Cat Food Advice

callitcompulsive

Hey guys,

I'm thinking I'm going to switch my boys over to a canned diet (they eat Before Grain dry food at the moment)

I was price shopping at petco.com this morning and I came across this brand... http://www.petco.com/product/110264/Soulistic-Adult-Canned-Cat-Food-in-Gravy.aspx 

Has anyone heard of Soulistic? Yays? Nays? It seems like a decent food, but honestly, I may be missing something. It seems way too good to be true (a good food, and it won't break the bank, either.)

If this is a crappy food, I'll probably stick with BG canned, which is really the best price I could find besides soulistic... I'd like to be able to feed the humans in my family and not blow my entire budget feeding my cats.

Another quick Q: I've read somewhere (catinfo.org) that cats should eat 6oz a food daily, split into 2-3 smaller meals. Is this true? or is it one of those YMMV things? Do you feed by weight? Use the guidelines on the can? I've NEVER fed only wet, ever, so I'm a little clueless.

TIA!

mainerocks

Looks good to me but I'm not an expert )

Have you looked at the large cans too, if your cat will eat it out of the fridge? I find they are a much better bang for your buck. We've been doing the large Wellness cans (around 2.35 for 11.5 oz. or so, I think), but I found a local company making a good grain free for 1.79 for a 13 or so oz. can so we're making a switch.

http://www.davespetfood.com/catfood/canned/

In case any experts popping in want to weigh in on the above as well. )

As for how much... I would start with the amount recommended on the can, and monitor their weight closely. Then adjust up or down as needed.  I also add a bit more water to my wet food, for some additional hydration. 

callitcompulsive

Ooh I never thought about bigger cans. Basically the only sizes I came across during my recent search were 3ish oz and 6ish oz cans. the 6oz are cheaper than the 3oz ones, so I could imagine that a bigger can would be even cheaper. I'd just have to be careful with portions! (Story of my life! ha!)

Also, with the canned food, do you have to stick to one flavor, or can you do chicken one day, duck another, seafood another, etc?  Or does that depend on what the cat likes?

mrs.jacinthe

callitcompulsive:

Ooh I never thought about bigger cans. Basically the only sizes I came across during my recent search were 3ish oz and 6ish oz cans. the 6oz are cheaper than the 3oz ones, so I could imagine that a bigger can would be even cheaper. I'd just have to be careful with portions! (Story of my life! ha!)

Also, with the canned food, do you have to stick to one flavor, or can you do chicken one day, duck another, seafood another, etc?  Or does that depend on what the cat likes?

Another plus of the bigger cans is that the cat is more likely to eat the food if it's microwaved to warmish.  Our picky eater LOVES warmed-up food.

As regards the other question, we rotate proteins as often as possible.  I don't know if our cat is typical or not, but if we feed the same protein or food too much or too close together, he'll refuse to eat it.  I may just have the pickiest cat in america, but that's how we roll, anyhow.

callitcompulsive

Thanks Mrs!

I was thinking about rotating just for variety. I didn't know if it was detrimental or not. I know I wouldn't be a happy camper if I was stuck eating chicken for the rest of my life!!

I'm definitely going to have to look into larger (than 6oz) cans now!

Kaiene

Ditto mainerocks.  Looks good, but I'm not an expert either. 

When we fed wet, and dry, we did a % of their body weight (anywhere from 2 to 2.5 depending on activity level).  B is our largest at 11 pounds, and he got 4oz of food daily.

msmerymac

Cats need more wet food than dry, because of the water content. You can google for calorie composition for whichever wet food you choose. The one I use is about 25 calories/ounce and cats need about 30 calories per day per pound of body weight. For dry food, normally 1/4-1/2 cup per day gives cats all the calories they need, depending on their size. Do you free feed the dry? Many cats would be able to self-regulate if you give them regular meals of wet along with some dry, but if you have cats who are prone to obesity, you might want to put out both for regular meal times, then put both away until the next meal. See what works for you.

callitcompulsive

Thanks everyone for your advice!

I wanted to add, that after digging around a bit, I found out that soulistic has something like 98 calories per can. Sure, the per can price is cheap, but when you take into account that you're going to need 3ish cans to give your cat the amount of calories needed, the monthly cost jacks way up.

The best bang for your buck is, as mainerocks has said, would be the wellness brand in the 12.5 oz can, which has 429 calories per can, and about 34 calories per oz. If I give each boy 9 oz of food each day, that brings them to about 308 calories a day. My calorie range for my big boy Eastwood (15lbs) is 270-450 (inactive- active, respectively) and the calorie range for my little guy Josey (12lbs; 10 months old) is 216-360. The former is more inactive than active, and the latter is more active than inactive at this time, so I think that ~300 calories a day would be a good starting point, and adjust as necessary.

Thank you all for your wonderful advice on the great canned food search of 2012! I appreciate it!