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I'm bored at work and wandered into this new iteration of the food thread. Here's my two cents on cat food with some back story: I met my wife back in 2010 and she had two cats. Both were being fed Purina Indoor cat food. One cat was a stray named Jelly (age unknown) and the other she got as a kitten rescue while she worked as a vet tech, that one is Hopscotch. Then we married and got a third one, O'Malley, who was approximately a year old. So all three ate that food in our apartment. Then fast forward 6 months, and we move into a condo and have room for one more cat. He was a rescue mainecoon named Whiskey (age unknown) and he ate the same food. But within about 4 months of having him in our place, he developed feline Hepatitis and dropped to about 9 pounds. This was not attributed to the food, but trying to get him to eat while recovering got me to read more about food and and we eventually transitioned onto new food for everyone. The first I think was Solid Gold Indigo Moon, based maybe on an old thread. But at some point they discontinued the larger size bag or maybe the food size changed, or local stores didn't carry it anymore, but something made me switch to Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain. And it came in 14 pound bags too! We fed them that for a year, then we added 3 foster-fail kittens and another stray (starving to death on the street and walked up to my wife when parking her car) and we kept them on this food for at least three years. The kittens all filled out nicely with beautiful coats, the non-strays were staying good sized, and the strays were heavy but I attribute that to fear of starving on the streets. The first cat, the stray named Jelly, died of old age. Hopscotch developed diabetes a bit after her passing, we switched him to EVO. Everyone else stayed on Taste of the Wild. Hopscotch ate that Purina Indoor cat probably a good 2.5 years of his life initially. I attributed his health and need to eat constantly based on that junk and the reaction it had on his appetite. EVO discontinued their dry food though and we never found a suitable replacement. Tiki Cat wet food, being the least processed wet food, became Hopscotch's main food with a bit of dry for more nutrition (hard to find a good balance of grain-free/high protein next to EVO). So we experimented with Fromm, some others I forget, and a different Taste of the Wild just for him. We added one more cat to the mix (that makes 8) and he liked it too. But Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain finally got kicked to the curb though. One of the three kittens developed a gall bladder stone. So now learning that it is attributed to high phosphorus content, the search began for a dry food with low phosphorus content. I found some great list that compiled all the phosphorus contents of all dry cat food. Then I narrowed it down to what was available in the US, then at stores close by, and even better on Chewy. That one was Solid Gold Winged Tiger. And we now let all the cats eat it. The diabetic one eats it too since it's in an acceptable threshold of nutrition vs carbs. Despite sticking to wet food for most of his diagnosis, after the EVO discontinuation, our vet was adamant that he eat dry too since he believed the Tiki Cat wasn't nutritionally dense enough (literally whole sardines in those cans!). Here we are at least 2 years post-gallstone surgery and all the cats are doing good eating the Solid Gold Winged Tiger. And only one of the three kittens ever developed an issue. They are litter mates. Two are calicos, one's a male korat. The vet said the other two probably won't ever have the same issues as the one did. So the other two could have probably stayed on Taste of the Wild. As for vet-prescribed food, we tried it with the mainecoon back when he was sick and he refused to eat it. Had to buy 5 different brands of high-end wet food before he mustered up the strength to actually eat any of it (something that was mostly trout). And the diabetic prescription food was junk, carby rear end poo poo. We fed him one can, which looked like gruel, and returned the rest to the vet. I know the vet has the best of intentions, but even they can be a little uneducated on stuff like that. With that said, it's great to find a food that multiple cats will all like. But it takes a few attempts. With the kittens having eaten the Taste of the Wild for their formative years, the Korat was a hard sell on new dry foods. But the Winged Tiger he went to real fast. And if you have multiple cats it's hard to gauge which health issues may arise, right away or down the road. So realistically it's just research and recommendations. And the only vomiting issues I have had with all these cats is gorging. And that usually occurred when we weren't home in time to feed them at their normal feeding times (the diabetic one makes it so we do no free feed now). So realistically, just make sure your young cats/older kittens transition to a nutritionally dense dry food. I would probably stay away from brands that were just normal kibble that later started grain-free lines. Research the brands that always focused on that market share and narrow those ones down. And then focus on protein content (high) and carb content (as low as you can go). Then if they have the data, look at the rest (like phosphorus). Then adapt to their tastes/reactions/potential allergies. And the cats and shittens mentioned above: 
Kramdar fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Apr 17, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 01:09
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 08:57 |
