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cat food questions
Are there any cat foods out there that you can serve to two completely different cats? I'd really like mine to eat the same food.
Gidget is 9, short-haired, slightly overweight and occasionally has hairball issues. She's on some diabetic management food now but the vet thinks we can take her off it in the next week or so. She used to eat Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul.
Itty is 6 months old, long-haired and has never had a hairball. She's still eating the kitten/hairball combo food (Purina and Iams, I think) that she was eating when we got her.
I'm a little hesitant to go back to Chicken Soup since it was what Gidget was eating before she got sick. The vet thinks the stress of introducing Itty caused the pancreatitis, but they don't know for sure so I'd like to avoid anything that she previously had.
So are there even any foods out there that would work for both of them? Thanks!
Re: cat food questions
Life and Love at #16 | our married life blog
Go to petfoodratings.net to get a good idea of what foods are better quality. Chicken Soup is actually a fantastic quality food, so I would be hesitant to link it to your cat's medical issues. It's what both my kitties eat, too!
If you want something new, try Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild, for starters. Some foods are for all life stages, meaning they can be eaten from kitten-hood into old age, so they'd fit your requirements. If you can't find something you like that is an ALS food, you'd really only need to feed them different formulas for another few months. Anything you switch your kitten to has got to be better than Purina and Iams (NOT great foods at all).
Incorporating wet food is an important step, too; it really helps your kitties get more moisture in their diets, which helps prevent UTIs and other urinary/bladder issues.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Yeah, I figured I could at least switch the kitten off her current crappy foods. The vet said she's gaining weight at a normal kitten rate, but I'm still slightly paranoid since I know its crappy food.
Two more questions...
Does anyone think diet/healthy weight/weight management foods really make a difference? Gidget had them before and nothing changed. I feel like it has more to do with the amount she's eating/how much she's playing, etc.
And suggestions on wet foods? Neither cat seems to like them. I've tried Wellness and Newman's Own in different flavors with no success.
Married / The Cookaholic Wife
It's exactly more about how much she's eating and exercising vs giving a "diet" food. I tried giving my overweight kitty (left in siggy) a weight management food. On top of the fact that she really wasn't into it, it did nothing for her weight. Since switching to the CS regular and incorporating wet food, she's lost at least a pound so far. She's become slightly more active since switching foods/losing weight, too, which I'm hoping helps in further weight loss.
We feed Wellness wet. My kitties do like it, but one is picky about some of the flavors. Merrick makes really good wet foods, too; both their regular wet foods (with some pretty entertaining names for each flavor) and their Before Grain line have gone over pretty well. Buy a can or two of several different brands and just see what your kids like. Some cats hate the pate style foods (the smooth kind) and prefer the chunk-style type with more texture. Ask your pet store owner what each brand offers as far as flavors and types. Good ones to consider are: Merrick, EVO, Wellness/Wellness CORE, Chicken Soup (only 1 flavor of that, though); I know there are others, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
A website that answers your question about diet and weight issues can be found here:
http://www.catnutrition.org/obesity.html
After reading this website I started feeding my cat wet Wellness cat food. However she's never had weight issues. She's also picky about some of the flavors.
We just feed less of the food. Do you free feed now? It's easier to manage weight if you have set meal times. That way, you can monitor how much each one is eating. We have one kitty who can get chunky if we aren't careful. S is super lazy. I mean she literally could sleep all day. She eats the same amount of food as L, who is smaller but more active. We also feed raw, so we have to feed meal times.
As far as wet food, S was really picky. She only liked chunky wet foods, and despises fish flavors. We had good luck with Weruva.
You could try Taste of the Wild dry. It is an all life stages food, so you could feed it to both cats, provided it meets the older one's needs.
5 cats. 1 baby.
Thanks. I kind of free feed. They eat get measured scoops of food in the morning but I don't pick up the bowls before we leave. When we get home they get another measured scoop that they have until we go to bed to finish. They're separated while we're at work also.
Married / The Cookaholic Wife