Cat feeding advice sought.

GlynD

We've got two puddies. Our policy regarding food has always been to allow grazing on kibbles 24/7 with plenty of water nearby but to supplement with a wet pouch in the morning and kittie milk during the day. Treats are generally Dreamies or liver sticks and we dish those out when noses are turned up at everything else. We also feed a little fresh ham or roast beef a couple of times a week. So generally they're well fed.

Cat no 1 is a Persian coated tortie. We have no problems with her.

Cat no 2 is a long haired domestic, a rescue. We found her straying in traffic in a nearby town 9 months ago. She had no chip and we couldn't find any information on her in the local press etc so we adopted her. She's been demanding more wet food than we would normally serve so we bought some Gourmet and Sheba tins to try and fill the gap. Obviously we also tried no 1 on these but she turns her nose up at them.

What do other cat slaves do in a similar position? Should we be feeding our hungry wee rescue more than one pouch per day, or is our current methodology in line with what you'd do?

HappyMJ

What is the feeding guidelines on the pouch say. Isn't it 3-4 pouches per day. Maybe your cat doesn't like dry food and this is the only food she's eating.

I wouldn't be feeding cats ham...it's not really recommended. Too many odd ingredients. Roast beef is also iffy...what has been cooked with it. I'd cut a bit of the raw beef off the roast before anything has been done to it before cooking and give that to my cat.

dandelionclock30

Well if she prefers wet food, I would be going down the tinned cat food route, not pouches as they are a rip off in my opinion.
You could get some tins of felix or whiskas and give her some of that a couple of times per day instead. You can get plastic caps from places like wilkinsons, to put on the tin tops to avoid the smell.
I have 2 cats, mine have a tin of cat food per day between them and one has biscuits and they have cooked chicken breasts a few times per week.
I get a big bag of chicken breasts and cook these for them.A bag is about £4.00 and lasts a couple of weeks. I think this is better for them than pouches and is also better value.

Money_maker

Mine has two pouches daily and dry food always available. My old cats used to eat a tin a day each so if she only likes wet food then you're not giving her enough.

How old is she? How are her teeth? Poor teeth can make it nearly impossible to cope with dry food.

TBH, cats are so darned fussy that it's best to stick to what they like!

GlynD

To answer some of the questions posed to me above:

1. There are no instructions on the Felix pouches we have as to how many per day should be fed.

2. The vet estimated her at no more than two. We've been treating her as a one year old.

3. She has all her teeth and they and her gums are in perfect condition.

4. She does eat dry food. I see her doing so quite regularly but she demands wet food by going to where she eats that and crying for it.

HappyMJ: I hear you re the ham and roast beef but we can't get either of them to eat raw food or eggs so we vary their diet as much as possible and have always included good quality ham and beef which doesn't have a pile of additives. We also feed cat no 1 prawns, substantially, and always have done. We tried no 2 on them but they appear to make her sick so we stopped.

We don't want to start on tins of cat food because that might mean tines being kept in the fridge overnight and we don't want that. What our puddies eat is always 100% fresh.

It looks as if this wee one is a two pouch a day cat. That's roughly what she's been consuming but we decided to break it down into smaller meals by using the little Gourmet and Sheba tins. This also makes up for the fact that she's not getting the added benefit of the occasional saucer of prawns which the older cat gets.

HappyMJ

Felix feeding guidelines for kitten food is up to 4.5 pouches per day per cat.

http://www.catslikefelix.co.uk/food/kitten/Pages/kitten-pouch-as-good-as-it-looks.aspx#feeding

You have two cats. I'd be putting a whole can down split between the two during the day in two meals. Whatever's left in the bowl at the end of the day bin it. It's cheaper to bin a bit than buy 4 pouches.

Edit: Cat food in a pouch or a can is not considered fresh food. It's thoroughly cooked destroying all the good stuff then more stuff added to it to make it nutritionally similar to raw food.

GlynD

HappyMJ wrote: »

Felix feeding guidelines for kitten food is up to 4.5 pouches per day per cat.

http://www.catslikefelix.co.uk/food/kitten/Pages/kitten-pouch-as-good-as-it-looks.aspx#feeding

You have two cats. I'd be putting a whole can down split between the two during the day in two meals. Whatever's left in the bowl at the end of the day bin it. It's cheaper to bin a bit than buy 4 pouches.

