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[chrisgixer]

Some time ago we put our cats on dry food. Biscuits of varying sorts. Iams, Royal canin, Pet smart(?) to name a couple.

A few years later one died, and we nearly lost the other our Female Masey just before Xmas . Over weight, although not massively so, high blood pressure causing all manor of symptoms being the main concern, along with arthritis and loosing a few teeth. She has minor partial vision loss as a result.
 Vet prescribed drugs to bring down the Bp, and pain killers for the arthritis and teeth pain. She recovered but was never really back to her former self. Bit disinterested and lethargic.

Until we stopped the dry good and put her back on wet food after some research, which have a clear message, cats eat meat, and that all. Dry food, treats, and certainly chocolate are a no no obviously.

Since the change she's back to normal. Nice shiny coat, more lively and playfull, looks for attention and fuss and has lost weight. She is asking for food instead of grazing on the biscuits as and when, then showing disinterest at feed times.

We have our little monkey back.


I know there are a few cat owners on here, so thought I'd share.... cats eat meat. Leave the biscuits in the shop.

[dbug]

Some time ago we put our cats on dry food. Biscuits of varying sorts. Iams, Royal canin, Pet smart(?) to name a couple.

A few years later one died, and we nearly lost the other our Female Masey just before Xmas . Over weight, although not massively so, high blood pressure causing all manor of symptoms being the main concern, along with arthritis and loosing a few teeth. She has minor partial vision loss as a result.
 Vet prescribed drugs to bring down the Bp, and pain killers for the arthritis and teeth pain. She recovered but was never really back to her former self. Bit disinterested and lethargic.

Until we stopped the dry good and put her back on wet food after some research, which have a clear message, cats eat meat, and that all. Dry food, treats, and certainly chocolate are a no no obviously.

Since the change she's back to normal. Nice shiny coat, more lively and playfull, looks for attention and fuss and has lost weight. She is asking for food instead of grazing on the biscuits as and when, then showing disinterest at feed times.

We have our little monkey back.


I know there are a few cat owners on here, so thought I'd share.... cats eat meat. Leave the biscuits in the shop.

Common sense really - so do dogs - dry food diet not to be recommended

[chrisgixer]

 Vegetables seem to be a fashion mixed into cat and dog food lately.

[Vamps]

Both our dog, 13 years old and cat 14 years old have always been on dry food, and only ever been physically poorly after arguments with cars or other animals, and the cat gets his own meat when he wants it, but leaves most of it for us under the dining table.........

[plym ian]

I only found out earlier today that cats need taurine in there diet to maintain a healthy life.

http://www.eukanuba.com/cat-articles/cat-health/taurine-in-cat-food

Like they say you learn something new every day

[Varche]

Our Spanish vet recommends dry food for the dog and the cat. One reason is something to bite into so good for the teeth.

We give the cat a mix of biscuits and cat food pouches. Tins are no good - they go off in the heat once opened. I am not sure there is much meat in the pouches or tins. In fact some have what looks suspiciously like peas and carrot! An expat we know says that the pouches contain an addictive substance. Wouldn't surprise me.  

[steve6367]

Some time ago we put our cats on dry food. Biscuits of varying sorts. Iams, Royal canin, Pet smart(?) to name a couple.

A few years later one died, and we nearly lost the other our Female Masey just before Xmas . Over weight, although not massively so, high blood pressure causing all manor of symptoms being the main concern, along with arthritis and loosing a few teeth. She has minor partial vision loss as a result.
 Vet prescribed drugs to bring down the Bp, and pain killers for the arthritis and teeth pain. She recovered but was never really back to her former self. Bit disinterested and lethargic.

Until we stopped the dry good and put her back on wet food after some research, which have a clear message, cats eat meat, and that all. Dry food, treats, and certainly chocolate are a no no obviously.

Since the change she's back to normal. Nice shiny coat, more lively and playfull, looks for attention and fuss and has lost weight. She is asking for food instead of grazing on the biscuits as and when, then showing disinterest at feed times.

We have our little monkey back.


I know there are a few cat owners on here, so thought I'd share.... cats eat meat. Leave the biscuits in the shop.

