Need advice on healthy, high-protien cheap canned cat food
phish_gw
11 years ago
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oregpsnow
11 years agolaurief_gw
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Canned grain-free cat food w/o veggies
Comments (28)I buy Merrick 96% meat canned food to add to the dried food my dogs eat, so seeing your need for a mostly meat food for cats caught my eye. I pay $2 a can for 13 oz or so at our bargain-basement independent pet food store. It is 9 % crude protein, 7 % crude fat, 1.2 % crude fiber, 78% moisture. It does not have the added taurine that cats need, though their cat food does have it. I have no idea what the cat food costs. You might want to look into it, though. I see it does have Guar and carrageenan, though. Merrick Before Grain Salmon Canned Cat Food Ingredients Salmon, Water for Processing, Whitefish, Dried Egg, Yeast Extract, Glycine, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Guar, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Carageenan, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Complex, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Niacin, Lecithin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Cobalt Glucoheptanate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selenite Guaranteed Analysis Crude Protein (min.) 10.00% Crude Fat (min.) 4.50% Crude Fiber (max.) 1.40% Moisture (max.) 78.00% Here is a link that might be useful: Merrick...See Moredry food for cats that can't eat dry food ;)
Comments (11)Lukkiirish, the problems with your cats was not due to wet feeding. Dry food is made to shatter IF the cat bites down on it. Of course, when it does, it's nothing but mealy grit that easily lodges in the gingiva. This leads to periodontitis, resorption, and other painful conditions. The only way to care for cat teeth at home is to brush them. Your claim that dry food is good for feline oral health is no different to claiming that eating saltines will clean your own teeth. If you know the anatomy of a cat's mouth, you can see that there are no chewing surfaces, ie., the molars are high on the outside and low on the inside near the tongue. This facilitates shearing action, which, rather than chewing, is what a cat's mouth is evolved to do. Chewing animals have flatter molar surfaces, so that food can be kept in place for chewing. Imagine the action of a mortar and pestle. The tool is designed to hold stuff in place for grinding. That's what your teeth are made for. Cat teeth are shaped to provide a scissor-like action. So, on that alone, you can understand why dry food is useless for feline oral health. Next, dry food is by nature very high in carbohydrates. It must be, since the plant matter is needed to glue the meat meal grit into kibbles. If you're reading labels, good-but if you're not translating them, then you have no idea what you're feeding your cats. Any claims on dry food labels of "50% protein" are utter hogwash. Firstly, any plant matter that is useful protein in any other animal feeds is also considered useful protein in cat food, despite the fact that cats cannot utilise plant protein. You need to know how much animal protein is in the mix, and manufacturers are not always going to tell you that if you call them. Secondly, you need to calculate dry weight to get a grasp of how much of ANY protein is in the mix. If you're lucky enough to get facts from the manufacturer, then you still do the maths. The best dry food on the market is probably less than 20% animal protein, which is grossly insufficient for obligate carnivores. Then you need to consider that cats are not particularly interested in drinking water. Everyone claims that "my cat drinks plenty of water!" But no one can tell you how much water "plenty" is! A cat's natural diet is prey, which is about 70%-80% water. So is wet food! Dry food? Under 10% water. Cats will drink, but are not thirst-driven, so are unable to know if they're getting enough water to function. The dry-fed cat will walk away from the water dish long before it has consumed sufficient water. As a result, dry-fed cats have undue strain on kidney function, digestion, urinary function, and who knows what else because they are always dehydrated. Dry-fed cats are also far more likely to be obese and to develop diabetes and hypertension. Oh, and let's not forget how many dry-fed cats end up with an excess of urinary crystals or even blockages! This is almost always due to dry feeding, which leads to concentrated, alkaline urine. Cats need the sufficiency of wet food fluid intake in order to reduce urine's concentration and to flush out crystals. The higher animal protein in wet food helps to maintain appropriate urine acidity. Another interesting thing is that so many people are completely hoodwinked by the"grain-free" movement! It doesn't matter! Grain-free does NOT equate carbohydrate-free! Grains are often primary suspects in food allergies. The