Poll on cat AGE, FOOD, IN/OUTDOOR

Hi All,
I haven't been here in some time, but just refound the website! Glad to have found you again. May we post a poll posting listings of your cat/s (even if sadly passed away) with:

- How OLD they live/d? (i.e. 13, 22+)

- What diet they are/were on? (Please be specific like wet/dry/brand/flavor)

- Indoor/Outdoor?

I really would like to know, as all my cats are on natural cat foods (and we've tried and given just about every natural brand). They never seem to love the at least canned food over longer than a month or so. Before internet and research, we had given our first cat Friskies which he loved. But after learning and when internet became public, I learned about by-products. So, we switched to trying all the top recommended ones like Solid Gold and Wellness. For example, right now, we are mainly giving them wet and dry food. Wellness, PetGuard, and soem Nutro. (We've given all the California, Felidae, etc. etc. etc.)

But also what's been on my mind is that several people that I know have had cats living 22+ in age, but were at least for a decade on Science Diet (though it doesn't seem to be all natural with some meal or by-products, and only by prescription). Also, I know a couple of people whose cats have lived till 22, and when they told me what diet, they said, Fancy Feast!

Thanks all,

Hana

Seb is 11 and healthy. He has eaten Science Diet dry for the last 10 years. He also LOVES the little packets of MeowMix wet food. Up until a year ago, he was indoor/outdoor - due to life changes he is now an indoor cat.

I didn't know about all the different types of food out there either until I joined this forum. I thought SD was an awesome food. Now I know better and will try some healthier products when I can. Hopefully, he will like them just as well.

He will not any wet food other than the MeowMix but am hoping he will like the more nutritious brands.

Harley: Almost 2 (birthday in June), Indoor, he has eaten Maxximum Nutrition for most of his life, and he also gets fed the Meow Mix pouches on a scheduled diet.

Davidson: Passed at 9 months, Indoor, he has eaten Maxximum Nutrition and Science Diet as well as the Meow Mix pouches

Bayley: 11 months, Indoor, he's only been fed Science Diet Adult, Meow Mix pouches.

Although I do believe that good natural food adds to quality of life and helps avoid health problems especially in cats that are prone to certain problems especially urinary tract problems, genetics also play a big part in it. Just like we have all known of or heard of people with lousy diets, heavy smokers and drinkers who live to ripe old ages the same can be said of cats. I am sure there are cats who have lived into their late teens eating Meow Mix dry. For those of us with moggie rescues we have no idea what their genes are like. Even for those cats who live long lives on lousy foods I still think they would feel better, have more energy, and be more playful on good food. I am currently feeding mine California Natural Chicken and Rice dry and whatever wet without by-products that they will currently eat. They aren't real big on wet. I have fed other brands, but other than a few monthes on a prescription food, I have stuck with the natural foods without by-products.

The only cat I've had who's passed is my dear Puss Puss. He was my parents cat, but mine throughout middle and high school. He passed just last year at 10 years old. He was exclusivley an indoor cat once we got him (he was a stray we took in at about 8 months old). He was fed Performatrin dry and canned food most of his life (performatrin is a store-brand for a pet food chain store here in Ontario. The basic formula is basically equivilant in quality to Cat Chow). He died because of liver failure, which came on very suddenly.

My own cats are 12 (ish) and 2 and a half years old. Both have been with me 2 and a half years, and have been fed natural raw diets for just over a year of that. For the year before that they were fed premium canned, and before that I wasn't very fussy about food. They're both exclusively indoor cats.

Simon .. grocery wet and dry non fish ... I had him for five year ( indoor outdoor) he lived another 6 yrs with the family I rehomed him too

Nikko 19.5 yrs combo of raw , cooked and grocery wet and dry

Kandie 18.5 and still going ,... she eats raw and canned now ... ate premium wet and dry for two years ... canned and homemade for about a year ... first 13 grocery dry and canned

Zoey age 3 Nutro NC kitten dry and whatever wet and raw shell eat

All indoor outdoor ...

The family cat a female Siamese and retired breeder lived to be 19, she was indoor outdoor, an accomplished hunter and ate Purina cat chow, raw chicken, her own kills and dog food when she could steal it.

My first cat on my own was indoor only, and ate Iams (before the formula changed) canned and dry, developed one problem afer another with UTIs and crystals and was put on Rx Purina.
He lived to be 12 and was PTS a month before his 13th due to Lymphoma.

Currently I have 6 cats ages from 2 years to 13 years,3 males, 3 females, all indoor only all on Nutro Natural Choice Adult dry and unfortunately the only canned they'll touch is Friskies.

