Important Information About Cat Food

[babieejae1101]

My cat is extremely needy. He is extremely attached to me and he meows 24/7.

[finzup]

I have been feeding dry food to my kitties and was going to switch to wellness dry (since that's what my dog eats) when I stumbled across this thread.. and now.. I'm going to switch them to canned based on what I've been reading.

My questions are --
How do you deal with feeding multiple cats? I have a dominant kitty (also, he's slightly overweight) that could potentially eat more food than he should -- How do I ensure that my other kitty (who's at a perfect weight) eats what she should? Currently I just fill up the bowl with dry food and they munch on it all day long whenever they get hungry.

Any ideas on how much to feed them? My male is 22 pounds (he's not that much overweight though -- he's a big kitty) and my female is a small cat (8-9 pounds). I can't see feeding them the same amounts. I read in the thread that 3 oz twice a day is good. That would probably work for my small kitty but not the big one?

Thanks

[nathansgirl1908]

This is a great thread. I learned this the hard way. I was actually feeding my baby Eukanuba Chicken and Rice. She kept getting UTI's. Finally the vet told me to stop feeding her that and give her C/D which is a prescription food for cats to help with urinary tracts issues. Things are much better now. Plus my cat was overweight and now she has finally gotten down to a healthy weight.

[Tracy]

Originally Posted by finzup

I have been feeding dry food to my kitties and was going to switch to wellness dry (since that's what my dog eats) when I stumbled across this thread.. and now.. I'm going to switch them to canned based on what I've been reading. My questions are -- How do you deal with feeding multiple cats? I have a dominant kitty (also, he's slightly overweight) that could potentially eat more food than he should -- How do I ensure that my other kitty (who's at a perfect weight) eats what she should? Currently I just fill up the bowl with dry food and they munch on it all day long whenever they get hungry. Any ideas on how much to feed them? My male is 22 pounds (he's not that much overweight though -- he's a big kitty) and my female is a small cat (8-9 pounds). I can't see feeding them the same amounts. I read in the thread that 3 oz twice a day is good. That would probably work for my small kitty but not the big one? Thanks

after i read this a few months ago i switched, too.

finz~ maybe you can feed them in different rooms and try to keep the separated for feeding??

[oscarcat729]

We're feeding our kitties Science Diet Kitty dry and wet foods. What's wrong with it? (It was on the not recommended dry food list)

[tiramisu]

Originally Posted by finzup

I have been feeding dry food to my kitties and was going to switch to wellness dry (since that's what my dog eats) when I stumbled across this thread.. and now.. I'm going to switch them to canned based on what I've been reading. My questions are -- How do you deal with feeding multiple cats? I have a dominant kitty (also, he's slightly overweight) that could potentially eat more food than he should -- How do I ensure that my other kitty (who's at a perfect weight) eats what she should? Currently I just fill up the bowl with dry food and they munch on it all day long whenever they get hungry. Any ideas on how much to feed them? My male is 22 pounds (he's not that much overweight though -- he's a big kitty) and my female is a small cat (8-9 pounds). I can't see feeding them the same amounts. I read in the thread that 3 oz twice a day is good. That would probably work for my small kitty but not the big one? Thanks

I think the agreed general rule is that a cat's caloric intake or metabolic energy requirement (MER) should be 45 to 80 kcal/kg/day depending on the activity level of individual cat. And if you have an overweight cat, calculate it per ideal body weight and not the current weight. And you want at least 30% of that caloric intake to be protein to maintain healthy muscle tone. You can use a food calculator like this to help you figure out how much to feed your kitty: http://www.petdiets.com/

Feeding multiple cat household is sure challenging!!! If you really want to, you will need to have some physical barrier, hence feeding in separate areas may be the only way. My cat Chiclet is about 19#, Wrigley 16#, Star 14#, Tiramisu 12#, and Venus 7#. Venus is in kidney failure and she is the one that gets more attention in terms of heatlh care right now. I feed her in a separate room more than twice a day since I do not want her to lose weight. She will go to the other cats eating area to eat, too, which I am fine with. But when I am feeding extra to Venus, I close the door so the other cats won't take over. At the same time, the others will come and eat her food, too... The other 4 gets the same amount. The difference is that they don't seem to eat the same amount. I never free fed my cats after kittenhood. And I determine whether I am feeding too much or too less by simply assessing their body weight. Chiclet and Star are more overweight than Wrigley and Tiramisu. With feeding 3 oz. twice daily of my canned/raw food mix, they all seem to be doing fine. No one is getting skinny and no one is gaining more weight, and they all seem to be content. I think we all know when our kitties are hungry because they won't leave you alone!!!

