Hey everyone!
I have recently adopted a kitten. She was about 15 weeks when we got her and is now about 19 weeks!
When we first got her, from what I could tell, she was just being fed a low quality commercial dry food. So being a bit of a food snob (lots of pet store type jobs-mainly lots of dog knowledge) I started researching cat nutrition/diets.
Now, I know Raw would be the ideal diet for her, but having a toddler and dogs, it isn't quite something I'm able/willing to go all out on and we have limited freezer space .... I've heard if you feed raw, they should eat exclusively raw??
I've came to the conclusion that what will work best for our household would be a canned and freeze dried/dehydrated diet. So my questions..
1.) Is it okay to feed a mix of them? I am having a hard time finding any sort of solid answers on that. I picked up a bag of the Primal today to try out (which she devoured!)
I was thinking, half can of wet in the morning, freeze dried lunch and the remaining can for dinner..?
2.)I was also planning(hoping) to vary the proteins/brands of freeze dried/dehydrated.. as I do mix her wet food.. she doesn't generally get the same proteins/brands everyday. I use a variety of Merrick, Tiki, Go!, Weruva, etc. Is this something that is OK for cats? As of yet, there hasn't been any issues with her stools or vomiting, so I've just kept the alternating .
3.) I have also been leaving about 1/4 cup of dry food out for her. She gets it in some sort of interactive/forging toy, so she doesn't just inhale it.. Sometimes she'll eat the majority in 24hours and other times it can last 2-3 days. Now I know kibble for cats isn't the most ideal.. I have her on Acana and was thinking that maybe once that bag runs out, I'd just stick solely to wet/freeze dried/dehydrated.. any thoughts on this? I don't mind a small amount of kibble for crunching purposes..plus being a kitten if she needs a snack in between meals??
4.) Lastly, does anyone have thoughts on maybe throwing in a store bought raw food into the mix? I'm trying to find what's best with our budget so I don't think a exclusive raw diet is something we can manage at this point. But every now and again, would it hurt to give her a portion?
My apologies for this being so long!!! I havent had much luck getting any of these questions answered. I was hoping to get some input and options from all of you!
Thank you in advance!
-C
I have recently adopted a kitten. She was about 15 weeks when we got her and is now about 19 weeks!
When we first got her, from what I could tell, she was just being fed a low quality commercial dry food. So being a bit of a food snob (lots of pet store type jobs-mainly lots of dog knowledge) I started researching cat nutrition/diets.
Now, I know Raw would be the ideal diet for her, but having a toddler and dogs, it isn't quite something I'm able/willing to go all out on and we have limited freezer space .... I've heard if you feed raw, they should eat exclusively raw??
I've came to the conclusion that what will work best for our household would be a canned and freeze dried/dehydrated diet. So my questions..
1.) Is it okay to feed a mix of them? I am having a hard time finding any sort of solid answers on that. I picked up a bag of the Primal today to try out (which she devoured!)
I was thinking, half can of wet in the morning, freeze dried lunch and the remaining can for dinner..?
2.)I was also planning(hoping) to vary the proteins/brands of freeze dried/dehydrated.. as I do mix her wet food.. she doesn't generally get the same proteins/brands everyday. I use a variety of Merrick, Tiki, Go!, Weruva, etc. Is this something that is OK for cats? As of yet, there hasn't been any issues with her stools or vomiting, so I've just kept the alternating .
3.) I have also been leaving about 1/4 cup of dry food out for her. She gets it in some sort of interactive/forging toy, so she doesn't just inhale it.. Sometimes she'll eat the majority in 24hours and other times it can last 2-3 days. Now I know kibble for cats isn't the most ideal.. I have her on Acana and was thinking that maybe once that bag runs out, I'd just stick solely to wet/freeze dried/dehydrated.. any thoughts on this? I don't mind a small amount of kibble for crunching purposes..plus being a kitten if she needs a snack in between meals??
4.) Lastly, does anyone have thoughts on maybe throwing in a store bought raw food into the mix? I'm trying to find what's best with our budget so I don't think a exclusive raw diet is something we can manage at this point. But every now and again, would it hurt to give her a portion?
My apologies for this being so long!!! I havent had much luck getting any of these questions answered. I was hoping to get some input and options from all of you!
Thank you in advance!
-C