Canned? Air Dried?

So, I know a lot about dog nutrition and not nearly enough about cat nutrition.  Well, I know enough to know they're 100% carnivores and ideally I'd feed my cat a raw diet like my three carnivorous canines.  However, my stubborn seven-and-a-half year old calico, Astrid, has a different opinion on this matter.  She was very addicted to kibble and overweight before I got serious about nutrition.  She ate (shutters) Purina for years.  Oh, my poor baby.  Amazingly, she's never had any health issues and never even been to the vet due to illness.  She's vaccine-free and we don't use any chemical preventatives or whatnot on our animals.  So it took me a long time to find something I felt was okay, not completely appropriate, but okay for her to eat and that was ZiwiPeak.  Has anyone fed this?  I started transitioning her (she had been on Orijen/Acana/Go!/EVO and I was never pleased with them) and it took about two months but now she loves it.  She, however, really prefers the canned.  Should I try to feed her 100% canned?  I've read some conflicting stuff, and while I don't believe kibble keeps teeth clean, I just want to make sure 100% canned will assure she gets everything.  This is the only canned food I've ever been able to get her to eat and I'm hoping to slowly add in raw meat and taper off... but when I say slowly, I mean a sliver at a time.  It's expensive @ $3 a canned but I'm willing to pay whatever to make sure she has the best food since that's where all health stems from.  

Tell me your thoughts on 100% canned diet.  She drinks water, but I don't pay too much attention to how much, she drinks from her bowl and from the bathtub.  If I feel she's not drinking enough water, I'll add some colloidal silver to the water and she'll almost always drink that. 

I look forward to learning more from you all since, like I said, I know my dog nutrition, but cats not as detailed.  

Yes, I feed all canned . Cats need to get moisture from their food. If you want to give her some dry Ziwipeak now and then it would be fine, but it's best if the bulk of the diet is wet food.

Willowy said:

Yes, I feed all canned

. Cats need to get moisture from their food. If you want to give her some dry Ziwipeak now and then it would be fine, but it's best if the bulk of the diet is wet food.

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hey!  Thanks for replying so quickly.

Yes, I have bags of the air-dried, but the more can I feed, the more she boycotts the air-dried food.  Would you advise mixing some of the dry in so she'll eat it that way?  Or is mixing two different foods like that too taxing on the digestive track?

I don't think mixing Ziwipeak with canned food would be too taxing on the tummy (I wouldn't do it with kibble though), but why? Just to get rid of the leftover dried stuff? If you just want to use it up, sure. But inot because there's any benefit to it.

Willowy said:

I don't think mixing Ziwipeak with canned food would be too taxing on the tummy (I wouldn't do it with kibble though), but why? Just to get rid of the leftover dried stuff? If you just want to use it up, sure. But inot because there's any benefit to it.

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Well, my only concern is she doesn't eat the required amount on the canned to meet the nutrients listed on the side.  It says she should eat a whole can whereas she only eats 1/2-3/4 of the can.  I guess I'm a little hesitant about spending $90 a month to feed one cat....I planned to originally do half and half, but like i said, when I add in can, she boycotts anything else.

It's worth a try! Oh, kitties like to torture us by being so picky!

How big is she? Is she at all overweight? It's possible she's self-regulating her calories. Calorie recommendation for an average housecat is about 20 calories per pound. But for weight loss, older cats, sedate cats, etc. it's only 15 calories per pound (of their ideal weight). So if her ideal weight is 10 pounds, that would be only 150 calories a day. . .and Ziwipeak (the lamb formula; I haven't figured out the others) has about 187 calories per can. And the dry stuff (I also went with the lamb formula) has 272 calories per scoop---hi-cal stuff, so even a little would add a fair amount of calories. If you do mix, make sure you don't overdo it!

Check out the raw forum . Carolina successfully transitioned her die-hard kibble addict Lucky--you might get a kick out of reading the transition thread! :lol3:

She's about 9lbs and I think she's good.  The vet suggested 8lbs is her ideal weight as the last check up...and she was about 12 then.  So maybe that's why she eats less!  She eats a LOT less of the dry than the bag suggests.  I switch it up between lamb/venison, but I think she likes the lamb canned better.

