Seeing Really IS Believing!

[Time Bandit]

It's only been several days since we kicked the junk food for grain-free and natural canned, but I swear the girls have never looked better! Their coats are super soft, where they were rather coarse, and they actually have a healthy shine, instead of looking flat and greasy. Their eyes seem brighter, and energy levels seem to be up. And the best part of all, is that Samantha, prone to ear infections, hasn't been scratching at her ears hardly at all. I'm thinking now that she may have been allergic to something in the Friskies/Fancy Feast, like the dyes or something.

If I wouldn't have seen these changes myself, I would have never believed they could be so drastic! I feel really terrible now for actually feeding them that junk for a prolonged period of time. I could never go back now that I know just how much a difference it really makes, not just on the outside but inside as well.

[Vivid Dawn]

Yup, a change in food can do wonders. Even changing from complete trash to just "okay". I volunteer at a cat sanctuary...we got a huge donation of stuff, but it was horrible. I think the first three ingredients were corn-something (ground corn, corn gluten, corn meal or whatever). We got some slightly better stuff that was poultry-by-product-meal and then ground corn...
There was a cat that had fur in dry, dull clumps...within a week of the new "better" stuff, her fur is sleek, shiny and soft...not amazingly so, but MUCH better than it was. Her diarrhea also cleared up.

[Time Bandit]

Vivid Dawn - Yes, I know what you mean. Even just changing from all dry to the junk canned made a difference. Eww...all corn in the first three ingredients...? I guess you gotta take what you can get though when you work with so many cats like I'd assume you do. It just makes me sad that food is still being made with ingredients like that, and it makes me even sadder that someone would buy it and feed it to their kitty.

Yeah the litter boxes have been so much more manageable the last few days too. Alice was having some really soft stools, but they've really firmed up with the better foods.

[Susan]

I agree with you Brianna. I didn't know much about cat food when I first adopted my girls, and I initially fed them what I now know to be lower-quality food. After a few months, I learned a bit more, and I switched them to grain-free, higher-quality food. I too noticed a big difference, particularly in their coats.

[Vivid Dawn]

There's about 50 cats at the sanctuary. 90% of them had diarrhea on the old food, and some had dingy fur - but not nearly as bad as Patches did. They're all doing much better now!
Since we got about 30 pallets of the bad food donated, and still probably have at least half of it, the supervisor has been giving it to people with feral colonies... better than having them starve. I got some for my colony, because I'm low income and can't really afford to feed them myself...I had been trying to buy Costco brand, because I can get a 25 lbs bag for $15. However, feeding 9+ cats, it barely lasted me 2 weeks, and I started feeding every other day just to make it last. Now I'll mix it half-and-half, so it still won't be totally bad, but will help me stretch the good stuff and I can feed every day now!