squirm factor they are just adorable when they stalk. I’ve thought about doing this because one of my cats has terrible teeth and won’t eat wet food reliably. I figured the bones might do some scraping action. Any salmonella concerns? Where do you get your mice?
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Jan 31, 2019 22:24
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I would talk to your vet about doing anything, and I still give it wet food supplement. I also put the food supplement in the feeder's mice food because like... What if it's like vampires and alcohol, cat's only get vegetables in the wild from the stomachs of the creatures they eat, so if I give them the right proteins for the cat the cat will be good. Here's a video on what a large scale feeder mice set up would look like. You can just go to a pet shop and ask for a pair of feeder mice to breed. (People get really offended when you say it's for your cat though, because cat's are extremely violent and like to play with their food.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfhxwah3RE
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Jan 31, 2019 22:36
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Turtlicious posted:I would talk to your vet about doing anything, and I still give it wet food supplement. I also put the food supplement in the feeder's mice food because like... What if it's like vampires and alcohol, cat's only get vegetables in the wild from the stomachs of the creatures they eat, so if I give them the right proteins for the cat the cat will be good. That’s good info, thanks!
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Feb 1, 2019 01:43
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 So I’ve got this adorable 3 month old Maine coon and he’s starting to be a pain about his food. I’ve got Royal Canin wet and dry kitten food for him, and that was fine for a while, but my gf already has a 10 year old cat and a dog. We kept him away from the other pets at first, but now that they’re all hanging out together he just wants their food. And our food! He wants everything but his own food, and doesn’t eat a lot of it unless I trick him by putting a few treats in it. How do I make his own food more interesting for him? Should I take some normal cat food and mix it in? And how bad is it that he keep chowing down on dry dog food? He loves it but it seems like that can’t be a great idea.
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Mar 3, 2019 04:24
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I have a 6 year old corgi and I’m feeding her dry Blue Buffalo. Is there a heal5h benefit to switching her to canned?
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Mar 14, 2019 19:15
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Snowy posted:
Royal Canin in my experience isn't the most appealing food for cats. I wouldn't be surprised if you need to switch his food to some other brand of kitten food (assuming he wasn't put on this food for some health reason). Canned cat food comes in a huge variety of textures and flavors. I have one cat who prefers shredded chunks of fish, and another cat who won't eat anything except chicken pate. Canned cat food also suffers from some seasonal changes - pet food companies occasionally change up their ingredient sources depending on cost. So at some times of the year, the chicken may come from one place, or the fish might be a certain kind of fish, and other times of the year, that completely changes. Some very picky cats will refuse their food because of changes like this. Try to stick with common proteins (chicken, fish) and avoid any food with unusual proteins like duck or venison, just in case your cat ever has to go on an elimination diet and your vet wants to use proteins your cat hasn't been exposed to before. Dry dog food is not necessarily bad for cats as a snack but it doesn't have the right nutritional content for long-term cat health. There are various tricks you can use to get your cat to eat the food you want (using a small amount of tuna juice, or mixing treats in as you've discovered, etc.), but personally I'd just try a different type of food. Valicious posted:I have a 6 year old corgi and I’m feeding her dry Blue Buffalo. Is there a heal5h benefit to switching her to canned?
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Mar 14, 2019 21:13
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I would suggest also doing the math on canned food. Take the amount of dry food you're currently feeding and convert to calories. Then figure out how many cans in the brand you want that is, then calculate the cost. You can also ask your vet about supplemental feeding with wet food.
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Mar 14, 2019 21:34
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Two parter: My cat seems to have a fowl allergy and is now on an all wet, novel protein (rabbit) diet. We had originally noticed delayed vomiting after feeding, but only with food that had a chicken protein in it. Weird thing was that the kibble came up like it went in, only 3+ hours later. Once we figured it out and went to rabbit he's been fine. Could there have been anything else that caused a superpower to barf whole kibble back up hours after eating? And if not, are there any good kibbles we could get that would be acceptable? I'm kinda eyeballing the solid gold winged tiger and stay in salmon, as well as instinct limited ingredient rabbit. We'd love to be able to find a kibble that he and his littermates might enjoy without having to chaperone feeding.
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Mar 17, 2019 21:30
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DkHelmet posted:Could there have been anything else that caused a superpower to barf whole kibble back up hours after eating? Hairballs can cause them to barf undigested food up, especially bad during shedding time. owls or something fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 17, 2019 21:44
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owls or something posted:Hairballs can cause them to barf undigested food up, especially bad during shedding time. This barfing was ongoing, not related to hairballs. And it looked like regurgitation, even hours later.