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Cats are weird. There's no figuring out what system is best until you just try it and stick with it for a bit. We have two females, they never ask for food if the bowls are empty. But then we have our male orange tabby who will do anything in his power to get me up to feed him in the morning. Mind you, there might be food out still. He is just too lazy to walk downstairs and check. I will pick him up in a fit and plop him down in front of a food bowl that's loaded. And he just goes "Oh" and started eating. We had started isolating our other cat when he was diagnosed diabetic. We would feed him separately in the bathroom while everyone else ate. Now all the others were fine with eating dry, and they wouldn't hound us while he was off eating his fancy wet food in the bathroom. But if they got enough dry, they would wait outside the bathroom hoping that when we released him that there would be scraps left. Slowly over time, the diabetic one got sick his wet food and preferred dry. It was Tiki Cat before. Now he eats Fancy Feast and just sucks it down. It's obviously not quite as low carb like the Tiki Cat Ahi, but he doesn't get tired of it. At this point, my wife just wants him to enjoy what he eats. He's been diabetic now at least 3 years. But unless you have the time and dedication to feeding both separately, you'll have to find a happy medium regarding food. There's so many different brands of quality dry foods right now. We feed one dry food to all our cats, and that was after trying several different brands to see how they all received it. Solid Gold Winged Tiger is the one we use now, because it's one of the more readily available brands with a low phosphorus level. But as it is now, the cats aren't really free-fed. We put dry food out twice a day, maybe a small amount before bed. The diabetic one eats wet the second feeding time. It works. None of them eat it all at once, they will graze for like 20 minutes or more until the bowls are near empty. We have one korat too, he's the only one that may gorge. And that only happens when we are late feeding them in the evening. Once in a while he'll throw it up. But that's after he like tops off with water and sprints around too much. loving cats. And their ages are 6 to 16 roughly.
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Nov 3, 2021 20:51
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A raw diet is going to need to consist of primarily organ meat, since that is literally where all nutrients are concentrated. Lysine is the big one, and that is added to cat food due to lack of it from all the meat waste that is used to make cheap cat food. Much like the dinos in Jurassic Park, the cat won't be surviving long without it. And I have heard mixed things about the availability of organ meat at the butchers too. So she should see what is available to her. She should try Tiki Cat canned food. The sardine cutlets is straight up whole fish chunked up into the can. Cats are carnivores. They are supposed to eat the whole animal, head to toe.
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Jan 25, 2022 21:15
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We had two cats vomit quite regularly, but we attributed it to gorging. Half the time the kibble was still whole. And cats really aren't the smartest. Half the time I'd hear them run up a flight a stairs at mach speed right after eating and then out of nowhere they'd proceed to retch it all up. Or they'd eat, and then fill up on water. Basically, their barf would look like Cap'n Crunch left in a bowl of milk all swelled up. Easiest fix was to just put less food in the bowl, and refill later. Making them graze fixed it.
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Feb 24, 2022 22:44
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Have you looked into those caloric pastes/gels? You can try mixing that in with her wet or dry food. Or even give her excess treats, if it is really that dire. What is considered underweight?
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Nov 14, 2022 21:51
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Have you looked at Chewy.com for buying Solid Gold food? I get the Winged Tiger on there, and have it on auto-ship so it's 5% off. But now that you mention it, the price has gone up $6 a bag since November looking back at my shipments. I just noticed the kibble shape changed again too. Makes sense now why, pet food inflation is real. But at least you can get the Indigo Moon in the 12 lb bag, I don't have that luxury with the Winged Tiger flavor. And looking at the old Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain that I would buy my cats, that bag has gone up $10 too. Looks like you're gonna have to bite the bullet. Maybe 5% off is good enough.
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Jan 18, 2023 22:59
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 08:57 |
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Hrvstmn31 posted:Anyone heard if anything is going on with Solid Gold? I 've been using it since it was one of the foods the last thread recommended and my two dorks love it. But I went into petsmart and it was pretty heavily discounted and when I asked what was up they said they were getting rid of their dog food line up. I can't find anything on a quick search. Bet you Petsmart just has trouble moving the stuff. I've only bought a bag of Solid Gold there once, because I was waiting on a Chewy delivery. The kibble shape was distinctly different from the bags I got from Chewy. So I would think that means they had some real old stock at the store(s). Meanwhile, whenever I would go to a Petco to grab a bag, their inventory was always low.
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Feb 28, 2023 21:53
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