Impact of "indoor only" on cat nutrition

[toomany]

"I'd be very wary of doing that as there is a lot of bacteria on the surface of dry food and adding water can cause bacterial growth very quickly resulting in upset tummies."

Now I am very confused....a vet told me to add water to the dry for the older kitties. That is when I decided to mix the water with wet cat food.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?? I can't put both wet and dry food out b/c I have so many and everyone knows what will get gobbled down first....and I really can't afford all wet food for all 16 kitties.

My cats range from 6 to 17 years of age and so far most all of them have stayed healthy except for my recent bout with P.J. (another story).

But...now every has me scared of using dry food....and it never hurt them before....what to do?
__________________

 

[beandip]

Originally Posted by toomany

I still can't figure out how to do the multiple quote....do you have to highlight the sentence of paragraph you want to quote? It doesn't work for me....so I just cut and paste as above.

Help, please and thank you.

I think you can only multi quote the whole post(s) that you choose...then just maybe shorten them up if you didn't want to quote a person's entire post.

To the bottom right of my message here, there should be 3 buttons...

1st one is "quote" ...2nd one is just a quote mark " ...and the 3rd one is "quick reply"

The middle one - the quote mark " if you click that button once, it should turn red. Repeat for other people's posts you want to multi quote. Then when you're finished picking out posts to quote...go find the button at the very end of the thread...on the left. It says "post reply". It will then take you to a new window for your reply. The quoted text shoud be already pasted in the window where you type your reply. If that doesn't work, it may be a browser issue or something similar on your end.

 

[kittymonsters]

Originally Posted by beandip

For the multiple quotes, It took me bit to figure it out, but if you click the quotation mark that's between "quote" and "quick reply" ...do that for each post you want to multi quote. When you click the quote marks they will turn red. Then when you're ready to reply, hit the usual "reply" button and all the quotes you wanted will be pasted in your message.

As a final note...Umm, I remember the IAMS milk carton containers...and I refuse to be old. LOL

I'm only 34 ...maybe I just have a real good memory...but I'm not old

He He He...

thank you Beandip!!!! This post is possible because of you. LOL you are still a youngser....I have decade on you. You must have been about 8 when Iams was using the Milk Cartons

Originally Posted by toomany

Well....this is going to be different from all of the replies. As most of you may know, I have 16 cats....10 of them rescued from Hurricane Andew and most of them over 10 years old. I always make sure I tell people...I do NOT take any more in...can't afford it on social security.

Oh you are an angel for taking all those Hurricane Andrew kitties. I can't tell you how thankful I am for people like you. I have been helping with the Katrina kitties for 18 months now

Originally Posted by toomany

Now I am very confused....a vet told me to add water to the dry for the older kitties. That is when I decided to mix the water with wet cat food.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?? I can't put both wet and dry food out b/c I have so many and everyone knows what will get gobbled down first....and I really can't afford all wet food for all 16 kitties.

My cats range from 6 to 17 years of age and so far most all of them have stayed healthy except for my recent bout with P.J. (another story).

But...now every has me scared of using dry food....and it never hurt them before....what to do?
__________________

Please my post was not to scare you or anyone for that matter! It was only to bring up some things I have been questioning and to provide a sounding board for thoughts on this topic.

Please remember that your 10 Andrew kitties would not be alive at all if it were not for you. Any cat over the age of 15 is beyond the average life expectancy for an indoor cat....over 5 is beyond the life expectancy for an outdoor cat.

I am in the same boat as you and I only have 7 kitties. To feed them good quality canned food would cost a mortgage payment, which is why I am trying the homemade/raw route. I have come to the point that I am no longer willing to accept what "those that Know in the food industry" tell me is best, I am going to recheck the information for myself.
This is one of the reasons I like this forum so much. A lot of well educated, outside the box thinkers here when it comes to our cats.

 

[white cat lover]

toomany, if you want to put down wet food on top of the dry, measure out half a meals worth of dry. Then add the wet "mixture to that". Only leave it down for 15-30 minues tops. Then you can put down the "un tainted" dry food to leave out for free feeding.

 

[toomany]

I thank you soooooo much. I know it is hard for some people that only have a few kitties to understand the expense....and me, being a sucker, (BUT NO MORE) have to deal with a limited income and still taking care of all these "oldies"....b/c they love me so much, nobody seems to want to go to kitty heaven.

I wish I knew if anyone else on this catsite has as many as I do....I really wish I did.....it is so helpful to me.

Love you ALL.

Toomany (Deb)