The oldest female (13) also gets raw chicken (bones and all) as do the two youngest boys (both 3 yrs).
I'll keep offering raw to the others, maybe one day they'll try it.

I'm not going to be a very good data point--my oldsters (Spot and Odo) came to me when they were already old. Spot was fed anything he'd eat in terms of canned food, and either Felidae or Royal Canin Special 33 (for his sensitive tummy) for dry until he passed from a heart problem. Odo has only been with me since June, but he gets a variety of premium canned foods, rotated around to keep him from getting bored. Willow is the best data point since I've had her since she was nine months to a year old (she's about 8 now). She's mostly been fed dry since she won't eat much wet and lost too much weight when fed a canned-only diet. She was fed Precise Foundation formula for several years but has been on the same dry food as Spot until his passing last April, and on California Natural or Natural Balance (I experimented a bit) since then. She has had a couple of bouts with cystitis (no crystals, just inflammation) that caused her to urinate outside the litter box. She may also have a kidney stone, but we're not sure about that.

My parents have had two cats that lived to 12+. Alex ate dry food his entire life. I cannot remember what he was fed in his youth, but he was fed Precise in his later years. He passed from an apparent heart attack, but he had a heart murmur for as long as we can remember. Hannah was fed the same diet as Alex until a few years ago. At that time she began to get canned food (Iams Senior) in the morning and at night with a dry Precise snack for lunch. She's about 14.5 years old and still kicking with only minor arthritis due to a slight birth defect.

My two are both 6
They are on raw diets now before they were kibble eaters...Only human grade for me Wellness, Felidae, Innova
They are indoor kitties but get a couple hours in the backyard each day

My cat(Chekah) growing up lived to be 16 and she ate grocery store food but that was before we knew better

How OLD they live/d? (i.e. 13, 22+)
Buffy is 3 1/2 years old (4years next month), Willow is 5 1/2 years old (6years in May), and Molly is 1 1/2 (2years in July)

- What diet they are/were on? (Please be specific like wet/dry/brand/flavor)
Molly and Willow are on RAW. They eat the Bison formula of Arusha and they love it, and both appear to be thriving on it. They've been eating this for just over a month (maybe 2 months now) and they already look better, and Molly's stinky poops have cleared up. Before, they were eating dry food, specifically Timberwolf Organics and Felidae and California Natural shortly before they switched to RAW. Buffy won't touch raw meat so she's on Wellness canned. She's still new to it so I'm experimenting on random formulas, but I'm leaning towards the grain-free formulas.

- Indoor/Outdoor?
All are indoor-only. We had 3 previous indoor-outdoor cats and they're all gone. The last one lived with us for 8 years (versus the 1 year of each of the first 2) before he disappeared because of a cat trap. Next cat we got, which was Willow, was immediately dubbed an indoor cat, and the other two followed suit. Buffy's the problem child, though; she loves the outdoors so she sneaks out on a regular basis. Those of us in my family that actually try to keep her indoors are successful, but if you're not watching what you're doing, Buffy will fly out and she'll vanish immediately (she knows we'll hunt for her, so she runs far and wide before she stops to chew grass and chase bugs). I can't wait until I move out into an apartment and she can't get out AT ALL, lol


I can tell you that premium foods DO have an effect. I don't know about long-term yet, since premium foods are still pretty new to me (I learned about it in 2004 and only found the top premiums [CA Natural, Wellness, etc.] in summer 2005. And, of course, the cats are still young). But all the animals, my dog included, look and act so much better than when they were on Purina and Whiskas. All have shiny coats (Buffy's coat just GLEAMS), poops smell and look better (they dry out and then crumble, which is a sign that the body is absorbing ALL the nutrients in the food). Molly's poops stunk and were soft/runny on premium dry, but when I converted her to RAW, her poops no longer smelled, and I think she's even starting to have poops that can be called turdS, emphasis on the S, lol (before, they'd just be one smooth coiled loop of poo, now they have shape)

Jaffa
Age 9 (10 in June)
Indoor
Fed half James Wellbeloved dry and half wet food (mainly Felix cans and pouches) up to age 8. Now fed all premium wet (natures menu, hi life, bozita and applaws main brands but I also feed a selection of other - mostly premium - foods) with just a little JWB sprinkled on top.
Jaffa has quite high urea & creatinine levels, although he does not have CRF so I try to give him good quality protein, low phosphorus foods and plenty of water in with his food. He had a dental about 10 months ago (his first)

Mosi
Age 14 months
Indoor
Fed half premium wet (same brands as above) and half James Wellbeloved dry. Proportion of wet food being gradually increased - hope to have him on all wet by the time he's 3.
No health problems.

