cat food?

[911teo]

Ok so we bought this little cute kitty for my girls....

He's 9 weeks old... Breeder was feeding him with dry food...
Been reading horror stories abt what goes in there...

So what do I feed the little thing? Some people suggested a raw diet (raw chicken/ beef, chicken/beef hears/brains etc) but I don't even know where to find some of those things...

Also right now we have a bowl with dry food and one with fresh water that we leave out and change everyday... Is this ok? or should we feed him only at precise intervals?

What do u guys do?

[red-beard]

Cats usually don't over eat. I have cats that I've been feeding 'Meow Mix' and water only for almost 7 years with no ill effects. Cats like the stuff and it's cheap in the 20lb bags. I transfer the food into about 8 ziplock bags and then store it back in the 20lb bag, to keep it fresh.

The odor of the material the cat produces is proportional to the odor of the material you feed it! You will thank yourself for feeding it dry only.

[tabs]

Read the side of the Bag and read the ingridients in the food and compare with the High Priced stuff...Costco and Sams Club have the same quality food for a fraction of the Petco etc High Priced foods...

I have always cooked chicken skins and given cooked beef fat etc to the dogs and cat...and or any broth that is left...mixed with their own food.

[vash]

i affectionatly refer to the cat living with us as "last cat". she got a bladder issue with crystals forming in her pee. she couldnt make it to the litterbox everytime. i had to scrub the house top to bottom. well, it is diet related. my vet said cats dont normally drink alot of water. they get the needed drink from the wet food. we put her on wet prescription food for awhile and all cleared up. we tried, but now she is on dry again. i couldnt handle the stink! we antied up for the better food with less manganese (?) and something else. for the record, the trouble started with the trader joes stuff. if i were you, i would ask a vet. i dont wish that disaster on anyone.

[red-beard]

If you start them off on dry, they will drink water with it.

[legion]

My cat gets a bowl of dry food (Iams), and a quarter-can of Fancy Feast for dinner. Meow Mix is mostly soy, and it doesn't seem right to me to make the backbone of a predators diet a grain. At least Iams is "meat-by-product". Just my 2¢.

[Craig 930 RS]

Science Diet
Iams

A bit of above in wet food in the AM

Cats routinely DO NOT drink enough water.......beware

[RickM]

If I were you I'd ask your Vet. While some of them try to push specialty foods they sell you should be able to get an idea of what's healthy.

[Tim Hancock]

I buy the cheap dry in large bags for both our dog ($9.99/40 lb bag...10 yrs old and doing fine) and our outside cats ($8.99/20 lb bag)they all get fed in outside gravity style bulk feeders and can eat whenever they like. When we have kittens, they eat the dry as soon as they feel like it. Our cats do fine on this stuff and none are fat like many house cats who get special warmed gourmet canned food. Do whatever makes you feel good, but the cat will do just fine on dry (kind of like folks who put premium gas in their car that was built to run on 87, it just has to be better because it costs more right?).

[svandamme]

dry food, Iams here as well
it works , good solid droppings

felt sorry for the sucker once, and tried to change his food to can food, tried once, never again , the little bugger nearly crapped his intestines out... no kidding , he sat on his litter box the whole day for 2 days straight...

added disadvantage of the wet food, it smells, you can't get a small can for one dose, and a big can stinks up yer fridge , or goes to waste

and for what goes in the dry food, i'm sure it's not worse than what they put in the cans...

cat don't mind the dry food, i just give him table scraps , just very little of them...it's just not that entertaining to have him make running poop sounds all evening...

[84CAB]

Cheap food is full of fillers, it cost less at the register but you have to feed way more, making it more costly in the long run. Cats need to be fed a meat based diet and the cheap foods are vegetable protien based. The pet food industry is regulated, don't beleive the internet stories about what goes in pet food.

[UconnTim97]

I've always fed my current cat dry food. My previous cat had wet food, and it is surely not worth the stink and mess. Scince diet has worked well for me as well as meow mix. My cat likes them both.

A cat usually won't eat more than they have to. I leave some out in the morning, and toss what is left and give her more at night.

[Craig 930 RS]

When you cahnge foods, be really careful. To a cat, it is as if a human went from cheeseburgers and apples - every day, to lettuce and tofu - every day. BIG change.

Mix foods during the transition.

[stomachmonkey]

All good solid advice.

I've known a few, very few cats that over eat. NOT normally an issue. They are really good at self regulating unlike dogs.

Water, change it 3-4 times a day and they will drink more. Keep the bowl clean. The water will pick up odors and taste from it's container. Cats don't like that.

Wet food makes their poop and breath smell and rots their teeth. Cats are carnivores and require a solid substance to keep their teeth and gums healthy.

Solid food can cause intestinal issues. Still a better diet than only wet.

