Unsure about feeding

Hi,
I'm new here, I have two Cat babies, Peace and Cleo they are Brother and Sister, both 13 years old and I was hopeing that someone might be able to offer me some advice, up until around a year and a half ago they were fed on the usual supermarket cat food, Whiskas e.c.t..., then I changed them to Nutro Senior and Royal Canin Oral Sensitive (they have both had teeth out and the Vet recommended a 'Tooth' food, actually they recommended Science Diet 'Tooth' food but I didn't want to use Science Diet so I choose the Royal Canin) and then in January this year I started feeding them Ryal Canin Mature as well, they have the Nutro and Royal Canin Oral Sensitive mixed together in their big bowl and then a small bowl of the Royal Canin Mature in their small bowl, they also have a small can or a pouch between them both at night.
I'm planning on dropping the Nutro (just want to use up the rest of the bag) but I'm not sure if I should then just mix the two Royal Canin foods together and stick with that or whether I should try them with the Orijen food that I've been reading about(I have just ordered a trial bag of Orijen and a small bag of Almo to try them with).
I don't know much about Cat nutrition and I've just read in a Cat magazine about giving Cats too much vitamins e.c.t... (through their food) causing them problems and I'm worried that instead of helping them to lead long and happy, healthy lives by giving them these foods I might be over feeding them some ingredients and causing them problems in the long run.
I've been looking around the forum and some of the people on here really seem to know their stuff when it comes to Cat nutrition and quite a few people seem to feed a number of different foods in rotation to their Cats so I was hopeing that may be someone could help me.

The ingredients for the foods I feed them at the moment are:-

Nutro Senior - Dried Chicken Meat (min.19%), Ground Rice, Corn Gluten, Rice Flour, Poultry Fat (min.6%), Dried Beet Pulp, Sunflower Oil (min.2%), Mixed Vegetable Fibre, Oat Fibre, Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Menhaden Fish Oil, Dried Egg Product, Dried Bacillus Licheniformis Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract, Dried Chicory Root, Cranberry Powder.

Royal Canin - Oral Sensitive - Dehydrated Poultry Meat, Rice, Maize, Maize Gluten, Poultry Fat, Purified Cellulose, Poultry Livers, Mineral Salts, Beet Pulp, Egg Powder, Fructo-Oligo-Saccharides, Fish Oil, Vegetable Oils, Psyllium Husk, Trace Elements (including chelated trace elements), DL-methionine, L-lysine, Sodium Phosphate, Taurine, Vitamins.

Royal Canin - Mature - Maize, Maize Gluten, Dehydrated Poultry Meat, Barley, Dehydrated Poultry Proteins (L.I.P: proteins selected for their very high assimilation), Rice, Poultry Fat, Poultry Livers, Vegetable Oils (including Borage oil), Vegetable Fibres, Mineral Salts, Beet Pulp, Yeasts, Fish Oil, Fructo-Oligo-saccharides, Egg Powder, Sodium Phosphate, Trace Elements (including chelated elements), DL-methionine, Extract of Gren Tea and Grapes (source of Polyphenols), Taurine, Hydrolised Crustacean Extract (source of Glucosamine), Hydrolised Cartilage (source of Chondroitin), L-carnitine, Vitamins.

Thanks.

Butterfleye.

TRy the orijen but ask the vet due to HIGH protein content


the first two food s look good the last corn and corn gluten first I wouldnt feed it

Since I am in the USA this is a ??? is dehydrated poultry meat the same as chicken or poultry meal here???

Welcome TO TCS

As far as mixing and worrying about too much of certain things...I think the opposite is true. I think by having variety or a mix, you're more apt to end up with a good balance. While the foods are each "balanced" I don't like to be stuck with just one source of nutrition...as a single food can be high in one thing and low in another. I'm having trouble finding the words today..hopefully that makes sense.

Somewhat related to what Sharky mentioned about the labeling over there, I like how the foods have the % of meat, etc listed...I think that info would sure kill the sales of some foods over here. It would be good info to have on the packaging, IMO.

