Best thing to feed my cat

spike7451

superstylin wrote: »

just to add, I imagine as long as your cat was receiving adequate intake of water through other means then a quality dry food should be fine but my cat certainly isn't much of a drinker so only gets his his moisture through his food (unless I dilute cat milk which I've taken to doing). If my memory serves me right I think wet food is 75% moisture (so you feed more to compensate nutritionally) whilst dry is approx 15%.

Daisy is exactly the same!! She will not drink any fluids at all!! I've tried her on fresh water..bottled water...cold boiled water..from the tap & a veriety of bowls & she wont drink cat milk.

The doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her by her not drinking.

superstylin

spike7451 wrote: »

Daisy is exactly the same!! She will not drink any fluids at all!! I've tried her on fresh water..bottled water...cold boiled water..from the tap & a veriety of bowls & she wont drink cat milk.

The doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her by her not drinking.

Cat milk diluted with water is the only thing Milo will drink so far. I'm going to try him on tuna water (basically tuna mashed up and water added and left to stand for a bit, as well as water with a stock cube added for taste. We tried a water fountain but he has no interest in that either, though other people have had success with that.

Check the moisture content of the food you're giving her, if it's low (wet food is around 75% moisture) then I'd try to get her to take liquids in whatever way you can - having said that females are far less at risk from blockage than males because their urethra is wider and shorter. They can still get cystitis though which is a painful condition and will result in hefty vet bills.

bethie

i found that my cats REALLY like drinking out of a road refresher bowl.

it went down one day after we came back from a car trip with the dog, and the cats went straight over to it and started to drink.... and they havent stopped. it has been about 4 months now and they still go over to it a couple times a day!

cats dont like to drink where they are fed, so have you tried also moving the water bowl to different places? besides the road refresher, we also have a water bowl on top of the dog crate (next to a cat bed), and also they have the bathtub filled with a cup or two of water a night.


my animals are not in the least bit spoilt......!

spike7451

superstylin wrote: »

Check the moisture content of the food you're giving her, if it's low (wet food is around 75% moisture) then I'd try to get her to take liquids in whatever way you can - having said that females are far less at risk from blockage than males because their urethra is wider and shorter. They can still get cystitis though which is a painful condition and will result in hefty vet bills.

Thanks,I'll make sure the vet checks that when Daisy's next check up is due.

bethie wrote: »

i found that my cats REALLY like drinking out of a road refresher bowl.

it went down one day after we came back from a car trip with the dog, and the cats went straight over to it and started to drink.... and they havent stopped. it has been about 4 months now and they still go over to it a couple times a day!

cats dont like to drink where they are fed, so have you tried also moving the water bowl to different places? besides the road refresher, we also have a water bowl on top of the dog crate (next to a cat bed), and also they have the bathtub filled with a cup or two of water a night.


my animals are not in the least bit spoilt......!

Yup,Daisy's water bowl is about 4 feet away from the food,it's only a small kitchen tho.

superstylin

spike7451 wrote: »

Daisy has really taken to 'Royal Cannin Exigent Savor 30/35'..for fussy furballs!

http://www.royalcanin.co.uk/my_pet/cat_food/feline_health_nutrition/exigent_savour.aspx

Looking at the PDF file which accompanies your link it appears that it has only a 7% moisture level. If kitty doesn't drink anything then that it is a very low level of hydration for them.

spike7451

superstylin wrote: »

Looking at the PDF file which accompanies your link it appears that it has only a 7% moisture level. If kitty doesn't drink anything then that it is a very low level of hydration for them.

She gets a wet food as well,usually Whiska's or Kitekat but when I start work & have more income,I'm moving her off Whiskas/Kitekat onto Iams or similar pouches.

MrsE_2

superstylin wrote: »

The dry food was kitekat I think. It wasn't the only food he had of course, it was complementary to wet food. According to the research I've found it was previously thought that it was the make up of the dry food that caused the problem, but now it's thought that it's simply the lack of moisture which is the big player. See catinfo.org for good information regarding it.

I think you will find its only a problem with the cheap ones.

Feeding kitkat is a bit like feeding junk food - sorry, but its true.

You can't compare the cheap little boxes of dry food you pick up for a pound or two in Tesco to a quality dried diet.

I use a water fountain (they love it) to encourage plenty of drinking.

MrsE_2

spike7451 wrote: »

Daisy is exactly the same!! She will not drink any fluids at all!! I've tried her on fresh water..bottled water...cold boiled water..from the tap & a veriety of bowls & she wont drink cat milk.

The doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her by her not drinking.

Water fountain;)

Animals by instinct know to drink running water.

dizziblonde

I've found the Aldi dried food to be pretty good for Princess Pickyknickers in a pinch - although I try to fall back on James Wellbeloved when I can.

However plans currently thwarted by feline psychological warfare and hungerstriking leading to the human pet being retrained to the wet food in pouches she prefers which tends to just be the Tesco own brand pouches backed up by the stockpile of dry stuff.

Someone's a mug here and it's not the cat.

superstylin

MrsE wrote: »

I think you will find its only a problem with the cheap ones.

Feeding kitkat is a bit like feeding junk food - sorry, but its true.

You can't compare the cheap little boxes of dry food you pick up for a pound or two in Tesco to a quality dried diet.

I use a water fountain (they love it) to encourage plenty of drinking.

I agree that nutritionally the more expensive dry foods are better than the cheap ones, that's a given since they have less grain and more meat. My point though was that in the case of cystitis/FLUTD it is best to feed a nutritionally sound wet food than a dry one because lack of moisture is a massive factor in male cats especially developing blockages which can be fatal. Like I said earlier if your cat is not a drinker then it's important that they receive some fluids via their food. My boy just won't entertain water even out of the water fountain we have. The little girl loves it but we have to coax him to drink by using diluted cat milk or by adding even more water to his wet food.