Recommended Diet?

Hello,

I was recently reading about how feeding your cats dry and wet food can be harmful to their kidneys and only one should be fed. Can anyone confirm this? My vet knows that I feed my cats both and has never said anything about it and I don't want to be feeding my cats in a way that could be harmful to them. I have always fed both wet and dry and have never had to take them to the vet with health concerns, only having to go when they need vaccines. 

Also, does anyone have any recommended diets? Like a feeding plan? At the moment I feed my four year old cat 2 cans of wet food a day (they are small cans because she is picky- she currently likes the fancy feast appetizers and the vet said that these are fine.) My 5 month old kitten gets about a can of kitten fancy feast a day. Then we also put out of bit of dry food, but we don't leave it sitting out. My vet said that my 9 pound cat should stay that size and not gain any weight.

So anyway, I would love to see what other people feed their cats and what is "best". 

Thanks! 

My three year old Murray is on RAD raw food. He gets one serving in the morning and another serving in the evening. Murray also gets Prozac in a cream I rub inside his ear every 3-4 days. He needs this for his territorial spraying. Murray does the scarf and barf but he seems to be learning to pace himself. I think the Prozac does upset his system because he will barf up within a day of giving it to him.

My other cat is Maggie. She is 14. She has always been finicky. I've learned more about cat nutrition in the last few years than what I knew when I started. We've always fed our cats both wet and dry food. After trying many premium brands that Maggie just would barely eat, I finally found one she'll eat most of the time. The brand is Max Cat. I feed a treat of Blue Mountain dry to both of them just before we go to bed. Maggie is 8 pounds and Murray is 10 pounds.

I would suggest learning more about raw diets. I know you'll find a lot of information online about making your own. I buy the RAD in 8 oz. containers. It is made in Portland, OR. It is more expensive but you'll save money in the long run with a healthier cat and fewer vet visits. I think a lot of cat health problems are caused by feeding cheap food.

One of most common problems is over feeding and cat obesity. Many people do free feeding. I volunteer at an adoption room at Petsmart. We keep the dry food bowl filled all day. I wish we didn't do that. For more information, go to petobesityprevention.com

Welcome to The Cat Site, and I congratulate you on wanting to feed your cat the best species appropriate diet possible--and for doing your own independent research.
FWIW/FYI: few vets are trained in nutrition for cats, at most they get one semester in vet school and that is often taught by a food company representative.
First (urgent) things first: Fancy Feast (FF) appetizers are not nutritionally complete. Here is a thread that discusses that. (That the food is called "appetizers" is a clue!) That said, the ingredients are decent, but, again, not complete, and IMHO should only be given as a treat. If you want to stick with FF, Fancy Feast CLASSIC is a good product line--low carbs.
The five month old kitten can be eating the FF Classic. I'm a little surprised she's not hungry on only one can of FF, I guess she's eating the dry food too.
The ideal feeding plan is to feed your cats three times a day, but sometimes work schedules don't permit that. It also in part depends on your cat.
Speaking of which: I personally am of the opinion that the worst wet food is better than the best dry food. Though I am glad you are not practicing free feeding. (Works for *some* cats, but not all.!)
Here is a link to an excellent article about choosing the right food for your cat (two parts).
In a sentence or less: look for a grain free food, "low carb" is even better. Wet food is better. Avoid free feeding in most cases.

Feeding dry food only is what can be harmful to kidneys. Dry food lacks adequate moisture and most cats do not drink enough water to compensate. This can lead to a state of chronic low dehydration which is hard on the kidneys. In addition, adequate moisture is needed to keep the urinary system flushed out well and healthy. If dry is a small part of the overall diet (more like snacks), dehydration shouldn't be an issue.

As Ritz mentioned, the FF Appetizers are not nutritionally complete and should not be more than 15% of the total diet.

There's lots of talk about what exactly is best for kitty (every brand has its downfalls), but the consensus is that wet is way better than dry. Dry food dehydrates and that is why it leads to UTIs and kidney problems. Aside from that, though, there are other health issues that a dry only diet contributes toward: constipation, cancer (cancer grows more aggressively off carbs), and diabetes to name just a few.

In order of best to worst:

Raw food

Homecooked

Wet

Dry

The following websites provide basic cat nutrition info:

http://www.catinfo.org

http://www.fnae.org

  Definitely stick to wet if you can.  I feed 2 of my cats Prey Model Raw, 2 of them get canned food only (once my stock pile is gone they are switching to raw as well)  and 1 of them gets dry low carb high protein food (she refuses wet).   While vets went to school, they get minimal nutrition education so a lot do not know much about it. 

Regarding dry food, I'm relatively new to feeding cats grain free diets, but I have been feeding my dogs grain free kibbles for the last five years and I'm wondering why I have seen no mention of cat owners moistening dry food? 

For my dogs, I mix the dry food with warm water and I let it soak for a few minutes, then feed. In dogs, feeding a dry kibble, without moistening can cause dehydration because the kibbles have to rehydrate somehow, so they draw moisture from the dog's body, which is why you should moisten kibbles before you feed them. 

So, would moistening the dry food work to help get more water into their systems? Or is there something I'm missing on that?

Thanks! 