I was giggling over "maize"! Now that I'm done with that....


I guess I really am not impressed with any of the 3 choices. Orijen could be good, but like sharky said...I think the high protien content worries me. I am not familiar with foods avaliable in the UK. Do you know of any other brands you can get?

Hi

If you're looking for dry foods James Wellbeloved is my dry food of choice. It comes in a variety of flavours and has 26% meat. The only grain used is rice. It comes in a senior variety too if you prefer that to adult.

A lot of our UK members seem to speak highly of James Wellbeloved? - I think that's what it's called. Do a search in this forum and you should be able to find it.

Here you go

http://www.wellbeloved.co.uk/

You can get up to 5 free samples (click on CAT on the left and then on free sample) but it looks like they only have one flavour available at the moment (I think they get a bit inundated with people like me spreading the word on internet forums )

looks good cept it is easy from the % s to see the Grain or grain likes out weigh the meat... and rice as 1st ingrediant makes me shake thy head

Originally Posted by sharky

looks good cept it is easy from the % s to see the Grain or grain likes out weigh the meat... and rice as 1st ingrediant makes me shake thy head

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Yeh - the rice is listed first but the meat has the same percentage - its only listed second because they're listed alphabetically. Then there's the prairie meal but JWB is probably the best dry food you can get over here - we don't have any of the high end, grain free ones available in the US.

Hi, thanks for all your posts.
I've looked at James Wellbeloved before but wasn't sure about it as it said 'meat meal' rather than meat and this always made me think of it being more mechanicaly ground bits of different parts of meat rather than proper meat, if you get what I mean!, plus I don't know what 'prairie meal' is?.
Some of the other brands I can get are Almo, I've just ordered a small bag of the Turkey flavour, the ingredients for that are:-
Almo - Turkey - Fresh poultry meat (26%, of which Turkey 4.1%), 100% Organic ground rice, corn, Poultry meal, Fish meal, Chicken fat, Eggs, Fish oil, Whole linseed, Brewers yeast, 100% Organic cheese, DL-Methionine, Fructo-oligosaccharides, Yucca extract, Rosemary oil, Alfa-tocopherol mix. 4.100
Autarky, which I received a sample bag of the Chicken flavour today, the ingredients for that are:-
Autarky - Chicken - Maize, rice, oats, chicken meal, chicken fat, fish meal, prairie meal, potato, un-molassed sugar beet, chicory, eggs, rosemary, aloe vera, yucca extract, brewers yeast, cranberry, with EC permitted anti-oxidants: mixed tocoperhols, vitamin C and rosemary extract.
I can also get online through Zooplus:-
Bozita - Adult indoor and cool - Maize meal, Scandinavian Arctic salmon, rice, chicken meat meal, animal fat, dried Arctic fish, minerals, vitamins, molasses yeast, methionine, taurine, chicken digest, whey protein, beet fibre, ß-1.3/1.6-glucanes, dill.
Eagle Pack, but the link for that isn't working at the moment, so I can't find out the ingredients.
Happy Cat - Senior - Maize meal, poultry meal (10.5%), greaves, maize, poultry fat, lamb meal (5%), salmon meal (5%), wholegrain oatmeal, rice meal, beef fat, liver hydrolizate, sugar beet molasses, apple pomace (dried), DL methionine, powdered egg, sodium chloride, yeast (dried), barley (fermented), seaweed (dried), linseed, chicory root, yeast extract, artichoke, peppermint, dandelion, coriander, rosemary, garlic, liquorice root, thyme, birch leaves, nettle, meadowsweet, chamomile.
Eukanuba - Senior - Chicken (>30%), chicken liver (>15%), maize grits, maize, fish meal, sorghum, poultry meal, dried beet pulp, dried whole egg, poultry digest, poultry fat, brewer's dried yeast, fructooligosaccharides, potassium chloride, DL-methionine, sodium chloride, borage oil, glucosamine HCl, chondroitin sulphate, marigold extract.
(Just noticed that Eukanuba is part of the Iams Family, and I'm not too keen on Iams)
Sanabelle - Senior - Maize, wheat flour, fresh poultry meal, greaves (dehydrated), poultry liver (dehydrated), animal fat, fish meal, hydrolysed poultry meat, beet pulp, powdered egg (dehydrated), linseed, yeast (dehydrated), vitamin-trace element-premix, DL-methionine, sodium chloride