[twin53]

interesting list

[finzup]

Originally Posted by tiramisu

I think the agreed general rule is that a cat's caloric intake or metabolic energy requirement (MER) should be 45 to 80 kcal/kg/day depending on the activity level of individual cat. And if you have an overweight cat, calculate it per ideal body weight and not the current weight. And you want at least 30% of that caloric intake to be protein to maintain healthy muscle tone. You can use a food calculator like this to help you figure out how much to feed your kitty: http://www.petdiets.com/ Feeding multiple cat household is sure challenging!!! If you really want to, you will need to have some physical barrier, hence feeding in separate areas may be the only way. My cat Chiclet is about 19#, Wrigley 16#, Star 14#, Tiramisu 12#, and Venus 7#. Venus is in kidney failure and she is the one that gets more attention in terms of heatlh care right now. I feed her in a separate room more than twice a day since I do not want her to lose weight. She will go to the other cats eating area to eat, too, which I am fine with. But when I am feeding extra to Venus, I close the door so the other cats won't take over. At the same time, the others will come and eat her food, too... The other 4 gets the same amount. The difference is that they don't seem to eat the same amount. I never free fed my cats after kittenhood. And I determine whether I am feeding too much or too less by simply assessing their body weight. Chiclet and Star are more overweight than Wrigley and Tiramisu. With feeding 3 oz. twice daily of my canned/raw food mix, they all seem to be doing fine. No one is getting skinny and no one is gaining more weight, and they all seem to be content. I think we all know when our kitties are hungry because they won't leave you alone!!!

Thanks for the advice.. and btw I love your kitties names :)

[finzup]

Originally Posted by nolarice

after i read this a few months ago i switched, too. finz~ maybe you can feed them in different rooms and try to keep the separated for feeding??

what kind of food did you end up switching to? How did the whole switching process go? Did they like the canned food better?

[Miyoshi637]

OH man, I need to give my babies more wet food! But I do feed em really good dry food, blue buffalo. I need to go to Petsmart tomorrow and get them some more wet food. They'll be so happy because they only get wet every other week!

[cafire]

One of my cats had frequent UTIs and ended up having an operation to remove kidney stones. She was put on Hills XD (now CD multicare) prescription diet, and has never had a problem since...this was 9 years ago. So I don't know about all Science Diet foods, but this one has been instrumental in keeping her healthy. She gets the cans and the dry food.

My other cat eats Wellness wet and dry. She prefers the dry, but I only give her between 1/8 to 1/4 cup a day. I make her eat the wet since it's better for her. I took her for her 1 year check up last week and she weighed in at 10 lbs. I asked if she was overweight and they said 'she could lose a pound or two.' And then they suggested I switch her SOLELY to dry food. I said I specifically do NOT feed mostly dry due to carb content, etc. She still tried to push the dry. That's when I stopped listening. I mean, this was the VET! What's up with THAT?

[tiramisu]

^^
I know, some vets are taught one way because the big pet food companies paid for their education, etc. When I started in the profession, I was told the same thing. Dry food is better and we pretty much don't need to feed them canned food unless they are kittens or not eating, etc. And Hill's used to (maybe they still do) give free food to veterinary students, sponsor seminars, etc., so there are some marketing strategy there. The main thing is that cats are not small dogs, and I think it has only been within the last 10 years this idea has been slowly 'practiced. If you take your cat to feline only hospital or feline specialty vet, or a board certified veterinary nutritionist, they won't tell you to switch to solely dry food.

[elle1777]

Does anyone know why Hill's Science Diet is not recommended? my cat had a nasty I guess digestive problem and the vet recommended science diet ( the kind only sold at vets) and it did the trick. Thanks for all the info!

[Lululapell]

Great article and ideas.
I have gone one step further and feed my animals a raw food diet. From the time I started they have been healthier, their coats are gorgeous and they have slimmed down to a healthy weight.
The only one I don't feed raw is my brain damaged one because he doesn't know how and won't eat anything but dry. For him I purchase Wellness (the white bag that doesn't have grains in it).

[buzzytoes]

I just typed a great long message and somehow deleted it....the gist of my story was one of our cats was diagnosed with diabetes, I changed their diet to California Natural (it had always been Meow Mix before) and after two months Darius was completely regulated and off of his insulin. I am a FIRM believer in how diet can effect the health of an animal! Eventually I would like to put the cats and dogs on a raw diet but I have yet to figure out how to do that for the same amount of money that I am spending on prepared food.

Finzup (love your nick!) - I feed our heavier cat (who weighs about as much as yours) in the bathroom and feed the others in their feeding area. I leave him in there while I get ready for work in the morning and then for about an hour in the evening when I feed them all again. He sucks his food down in five seconds flat and the other two cats are grazers so I like to make sure they have plenty of time to get their fill before I let him out.