Hi All -
My Question:
I've read that grain free foods may be bad for male cats who have had struvite crystals. I did some reading about this (including multiple threads on this site) and the consensus seems to be that grain free wet food is fine (which is all I'm interested in).
Is my interpretation correct - should a (basically) all wet grain free diet be safe for a male cat who has had struvite crystals?
Background:
So I had an episode at new years where one of my cats got sturvite crystals for the first time and took just over a month to really recover. He's been doing well now for about 4 weeks.
We got him back to health on Royal Canin SO (dry and wet) but he really didn't recover fully until we shifted to an almost all wet diet.
The problem is that my cats (especially the brother of the cat who got the crystals) seem to have some food sensitivity that causes constipation. I can add some PEG 3350 to get their bowels moving which works OK but Dune (the one who never had crystals and is just along for the ride) has lost some weight and is just not as happy as he was before on this food.
Prior to the crystal episode, we have found a very specific balance of food where they were at a healthy weight and didn't have any digestive problems (50/50 (dry) Royal Canin digestive 38 and Natural Balance Ultra, plus some feedings of Natural Balance wet foods). I suspect Dune has a sensitivity to some food ingredients so I'm trying to go grain free just to eliminate that as an issue.
Now I have them eating an almost all wet diet of Wellness Grain Free foods (they get a handful of RC SO dry right before I go to bed just to give them something to much on over the night, but we are talking like half a cup or less between the two cats). They eat about a 6oz can each per day (2 cans total - maybe a little less as they don't clean the plate each time). I'm trying out a few different flavours to see what they like. They also really like the Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea Limited Ingredient Diet wet food so that is in the rotation as well.
I'll probably keep some SO around and use that for periods when they experience stress (like if we went out of town and had a sitter come by to look after them). Fortunately they are fine with having different kinds of wet food. They didn't like me taking away the dry food but that is behind us and, in fact, they seem to prefer having a few different flavours of wet to rotate between.
I pay enough attention to their litter habits now that I'd notice immediately if there was a problem. My wife thinks I'm a little crazy
My Question:
I've read that grain free foods may be bad for male cats who have had struvite crystals. I did some reading about this (including multiple threads on this site) and the consensus seems to be that grain free wet food is fine (which is all I'm interested in).
Is my interpretation correct - should a (basically) all wet grain free diet be safe for a male cat who has had struvite crystals?
Background:
So I had an episode at new years where one of my cats got sturvite crystals for the first time and took just over a month to really recover. He's been doing well now for about 4 weeks.
We got him back to health on Royal Canin SO (dry and wet) but he really didn't recover fully until we shifted to an almost all wet diet.
The problem is that my cats (especially the brother of the cat who got the crystals) seem to have some food sensitivity that causes constipation. I can add some PEG 3350 to get their bowels moving which works OK but Dune (the one who never had crystals and is just along for the ride) has lost some weight and is just not as happy as he was before on this food.
Prior to the crystal episode, we have found a very specific balance of food where they were at a healthy weight and didn't have any digestive problems (50/50 (dry) Royal Canin digestive 38 and Natural Balance Ultra, plus some feedings of Natural Balance wet foods). I suspect Dune has a sensitivity to some food ingredients so I'm trying to go grain free just to eliminate that as an issue.
Now I have them eating an almost all wet diet of Wellness Grain Free foods (they get a handful of RC SO dry right before I go to bed just to give them something to much on over the night, but we are talking like half a cup or less between the two cats). They eat about a 6oz can each per day (2 cans total - maybe a little less as they don't clean the plate each time). I'm trying out a few different flavours to see what they like. They also really like the Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea Limited Ingredient Diet wet food so that is in the rotation as well.
I'll probably keep some SO around and use that for periods when they experience stress (like if we went out of town and had a sitter come by to look after them). Fortunately they are fine with having different kinds of wet food. They didn't like me taking away the dry food but that is behind us and, in fact, they seem to prefer having a few different flavours of wet to rotate between.
I pay enough attention to their litter habits now that I'd notice immediately if there was a problem. My wife thinks I'm a little crazy
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