My cats mostly get dry grain-free, gluten-free Call of the Wild food, but when I give them something else, they handle it well. Iams is good - back in the days when I gave my cats Fancy Feast they'd eat any variety I picked up and it seemed good for them.

There are a lot of folks who swear by raw food for cats -- I just don't have the time and am frequently gone on weekends. Two of my five like raw as a supplement -- two won't touch it and the final is selective.

I've heard that cats don't cope well on diversity of diet, but I think like people, it varies. It is just more unusual to find cats that are fine with variety. I'd still keep dairy out of the mix. (I also avoid seafood for them, but that's because it makes their poo stink more, from a human perspective...) Oh, if they do have change in bowel (poo) consistency, that highlights a food you may not want to feed them -- digestive systems need to adapt, even if they seem to like it.

I don't feed any seafood. Whitefish and tuna is horrible for cats. It also contributes to the hyper-thyroid. They like pate the best, which is what I try to find. I can get Friskies chicken flavour, and beef flavour is in other brands, which they also like.

Mine aren't on raw completely, but a number of my friends feed raw, and their cats and dogs are thriving. One kitten had all kinds of health issues; nothing worked for her, until she was fed raw. She was adopted out (she was fostered) with the proviso that she's fed a raw-only diet.

I would be leery of this Vet. Definitely watch the consumption of cat 'treats'!!! -- they contribute to problems like kidney stones. In answer to your question, our cats are allowed to eat what they prefer -- none of them seems to like Science Diet or Iams of any kind. For crunchies, they like Good Life and Purina One. We stopped giving them Friskies crunchies because they were causing problems. I get a variety of canned food to have on hand, including Friskies, but they seldom eat canned food. One wants whatever we're having and one wants all the Temptations treats. :)

Give Smudge cat vitamins!!! I use multi-vet paw gel... it's Salmon flavor and although the cats don't generally like salmon, they do love this cream. Two come running for it when they hear the lid pop on the tube. No need to try to put it on their fur... they'll lick it from a plate or from your finger if it's faster. :) It's made a huge difference in their fur! less shedding means fewer hairballs.

I have a Smudge, too. :) She eats anything and everything, but I stick with different flavors of one brand (no seafood). I recently had to switch brands for my other cat, so now Smudge is on that brand without any issues. I like to keep 2-3 flavors of the same brand, and if not for my other cat, Smudge would still be on the same thing I've been buying for the past year.

I don't trust switching too much because both my girls have had diarrhea issues. Smudge hasn't had issues for almost a year now, even with a few brand changes, but Smokey's only had solid poop for a month or two now.

This thread is 'heaven sent' for me! I have been really confused about what kind and how much to feed our cat, Maggie. She's ten years old and til her Spring checkup had never eaten anything but dry food and liked it. My vet said she should have canned food, as she needed the moisture. So, I switched--not completely--but Maggie was in 'cat heaven! Seven months later, she gets one 5 1/2 oz. can a day, divided into three servings with some dry food added. She is akways ready to eat and I drive myself crazy wondering if she's not getting enough to eat. How much is enough? Why not fish flavors? I use Friskies and give

her something different every other day. Any advice or information will be welcome. THIA

Why is seafood, tuna and whitefish, bad for cats? My cats love some tuna.

Ben eats Iams original and nothing else. He refuses canned food. He drinks water with his meal. Try changing the plan and he poops on floor. I don't ask the vet about diet because she's wrong about him every time.

I have a lot of cats, because I took in some non adoptable cats from the shelter and a bunch of ferals that I was asked to take from a park in Houston. (All of them were spayed/neutered, etc when given to me). And then I have "my cats". I am donated a large amount of cat food...usually. Sometimes I buy it. As part of my donations, a lot of it is prescription foods. But it runs the gamut from the most expensive to the cheapest. I also prefer the "pate" types. I usually get a lot of cat food with "gravy"....which I hate but feed it when I am out of anything else. There are several reasons I don't like "gravy"....one is a lot of cats get diarrhea from it, and when opening a lot of cans, the "pate" falls out of the cans cleaner and faster. I also give them dry food twice a day. It also ranges from the most expensive to the cheapest. Again, a lot of it is prescription diet. I don't give them canned food every day because it takes a lot of time to open that many cans, but usually once a week or so I will do it. When I feed the canned food, I mix it up....opening all different kinds and putting it on their plates. I don't worry about my cats getting too fat. Some of them are big cats. They are all outside cats, at least part of the time. I live far off the main road and have no near neighbors. About six of them come inside to sleep and the rest of them sleep in boxes on my porch.

