Thinking of switching to 100% wet food....

We just adopted two adorable 7 month old kittens. They are just the cutest balls of fluffy energy. Anyway, I'd really like to get them off dry food since I keep hearing so much about how dry food (even the best ones) is terrible for cats. So I'm thinking of switching them to a good quality grain-free canned food. Do a lot of people have their cats only eating canned food? How do you like it? How many times a day do you feed them? How long can you keep canned food out? I guess I feel a little clueless since I've always only fed dry. I actually thought about switching to a raw diet, but it is waaaay expensive. TIA!

Sara

I fed canned only for a couple years before now going to raw, kittens will eat more than adult cats, my cat is about 10 pounds and eats 5.5-6 ounces of canned a day, I usually fed 3x a day, morning, suppertime and before I went to bed, it doesn't sit out at all, she eats it immediately. My cat leaned out on canned, which was great, stopped puking, and the shedding cut a ton. Although I have to say, the whole "raw is expensive" really isn't necessarily true, I was spending $1+ per can, per day to feed her, with shipping since I can't get anything high quality locally. I can get whole chicken 4 pounds for $4, cornish game hen $2.50 for 24 ounces, turkey and gizzards are $1.50-$2.50 a pound. Lot better than $1 for 6 ounces. I sat and figured it up last night and even with me ordering organs and whole prey online, I'm actually spending less than I was before to feed my cat and ferrets.

Well done on making the switch to wet food! If you stick to regular feeding times it will not sit around - your kittens will eat it straight away. Try adding a little water to it as well. This will give them more fluids. I found that my young cat didnt seem to drink as much water after making the switch (even although he only had dry food occasionally)
Like the above poster i too am moving onto raw food and i agree that it is not more expensive. Do you have a good local butcher that you can make friends with? A lot of organs are thrown away and the best quality chicken wings and thighs are very inexpensive - even here in Paris which must be the most expensive city in the world!

I feed all mine around 5 or 6 pm and its now all canned with dry on hand just in case(I don;t expect my husband to feed them canned except for the diabetic cat MUST have his canned)

I have used canned as a treat but after the diabetic experience all got switched to friskies. I have many cats and thats coming in high enough price wise! I love the fact they are getting to better weights and seem to enjoy the food more.

Ours are fed mainly wet food, twice a day. They don't get a set amount since their appetites are different from day to day. But I think they eat about 4oz a day. I will give them a few pieces of dry with it for some crunch though and a tiny handful in between meals to hold them over.
I know you aren't suppose to leave wet food out for any longer than 20 mins or so, but I tend to forget about it often if there is some leftover and one of the cats will pick eat it within a few hours...No one has gotten ill from it yet..but maybe I am playing with fire here?
But yeah, like Turks rule! said, if they are fed on a regular schedule, they will probably eat all or most at once anyway.

Originally Posted by sarathan

We just adopted two adorable 7 month old kittens. They are just the cutest balls of fluffy energy.

Anyway, I'd really like to get them off dry food since I keep hearing so much about how dry food (even the best ones) is terrible for cats.

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It is not that bad for cats, the issue is that generally speaking cats have a poor thirst drive. An exclusive dry diet can lead to mild chronic dehydration. Even that has been mitigated somewhat though by advances in water fountain designs that attract cats to them, that might otherwise rarely sip from a mere stale waterbowl.

There are some fillers needed to get the dry food to stay in a cohesive cereal, but there have been a lot of advances in that department and there are quality dry foods such as Blue's Wilderness formula that we are on now.

Wet food shouldn't be left out for more than an hour or two, but inside an airconditioned home it can go longer and spread flat on a plate will just dry out and look like refried beans the cat won't touch if its out too long anyway.

Your cat is seven months old now, but cats live 15yrs+ now w/ proper care. Are you really prepared for the next approximately 5,500 days to be there feed wet food twice a day on a set schedule (often 5AM per your cats desires)? And no I don't think you can get away w/ putting out an entire days calories wet in one sitting, as its 80% water and so is VERY filling for their tiny tummies to try and eat that much at once. Dry is just so much more convenient in that respect, especially with an autofeeder.


^ great for vacations and my long 13hr work shifts

So IMO it is an excellent decision to include wet food in their diet, and perhaps even make it the vast majority, but I would still keep a quality dry in rotation for your own sake and even expensive dry foods are quite cheap compared to wet (that isn't made from 4D mystery meat w/ lots of corn and byproducts), calorie for calorie.

Chronically dehydrate your cats because it's more convenient and to save money? You aren't going to save much money if you cat ends up with issues due to poor diet and if you can't handle feeding your cat once or twice a day due to lack of time, why have a cat? I don't get this idea that we should get pets, and put in as little time and effort to keep them healthy and happy. Is this just a cat/dog thing? I couldn't imagine feeding my iguana processed veggie kibble (and yes, they do make it) rather than fresh veggies and greens that I chop and shred daily simply because it's cheaper and I want to sleep in. But I guess to each their own...

