Wet / Dry or both?

karscott · Mar 23, 2006

I recently adopted Mollie (on Sat). I started out with wet in the morning and at night. I am now doing wet only in the eveing. Her dry is always out. It is Purina-the one with the green writing for indoor cats. She loves the wet but only picks at her dry. Should I try a different brand of dry food? Is it ok to give wet only once a day? Should I give it to her in the morning or in the evening?
Thanks!

lionessrampant · Mar 23, 2006

Actually, an all-wet diet is what's best for her. If yoou can't afford or manage that, a 50/50 wet and dry diet isn't so bad either. THat's what I do!

Purina isn't the best. As a general rule, you want to stay away from foods with by-products, animal digest, corn, soy, etc. The first few ingredients should be meat or meat meal. I look for foods with as few grain sources as possible.

Some brands I like or have heard only good about:
-Felidae
-Wysong
-Evanger's
-Wellness (some formulas have garlic which many people here won't feed)
-Eagle Pack
-Nature's Variety
-Nutro Natural Choice
-Azmira
-Artemis
-Pinnacle

Other people like Innova, EVO, California Natural, and Merrick, but I don't like those companies.

renny · Mar 23, 2006

I feed a 50/50 split and my cats seem to enjoy it. I agree about getting good quality food (depending on available selection where you are). I feed Natural Balance dry and a variety of wet: Eagle Pack, Natural Balance, California Naturals, Wellness etc.

Congrats on the new addition to your family! Can't wait to see some pictures!

grayfluffy · Mar 23, 2006

Back when I only had two cats, I was feeding wet food in the morning and at a night, and free feeding dry food. My vet told me to stop feeding wet food because it is mostly water and doesn't clean their teeth. I have gradually weened them off, I now either feed a can sometimes in the morning or just sometimes for like a treat. Now I have finally switched to Science Diet. It is supposed to be so much better, they shed less, they have less waste in the litter boxes, they eat less of it because it has the nutrition they need and not the fillers like other food. In the two weeks that I've been feeding it to two of my cats their coat is so much shinier and they just look healthier, I've now switched all my cats to Science Diet. I was feeding my cats the Purina indoor cat food.

lionessrampant · Mar 23, 2006

Originally Posted by GrayFluffy

Back when I only had two cats, I was feeding wet food in the morning and at a night, and free feeding dry food. My vet told me to stop feeding wet food because it is mostly water and doesn't clean their teeth. I have gradually weened them off, I now either feed a can sometimes in the morning or just sometimes for like a treat. Now I have finally switched to Science Diet. It is supposed to be so much better, they shed less, they have less waste in the litter boxes, they eat less of it because it has the nutrition they need and not the fillers like other food. In the two weeks that I've been feeding it to two of my cats their coat is so much shinier and they just look healthier, I've now switched all my cats to Science Diet. I was feeding my cats the Purina indoor cat food.

That's actually a big myth. Dry food does nothing to clean their teeth, since it's all sugars and carbs, it actually advances tooth decay.

Science Diet, if you read teh label, is really no different than Purina. Well, except in price.

My cats did ok on Science Diet, but when I found out that I could be feeding a significantly better quality food for the same price, I jumped at that and now I feed Felidae for my dry.

Just a heads up!

sharky · Mar 23, 2006

Lioness hit most of the top brands ... here a few more Natural Balence... Sesible choice and feline caviear are also good...

Science diet would improve the coat of a kitty omega 6 is amazingly higher than most but read your label ... ingrediant wise they are extremely simliar and SD often has chemicals pres ... Just my opinion but not a "premuim food"

karscott · Mar 23, 2006

I guess I am just looking for something good but reasonable in price.....I will do some reading about the foods mentioned! Thanks for everyone's patience!

sharky · Mar 23, 2006

You will pay more initailly but the qulaity will cut down on the amount of litter used... usually they eat less .. lower vet bills ...

I caculated my first yr on premium food and the vet bills alone were half what they were on grocery...

I found for my cat 15 bucks a month aint bad compared to a vet trip 5-6 time a year... *knocks on wood* ... Zoey only gets a check up and had one bougt of ickkies in 15 months

karscott · Mar 23, 2006

so which premium food is good quality but you don't pay alot for it?

lionessrampant · Mar 23, 2006

Nutro and Felidae cost about the same as Iams or Science Diet.

semiferal · Mar 23, 2006

Either wet food alone or wet/dry.

For quality, Science Diet is barely better than Purina. It just costs 3x as much! Felidae (which, honestly, my cats hate!) or Chicken Soup would be much better options and are less expensive than SD.

sharky · Mar 23, 2006

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Nutro and Felidae cost about the same as Iams or Science Diet.