Male Maine coons can definitely weigh more than most breeds of cat and be very healthy. The same seems to be true of male ragdolls, although my female is quite petite at 9-10 pounds.

Good to know about the seafood in cats' diets -- they hadn't been getting any anyaway but good to know. And I'm surprised at the insistence of cheese in cat food! Diarrhea time!

I've had a lot of cats over the years and presently have five. I used to feed dry food only, with occasional treats of canned food, but several years ago a vet told me that it's good to feed both canned and dry because some cats don't drink enough water and therefore don't do well on a dry-only diet.

So now the cats all get canned food (I buy the pate type in various flavors) at my bedtime. (Heaven knows when their bedtime is.) All except Annie, that is. She doesn't tolerate canned food well. Nor treats, poor cat.

There are a lot of vets around. If you find you sometimes question or disagree with advice you receive, don't hesitate to try another or get a second opinion (for major health concerns). Or, consider consulting with a boarded specialist for problems that are life threatening or at least more than mundane. GPs are known to bite off more than they should and can be reluctant to suggest referral to a specialist for fear of losing your business.

Vets, like physicians, aren't created equally and like everything else the competence of any group of veterinarians will follow a bell curve.

One of my two has diabetes, so I've cut the dry food out completely. He's on Fancy Feast classics--recommended for diabetics. Unfortunately his blood sugar is proving to be very hard to control. It is a discouraging and strange disease.

Free-feeding dry isn't good either. A sole dry diet isn't good. It can lead to dental decay, and it's pure carbs, and cat's don't do well on pure carbs.

I got rid of the dry when I decided to go to a raw diet. Now it's only canned and raw. I do feed them dry as treats. A grain-free dry (Acana)

Jasdip, I switched my dogs from Blue Buffalo kibble to Acana after the little one was vomiting every day; vomiting stopped. Daughter switched her cat to Acana and he is finally losing some weight and he loves it.

My cats are fed Fancy Feast (not the salmon) either pate of grilled (it has the gravy) but I'm feeding them more of the pate. They each eat one small can a day split between two meals. I have been free-feeding dry food as well (either IAMS or Purina One) but having done some research on that I think I'm just going to start putting out one small helping a day and when that's finished that will be it for the day.

Water is always out for them.

This is a great site to find out the benefits of getting them off free-feeding (and dry food in general).

Great cat info

My whole thing getting them off dry food, was when all at once, the 3 of them refused to eat Friskies/Purina dry. They were raised on it, and they're all adults/seniors.

Purina changed the formula apparently. I tried several different kinds of dry.....grain-free, high end food, etc. They'd eat it once or twice then ignore it. I was stressed trying to get them to eat any kind of dry. That's when I decided to try raw.

They're not 100% on raw.....again, they like it one day, then not so much the next.

Commercial raw ground chicken (bones, heart, etc) is pretty much constant.

I do give Bud a piece of thigh with bone and he'll take it and eat it in the hall. It's funny seeing him crouch over it, just like in the wild.

This vet raises some red flags in my mind. I think you're wise to question her and be suspicious.

There's so many things involved in pets and foods, it's hard to know where to start. First a few basics: Cats, like dogs are carnivores. They're designed to eat meat. They need animal-based proteins, not plant-based. The cheap foods do not meet their needs.

There are huge differences in pet foods. Seldom are good quality foods sold in grocery stores. Iams is a good (called "premium") quality food so yes there's some exceptions. I gave mine Eukanuba (termed "super premium", along with SciDi, Wellness, Innova, Blue and others) for a long time and they thrived on it. Better quality foods have better nutrition and I found the cats ate less to get their needs. Cheap stuff didn't satisfy their nutritional needs so they'd eat more. There's a value to paying more and using less. And I noticed the difference in their coats by using a super-premium food. Then Eukanuba became unavailable so I moved on to Wellness, Blue Buffalo and some others. There's nothing wrong with feeding dry food if the animal consumes enough water. Most do. But as they age, sometimes they don't drink as much water as they should. Some people like to mix a little water with the dry food. I never did. Each animal is different so there's no one-size-fits-all. I also used the different life-stage foods with my animals. "Senior" and "Mature" cats have different dietary needs than do kittens and adult.