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Mar 17, 2019 23:23
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DkHelmet posted:Two parter: Food allergy talk: Definitely check with your vet before you make changes to your cat's diet if he has a food allergy. It's also good to confirm with your vet before changing your other pets to a limited ingredient diet themselves - that's usually something you want to avoid, since if one of them develops a food allergy, you generally won't do an elimination diet trial with a protein they've had before. So you'd be eliminating rabbit as an option if any of his littermates develop an allergy. Granted, he might be getting some exposure to whatever protein his littermates are eating now, since they probably groom each other/share water dishes/etc. So sometimes it's necessary to switch all animals. If your cat is allergic to fowl, are you intending to avoid turkey and quail? Both of the Solid Gold foods you mentioned have bird proteins from what I would consider fowl. With most standard commercial pet foods, I would personally be worried about unnamed ingredients getting mixed in. I've occasionally found wrong-shaped kibble in Solid Gold batches, like a piece of kibble from some other line found its way in the bag. The Instinct kibble seems like it might be a better idea for avoiding that, since they explicitly target a limited ingredient diet. Maybe they'd be more careful? Otherwise, there are some brands that specialize in novel protein diets and may be sold through specialty pet stores, if you want to check on the availability of those. Regurgitation talk: If you haven't definitively determined it's a food allergy, and you're absolutely sure there's no recording/observation error in him regurgitating 3+ hours after eating... then I would start wondering if there's a problem with his esophagus. His ability to keep down the new wet food might just be because wet food doesn't trigger the problem. Regurgitation is generally the eviction of food from the esophagus, not the stomach. There are some health conditions that can cause problems in the esophagus, and if food is staying there for 3+ hours, that's a bad sign. Here's what I would start looking at, if it were one of my cats:
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Mar 18, 2019 06:20
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Did you try a different, more common protein? Like beef or fish based kibble?
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Mar 18, 2019 16:06
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My 6 year-old corgi is finicky about eating her straight dry dog food, so we’re mixing it with canned. (1/5 canned to 4/5 dry) She has absolutely gone wild for canned food. Here’s my question. Which is better, Wellness CORE or Taste of the Wild? We feed her Blue Buffalo right now, but i feel like I should switch? I don’t mind spending a few extra bucks to get her food that’s actually better.
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Mar 18, 2019 19:18
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My 6 and 7 year old tabby cats have eaten the same foods their whole lives - Dry Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken kibble for breakfast - Canned Wellness Turkey for dinner Two weeks ago, one of them started barfing within an hour of breakfast (the dry kibble) every meal. I tossed the bag, got another one, same deal. Tried a third bag from a different store, and it still caused her to barf. The two cats will just stare at their bowls if I try putting the dry kibble in there. They're eating the canned Wellness Turkey for all meals now with no issues, but I'd like to get them eating dry some of the time for convenience & $$$ reasons. The OP is very out of date (Evo is discontinued!). Is Solid Gold reputable still? They have sample bags.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:39
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:The OP is very out of date (Evo is discontinued!). Is Solid Gold reputable still? They have sample bags. My two cats were on Solid Gold for a while until we hit a bad bag, they seemed to enjoy it up to that point. It doesn't look like they've changed the formula recently so it would probably still be just fine. I see you are feeding them Wellness canned - Wellness also has their Core line of kibble which is pretty good, that's what I am feeding them now.
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Mar 27, 2019 02:04
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Yeah, I feed my cat Wellness Core kibble and Wellness canned (the mom and pop shop carry like 10 flavors so I get her some of each) and that's worked well for me. She gets 3-4 meals dry and 1 wet. Keeps her from getting bored of either.
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Mar 27, 2019 21:52
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Awesome! I'm going to experiment with Solid Gold's "Winged Tiger" (Quail?), "Katz-n-Flocken" (Lamb?), and "Let's Stay In" (Salmon?) flavors. These guys have some interesting names. Giving chicken a break since that was the flavor of Nature's Variety Instinct that was causing the barfs.
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Mar 28, 2019 06:27
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Any recommendations on dry cat food that's easily available in mainland Europe? The OP seems pretty US-centric. We've had our little Katya for about a month now and she's been fed Royal Canin Fit32 ever since she was found in a Romanian landfill. She loves it and seems healthy, she's tiny but gaining weight steadily (estimated 1 y/o, just shy of 3kg). Always hungry tho, but I feel like that's just a cat thing. I was thinking of switching her to something with better ingredients after we finish this big bag, but almost none of the available brands are even mentioned in the OP? This is the grain-free category on the biggest online pet shop for reference: https://www.zooplus.nl/shop/katten/graanvrij Here's a very flattering picture of her to pay the cat tax. 
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Mar 28, 2019 21:17
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