I love reading and researching this board but I'm getting more confused then ever.
We have always fed our pets dry food and allowed them to graze. Even when Gizmo was diagnosed with allergies at age 9 months, we switched to Hills prescription allergy but still dry. Then 2 years ago we found he had really bad crystals in his urine and made another change, this time to C/D dry. He has always been a big water drinker.
Of course at that point he was no longer on any allergy diet. He was already receiving depo medrol shots whenever a skein breakout occurred, but the vet decided that since we basically had to choose, we needed to try to prevent the crystals to come back. His required 2 surgeries to get out and the vet told us he had never witnesses such a bad case.
Fast forward, he is now going to be 6 this year. The shots are now being given about every 2 months with great results as far as clearing up the outbreak. Quite some time ago I did start giving him a small amount of the C/D canned in the morning....just because!
Now I started reading this wonderful and informative board. I decided to change both cats over to canned food. Abby refuses and I'm going to go with that. She has never had any problems. I still try to give her some canned at breakfast but it's so little, if she eats any at all, it doesn't even count. Gizmo is fine with canned food. He's very easy to please.
But here's the thing. I have tried about a dozen different brands of grain free food and honestly, he prefers his Hills C/D!! I know...it's not good stuff. We have had no urine problems in 2 years. We have no weight problem...he tends to be on the thin side and is a very small guy.
So all that to ask, would I be awful to give him the C/D like half the time and then other good, canned food the other half? He eats more of the hills. He will eat a whole can during a day (2 feedings) but he won't eat that much of the other canned. I worry about him losing weight because he does not have anything at all to play with.
I think I worry too much, but if want these kids to be the best they can be and I have all the control...that's scary in and of itself.
We have always fed our pets dry food and allowed them to graze. Even when Gizmo was diagnosed with allergies at age 9 months, we switched to Hills prescription allergy but still dry. Then 2 years ago we found he had really bad crystals in his urine and made another change, this time to C/D dry. He has always been a big water drinker.
Of course at that point he was no longer on any allergy diet. He was already receiving depo medrol shots whenever a skein breakout occurred, but the vet decided that since we basically had to choose, we needed to try to prevent the crystals to come back. His required 2 surgeries to get out and the vet told us he had never witnesses such a bad case.
Fast forward, he is now going to be 6 this year. The shots are now being given about every 2 months with great results as far as clearing up the outbreak. Quite some time ago I did start giving him a small amount of the C/D canned in the morning....just because!
Now I started reading this wonderful and informative board. I decided to change both cats over to canned food. Abby refuses and I'm going to go with that. She has never had any problems. I still try to give her some canned at breakfast but it's so little, if she eats any at all, it doesn't even count. Gizmo is fine with canned food. He's very easy to please.
But here's the thing. I have tried about a dozen different brands of grain free food and honestly, he prefers his Hills C/D!! I know...it's not good stuff. We have had no urine problems in 2 years. We have no weight problem...he tends to be on the thin side and is a very small guy.
So all that to ask, would I be awful to give him the C/D like half the time and then other good, canned food the other half? He eats more of the hills. He will eat a whole can during a day (2 feedings) but he won't eat that much of the other canned. I worry about him losing weight because he does not have anything at all to play with.
I think I worry too much, but if want these kids to be the best they can be and I have all the control...that's scary in and of itself.
. Thank you