Free feeding has been bantered about for years and often without knowledge. Cats are not dogs. Many people don't understand this. Cats do not, well, usually do not eat the volume in a sitting that a dog does. Free feeding solves this. Most of the cats I've had and dealt with would go eat 4-6 kibble then walk away. Come back in 1/2 hr to 45 min and eat a few more. If you want to feed a cat 8-10 times a day which is more conducive to their dietary needs, go ahead. I have been free-feeding all the animals I've had all my life. The only trouble I had was with one cat who was starved as a kitten and she feared not getting food. However, free feeding dry food solved this issue. When she'd be given meat or canned food, which she seldom received, she'd wolf it down and overeat. My sister believes in feeding a set amount per day and that's it. I don't agree with that because, again, when the cat gets the food ration they often tend to wolf it down, overeat and often even vomit because of the stress on their system. That's not good for them.

Friskies is not a good quality food. There's much better stuff out there. I know it's cheap but there's a reason. I gave my last one Sheeba from Target & Walmutt quite a bit in her waning years. More expensive but they always had a coupon on a multi-pack which made it much more reasonable. Fancy Feast is not as good but much better than Friskies. 9-Lives is better than Friskies but again, only mid-road. I've found that skimping on pet food quality results in increased vet bills.

Another thing that is hard to get across to people. Why not feed cats fish? Fish is not part of a cat's normal diet. How many times have you seen a cat standing in a river catching salmon like a bear? Nope. And people who feed tuna and the like to cats are actually hurting them. Tuna, as with most fish do not have the nutrients needed. And cats can't eat the bulk to eat more to fill out their nutritional needs. Milk is also not good to give to cats. This too, many people fight. Dairy is generally bad for cats, however some can tolerate it. People need to learn about their pets. Just because you like it doesn't mean it's good for your pets.

There's also a lot of misconceptions and sales jobs that go on out there. Corn is often misunderstood. Rice growers did a good sell-job condemning corn as a carbohydrate (and yes, cats need carbohydrates in their diets) and misled the public amazingly well. Finely ground corn (not whole kernel, used in cheap foods) is 97% digestible. Rice spikes the animals sugar level and can cause issues in many animals. Why do some use rice while some use corn? Simple, they use what's closest to them. The rice users are closer to rice suppliers so it's cheaper to get rice transported to them. To convince people to use their product, they had to do a sell job.

Not looking to write a book so I'll close it out here. My best to your furlines Jasdip. Give them a snort of catnip for me.

when I had cats they were short changed and fed friskies...with 4 kids , they came first...but my old man lived to 21. and my last 2 were about 18...i'd give anything to have a cat again, but promised dh no more, sigh...

And you promised that why? :)

I'm sorry to hear that, Susan. I hate it when one half of a couple doesn't want any more cats--or dogs. My elderly piano tuner loves cats. He and his wife used to have one, but the cat died and his wife refuses to have another. When he comes here he spends as much time petting my cats as he does tuning the strings.

I think you're butting heads because there are red flags and even though you may like this Vet or are used to this Vet, a second opinion is warranted. There are practices that specialize in just feline care. It might be a good option for you. I know when our older cat (who has since passed) was really ill, the Vet we really liked misdiagnosed hypo-thyroid when the 2nd opinion took one look and knew instantly it was cancer; not the thyroid at all. Our Vet had worked in a Zoo prior to having her own practice and had some avian care in her background as a result, we needed that at the time. What was soon apparant though was that she knew a little bit about a lot but not a lot about anything in specific. The 2nd opinon focused solely on feline care and I was really wow'd by this guy. He knew little about a lot but everything about cats.

We were feeding Taste of the Wild to our two two year old cats. We recently switched to Canidae Pure. It's grain free and it's made in the US (with US sourced ingredients. We've recently started giving them a little bit of soft food here and there to help with things the hard food doesn't but we give them grain free Holistic Select, which is also sourced and made in the US.

I know a lot of people really like the IAM's but the number of recalls it's had is alarming to me and to be honest, I don't trust the company that makes it.

I free feed my three cats Purina ONE or Purina One& Beyond. They get canned friskies in the morning and the thin one gets Sheba, Fancy feast, Iams, Purina ONE, or Science Diet small can at night. Two are obese and the thin one needs to go to the vet. I suspect hyperthyroidism because she eats well but is thin. Everything else about her is normal.

Smudge gets a helping of raw and canned in his dish. He just finished a breakfast of 'Wild Game" raw. He also enjoys Pheasant and Elk, and plain chicken.