One of the main problems is finding cat food (wet or dry) with any real quantity of meat in it! A mix is good - bit like our own diet, all of 1 thing is not good.

[cem_devecioglu]

thanks for the info Chris


as we have high number of cats its nearly impossible to feed them on whole dry food or whole meat


instead they eat a mixture from our food (whatever cooked that day) some dry food, and some meat .. if I try to put them on meat alone our little monsters will deplete our budget within a short time.. 


but I also discovered that those dry foods cause kidney stones..


ps: we also give them eggs, cheese, macaroni cooked with small meat, vegetable soups .. it seems like they like different tastes..

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Vegetables seem to be a fashion mixed into cat and dog food lately.

Yep....and it's total crap. A marketing  play on the 'five a day' we HUMANS should eat.
When a lion pulls down a gazelle it doesn't eat it with a side salad.

[Rods2]

Used to be normal for the cats / dogs to have the days scraps, it still is in Ukraine. My dog has dry food plus scraps. Dry food is better for their teeth. Both wet and dry pet foods have dubious ingredients. Dry food is often bulked out with ash and wet food has meat not fit for human consumption, very often because it is cancerous. We have all been brain washed by the major food manufacturers advertising to give our pets (highly profitable for them) pet food.

Human food is not much better, where we have eaten wheat for 1000's of years with very few problems, but in the early 1960's wheat completely changed where farmers changed to shorter growing, higher yielding, higher protein and higher gluten newly developed varieties. The food industry prefers it as the higher protein means it rises much faster for bread production etc. This modern wheat causes much higher blood sugar peaks and far more people to have gluten tolerance problems. Plastic packaging can give off a whole range of undesirable chemicals. Western civilizations are having an increasing number of diet related issues including a rising tide of type 2 diabetes.

[aaronjb]

It's possible to get some really nice cat foods (albeit the chicken is still raised in Thailand, predominantly) but the price is truly eye watering..

At one point we were paying £25 for 48 pouches of "Natures Menu" - at 4-6 pouches a day that gets expensive.

There's another that is just comprised of boiled chicken & rice (which we made ourselves for the cats numerous times) at a similar price with UK-raised chickens.  They do love the food but it's marketed as "complimentary" as it isn't stuffed full of all the additives the vets tell us animals should have to be healthy... go figure!

[chrisgixer]

I don't buy the dry food good for teeth theory anymore, as half of Hers are now missing.


Which brings me on to age, and life expectancy. In my yoof, we always had cats and dogs at one time or another. My memory is, rightly or wrongly, that cats lived to between 18 and 20odd if they didn't encounter any obvious illness.

 But during the problems we had with our two last year, it was mentioned by a few vets that 12-14 was considered old, and the implication was that that was a good innings. Well frankly I didn't believe a word of it.
 But why say that? Trying to appease grieving owners maybe? Or hiding the lack of diagnosis? Or some other conspiracy going on ()  or are they right?

 I don't expect a cat to die if old age until 20years old. Is that reasonable?

[Lagondanet]

I don't buy the dry food good for teeth theory anymore, as half of Hers are now missing.


Which brings me on to age, and life expectancy. In my yoof, we always had cats and dogs at one time or another. My memory is, rightly or wrongly, that cats lived to between 18 and 20odd if they didn't encounter any obvious illness.

 But during the problems we had with our two last year, it was mentioned by a few vets that 12-14 was considered old, and the implication was that that was a good innings. Well frankly I didn't believe a word of it.
 But why say that? Trying to appease grieving owners maybe? Or hiding the lack of diagnosis? Or some other conspiracy going on ()  or are they right?

 I don't expect a cat to die if old age until 20years old. Is that reasonable?

Surely there is no hard and fast rule. They die when their time comes just like us. 

[flyer 0712]

The same applies to dog food..they all state that theirs has not got this and that in it and is not tested on other animals,but it is i.m.o. just hype to sell their goodies.......I found the same by changing her from the high end market stuff because her coat become dull and she went off her food so i changed her to wet food and she has changed for the better and is a happy dog again..

[Lagondanet]

I eat virtually everything, wet & dry & cooked, and I'm only 6.