I'm going to read over the raw forum and see if I can get recharged about switching her over.  It's SUCH a pain and the worst part is I felt like she'd waste a lot of food.  If I put too much raw in it, she'd turn her nose up at and that would be horrible at $3 a can LOL

Is 7 1/2 considered senior?  I am not sure what age cats become elderly...

She may not be senior (middle-age-ish) but maybe she's sedate or just has a lower metabolism :dk:. Unless a kitty is losing weight alarmingly I figure they know how much they need (assuming it's something theyy like and eat happily. If they don't like it then it can't be assumed they'll eat enough).

Lucky wouldn't even eat canned food, so Carolina just would put a teeny piece of raw on her plate near her kibble. At first she would run away from the raw! Then after 35 days (!) of having a piece of raw on her plate, she licked it. Then after a while she ate it. Now she's a full carnivore! But the transition thread is hilarious, you really should take a look. It's really long but you can skip the support/commiseration posts and just read Carolina's updates.

Hi and welcome to TCS and the wonderful world of feline nutrition!

When feeding commercially prepared "balanced and complete" foods - especially canned or kibble - basically every bite is "complete and balanced," so if she's eating enough to sustain her correct weight, then she's getting all the nutrition she needs - it's not dependent on a total amount. And FYI, most manufacturer recommendations result in overfeeding our relatively sedentary indoor house cats.

Most adult cats eat around 5 - 6 ounces of wet food a day. If you end up going raw, they eat less, because so much more of it is bioavailable. My adult cats that were eating one 5.5 ounce can of food a day eat 4.2 ounces of raw food. But FYI, while you can supplement whatever you feed her with raw meat as a treat, it needs to be kept to under 15% of her total intake if you're not going to balance it. Cats need meat, calcium, and organs - not just meat. (Though raw feeding dogs, I guess you know that. ).

Given your interest in nutrition, you may find the following of interest:

http://www.catinfo.org

"Effects of nutrition choices and lifestyle changes on the well-being of cats, a carnivore that has moved indoors." http://brf.vpweb.com/upload/JAVMA 2011 Nutrition choices - indoor cats.pdf

"Idiosyncratic nutrient requirements of cats appear to be diet-induced evolutionary adaptations*" http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...7588&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0954422402000070 (you can access the full article, but a link to the full article doesn't work).

http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/The_Essential_PUFA_Guide.shtml "The Essential PUFA Guide For Dogs And Cats."

Now - I don't agree with Dr. Huston's take on carbs. Cats can utilize them, but they have no dietary requirement for them, and in the wild, eat almost none. But if you know and understand human and/or dog nutrition, then the discussion of the difference between cats and dogs is helpful in this article: http://suite101.com/article/the-role-of-carbohydrates-as-nutrients-in-the-diet-of-dogs--cats-a262422 ("The Role of Carbohydrates as Nutrients in the Diet of Dogs & Cats")

Finally, an article by a small animal endocrinologist. "Can Increasing the Amount of Fat or Carbohydrate in a Cat's Diet Compensate for Low Protein Intake?" http://endocrinevet.blogspot.no/sea...0-05:00&max-results=20&start=14&by-date=false

Happy reading! :lol3:

Oh - and as long as you're committed to reading hours and hours and hours of feline nutrition-related stuff, here's a link to Carolina's transition thread:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239771/...lucky-bugsy-and-hope-to-raw-challenges-galore

Oh, wow, those articles look great. 

I'm totally into nutrition and obsess about it with myself and my animals, but the cat is so difficult to work with.  The dogs eat an all grass-fed, free-range diet of a variety of animals and then the cat is over here missing out hardcore.  I fostered kittens for a while and they took to raw like champions.  If only I'd know about RAW when I rescued her 7.5 years ago.  Although, I am not sure I was nearly mature enough then to spend the proper time on the diet.  It took me a long time even feeling somewhat comfortable with ZiwiPeak.  

Thank you so much for those articles.  I appreciate them and will definitely check them out.  I really enjoy reading about Pottenger's cats and live by Weston A. Price's principles so these look good!

I picked the ones that really get to the point. :lol3:

Dr. Pierson's site (catinfo.org) doesn't provide citations - but you'll see from this collection of articles (that ARE referenced) that her claims are correct. Hers is written for the layperson - and it is a lot of reading. The others aren't too long.

Oh - and what LUCKY dogs! I wish we could afford grass-fed / pastured animals for our kitty crew!