Switching my kitty over to a healthier diet

[LunaTheHimmydoll]

Admittedly, I knew very little about feline feeding when I first adopted Luna. I knew cats were obligate carnivores - but I did not realize how much junk cat food there was, marketed as healthy fare. Currently she is eleven weeks old and eating Iams Kitten Food. I was free-feeding, but I am going to stop that. I have been trying to introduce her to wet food but she has not taken to it. Any ideas?

[Zilla]

Kibble addicts are sometimes very hard to switch to wet food. What brands of wet food have you tried??? Some cats don't like the pate style. I would try the shredded meat style.... Soulistic "In Gravy" varieties are a shredded meat and grain free. You can get those at petco. Or maybe even try sprinkling kibble on top of the wet food.... And don't feel bad about not knowing about all the bad cat food marketing.... I didn't either till like 4 years ago and I'm still learning.... The big companies like Iams, Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina are actually the WORST out there and despite the price differences they are practically all the same too as far as quality.... BAD.... I don't understand why people spend obscene amounts of money on science diet when they might as well buy Iams or purina and spend half the amount.....


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[cinderflower]

Originally Posted by Zilla

I don't understand why people spend obscene amounts of money on science diet when they might as well buy Iams or purina and spend half the amount.....


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because their vets tell them how great it is and turn up their nose and act snobby about the grocery store food.

a lot of people listen to their vets over everyone else just like some people see advertisements for pharmaceuticals and request them from their GP, using the reasoning, "it must be good for you or the doctor wouldn't prescribe it."

[Zilla]

Well yea I knew that's why but its just completely frustrating because every time I see someone buying that CRAP I just wanna say hey you know you might as well buy meow mix if your gonna buy that and spend only a quarter of the money.... the people that don't take the time to learn anything about their pet infuriates me!! Everyone that comes on a forum like this one though is obviously trying to learn something so them I love!


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[anie]

have a look here:

Commercial Canned Foods by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM :: reading cat food labels, canned versus dry cat food

few lines down the article you will have a link to transitioning dry food addicted cats to wet food.


transitioning to new food is often not easy. many cats just dont like new food. i know because I am trying to switch my cats to eating good quality wet instead of kitty junk wet and it already has given me few headaches.


if you want to make your cat eat wet, first of all you have to stop free feeding dry. you can read all about it in the article I linked above.

good luck!

[snowy]

Originally Posted by cinderflower

because their vets tell them how great it is and turn up their nose and act snobby about the grocery store food.

a lot of people listen to their vets over everyone else just like some people see advertisements for pharmaceuticals and request them from their GP, using the reasoning, "it must be good for you or the doctor wouldn't prescribe it."

Its hard trying to recommend the good stuff when all the owner knew and believe are vets' words. A casual friend's cat was hospitalised recently for stones in bladder and had to undergo surgery and according to the vet, her kitty was also overweight. All the kitty had for his whole life was kibbles from the supermarket. Out of concern, I recommended wet food and she asked what I feed mine. Told her the brand, then she went all quiet, probably concerned about the cost, then next, when we met again, she seemed to avoid me like a plague, lol. Probably worried that I might insist that she change her cat's diet and I am no vet, in no position to recommend anything?

Well, I just share my point, then that's it, its up to the owner to decide what they want to feed their cats.

[snowy]

Just to add, the vet this friend send her kitty to, is the one that highly recommend SD prescriptive food, so I bet her kitty will go home with a bag of SD kibbles.

[cinderflower]

well, that's a shame. but i liken it to telling people what to feed their kids--they usually won't appreciate it. it reminds me of that commercial with the kids playing and one mother says, "jimmy looks a little slow today. what do you think?" and the other one says, "well, you are what you eat." the kid looks like a giant pack of french fries.

i actually do think it's more of a problem with the vets pushing SD. i fell for that years ago and got that and iams and my cats weren't exactly crazy about either (canned). it was pretty bland. not even knowing anything (or much) about feline nutrition, it annoyed me because i'd read the list of ingredients and it didn't look that much different from others and it was really expensive so i just started ignoring food advice from any vet techs. my vet himself wasn't pushy with me, it was always the women who worked in the office and i took it with a grain of salt.

i guess if people are interested they'll read up on it, if not, they don't want to be bothered. like maggie said on the vegetarian thread, i hate to preach about food because it's annoying. it annoys me when people insist i buy this kind of water filter or that kind of bathroom cleaner, so i figure if someone wants to know more about a subject they'll ask.

[LunaTheHimmydoll]

Luna has started eating some wet food. I have been giving her a variety: everything from Fancy Feast entrees to Blue Wilderness chicken. So far her favorite - I think - has been President's Choice Turkey canned cat food. She has graduated from licking the food to actually chewing it, haha. I guess since she is so small she takes FOREVER to finish a can, so I keep it in the fridge. I also found some food dental spray that is supposed to help clean a cat's teeth. You just spray it on their food. Hopefully that will help with her teeth in the long-run - although I guess she will be losing her baby teeth.