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Chronically dehydrate your cats because it's more convenient and to save money?

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Mixed wet+dry diets, with a nice clean permanently available water fountain does not result in dehydrated cats. Premium dry food like the Wilderness formula mentioned have quality ingredients and minimal fillers. That is the point.

I monitor my kitties health closely and have done a lot of research, and a regimen of a bit of dry morning and night, w/ wet food in the middle of the day is healthy and more practical than an exclusive wet/raw, especially when I have to get a sitter to come by (easier/cheaper for em just to play w/ cats, empty litterbox, and give some wet once a day vs come two or three times a day for feeding). A bit of dry also provides something to chew/crunch on occasion, w/ can be mildly beneficial itself (and in older age, a special dental health kibble wouldn't be bad to have in rotation).

Originally Posted by LuvMyParker

I know you aren't suppose to leave wet food out for any longer than 20 mins or so

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In the wild, cats bury their food and return much later to finish it. Cats also lick poop off their butts, so I think their short carnivore intestinal system can handle more than 20 mins for wet food.

I mean, yes, technically you're not supposed to leave your pizza out either, but I'm sure we've all grabbed a slice that was out a couple hours... its not that big a deal in a cool dry relatively sanitary indoor environment IMO. Just don't throw a whole 5oz can on a plate on the ground and expect it not to go bad is all.

You know when Ben was in the hospital for 2 days I saw 2 things that really got me. I was there total of 14 hours(ok I admit this is MY baby...) not one other visitor/empty cage of a cat brought to an exam room and ALL DRY being fed.

After what I have read I refuse to go back to dry and I have over 30 cats in my care! I have begun giving the food to ppl I know that would feed dry anyway so no guilt there(some are getting the store brand either cause the owners have no money or cause they don't think of spending more on"just a cats food"

I personally avoid dry food like its the plague. I find no reason to feed it to my cats, "convienant" or not. Cats, and yes even kittens, are going to be fine going 12 hours without food. If you worry about them going to long you can purchase one of the automatic feeders meant for canned/raw food - they have an icepack in them to keep the food cool.

My kittens, two of whom are seven months old, are fed all they can eat 2-4 times a day. Sometime I don't have time like when I have to feed calves myself...I don't even have time to feed myself anything before hand. They are fed at 7:30 am and 10:30 pm everyday. When I am around long enough to feed them more meals they are at 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm besides their normal two.

The farm cats are fed once a day and I know that most of them do not go out hunting - they don't even know how to get down from the strawmow! They do great on getting fed just once a day, though I know it isn't ideal, but there is no way to get there more often than that.

All my cats are fed a raw diet with the exception of Nightmare and Wayward who are fed all canned. Once Wayward gains at least 2 pounds I'll attempt to switch him over to raw as well - he is a recent rescue who ideally needs to gain at least four pounds as he is very underweight.

Would they be able to catch a mouse whenever they were hungry?

I had no idea they have automatic feeders for raw/canned? What brand? That would be great for when we go out of town for a day. I know some ferret people freeze a bowl in a bowl and put food in there to stay cold in warmer months but my cat would never leave food sitting out, she'd just gorge.

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

I had no idea they have automatic feeders for raw/canned? What brand? That would be great for when we go out of town for a day. I know some ferret people freeze a bowl in a bowl and put food in there to stay cold in warmer months but my cat would never leave food sitting out, she'd just gorge.

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There are various ones, none work well. Did plenty of research on that. Very cheap refrigeration and dispensing methods.

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

I had no idea they have automatic feeders for raw/canned? What brand? That would be great for when we go out of town for a day. I know some ferret people freeze a bowl in a bowl and put food in there to stay cold in warmer months but my cat would never leave food sitting out, she'd just gorge.

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Someone I know from another forum has one that works great. However, I forget what brand it is, though I could try search.

Feeding dry kibble to cats is actively harmful. It's inherent in the manufacturing process and the nature of the kibble diet itself, and all the pretty-sounding ingredients and "new" recipes mean precisely nothing.

Cats are beautifully, specifically, distinctly designed to process the bodies of their prey. Fur, feathers, skin, bones, organs, and blood; not dry cereal with highly-processed fruits, grains, vegetables, etc.

Put the wrong type of oil in a high performance engine long enough and you will ruin that engine.

Cats, like birds of prey, sharks and snakes, have exceptionally high-performance gastrointestinal systems, built to process a very specialized diet.

Kibble isn't it.

Renal failure is not a natural end state for old - and many not-so-old - cats, and constant throwing up and/or diarrhea is not a normal feline behavior.

Diabetes is an entirely man-made feline disease.

And so on.

