Feeding options etc

Okay,  I been trying to feed my cats grain free dry food for the longest time(Taking all your advise)

No fish has always been the rule here. I have one cat who hates it. So that is a defenate no.

I found Evolve to try.(Grain free food) they liked it fine except I ran out of money so I got Purina ONE for senitive stomachs. It was cheaper. Remembering someone saying if you go for one go for ONE.

Now they won't go back to the Evolve.

If my money comes in, I will try that Wellness Core..

In the mean time, is Purina ONE all that bad?

Can food is just fed in the mornings and only a tablespoon each.

Sorry, that is Friskies and Natural Life

They hate anything upgraded from that. And only two like the Natural Life Lamb and rice and won't eat the Friskies with the rest of them. That is eight cats in all I am dealing with.

I have a tough crowd. Most of mine are farm cats or rescues that aren't adoptable. Meuzette is the only pure breed and that was by accident. Found her in the parking lot at work, with her daughter. Her daughter died last year. But Meu keeps going strong. Even with her messed up lower jaw. Had a messed up jaw when I found her. That was the ruling point of why I picked her up and took her home. I am sure she didn't need a kick to the jaw. Nothing is that important.

Opps got side tracked.

My cats liked Iams dry. But not the can. Paul Newmans, forget the whole thing. Nutro cat for a while. But soon tired of the dry. Put a nice shine to the their coats. Maybe I can go back to the can. They had venion. The cats liked that can food.

I know Raw for some is the answer. But for me, that has the same effect on me as cleaning the toilet. I just can't.

Bumping this up so hopefully you will get some more responses.

There are quite a few grain-free brands of food that are much less expensive then Core, EVO, Evolve, Origen etc. Have you tried Felidae PureElements??? Excellent dry food and very reasonable. You can get 15 pounds for about $30.00. Much less than the other brands. Also, Wilderness is a very good food. I am using that right now. Petsmart sells Wilderness too. Hope you find something that will work for you. OH Purina One is not a bad food. Just stay away from Science Diet IMHO. :nod:

Thank you. For the info and the helping me get responses. Thoughtful.

If you're looking for food suggestions, I'd say your first step should be to eliminate the kibble. It's not really a healthy food option for cats and has been linked to several issues, including urinary tract problems, IBD, kidney disease and cancers - to name just a few. (See CatInfo.org or Feline-Nutrition.org for more info.)

Since cats - like sharks, snakes and birds of prey - are obligate carnivores, you'll want to look for canned products that are low- or no-carb (have little or no grains, fruits and vegetables) and have a high percentage of a named meat (i.e. "turkey" instead of "poultry"). Wellness, Natural Balance and Felidae all have grain-free varieties, and all of the Nature's Variety Instincts and Evo 95% Meat products are grain-free. A "grain-free canned cat" search on petfooddirect.com will yield a veritable cornucopia of options, and you can conduct a side-by-side analysis of the ingredients and nutritional profiles. Feline-nutrition.org has a nice article on deciphering pet food labels under their Nutrition section that offers additional insight into choosing different products.

I'd also recommend feeding your kitties a rotation of canned foods; this will keep them from becoming fixated on any one product (a problem if they change or stop producing it) and protect them from potential quality control issues by diluting their impact. Since cats can develop hypersensitivity when continually exposed to the same proteins or ingredients for extended periods, it will also help prevent food intolerance issues (and the associated diarrhea and vomiting). Dr. Hofve has a great article on LittleBigCat.com with even more reasons for rotating foods: Switching Foods.

As for encouraging your finicky felines to eat the healthy foods you put in front of them, here are several tricks that can be used. CatInfo.org has a really good article called Transitioning that goes into a lot of detail; I'm sure you'll find information in there that will be helpful, but in the meantime, here's a list of things you can try:

Warm the food by mixing it with warm water (don't microwave it), or sprinkle catnip, Parmesan Cheese, Forti Flora flakes, fish food flakes (weird, but it works), or some crumbled up freeze-dried meat treats (Whole Life's chicken works wonderfully on my kitties!) over the food.

You can also drip a bit of tuna juice or sprinkle crushed up Temptation treats over it, but be careful to drip/sprinkle as minimally as possible and wean the kitty off as soon as possible - both are unhealthy in anything but small amounts and are very addictive.

Good luck! I hope you find some of this info helpful!

AC

I know you answer this question a lot on this forum. But for some reason when you are out there in the feild of cat food choices, you feel all alone. And your head is swimming with all the choices and the watch outs.

I would love to feed raw like you Auntie Crazy. Sounds so natural, and right. But the time it takes to prepare and all the rest. I just can't.

I have some cats that all they will eat is kibble. So I will try what that artical said, thank you. Peanut Butter will have to adjust.

MeuzettesMom said:

I know you answer this question a lot on this forum. But for some reason when you are out there in the feild of cat food choices, you feel all alone. And your head is swimming with all the choices and the watch outs.

I would love to feed raw like you Auntie Crazy. Sounds so natural, and right. But the time it takes to prepare and all the rest. I just can't.

I have some cats that all they will eat is kibble. So I will try what that artical said, thank you. Peanut Butter will have to adjust.

Click to expand...

You're welcome. And don't feel bad that you can't bring yourself to feed raw today!! We each of us can only do the best we can do in our given circumstances... and raw feeding is a rather radical concept to many (although that's changing fairly rapidly). Feeding it doesn't really take that much time in the scheme of things (none at all if one buys commercial), but it does require, for most, a major mental adjustment - which will take time.  :-}

Regards.

AC