Food choices

holisticfurmom

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I posted a while back about feeding canned/dry.  My calico was eating canned food and solely canned food for the first time ever (due to her choice) without any kibble. The last week, though, she stopped eating as much and I can tell she's begging for the bagged stuff because she keeps looking where it used to be. 

Before when she was doing both canned/dry she was on ZiwiPeak dry, too..  I have to order it online right now due to availability so when she went off her canned I had to go out and buy something local and got Acana.  

I am leaning towards keeping her on the canned, which is about $90 a month if she eats solely canned but who knows if she'll do that and then having the dry around for when she goes off.  My concern with that is I don't like to have dry food onhand for more than a month so I worry about her deciding to eat canned for two weeks and then the kibble won't run out within the right timeframe.  

Should I give her canned as her first meal and then kibble to follow up so I don't have to deal with her not eating the canned in the evening? Would you vary the dry she does eat or would you keep it Ziwipeak as well?  She does okay on Acana but I feel like she gets in that obessive-mode due to all the chemicals and natural flavors in it so she's less likely to eat the canned I feel like she has has the Acana.  If I buy enough for 24 days of canned food and then a bag of ZiwiPeak dry we're looking at $130 a month... I'm okay with price, but do you all with knowledge on dry foods think it's worth it?  If so, no problem spending it, like I said.  I'm spending $170 a month to feed my three dogs so I don't mind, but just want to make sure ZiwiPeak is worth the money.

Oh, and also, those feeding a diet of kibble/canned. do you supplement with enzymes?  (animal of course) Do you give oils like krill oil?  
 
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ldg

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I really can't answer your canned/kibble questions.

But I think all cats benefit from the addition of omega 3s to the diet, because the food we feed them, no matter what form it comes in, is high in omega 6s, and isn't balanced properly with omega 3s. 500mg of krill oil or a high quality wild Alaskan salmon oil daily is good for any kitty.

I don't use digestive enzymes, but I do give the cats a human acidophilus+bifidus supplement daily (10 billion active CFU). When feeding highly processed canned/kibble high protein/low carb diets, they don't get much in the way of fiber to help promote the growth of their healthy gut bacteria. The carbs that come with fiber aren't natural to their systems, but the probiotics are (in the wild, they'd be getting a daily dose by eating the guts/small intestines/colon of their prey).

Sorry I can't be more helpful on ideas for feeding her, but I hope this otherwise helped.

Oh - when my cats are being fussy about eating their food, I use "toppers" on their meals to get them going. These are their favorite treats, crushed or powdered, and sprinkled or dusted on top usually helps them dig in.
 
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holisticfurmom

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Thanks for your reply!  

I ordered some Krill oil last week so it should be here soon.  I also order enzymes because my dogs get theirs through their raw diet, but I worry about my kitty not getting enough.  I like the probotic idea and will look into that.  We make homemade raw milk kefir with grains so if I could get her to eat that it might help.  Why won't she just eat green tripe!?  Silly kitties.

She does love dehydrated organs ( I know about the vitamin A in liver) so maybe I should dehydrate those to put on her food when she gets picky.  I don't know what causes her to do this -- eat something for a week or two and then decide enough is enough... LOL  

Is it normal for a cat to gain weight easy, too?  I swear the looks bigger from eating the Acana for a few days and I'm giving half what the bag says! 
 
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ldg

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When I was feeding commercial foods, I found the feeding recommendations to be WAY off. :nod: If I fed recommended amounts, my cats would have all been basketballs. :lol3: It all really depends on her size and even more, her activity level, and her metabolism.

Try the freeze dried liver as a topper! It's a favorite here, and it crushes easily into a powder. If you can lose that kibble, it'd be better for her (as you know). :)

And I forgot - I AM using digestive enzymes for one kitty. He had cancer last year, went through 6 months of chemo (which he completed in January), and since September has been having issues with inappetance. Seems like he's nauseous at times, even though I use pepcid. He's had issues with hairballs, for which I'm using egg yolk lecithin (and WOW is it working!!!), and I just recently started him on digestive enzymes to see if it would help. In fact, here's a thread discussing it: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/251359/questions-about-digestive-enzymes

As I feed raw, he already had raw formed poop (MUCH smaller in volume, they really use all the nutrients in it), but as you can see in the thread, otto is feeding a combo raw and canned, and the digestive enzymes apparently make a BIG difference, and the kitties on the combo canned/raw diet are now having the reduced volume of stool - so they're getting more nutrition from that canned food. :)
 
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holisticfurmom

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I read about the volume being reduced in terms of stool and that appealed to me.  On ZiwiPeak her stools are pretty small, smaller than any other dry food but with that still bigger than my 20-lb raw-fed dog! LOL

We're going to be moving from Oklahoma to Washington Dec 26th and she's never been on a trip like this so I better have something on-hand she'll eat for sure, you agree?  I am nervous about the trip with her as my dogs have traveled all over but she's only been in the car eight hours at the most.  This will be a six-day trip :(  Hotels every night and I bet she'll be a mess!
 
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ldg

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Yeah, whatever she'll eat - during a stressful trip like that, that's all that matters. You can worry about getting back to working on the food you want her to eat and schedules when things are more settled. :nod: When we were on family vacations, everyone got to eat all kinds of stuff we didn't normally eat. ;)

And yes, the Ziwipeak is an air dried raw, so thus the smaller poop volume. It's not a traditional kibble in any sense of the word.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Just piping in to say that if your girl is already gaining, be careful using the Digestive Enzymes (although I HIGHLY recommend them).  A little goes a long way.  If you use too much, your girl might gain more weight.  (I add extra my my Calico's diet so she WILL gain, since sometimes she doesn't eat much)

I haven't read your other thread, but since you feed your dogs raw, have you tried feeding it to your cat?  Of course, I sure wouldn't try anything until several weeks after your move!  Good luck with that.  When we moved here, we put all 3 cats (different cats)  in a large dog crate filled with shredded newspaper and they didn't seem to have any problems at all.  "course, they had each other to snuggle with.

Oh!  On the food.  Why do you feel you can only keep the dry on hand for 30 days?  As long as you keep it in the original package, but seal it well, it should be good for at least 90 days.  But if you could feed her only the canned by using toppers, that would be optimal.  All of that may need to wait until after the move, though.  I imagine your household is going to be in an uproar for awhile, and she may feel the stress?  You may be lucky if she eats much at all
 
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