total newbie here

well i never ever had a cat before.always had dogs and every other pet. i adopted a fixed 10 year old female .im feeding her iams is that a decent food and is there anything more econmcal but still good?she sure is diffnert then a dog took her like 3 days to come up to me.now she lays with me in bed.

Welcome and Congrats on your newest edition. Cats are very differnt from dogs. They are very very independant. I went from a dog lover to a total cat person )
I wish you the all the best with your new family member and if you have questions this is the place to ask. The peeps here are very helpful and understanding.
Denise

I think Nutro max cat and chicken soup are more econnical than Iams and it is by product free and ground corn free ... kitty eats less and potties less...

welcome to TCS

kitties are a bit easier to handle than dogs but often need more understanding

I highly recommend the Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul!

My babies have been on it since Day 1 (via the breeder I bought them from), and they do well with it.

hi!
stay far away from dry food if you can. even the worst wet food is better than the best dry food. try to avoid salt in the chicken broth.

cats are prissy dogs...

Originally Posted by sharky

I think Nutro max cat and chicken soup are more econnical than Iams and it is by product free and ground corn free ... kitty eats less and potties less...

welcome to TCS

kitties are a bit easier to handle than dogs but often need more understanding

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In my area, Nutro dry is more expensive then IAMS dry (I'm sure it's well worth it though). I'm not sure about canned. Today I went to a pet boutique and was shocked to find a HUGE bag of Chicken Soup for $22. I think it was 28-30 lb or close to it.

Originally Posted by mzjazz2u

In my area, Nutro dry is more expensive then IAMS dry (I'm sure it's well worth it though). I'm not sure about canned. Today I went to a pet boutique and was shocked to find a HUGE bag of Chicken Soup for $22. I think it was 28-30 lb or close to it.

Click to expand...

I need to visit you if they sell bags that big

Check the label on any food you purchase, whether it be from a supermarket or from a vet clinic or pet shop.

Dry food is as good as wet food... providing you always supply fresh water with the dry food.

Dry food has the added bonus of keeping your cats teeth and gums healthy due to the cat needing to crunch on it and chew it (hopefully) before swallowing.

My baby has been on dry food since the day I weaned her 15 and a half years ago, has never had to have teeth pulled out and has had to have only one visit to get her teeth cleaned in that time.

It's not for all cats obviously, some just won't eat it, lol

Wet food is approximately 80% water as well, so cat's and kitten's on wet food won't drink anywhere near as much as one on dry food.

My baby gets wet food only as a treat and that's every other month, along with treats like 'Pit'r'Pats" and 'ThreeHearts" as an "I love u" treat.

Yeah yeah, I'm soft.. lol

Having a water filter cat fountain instead of a simple water bowl helps keep them hydrated. I got one for my cats who only eat dry food. Before the fountain, they were always drinking out of the toilet bowl or my bedside water glass! Now they only go for the fountain, as they LOVE it. There's a little waterfall of water that is favourite feature.

I strongly advise you to avoid Iams dry. Corn is the second ingredient. There are better dry foods on the market, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul is a better food at a similiar price point to the Iams and it seems like most cats like it. There are other higher quality dry foods available as well, usually a bit more expensive. Based soley on ingredients, i'd feed Innova Evo if i had to feed dry, but neither of them seem to think much of it. But i feed Chicken Soup because that's what my dry junkie likes and it's still much better than the Iams i used to feed. I may try mixing in some Evo and see if she'll accept it like that.

However, if i could switch her to wet exclusively i would, because i do not beleive that dry is as good as wet. Cats are adapted to gain their moisture from their food and have weak thrist drives. Cats on dry will drink more than a cat on wet, and can seem to be drinking plenty, but still be dehydrated. Chronic dehydration stresses the kidneys, and kidney and urinary troubles seem much more common in cats fed dry exclusively.

My cats ate dry exclusively for years. To supposedly help their teeth - it did just the opposite. One of them required extractions, and was required to eat soft food only while it healed. She refused and we had a battle with anorexia, complicated by the initial dental surgery missing a tooth and another extraction having to be performed a month after the first, and a another run of painkillers and anti-inflammatories and antibiotics which didn't help her appetite. In the space of that month, she went from 8-1/2lbs to barely 6lbs. (Luckily she was so lean to start that it didn't trigger hepatic lipidosis.) She's back on dry again after offering her many wet and dry types, hoping she'd finally go for one. And Chicken Soup is what did it. 6llbs 6oz and climbing - finally.


The moral of the story is, if you feed dry exclusively, feed wet as well so they are used to texture and smell of it. They may need to eat it some day, and i firmly beleive that it's more healthy for them.

Wet is far better than dry ( I am not to the best dry is = to the worst wet , but I almost know every ingredaint s compostiotion )

if you would like I can send you lists of dry and wet foods so you can see what is avail to you ....