How much dry cat food does my cat really need?
Monday, January 25th, 2010 at
5:32 pm
I used to give him a can of wet food every other day and about a half cup of dry food daily, but the wet food gave him diarrhea, so I don’t give him that anymore. He is at a healthy weight of about 8 pounds (he’s almost a year old), and I don’t want him to get fat, but he is always begging for food.
Easy for you to say diarehha isn’t a big deal. You don’t have to clean it off your floor and the poor cats feet after it happens. I need real answers. Not judgements.
Filed under: Fast Weight Loss
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None Diarrhea doesn’t compared to blockages, diabetes, kidney disease
Get some acidoupholous from a health food store and sprinkle some on the food each day. You need to feed proper food for the species
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)
Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm
Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program
http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_grant.htm
I totally agree w/ Ken S. I had to take a break from breeding for a while and have been researching the sites on cat food as well as dog food. It’s shocking and gross what is passed off as healthy & nutrishous. i plan on expanding into breeding dogs also, but before I add another to my household I will be creating my own recipes for dog & cat food. One more thing, useing an enzyme based cleaner like ‘Natures Miracle’ and ‘Oxy’ to eliminate pet stains will also remove the smell.
I’m sorry your kitty has diarrhea
Your cat only needs about a cup of dry food every day. If he is getting fat, you can put him on a weight control formula. Purina and Nutro make great diet foods for cats.
The wet food is not good for him to get all the time. It’s fattening and bad for their teeth. Dry food is good for their teeth, too as chewing the food breaks the plaque up as they eat.
If he’s begging for food, try to resist. He doesn’t need more than a cup of day. Be a firm kitty mommy and say no! If his stomach is still complaining, you can switch to a lighter dry food. Science Diet makes a dry formula for sensitive stomachs. Just make sure you change his food slowly. Gradually replace his old food with the new – each day adding more of the new food and less of the old stuff. Changing their diet too quickly also makes them have diarrhea (ick!)
Give your kitty about a cup a day. If you want to give him a moist treat every once in a while, pour a couple of tablespoons of tuna "juice" over his regular food.
the whole bag
What I would consider doing is giving your cat about 5 small meals a day… If your cat is begging for food just ignore him, and then feed him when he stops begging.. Cats are very intelligent creatures and he will soon catch on.
It is a good idea to not keep giving him wet food because it is truly unnecessary and tends to make cats gain a little chub!
If you are looking for a type of food that will keep your cat healthy but make sure he is happy I would go to your vet and see what he/she recommends and just ask the people that work at pet stores.
I feed my cat science diet but he started to gain weight, so we let him outside and the excess weight went away swiftly. We started to let him eat his food freely and he never gained a pound! I would not recommend letting your cat outside though.. because mine got hit by a car!
If your cat seems to eat as much food as your willing to give him then keep his diet to a constricted amount and make sure you remember how much to feed him and how many times you have fed him during the day.
Maybe you could try out a couple different brands of food and see which ones seems to work out best with your cats health and weight.
If you happen to see anything red in your cats diarrhea then I would recommend taking your cat to the vet, also do this if his diarrhea starts to be a major problem and he doesn’t stop…
I wish you the best luck and hope my answer was helpful!