IBD cat living with a dry food addict cat. Carrageenan vs no carrageenan. Dry food versus cat starv

TG for this site!

Gracie & Audrey are 10 years old. Gracie has battled a bad case of IBD since she was a baby. Audrey can eat anything without a problem. They are sisters.

Originally we fell into the “leave dry food available all day” mistake. Gracie (the one with IBD) is more inclined to wet food. Audrey is a dry food addict.

I did lots of research and spent $$ trying to get Gracie’s IBD under control.

I feed them the Merrick’s wet “Cowboy Cookout”, “Thanksgiving Day dinner” & “Turducken”. This food has kept Gracie in pretty good shape. For the first time in years her diarrhea is no longer an everyday issue. Audrey likes it but she eats half of her portion, then follows me crying for dry food.

I work all day. It’s a difficult situation because Gracie eats Audrey’s left over wet food.

When I am not home, I have no option other then leaving some $$$ grain free dry food available for Audrey. I leave her about ¼ of a cup. Sometimes Gracie sneaks in and takes a bite or two of the dry food and throws up.

I have now read about the carrageenan issue. Merrick’s wet does have it but Gracie’s done well with it. I tried some wet food without caregeenan and she throwed it up.

So, here I am trying to figure out what to do about their feeding situation.

I tried some raw dehydrated and Audrey walked away from it.

Carrageenan vs no carrageenan; dry food versus a hungry cat that won’t eat all of her wet food. An IBD cat living with a dry food addict.

I am hoping some of you can give me some advice so I can keep Gracie under control and for Audrey to eat less dry food. Thank you very much

Can you feed Audrey her dry food on a meal schedule? Most who work full-time and do 3 meals a day do: before work, right after work, and before bed. That way you can take the dry food up when Audrey is done so Gracie doesn't eat any. Maybe give her the canned food, and when she's had enough of that and wants dry, let her have it until she walks away from it, and then take it up. They'll adjust to the new schedule, but probably not without some complaining . You could also build a feeding station with one of those special doors that only work for one cat (there are some linked to their microchips and some with those magnetic collars), but that seems like a lot of trouble and expense if you can just switch to scheduled mealtimes :tongue2:.

If carageenan doesn't make Gracie's IBD flare up, just leave well enough alone. It's not a trigger for all IBD cats. Once you find something that works, stick with it!

Thank you Willowy

As a matter of fact what you suggest is what I am trying to do. Audrey has been complaining a lot. Then there is no such a thing

as a cat without drama :/

I read all the scary things about dry food and carrageenan but in the end, I can't let Audrey go hungry and Gracie got sick form eating foods without the carageenen. Go figure! I can only hope that it won;t become a problem in the future.

Thanks again : )