Also the above brands do have other options, I've just always gone for Senior varieties thinking that as my two babies are now 13 they would need a food more suited to their age.
This is why I give then the Ryal Canin Mature as it has Anti-oxidants in it and it says it helps maintain Kidney Health.

Instead of trying to find a different brand should I just add another Royal Canin variety?, it's just all getting so confusing .

Sharky - I'm not sure if the Dehydrated Poultry Meat is the same as Chicken or Poulrty Meal.

White Cat Lover - Do you think any of the items I've listed above seem any better.

Urbantigers - I tried to get some James Wellbeloved samples, but none left!

Thanks and sorry this got so long.


Butterfleye.

Butterfleye, actually my cats don't eat kibble anymore. Given the options, I would mix a few brands together and feed it that way. I know a few members do that...I think Tru does that. I think it's OK to do that as long as you can see that your cats are tolerating each of the foods. What I mean is, I would add something into the mix, make sure everyone's tummy and body are handling it OK, then move on from there with adding another variety in the mix. That way you don't have 3 or 4 new variables at once. I hope that makes sense.

Some people do rotate different brands and varieties each time they buy food. Finish one, get a different one...that's Ok if your cats can handle those switches. Some cats have iron tummies, and some are real sensitive to change. It just depends on your cats. I'd say more often than not, an abrupt switch like that isn't so easy with most cats - when it comes to kibble, anyway.

Wet food is a little different and you can get away with a lot more. Trying a new brand or flavor at any given time is generally no problem with wet food. I do that with my gang.

I've always mixed brands for Swanie and Cindy. The way I do is it like Beandip said, make sure they don't have any problems with a brand and that they both like it. Then I get something else and give them a couple kibbles to see if they eat it. If they do, I do that a few more times as "treats" to make sure it doesn't give them problems. Then I start mixing it in. Some people have exact formulas for mixing it, but I'm not that scientific. I just add a little bit and gradually increase. In the past, I've just mixed the two in a container and scooped it out. Now with all the recalls, I have two separate containers and mix it myself, just in case something gets recalled. I'd really rather they do all wet, and I was working toward that when all the recalls started. Now I'm just happy if I can have a few brands of wet and dry that they'll eat and hopefully aren't contaminated.

I use Innova Evo dry, Mixed with Raw and freshly caught prey animals, Birds,mice, ect. The wet evo has a nasty habit of getting all crusty on the top like a scab, yuck

It does have a high proten level but I have a 15 year old and an 11 month old on it and they love it.

Ps, If you do allow your cats to hunt for fun and use their kills, Make sure to only give it to them if they are young and feed it very very soon after its killed like less then an hour. ( your cats are not, but I'm posting anyway)

Originally Posted by Panther pride

Ps, If you do allow your cats to hunt for fun and use their kills, Make sure to only give it to them if they are young and feed it very very soon after its killed like less then an hour. ( your cats are not, but I'm posting anyway)

Click to expand...

I'm sure many people would find that advice very helpful.

My two little ones are indoor Cats though so that won't be a problem for me.

I guess I'll just keep going as I am then, I'm deffinately ditching the Nutro, (for both my Cats and Dogs), I've tried Peace and Cleo with a couple of different dry foods lately and they seem to be keen on the Almo, which I wasn't expecting as it had cheese in it as they won't go near any wet food with cheese it!, they weren't too keen on the Orijen though, I think I'll just try them with a few different flavours of the Almo and see how that goes.

I'm really lucky with my two they'll try pretty much anything and it never upsets their tummies, and if they don't like the smell or taste of it they just leave it.

Thanks,

Butterfleye.