Wet food discovery

[green bunny]

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I also buy them bottled spring water and Orijen dry food.

Why do you buy them bottled water? I'm just curious. The tap water here is disgusting, so I ended up buying a filter, which makes the water so much better. I only give the boys the filtered water because if I refuse to drink the unfiltered tap, then why should they?

Tricia

 

[meow meow]

My sister always refused to give her cats wet food because "it makes their poop stink." Here one kitty died at age 12 of kidney failure and other chronically peed outside the box until she put it to sleep.

I personally love seeing how happy and excited my cat gets when I open a can of food. It is the highlight of his morning and it is good for him.

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by Green Bunny

Why do you buy them bottled water? I'm just curious. The tap water here is disgusting, so I ended up buying a filter, which makes the water so much better. I only give the boys the filtered water because if I refuse to drink the unfiltered tap, then why should they?

Tricia

Because I don't drink our tap water so I don't like them drinking it either.

I also find it easier to keep their water fountain clean with the bottled water versus the tap water.

 

[jcat]

Originally Posted by meow meow

My sister always refused to give her cats wet food because "it makes their poop stink." Here one kitty died at age 12 of kidney failure and other chronically peed outside the box until she put it to sleep.

That's normally only a problem with lower quality food, as I'm sure you've discovered.

 

[greenvillegal]

Originally Posted by meow meow

I personally love seeing how happy and excited my cat gets when I open a can of food. It is the highlight of his morning and it is good for him.

Same here! My cats get so excited when I tear open the wet food!

 

[swinger]

mine will immediately drop what shes doing as soon as i pick up a can of food! at night she meows at me when i walk near where the cans are kept coz she knows that she'll be getting some goodies!

 

[danimarie]

Originally Posted by Fenleebe

Nope....


I think any comments you got regarding your diet of dry food were mainly due to the way you worded your previous post. Frankly, it sounds as if you didn't care about the health benefits and feeding canned food isn't worth your time or energy. And, most animal lovers would have a problem with someone taking that attitude towards their pets. That's all.

You can't come on a board like this with people very well experienced in this matter and make comments like that without expecting some comments toward what you are saying.

It's too much of an inconvenience? Are you kidding me???
I'm not going to provoke any arguments because to each their own, but I would consider myself very lazy if it were too much of an inconvenience to pop open a can and pour it onto a plate before work in the morning and then when I get home.

 

[mstishtwo]

My opinion but I think cats need both, hard and canned foods. Canned food to control their weight and for a healthy urinary tract. Male cats especially can form crystals in their urinary tract from dry food. If left untreated can eventually kill them. I think some dry food is needed for the health of their teeth. I'm not sure that expensive is better then the cheaper brands. My cats eat cat chow and friskies...not expensive or cheap. Anyways this is just my opinion.

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by mstishtwo

My opinion but I think cats need both, hard and canned foods. Canned food to control their weight and for a healthy urinary tract. Male cats especially can form crystals in their urinary tract from dry food. If left untreated can eventually kill them. I think some dry food is needed for the health of their teeth. I'm not sure that expensive is better then the cheaper brands. My cats eat cat chow and friskies...not expensive or cheap. Anyways this is just my opinion.

The belief that dry food is needed for their teeth is a myth. Cats do not chew (their jaws go up and down only - not side-to-side). The cat bites the dry food breaking it with the tip of the tooth and swallows. My belief is that dry food could be worse than wet. If you yourself eat a dry cracker you will find lots of it stuck in and around your teeth after you swallow. If you eat some beef stew you won't have that happening.

As for quality of food, I posted in another thread that I think a lot of folks are confused between "expensive" and "quality". Quality food does not need to be expensive. I've noticed since I've been feeding Orijen (quality food), the cats eat less and the litter box contains less. So in essence, I'm saving money on food and litter and I feel better for giving my cats good food that is healthy for them.

 

[mstishtwo]

With soft food the litter box will contain less because soft food is 75% moisture. Less poop more urine. Sorry I have to disagree with the hard food controlling tarter. But yes I agree soft food is better for over all health.

 

[littleraven7726]

I feed canned and dry food. My cats had urinary tract health problems when I fed exclusively dry. Besides, a diet of dry cereal day in and day out would be pretty boring.

I also rotate flavors of wet for variety.

The Cat's Diary
Day 983 Of My Captivity
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by mstishtwo

With soft food the litter box will contain less because soft food is 75% moisture. Less poop more urine. Sorry I have to disagree with the hard food controlling tarter. But yes I agree soft food is better for over all health.

Orijen is not soft food and that's the one I mentioned re less in the litter box. If you do some research you will also find that many are realizing dry food does nothing for tarter.

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by Yosemite

Orijen is not soft food and that's the one I mentioned re less in the litter box. If you do some research you will also find that many are realizing dry food does nothing for tarter.

Very few dry foods ( three off top of my head) have actually been determined to AID in dental health...

 

[urbantigers]

Lots of cats swallow dry food kibbles whole as well. Jaffa will even swaller the dental formulas (such as hills t/d) without crunching them.

 

[bab-ush-niik]

Get a few cans of Fancy Feast. It's kitty crack, but it smells good and should entice kitty to eat. Slowly mix in more of the food you want the cat to eat. Bunny refused to touch her canned food when we got her, but she was willing to taste the FF. It took about 2 weeks to switch her over.

Lots of cats swallow dry food kibbles whole as well. Jaffa will even swaller the dental formulas (such as hills t/d) without crunching them.

Have Jaffa's teeth checked. We noticed Patches doing this about 10 years ago and took her to the dentist. Turned out, her back molars had were in bad shape and had to be pulled.