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Congrats, Sarathan, on your new bundles of fur. How exciting for you!!!

To answer your questions, when I have fosters (and before I switched my own clowder over to raw), I feed approximately one 5.5 ounce can of cat food per cat split between three meals a day.

I know some folks feed only twice a day, but I've found over the years that feeding three times a day seems to be better for the cats. It's closer to their natural eating-many-small-meals-a-day-diet and it keeps their tummies from going too acidic and causing them to throw up from going too long on an empty tummy (usually a foamy, liquidy kind of vomit).

You can keep canned food out for a couple of hours, but - as others have mentioned - if you're schedule feeding, the food isn't likely to be around that long.

Warmest regards!

AC

P.S. When I switched my six kitties from canned to raw, I literally cut my cat food bill in HALF.

I have some issues with ducman's statements that cats will probably, because he thinks so, drink enough water when you feed them kibble and have a fountain. He repeated it here so go here to see what I have to say about it;

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=229178

I know several people who use auto feeders to their satisfaction for raw too.

Yeah, didn't want to derail this thread.

Originally Posted by Mimosa

I know several people who use auto feeders to their satisfaction for raw too.

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Dry autofeeders and wet "autofeeders" (they really shouldn't be called that) are not at all similar though, please research before buying. Dry autofeeders you plop in ten pounds of food, and occasionally wash the bowl... thats it. You're good for weeks, and there are affordable cat-proof designs. That is truly automatic.

I have yet to find a wet "autofeeder" that is catproof (they slide or pop open a chamber, and the strong wet aroma probably doesn't help), and the open wet food is preserved in the feeder for only a short time which has to be timed properly and needs to be throughly washed immediately after.

So you put in refridgerated or frozen can food at night (the icepacks are otherwise insufficient for long periods), and set it to open that morning, and if timed right the food is at room temperature to where cats actually want to eat it. You clean it, and then could refill it. That is not really "automatic" but single-use delayed manual feeding.

I would LOVE a true automatic wet feeder (that you could say fill up w/ 3oz cans), but no such thing exists.

An auto feeder should not be necessary except in special circumstances, not used for human convenience on a daily basis in my opinion.

If you are "auto feeding" your cat you are missing a LOT of bonding time, and depriving them a lot of your attention.

Meal times can be wonderful bonding times with your cat.

My cats are on canned diets and I feed three main meals a day, but those main meals are broken up into smaller courses. Breakfast, for example, a cat may get 2 oz of canned food at breakfast, but it is split into two or even three servings.

Each cat has her or his own little meal time rituals depending on individual personalities and preferences. You (and they) miss so much if you free feed.

Congratulations to you Sarathan on your new family members, and on choosing to feed them a healthy canned diet.

I recommend you feed a variety of brands, formulas and flavors. This accomplishes several things. If there is a recall on a certain food, since your cats only eat the food once in a while in rotation, the probability of them being harmed by it is greatly reduced.

In addition, a recall or a food being discontinued means going on a hunt for a food to replace it, which many of us can tell you is a huge chore. If you are already feeding a variety of brands, styles and flavors, losing one food in the rotation is not such a disaster.

Depending on weight, size and activity, cats should need between 4.5 and 6 oz of canned food a day.

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Chronically dehydrate your cats because it's more convenient and to save money? You aren't going to save much money if you cat ends up with issues due to poor diet and if you can't handle feeding your cat once or twice a day due to lack of time, why have a cat? I don't get this idea that we should get pets, and put in as little time and effort to keep them healthy and happy. Is this just a cat/dog thing? I couldn't imagine feeding my iguana processed veggie kibble (and yes, they do make it) rather than fresh veggies and greens that I chop and shred daily simply because it's cheaper and I want to sleep in. But I guess to each their own...

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I feel the same way. Sometimes people think they want a cat because they are "low maintenance". Ugh, I hate that fallacy.

Thank you for all the responses, I appreciate it! I've been leaving some kibble down at night, just enough to tide them over until I get up in the morning. Then I take the kibble away and feed them all canned during the day. This has been going well with my girl cat, but my boy cat is not eating the canned (or very little of it). I posted a new thread about this actually.....

I'm thinking I can't keep doing this with him because I know he's not getting enough to eat. He is already on the skinny side and he's a growing kitten. Is it really so terrible for a cat to be on a 100% dry diet? I know it's not the best, but what if he NEVER eats the canned food? What other choice do I have? Does it make a difference that it's a high quality dry food? Right now I'm feeding them Felidae Chicken & Rice, but I'm willing to switch to just about anything....

Have you tried differant brands of wet food?

Personally, I'd rather be feeding a cat the lowest quality wet food over the highest quality dry food. Friskies Poultry Platter is one example of lower quality, but the first ingrediant is turkey, and other than rice it is grain free. Cats tend to love the "junkier" foods.