Depending where you are those are the consistantly cheaper ... If you buy at a big pet supermarket ie petco or petsmart your likely only gong to find Nutro...

Feed stores often have nutro chn soup and one other premuim and they often have great prices

small pet stores either match the big stores or they are a bit less...

4lb bag runs between 7-10 dollars for most premiums ... I try to get Zoeys Natural choice on sale and get a 8-10 lb bag for 11-13 dollars ... that size should last six to 10 week s with one cat

a small bag of nutro in my area is about 9 dollars .... cal natural is about 10 ... felidea is higher here but not everywhere at 11-12

laureen227 · Mar 23, 2006

Originally Posted by Renny

I feed a 50/50 split and my cats seem to enjoy it. I agree about getting good quality food (depending on available selection where you are). I feed Natural Balance dry and a variety of wet: Eagle Pack, Natural Balance, California Naturals, Wellness etc.

Congrats on the new addition to your family! Can't wait to see some pictures!

Pixel won't eat wet food, & Java only likes cheap wet food. Cable prefers the cheap stuff but will eat the good stuff. Chip seems to be eating mostly dry. so i buy good dry food [chicken soup]. i've tried feeding good wet food, [wellness, wysong, merrick, natural balance, chicken soup, etc] but i end up throwing it away, so i'm going back to the cheap stuff that they'll eat. right now i'm mixing 1/2 good wet & 1/2 cheap wet until i can get rid of all the good stuff.
BTW - here, the Chicken soup dry is $22 for 18 pounds, & a 12 pack of cans is about $12 - by far the least expensive of the better brands, IMO

denice · Mar 23, 2006

I have the same problem with the wet food. I always thought cats preferred wet but not mine. The only quality food they will eat any of and my one sensitive cat doesn't have problems with is the Merrick's poultry flavors. They won't touch the fish ones and the beef one made my sensitive one sick. Unfortunately it is one of the more pricey ones at $.79 apiece for the small cans. I am also stuck with a pricey one for the dry because of my sensitive one. The only ones he can consistently eat is a prescription food with lousy ingredients at $48 for a 14 pound bag or California Natural. Here I am pay $19 for an 8 pound bag of California Natural. I don't know how true it is, but a lady that works at my vet's office told me that she thought cats could get to a point where they would eat only the cheap food for the same reason that some people get to a point where they only like junk food. I guess maybe it is the artificial flavorings they just think it tastes better.

fatkitties · Mar 23, 2006

My cats, 8lb Sasha and 19lb Gizmo, get a 3 oz Nutro pouch to share in the morning and a 5.5 oz can of Nutro in the evening. I put out about 1 cup of Nutro Indoor dry food and that lasts them a couple days. Sasha has dropped her extra weight and my vet says she is "perfect" right now, and Gizmo has lost weight but I don't know how much. She was 19lb last year at the vet. But she looks better. They are both a lot more active than they were and act like they feel better. It doesn't sound like much food, but neither of them objects to eating dry food, and that's always available. So I know they are getting enough to eat. And thier health looks a lot better than it did.
My pets will never again get a low quality product like grocery, Science Diet, Iams, etc, now that I have educated myself on pet food. Even my vet, who sells Science Diet, said he knows there's better foods than that.

Amber

karscott · Mar 23, 2006

I actully bought a little bag of Nutro tonight. I gave some to Mollie just on the floor and she ate it! Looks like I found what she likes! Thanks everyone for all your help.... Now i just think she might have a flea or two.... any suggestions would be great. Where's the best place to start? If it isn't one thing, it is always another!

semiferal · Mar 23, 2006

For fleas the best thing is Revolution (which you can get at the vet) or Advantage (which you can get at a vet or at a small mom-and-pop type pet supply store). Frontline Plus is also okay. Do not under any circumstances use flea treatments you can get at the grocery store or Wal-Mart or PETsMART/Petco. They are very harmful.

jcat · Mar 25, 2006

My preference would be wet only, which all our previous felines ate. Jamie, however, prefers dry food, and it took months of battling to get him to accept dry in the morning, and wet in the evening.

jeffreyli7 · Mar 27, 2006

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

That's actually a big myth. Dry food does nothing to clean their teeth, since it's all sugars and carbs, it actually advances tooth decay.

Science Diet, if you read teh label, is really no different than Purina. Well, except in price.

My cats did ok on Science Diet, but when I found out that I could be feeding a significantly better quality food for the same price, I jumped at that and now I feed Felidae for my dry.

Just a heads up!

but why would the vet recommend to feed dry food if it is only a myth??

sharky · Mar 27, 2006

Originally Posted by jeffreyli7

but why would the vet recommend to feed dry food if it is only a myth??

IMHO I chaulk that and often lack of nutritional knowledge to lack of education in those areas

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