Magpie bridge baby
Went to rainbow bridge age 8
Fed as Jaffa above up to age 8
Died from a thrombosis in his neck (unknown cause)

edit - forgot to add any comments. I agree that whether a cat lives a long life or dies younger is as much down to genetics as anything else, but I do think that good quality food can help them achieve optimum health, esp if they develop chronic conditions. Kidney disease may not be caused by a poor quality diet or by dry food, but a cat with kidney failure will benefit from moisture in the food (wet food) and good quality protein and it can be hard to change a cat's eating habits after years of them eating something else.

Simba was a 10 year old persian. He had heart failure and developed glaucoma in one of his eyes. He ate Purina One Urinary Tract Health for most of his life. He had access to an outside enclosure.

Scruffy is a healthy 12 year old eating Purina One for most of her life recently switched to Royal Canin with some canned food. She is allowed outside.

Cala is 6 years old with a weight problem and skin allergies. She is now eating Royal Canin with some canned. She has access to an outside enclosure.

Willow is 5 years old and so far healthy besides stressed related UTI's. She eats canned food with Royal Canin. She is allowed outside.

Veeshan will be 2 years this week. No health problems. She eats Royal Canin with canned food. She has access to the outside enclosure.

Kingston will be 5months old this week. He has no health problems. He eats Royal Canin with canned food. He also will have access to the outside enclosure.

Current cats:

FEEDING FRISKIES (THE PINK BAG)
*Leo - 8 months old tomorrow - indoors only
*Spooky Bear - 5 months old - indoors only
*Tabitha - 7 months old today - indoors only
*Sasha - 4-5 years old - former feral - indoors only now
*Daisy - 8 months tomorrow - allowed outdoors
*Olive - 7 months old - allowed outdoors
*New cat - appr. 2 years, recently (3/11) caught stray - indoors now

FEEDING SAM'S BRAND ADULT CAT FOOD (Not my choice of foods, b/f's dad gets it for his cats and the barn cat)
*Louie - 10+ years - barn cat who was dropped off last year - outdoor only (his choice)
*Stranger - b/f's dad's cat - 15+ years old - indoor/outdoor - has been eating this food all her life and she is still very healthy
*Grabat - b/f's dad's cat - 2? years old - indoors only
*There are also at least 3 other barn cats that haven't been caught yet and they are currently eating the Sam's brand food.. I know nothing about their age or health yet. I know two are males (a Siamese and a grey tabby cat), and one I believe to be female (a young looking solid black kitty).

Past Cats:

My boyfriend had a cat that was put to sleep last year... he was 18 years old... he had a heart condition, the vet said that if he were human he would have needed a pacemaker. The cat was otherwise very healthy, and he also ate that Sam's brand cat food all his life.
Of all the cats I had previously, the oldest only lived to be 6 years old. But they were all mostly strays that I had taken in that had existing health problems that were treated as long as possible. The only one that didn't come to me already ill was my beloved Woody, who passed away at 2 years of age from a urinary tract problem... the vet did all he could to treat him, but Woody didn't respond to the treatments.

Shay – Will be 3 in August\tIndoor Only\t\t
Louie – Will be 2 in June\tIndoor Only

Both eat dry (just started on Natureâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Variety Raw Instinct) and wet (Natural Life).

I tried them on Natureâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Variety raw and it was a no go (chicken & turkey and venison). Louie would eat a little of it and Shay tried it once and immediately threw it up. I will try them on it again, maybe a different meat or brand.

Frankie is turning 9 this June
Wickette just turned 2 in Jan

They are both indoor only cats and both have the same diet.

They get 9 Lives canned food, anything but tuna flavors and always the loaf type food (never the slices in gravy stuff) once a day.

They also get MeowMix Indoor dry food.

A few months ago I decided to upgrade them to Eagle Pack food. Well, now their dry food is half Meow Mix half Eagle Pack. The Eagle wet food didn't go over well with Frankie so I either mix wet foods now or give her 9-lives and Wickett EP at least until I'm out of EP.

Patches: Indoor/outdoor, born feral. She's 18+, and she's eaten wet/dry store brands all her life. Most of her life she chose to eat dry only, now she eats wet only. Health problems: poor teeth (she had to get molars removed 8 years ago), arthritis, a little senility. She just got over a minor urinary infection.

Princess: passed away this past year at age 17. She passed suddenly, presumably from a stroke. She was also indoor/outdoor, but she was scared of the outdoors and spent most of her life inside. She had no major health problems. She also ate wet/dry store food.

Puppy: 2 yrs old, indoor only. He has some behavioral problems. We've been able to control a lot of the symptoms with feeding high-quality food. No other health problems.

