At a loss...

Hey everyone!

I am not a new cat owner, but I'm a college student who has just picked out her cat by herself for the first time.

My family has always had animals, and I really need a companion to love out here at school. I'm in love with my new baby!!

Questions though...

They have been feeding him (and the rest of their cats) Purina Cat Chow, with an occasion wet food as a treat.

I'm hearing this is WRONG? I am currently reading about dry food and the negative affects, but is this true with the premium food as well?

Also, I heard that canned food makes them FAT???

I need to slowly change his food. Like mix food, so it doesn't upset him tummy just getting off of Purina..

I need opinions!!!!

Have you read www.catinfo.org yet? It's written by a vet and is an easy to read site on feline nutrition and some related health topics. It really made a lot of sense to me when I first started researching nutrition for cats.

You know, I did, but it still didn't make sense to me on if ANY dry food was good. They are very anti dry food in general!

Also, still at a loss about the wet food rumors.

Cats have a lower thirst drive, because in the wild they get most of their water from their food, so wet food is better for them. BUT, feeding only wet food (even the cheap stuff) is expensive, and in my opinion a high quality dry food is better than a poor quality wet food (there are quite a few people on here that disagree, but that's just my opinion). If price isn't a problem, then a diet of high quality wet food is ideal. I have had cats my whole life, and none of them have ever had a problem eating all dry food, and have all been very healthy.

Canned food does NOT make them fat.  Over feeding makes them fat . 

The only way I got my little fatty to lose weight was to switch him from kibble  to scheduled meals of portioned out canned food, making absolutely certain he didn't share any of his siblings food

So if you've been reading on nutrition, you'll see that most kibble, even that which is "grain free" still has plenty of carbs in it, and cats don't really utilize carbs.  But kibble needs something to bind it together, and that something is some form of carbs (I'm probably over simplifying it, but in a nutshell, that's it)  Cats need meat.  Even some of the less expensive canned cat food are low in carbs....not all, but some of them.  And some of the expensive canned foods are NOT.  That's where the site Vball referenced comes in really handy.  There is a food chart on that site that lists canned foods along with their protein, fat and carb content. I refer to that chart every time I get a new food for my one cat that doesn't eat a raw diet.  (my other two eat a raw meat diet)

The problem with dry food, as someone else mentioned, is that it doesn't contain moisture. Cats aren't driven to drink much water. They're dry-weather critters who are designed to get almost all their water from their food. So a cat on an all-kibble diet is likely to have chronic low-grade dehydration, and possibly develop urinary or kidney problems later in life.

I think what you read about wet food depends on what kind of wet food you're giving them.

If you give them ANY kind of food that has high carb/filler content, they might be more apt to put on weight. Of course, portion control plays a big part here, but cats just don't process that stuff very well, and it can make them chubby.

However, if you get a wet food that has little or no grains and fillers, this won't be an issue as long as you're feeding appropriate portions (too much food can make a kitty fat no matter how high quality it is, obviously).

Personally, I feed Pia a commercial raw diet. I use Nature's Variety and Primal brands. She liked it right away. In fact, I wasn't able to transition her slowly because she would just pick out all the raw food and leave behind the wet food!

But this is unusual. Most cats will be a bit pickier, so transitioning by mixing is always a good idea.

But there are also high-quality canned foods that don't contain filler ingredients. And actually, there are some mid-range wet foods that are pretty decent as well. Fancy Feast, in my opinion, is probably the best of the "big corp" wet cat foods.

There's also good dry foods out there with a minimum of filler. However, there will always be the issue that they are dry, and no dry food will ever be totally free of filler.

ShelbysCat said:

I'm hearing this is WRONG? I am currently reading about dry food and the negative affects, but is this true with the premium food as well?

Also, I heard that canned food makes them FAT???

I need to slowly change his food. Like mix food, so it doesn't upset him tummy just getting off of Purina..

I need opinions!!!!

Click to expand...

Because dry food is, well, dry, yes, the negative affects are true even of premium dry food. Feeding dry leads to chronic dehydration and is linked to a host of diseases.

http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-dry-food-is-bad-for-cats-and-dogs/

In the recent past most traditional vets were in the dark about nutrition, that is why a lot of people on this forum don't take their doctor's advice when it comes to diet, especially if it involves prescription food (full of carbs, either wet or dry). Now, though, I'm running into more and more vets that at minimum tell their customers to get the cat off dry food, especially if health problems crop up.

If you are on a budget either Friskies pate-style or Fancy Feast classic line are reasonable choices.