Easy and gross way to figure out if the diet has the proper hydration, check the poop, it poop should be solid but soft. If you feed them only dry and their poop comes out hard they need more hydration. If they poop runny then they need more dry.

Stay away from crap like fancy feast.

And they love milk but it can give them the runs.

[Craig 930 RS]

Great advice from stomachmonkey.

[WOODPIE]

Our cat, Rocky, is about nine years old, and until last summer had done real well on dry food. But his weight started to drop, and when we could see his ribs through his fur, we got worried. We changed to canned food; my thinking was that maybe his teeth just weren't up to crunching dry food anymore. Anyway, now Rocky looks great now, close to ten pounds, I'd guess.

As far as the smell is concerned, I guess no one else here has trained their cat to take it outside. Rocky goes to the door and meows when he wants out, and likewise when he wants back in. You could say he has us trained pretty well, but that's OK.

Rocky also sits up on his rear end and "begs" for cat treats, a pretty neat trick, and he drinks most of his water out of the toilet.

Ed

[VaSteve]

I have been around cats my whole life. Recently, I learned some things:

1. Do not put a cat on a diet if it's fat. Cats need to east EVERY day. If they don't "crap" (techincal term) builds up in their liver and they can die.

2. Cats are carnivores. They need to east some meat. Dogs can live on a vegatrian diet.

3. The better food is better. I used to feed my cat meow mix. It's cheap and he ate it. We got another cat with some medical issues (crystals). She needed special food. So we fed them both the nice food. The boy cat's fur got much softer. He once was all wirey but is now very soft.

4. Get vaccines in the tail or limb (or not at all). I think it's the feline lukemia vaccine creates cancer (sometimes) at the shot site. The boy cat had a lump and it was cancer. They were able to cut it out. He lost parts of his ribs and is thinner on one side. The tiger stripes don't match any longer, but he's a trooper.

5. If you feel a lump on your car, it's bad (see #4). Lumps on a dog are usually OK - fatty deposits.

6. Cats eat when they are bored. Just like people. So they can put on weight over time. See #1 above.

7. Keep the box clean. They are particular little bastards.

[mikester]

Yeah, any weight loss or gain is suspect of a problem. We lost a really great cat recently and didn't know there was a problem until the weightloss started showing. The cancer was well set in by then and very aggressive. We tried treating but it just made him worse off; we tried though and we felt we had to try as he was a fantastic cat. Very loving and played with out very young son very well. We were sad to see him go and I miss him to this day, sometimes I feel like I see him out of the corner of my eye or when I'm scolding the little one I call him by the cat's name. Wife things that funny....suppose it is. Anyway - he had the crystals problem as well. We have done fancy feast but they seemed to get tired of it or not like it at all. We've done some better than average dry food too and that did okay but the crystals came back on one of them. Now with the one we have left we feed sheba, it's inexpensive but it seems to be good and the cat loves it.

So...cat's have personalities like people I suppose and tastes maybe too. I read that cats "taste" protein and that's what they need in their diet. So meat it is...

[M.D. Holloway]

After seeing first hand what pet food is made from (even Science Diet and Iams) I think that if we ever get a pet it will get what it would most likely kill if it was wild. I would give it (the cat) raw fish and chicken and treat it to a live mouse at least once a week. For a dog, raw beef and lamb, maybe some chicken as well. If I could find some fresh blood I would give that as well. Also - don't forget the viscera. Plenty of goodness in raw hart and liver for the pets. Big raw bones for both - messy but a great source of calcium and even better for their teeth.

[Joeaksa]

My cat was a "rescue cat" that was found on the street and saved from being killed by the pound. She over-ate at first as she was not used to having regular food, but thats over with years ago.

Now is very happy with Costco or Sam's club food. We do not have a water dish in the house at all. Instead accidently found another way to get water for the critter, especially when I am out of town.

Was working on the potty upstairs and left the top off of the tank to try some new mods to save water. Was taking a shower and while doing so noticed the cat getting up on the potty seat. Then stuck its paw into the water and looked around a bit. After a bit she then drinks out of the tank! I leave the top off for another day or so and soon the water dish downstairs is not used at all but she comes up to the potty tank for water everytime I am in the shower.

Seems that I was using the potty before getting in the shower, and while it refills the water is moving around in the tank. Animals equate moving water with fresh water, and prefer it to anything not moving, which would seem right. Done this in one of the upstairs bathrooms for 2 years now and it works for everyone. Judging by the amount of wet kitty litter in the box the cat is drinking more than enough!

This cat is one of the nicest cat I have ever seen. Everyone coming over to the house comments on the critter. No bad habbits and only had one or two accidents around the house. Anyone looking for a pet might check Petco/Petsmart when looking and see if there are any "rescue" type people with critters there.

Joe A