While Patches and Princess had pretty full lives on bad food, I think they would have been better off with higher quality food. The indoor/outdoor thing I would not have changed with them. Princess was always frightened of the street and stayed in our yard, and Patches was born feral and was smart enough to look both ways before crossing the street. However, Puppy is an indoor only.

my cats have eaten a variety of different stuff over the years.

raven & nabu- littermates, got them when they were about 1.5 yrs old in 1998.
initially fed iams lamb & rice. when eukanuba came out in 1998, i switched them to that. they got crystals on that, after about 6 months of eukanuba dry only diet. then they were on c/d for about a year. around that time i started researching other options. raven had undiagnosed FIC, and prescription food wasn't helping. switched to max cat dry & a little wet daily. that was about 2 yrs. when raven started having issues again, vet ordered c/d. so we were on that about another year or 2. then after moving out of state again, a cat vet took them off c/d. we went with sensible choice for about 2 yrs, and 2/3 of their daily portion was wet. after RC/Sensible choice informed me that they no longer test for urine pH on their nutrition diets, we switched again. at our new vet's suggestion we tried a bunch of stuff. started with SD nature's best, but it made raven's ears go bald. so then we tried several diet formulas. since december they had been on iams dry and whatever wet they will eat (usually friskies, SD, fancy feast, and meow mix wet). we have tried nutro natural indoor senior and nutro natural senior. but i think i'm going to go to a mix of iams and nutro indoor senior. they are eating but not excited about it. not eating their normal portions of dry. i had a 20 lb bag of iams, but now i'm wonderign if it just went stale last week when they stopped eating it. i'm getting a little bag later today to see.

stimpy- adopted in 2002, he was almost 2 yrs old. he was blocked when he arrived at the shelter (from his fur condition he wasn't eating anything good before arrival at the shelter). so he was eating hill's s/d, then hill's c/d when i brought him home. i think at that time i was feeding nutro max to my cats, so when he got home he got transitioned to that. plus wet food. since then he's eaten c/d, sensible choice, and the roller coaster of dry foods we've tried in the last year or so. he seems to liked iams until last week. but i mentioned i wonder if the big bag went stale. he's ok with nutro indoor senior, but not eating his normal portion of dry. so i'm going to get a new small iams bag and see.

all of my kitties are indoor only kitties. i'm not putting the cats i grew up with on here because i didn't have any say in what they ate, their care, or the indoor/outdoor issue.

raven and nabu will be 10 yrs in may, and stimpy will be 7 yrs in june.

Wally: will be 8 this year, indoor only.

He ate 100% dry food (either Iams or Eukanuba) all his life, until two months ago. He now eats canned food as well (various brands, mostly premium- Petguard, Solid Gold, etc.).

I also just started feeding little bits of raw, and he seems to like it.

Thanks Bonnie for posting!
I wish your baby happy, loving years to come! That's my confusion with Science Diet. It seems like my good friends whose cats lived for so long have been on that diet, but it has by-products. And then the other on Fancy Feast!, which I've never given, and would be afraid to. My neighbor who just called me yesterday (I was a kitty sitter when younger), died at 18 just last week. She's been on Science Diet kidney dry food for many years.

Originally Posted by Hana

- How OLD they live/d? (i.e. 13, 22+)

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I have 4 cats- Bird, will be 14 in Aug.- has hypothryroidism, Butterbean will be 11 in Aug.- has genetic autoimmune problems (inbreeding barn cat family ), Meggie will be 11 in April-may have a heart murmur, have to get it rechecked in May, Smoochie will be 8 in Aug- fit as a fiddle (even though related to BB).

- What diet they are/were on? (Please be specific like wet/dry/brand/flavor)

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Bird was on Meow Mix dry for around 5 or 6 years, got switched to SD when she got bladder infections- and everyone else got switched too, as mine free feed . Now they are on a mix of Felidae Chicken and Rice and Maxximum (Walmart brand) cat food. They definitely have shinier, softer coats since the switch to Felidae, and I have started the Maxximum because I can get it close to the house if I run out- plus they like it better, while I like the Felidae better- hence the mix . It also has no fish, as fish gives my cats (well, everybody but Smoochie) bladder infections and crystals.

They get a cheap (nine lives, I think) wet treat twice a day, as Bird has to have her meds then .

- Indoor/Outdoor?

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All of mine are indoor/outdoor, but in at night (especially as they get older ). Bird and Meggie are out more than the others- Smoochie sometimes goes days without going outside- she's my bottle baby, and the biggest chicken you've ever seen! (It took her 6 years to not run through the livingroom to get to the kitchen to eat goof ball.