Feeding Suggestions

I would like some feeding suggestions for my family of 2 moderately chubby adult cats and three 2 month old pear-shaped kittens.


I currently feed the adults Purina Kit 'N' Kaboodle. I can get an 18 lb bag for $8, but would like to move them up to something better-qualitied. They are insanely un-picky, and will scarf anything I put in front of them. (i've tried them on iams adult, and they loved it, but i believe that it is STILL not quite the quality food I'm looking for). Both are fixed, and I have cut them back to 2 feedings a day (instead of free-feeding), as they were getting fat and I would like them to maintain a healthy, sub-Hutt weight. This is where we come to the first bout of questions:


1. On a better quality dry food, would I still have to keep them on their scheduled twice-daily feeding, or would they simply eat less, and therefore be able to free-feed again?

2. If possible, I would like to augment their dry-feedings with a can or 2 (split 2-5 ways, but most likely 5, as the kittens find the sruff irresistable as well) of an equally high-quality wet chow, as cats are carnivores, and dry-chow mice and birds don't exist in the wild. Should this affect their weight much?

I currently free-feed the kittens Purina kitten chow, augmented with 2 cans of 9 lives wet food (split 3 ways), one around noon, and one around midnight. Second bout of questions:

3. What are some good, high-quality brands of kitten chow?

Ideally, I'd like to switch them all onto foods with an absolute minimum of words I cannot pronounce or find in a dictionary in the ingredients listings, and keep the extra pounds to a minimum as well ( a tiny bit of pudge is fine, but i'd like to avoid obesity-caused health problems). Any and all help is appreciated.

I would recommend considering what I am using for my chubbo's - Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Weight Management - available at Petco and PetSmart and other pet products stores. Nutro's Natural line also has a dry kitten food which I would also recommend.

If you are going to feed your adults wet food, you have to decrease the amt. of dry - so, if the suggested amount of food on the package label is say 1 cup a day, instead of free-feeding with a bowl of 2 cups plus wet, or splitting them into each having 1/2 cup twice a day plus wet twice a day, just slightly decrease the amount of dry. How much would depend on how much wet food you are giving them (I surely wouldn't for example give them 6 oz. total of wet food per day and a full suggested amt of dry, I'd probably cut the dry at least by 25%.)

One key thing with weight loss is to do it gradually..no huge cuts in food quantity (based on recommend amts.)

Another quality dry food is Innova, which does have a lite version.

Quality canned foods include: Active Life (about to come back on the market but a real premium food and not inexpensive), PetGuard, Felidae, Nutro pouches work well for some - are too rich for some though - Innova to name a few. If you do a search on comprehensive food poll it will bring up a huge, long standing thread on what everyone feeds and why

Sorry to keep this short, just popped on for a quick moment!

hth!

As you switch, you might also try elevating their bowls, or feeding them their food in a tray, all spread out. It will slow them down a bit, and give them the opportunity to feel full. I would definitely continue with meal-times, as chubby cats generally don't self-regulate very well and aren't likely to stop eating when they're full.

I have been feeding my babies Felidae Platinum (one's a senior, and the other is almost there), but I used to feed Precise. I decided that Precise dry had too much corn, which is why I switched, but the wet is okay. I also give them a variety of other wet foods including Natural Balance, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, Felidae, and a variety of Merrick foods.