Vet advice. Now I'm confused about food.

[Shady Lady]

Today Simba had his first vet appointment with us. The vet seemed really nice (if a bit over-enthusiastic) and started telling us about cat diets. He seemed quite shocked that I had done my research on kitteh foods. When he started telling us about why meat by-products were a bad thing I thought he knew what he was talking about. Then he recommended Iams and Hills Science (diet). I'm not sure if I was dreaming or if I read somewhere on here that neither of those were terribly great. Granted the vet clinic was plastered in giant Hills science and Iams advertisements...

He also told me not to feed him wet food and showed me some pictures of really rotten-looking cat teeth.

I am in NZ, so I'm not sure if we have the same brands as other places but is anyone able to clear this up for me?

Many thanks

From Simbas Mum and Dad

[scottd]

Iams and Hills products are not something I would feed my pets. Iams is your typical supermarket food and Hills is overpriced junk that's not any better. Wet food will not cause your cat dental issues anymore than a dry food would. This is a myth. There's nothing factual to back it up.

Vets are often educated about pet nutrition by the big pet food companies themselves. I'm sure this vet is paid to suggest these foods based on what you said.

I would stick with the high quality grain-free low-carb wet foods and just ignore what the vet said. They aren't experts in all subjects and nutrition isn't one of them. You might be able to find a qualified animal nutritionist if you want a professional's opinion but I think it's fairly obvious. Cats in the wild aren't eating dry filler filled kibble.

If your cat will let you, you can brush his teeth or at the very least rub enzymatic toothpaste on them. I suggest Virbac Animal Health's CET toothpaste. I'm experimenting with a product called ProDen PlaqueOff. It's a powdery substance made of seaweed that you add to their food. I haven't used it long enough to give an opinion on it but the reviews are generally positive.

[Zilla]

I second ScottD statement on Vets. They arnt experts... They got a degree in pet medicine right?? NOT nutrition... The way they parade around throwing Iams and Science Diet in peoples faces angers me and its probably 90 percent of the reason people still feed the cr*p and dont know the truth..... I will celebrate the day I come across a Vet that cares enough to know the truth about nutrition... They are kind of scarce in the midwest or at least Ive never met one myself yet What do you feed your kitten by the way?

[hatchet2105]

I feed my 11 week old kitty "blue buffalo". I took her to the vet today and they said "her weight is good and she is healthy. she weights 2.4''. they didnt say anything about the food or anything.

[Shady Lady]

I'm feeding him Iams at the moment we got a free bag of it when we got him...I went and had a look at the pet shop cat foods and literally every single one had by-products and grains in them! I couldn't even find the ingrediants on the Iams packets.

It annoyed me how he still recommended them to me when HE told ME that by-products in pet food is a major problem. The FIRST ingrediant in Hills is a by-product!!!

I have no idea what to feed Simba

[hatchet2105]

I had a kitten that was 13 weeks old who passed away from a bacteria called spirochetes. I was the same as you going in to stores and looks for cat food that didnt have meat-by-products. that it was suppose to be bad for your cat. i was given hill science diet with dry food and 2 cans a wet food. it came as a package. befor i took my kitty to the vet we bought speacial kitty from walmart. he loved it. but when i took him to the vet and they gave him the hill science diet. he barely ate it. so i tried something i switch back to the old food i gave him. he gulped it down. I think from my experience everywhere you go to buy cat food is going to have meat-by-products. but after my kitty passed away we got a new kitten and we gave her the hill science diet and she loves it and we ran out of that. we couldnt afford that brand of food so we switched to blue buffalo.

[MowMow]

Originally Posted by hatchet2105

I think from my experience everywhere you go to buy cat food is going to have meat-by-products.

The brands I listed here do not contain by products

[kayla baxter]

The store that I work at won't carry anything with by products, corn, soy, wheat, or artificial colors. There are smaller pet stores that carry quality foods that the big box stores won't have.


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[Mitts & Tess]

Most vets are against raw diets too! Thus I wouldnt take seriously anything they say about what to feed a cat. I wish the vet schools would get with it and give them proper information instead of being lead around by the nose of Hills.

[anie]

don't get discouraged. Vets are not trained in nutrition and sadly many of them recommend what they have in their clinics (hills science diet, iams, b/c they are paid/supported by these brands to sell their stuff).

if you have local pet store somewhere close, go there and i am sure people working there will help you pick good quality food. If there is no local store, you can stop by bigger chain pet store. they usually carry both low and high quality food.