grain-free bandwagon needs to be halted for the sake of our cats. Grain-free dry foods contain as much carbohydrate as do grained foods. You'll frequently see claims that cats in the wild will eat the stomach contents of their prey, but this is not fact. Cats are not keen on stomach acids needed for plant breakdown and carefully avoid eating any part of prey digestive tracts. I suppose that laboratory cats who are only fed digestive tracts will consume them in hope of avoiding starvation, but not cats in more normal surroundings. Lastly, I'm always hearing from people who claim to have cats who were dry-fed only, and lived to be 32 and never had a problem. Well, genetics can make some cats lucky enough to slip past troubles, but these are very much the minority. I also suspect that some of the owners were lying about the cats' longevity, or the cats had outdoors access so supplemented their dry food with nice juicy prey. It is also likely that the cats were never taken to the vet so any problems they may have had were never diagnosed. It's like the centenarian who, when asked the secret to his long life, answers " booze, cigars, and unrestrained sex!". Does that mean that EVERYONE should live like that in order to become a centenarian? Of course not. I see no problem with using dry food in place of cat treats. It's less expensive. Ten to twenty pieces of dry food in a day are amazing as training rewards. But there is no real benefit to dry feeding....See MoreCat food and diet question
Comments (13)Ok looks like I had some typos...I should have been more clear, too, about what foods he was on. When we first got him we fed him the Science Diet food that they had been feeding him at the shelter. Once that got close to running out we switched him to the Blue Buffalo Indoor formula that our other cat was on. He ate that for about 6 months before he started having troubles. We took him to the vet and he stayed for a few days (little bugger kept pulling the catheder out) where they put him on the s/d food and some other medicines. He got to be home for a couple days when he strained again and I noticed his urine was the wrong color so back to the vet he went for another couple of days. He stayed on the s/d food until the first week in November where we switched him to the c/d food once his urinalysis came back clear and he was using the box with no troubles. I then went on vacation and the vet said it would be ok for both cats to eat the c/d food. I want to find a food that I approve of (I really liked the ingrediants for Blue Buffalo, too bad they dont agree with little boy's system!) and a food that I don't have to purchase from my vet. I work over nights and they are only open during the day. Plus 50$ for a 20lb bag of food that I dont find to be of high quality is hard to swallow. I can pay 30$ for food that I like and that makes the kitties have soft fur and nice breath but this stuff is already making them feel ragged. It could be the dry weather though so I shouldnt blame the food. Anyhoo, I looked at that link listed above and there seems to be a couple of foods I could look into. Hopefully they are available in my area and the vet knows something about them. I'm guessing, since no one offered it, that there wouldnt be a home-cooking option for this little guy. It would probably be very difficult to make sure he got everything he needed and would still be something he'd eat. The girl cat eats any and everything so whatever dietary needs she may have will not be hard to get her to eat. My husband wondered if we should not give him tuna fish water since fish is something to be avoided. I'll tell him not to. Thanks again for the help!...See MoreMy cat is fat: Food recommendation and kitten update
Comments (19)I found Dr. Pierson's website 2 years ago and put our 16 lb. VERY food motivated female on an all-wet, no-free-feeding diet and she did wonderfully. On top of the weight loss, her bowel movements improved 100%, as she used to have soft, pudding-like movements quite frequently when we gave her dry. Her energy levels did a complete 180 degrees as well and she was back to acting like a kitten. She is exactly like Sarah's cat in that if you food down, she will eat it ALL and then go over to the other kitty's bowls and eat ALL of their food...and then beg for more! We knew that if we didn't get a handle on things, she would become obese quite quickly. Now, she gets Wellness Chicken or Turkey wet food twice a day. We have to feed her separately from our other cat, as she will inhale her food in 3 seconds while our male is just getting started. We also noticed that wet foods with fish or seafood are too rich for her and contribute to her getting what I call "pudding butt". She managed to trim down 3 1/2 lbs and looks great! Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Info Website - Feeding Your Cat...See Morecalliope
11 years agoGracie
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