Adding water to dry food will help, but there are a couple of caveats. One, the moistened food cannot be left out for long as bacteria will start breeding quickly. Secondly, kibble, due to the nature of extruded food will be higher carb and generally lower quality (think meal instead of meat) than wet food.

I have a lot to learn. I looked into the foods I'm feeding and I found that the wet stuff actually has way more carbs than I want it to have. Thank you for pointing out the carb issue! I wouldn't have thought to look into it if you hadn't! 

"Grain free" is more of a marketing gimmick. Many grain free foods replace the grains with potatoes, peas and other starchy vegetables and are still way too high in carbs.

I'm with Vball91 on that one.  It's still worthwhile to read the can and look for what else they've added in the place of grains. 

Yes, do read the labels. (Who knew sugar was in ketchup or, for a while, salt in baby food.)
"Grain free" does not mean "carbohydrate free" just as in "fat free" does not necessarily mean "low cal".

Some foods that are grain free, still have barley in them, which is a grain! 

I do read labels, but as I'm reading about cat nutrition I'm finding that cats would do best with no carbs in their diet at all. The kibble I'm feeding is very high protein and uses chick peas and lentils as a binder, but those items are the 12th down on the ingredients list. It advertises itself as the lowest carb cat kibble on the market, so I guess I assumed for a moment that the wet stuff, should be lower carb than the kibble. I was really surprised to see potatoes in wet food. I have found a couple of flavor varieties that are meat only that I will try on Porter and I'll stick to those while I'm continuing my research on cat nutrition. 

Thank you everyone for your advice! I have done a lot of research and have started with raw feeding. I know Fancy Feast Appetizers are not the best but she is a very picky eater, she does not like canned food unless it is in a lot of sauce (like the Appetizers are). If I don't put down a wet food she likes, she demands her hard food. I have been trying to stick to only wet food with her for about a month now after doing lots of reading and am now looking into raw feeding. 

My 5 month old kitten took to it really quickly. I put raw chicken down for her and she was growling at my cat not to come near, which was interesting because she doesn't normally eat that well like I mentioned! My adult cat however, is not very interested in it. She just wants her hard food (which other members of the family put down as they don't really want to hear what I have to say about it.) 

I have taken her hard food away as I think I am getting to them with my explanations (lots of research on my part haha!) 

Anyway, I think my kitten is already getting a bit bored of the raw chicken. What should I give her next? I am still learning, I am terrified to mess up on this. I know she can't just stick to her raw chicken but I just need to find other things for her to eat. I am in the USA, does anyone know where to buy liver, heart and turkey or chicken necks?

Thank you again!

I can buy chicken and beef liver in most any grocery store, the nationally/locally known one (Giant, Safeway). Sometimes I can get beef kidney there too. Chicken kidneys are tiny and I've never seen a package of them.
I can easily find kidney in the international supermarkets. They are also my source of frozen rabbit, frozen quail, and pork liver/kidney. As well as packages of only chicken hearts (see below).
A few hearts (a protein/meat, NOT an organ BTW) are usually mixed with a lot of giblets (also a protein/meat); I can find these packages in almost any grocery store.
I rarely see a package of turkey necks; a little more frequently, chicken necks.
During the spring/summer, I go to a Farmer's Market where a woman sells packages of hearts, and has available other strange, unusual and wonderful organs, like lung.
Finally, you mentioned turkey or chicken necks. They might be too hard/large for a cat to chew, at least in the beginning. Giblets, while obviously not a bone and are counted as protein/meat, are tough to chew, and are useful to build up a cat's jaw muscle, if need be.

What is everyones opinion on freezing the meat before feeding it?

I have been freezing the meat and then thawing it in the fridge the night before I feed it. Not because I have a lot of meat but because I read that it helps kill bacteria. Then I have also read that it doesn't matter and people don't freeze their cats food unless they have too much of it. 

Does everyone here freeze it or does it not matter? I guess I do it to make myself feel a bit more comfortable with it but that's because I read about it this way before starting raw food. 

flambardslover said:

 
 I have been trying to stick to only wet food with her for about a month now after doing lots of reading and am now looking into raw feeding. 

My 5 month old kitten took to it really quickly. I put raw chicken down for her and she was growling at my cat not to come near, which was interesting because she doesn't normally eat that well like I mentioned! 

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Please tell us you aren't giving your 5 month old kitten just chicken meat. You can do very serious damage to her health if her diet doesn't include calcium and other nutrients that aren't found in muscle meat.

Cats need more than just chicken.  You need to be giving a balanced diet of about 80-83% meat, 7-10% bone, 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ.  If you are not feeding a balanced diet especially in a kitten you are going to cause problems in your kitten.  Please research the proper way to feed a raw diet.  This is the diet I am following for my 2 kitties I switched to raw about a month ago:  http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood

No, I am feeding more than raw chicken. Trust me I have done my research. The only reason I mentioned the raw chicken (that ONE post) was because that is what I started her on, that was her first raw meat. Then I started adding organs and keep trying with the bones.

Ah I see where everyone read that made it sound like she is only getting raw chicken. Sorry I should have explained better. I have liver, giblets and hearts at home for her as well which I didn't update from the last post. I meant she is sick of the raw chicken as in I have been giving that her for the meat part, I hadn't tried things like beef, etc. I didn't mean that's all I am giving her, sorry.