Edit: Cat food in a pouch or a can is not considered fresh food. It's thoroughly cooked destroying all the good stuff then more stuff added to it to make it nutritionally similar to raw food.

Thank you for the link. Very useful. Ours aren't kittens though; even our youngest is well over a year old now, possibly even older but we've set the benchmark at her being 1 year old in February past.

You've misunderstood my meaning when I said "fresh". What I meant was that we don't allow food to become stale by keeping it overnight.

I'm still not convinced about tins. What is the consistency of the food like? Are the chunks bigger? I ask because you obviously know how fussy cats are. We do serve no 2 Gourmet mini-tins but we only bought two to start with and were just buying a few more everytime we nipped into town for anything else.

Edit: I've just ordered pouches and Gourmet mini-tins on Amazon. Works out amazingly cheap. For example: the Gourmet tins are 49p each in our local Supervalu. They are only 31p each through Amazon, free delivery.

HappyMJ

GlynD wrote: »

Thank you for the link. Very useful. Ours aren't kittens though; even our youngest is well over a year old now, possibly even older but we've set the benchmark at her being 1 year old in February past.

You've misunderstood my meaning when I said "fresh". What I meant was that we don't allow food to become stale by keeping it overnight.

I'm still not convinced about tins. What is the consistency of the food like? Are the chunks bigger? I ask because you obviously know how fussy cats are. We do serve no 2 Gourmet mini-tins but we only bought two to start with and were just buying a few more everytime we nipped into town for anything else.

Edit: I've just ordered pouches and Gourmet mini-tins on Amazon. Works out amazingly cheap. For example: the Gourmet tins are 49p each in our local Supervalu. They are only 31p each through Amazon, free delivery.

Older cats eat at least the same as a 12 month old. You said you treated her as a 12 month old cat.

Whiskas tins are £3.00 for six 400 grams tins when on sale (equivalent to 4 pouches each). That's my cat's favourite.

KiteKat she's not really into.

Felix she likes but I can rarely find that on sale.

She likes Aldi's supermarket brand Vitacat (42p) but won't touch any other supermarket's own brand.

She'll eat whole tins of Butcher's Classic (£2.79 for 6) leaving nothing behind but certain flavours she'll leave half at the end of the day. I can never remember which flavour.

My cat is 2.3kg about the same weight as an average 6 month old kitten and she still eats plenty. She is however 17 years of age. She has one can per day. She may not eat it all usually leaving a little which gets binned.

GlynD

HappyMJ wrote: »

Older cats eat at least the same as a 12 month old. You said you treated her as a 12 month old cat.

Whiskas tins are £3.00 for six 400 grams tins when on sale (equivalent to 4 pouches each). That's my cat's favourite.

KiteKat she's not really into.

Felix she likes but I can rarely find that on sale.

She likes Aldi's supermarket brand Vitacat (42p) but won't touch any other supermarket's own brand.

She'll eat whole tins of Butcher's Classic (£2.79 for 6) leaving nothing behind but certain flavours she'll leave half at the end of the day. I can never remember which flavour.

My cat is 2.3kg about the same weight as an average 6 month old kitten and she still eats plenty. She is however 17 years of age. She has one can per day. She may not eat it all usually leaving a little which gets binned.

I think I've settled in my mind that we'll allow her to have two pouches a day now and a couple of Gourmet/Sheba meals in between. I might try her on a tin of something nice to see how she reacts to it. That might make a change for our 12 (almost 13) year old too - if she doesn't turn her nose up at it.

Thank you for your help.

KxMx

I've got to say going by the feeding guides on Lily's food I must be starving her lol. But she never asks for more unlike OP's cat- well apart from looking hopeful if we are near the food mat or cupboard where her food is during the day- so we must have the balance right (and is a very healthy weight)

Call me a cynic but I would be buying ALOT more cat food if the feeding guides were correct in our case!

meritaten

Its just a thought but as she is a stray, perhaps she is used to er, less expensive food such as kit e kat, or even supermarket own brand tinned food?