It’s only been a day but the experience has been great so far and I’ve made no bonehead mistake (yet)!
Rescue Center staff strongly disfavored any cat food with corn content. A check of brands from the familiar names revealed that corn is the lead ingredient in the best selling brands. Huh? Read an article from a cat expert (not a vet) that affirms what I was told at the rescue center. For the interim period I purchased Rachel Ray’s Dry Cat Food where the majority ingredient is chicken. However, I notice that the Meow Mix Seafood Medley is much, much cheaper…but again the lead ingredient is corn? The low price of Meow Mix is tempting, and some online reviewers love it (didn’t know that cats could type!). Is a corn-based food safe for my cat? What’s your experience (vomiting, lethargy or worse)? No Problems?
Whatever you do, do not feed your cat Blue Buffalo foods. My fat cat developed bladder stones when we switched her to this food because it was supposed to be “healthy” (then the co was acquired, and the formulation apparently got changed…). My vet sells Hill’s food, and that’s what I buy for my three cats. I get it on Amazon.
The natural diet of cats is mostly protein and fat. If you think of cats in the wild, they don’t really eat grasses and such. Carbs are generally not good for cats. For that reason, many vets recommend using only canned food because dry food has a lot of carbs like corn. Cats can develop diabetes and thyroid problems from to many carbs.
I can’t speak specifically to cats, but can to the importance of using a high quality food - I spent a fortune at the vet due to digestive reactions because of food. Spending more on food can end up saving you quite a bit at the vet’s.
I feed my 18 year old cat Purina Beyond. No corn. Corn is not a natural food for cats. They are carnivores. I get it at Target for about $8/3 lbs and it lasts a pretty long time as long as the dog can’t reach it.
Meow mix was a big no for my cats. Not only was there daily vomiting, the artificial colors in it stained the rug. Tempting as it is to shop by price, it’s a bad idea when it comes to pet food. Whatever you save on the food you will spend on vet bills in addition to watching your pets suffer.
My vet feels strongly that cats should not have dry food except as occasional treats. If you start them on dry it can be really hard to shift them over to wet. Food with corn tends to lead to obesity in felines. Cats are carnivores and don’t eat corn or carbs in the wild; why would we feed it to them at home?
Hello there Bunsen. Thanks to you and everyone else for the advice. Hey Onward, I especially appreciate the tip about Purina Beyond at Target. As for the Rachel Ray stuff, well, my cat has taken to it slowly. I put a really small handful (probably 1/4 cup) in the pan and the cat is taking its sweet time, passing by many times before stopping to take a few nibbles. Most of it is still in the pan. I figure that I will open a can of wet food tonight. Something tells me that this young cat is used to wet food and prefers it because as I was holding a can in my hand to read the label, the cat promptly came over and tried to climb into my lap.
Getting back to corn, I guess its just another simple matter of greed. OK, I will cut Meow Mix a break and say “maximizing profit” instead. God knows the corn that the company puts in its product is cheaper than seafood or beef. But the last thing I want is a sickly or suffering pet.
They need meat as their primary food. High quality means no byproduct meals and minimal carbs – although dry foods need some carb to stick the kibble together. Rice is an acceptable carb. Potato is OK. Sweet potato, tapioca, barley – all OK.
(Don’t get confused by the hype about grain-free. The bad grain is corn, and wheat’s not so great. Other grains are fine as a lesser ingredient after the protein. But all dry foods need a carb, not all carbs are classed as grains and not all grains are bad.)
Pick a high protein food, from your pet specialty store, not the supermarket. Canned (wet) foods contain more water and are generally considered healthier for your pet.
Watch out for fillers in canned food, too! In addition to Hill’s, I feed my cats FussieCat wet food. It looks like canned tuna but does not have the salt and spices used in tuna made for human consumption. It is not cheap though:
It is a good thing that your cat is a nibbler. Leave her daily portion of kibble out in the dish and let her graze. Because you do not have other cats or dogs who can steal her portion, this will work fine for feeding her.
We use Costco’s Kirkland Maintenance dry cat food. It seems to have good reviews and the price is great. The first 3 ingredients listed are chicken, chicken meal, and brown rice. I’m no expert, but we donate a couple of bags a month to our animal shelter and their vet likes it.
In my experience, which is mostly with dogs, they eat less of the high quality foods to maintain the same weight, and produce smaller poops. With dogs, kibble is preferable. When I had a cat, I was told it was better to feed them wet food.
“When I had a cat, I was told it was better to feed them wet food.”
Cats are finicky drinkers, and wet food provides much needed water to cats who otherwise would go dehydrated and develop health issues. My cats like to drink from their water dishes I have placed all over the house for their drinking pleasure. If one of my cats decided something is a watering hole (like a decorative dish with floating candles), it stays their watering hole. But I do draw the line at toilet bowls.
My vet recommends solely wet food to avoid excessive carbs and says buy whatever’s cheapest. Until this year, when the 16 year old developed kidney problems (a function of age, not diet) and got switched to a low protein canned food, he and his 15.5 year old brother thrived on that diet. There’s so much hype surrounding high priced fancy pet foods, I tend to dismiss most of it. Same with the websites that claim only a raw diet or homemade food will do.
I found this site very informative when I went to research what might have caused our two cats to recently reject their usual dry food (Iams). I used the recommendations to choose a second line of canned food. Both cats are much happier and livelier since we jettisoned the dry food.
Kitty avatar? Hey, I’m the guy who had to get my teen-aged niece to set up a smartphone. ;
I’ve been wondering for ages how you all place photos with your usernames. And of course my digital camera is buried somewhere here in the house. Argh! Do people even use those palm-sized digital cameras anymore?
Back to the cat; as best as the Rescue Center could tell, they think the cat is approximately 7 months old and a bit of a lightweight at just under 6 lbs. She is a short-hair Tabby (until recently I thought “Tabby” was a name applied to all cats. The cat’s color is powder-puff gray with dark rings on her body and her tail. So far her temperament has been delightful. She likes to be scratched and will climb atop me like I was a statue to entice me to pat her. She climbed into an open drawer in my dresser. I let her stay since she seemed so comfortable in there. :-*
She hardly ever stands still; roaming to and fro. Doesn’t like to lie on the floors, prefers one of the padded chairs or the sofa (me too!). I put out wet cat food last night for the first time (chicken chunks). Again, she just passed it by, so I put it in the fridge hoping she will take a bite of it this morning.
Very glad that I found this gal. The two cats I originally chose during my visit to the Rescue Center didn’t work. One definitely was not ready to be handled. He had a respiratory problem. Also, he bit the staffer. Ouch! The other seem to be curious about me from his “cell,” coming to the gate to sniff me. But the staffer couldn’t coax him of the the cell. Oh well.
I feed my cat life’s abundance. It’s what the breeder uses and my vet also highly recommends it. We feed canned and dry. The food is new and fresh unlike some store bought brands that can be years old and stale before using it. We buy it online through the vendor and get it delivered by auto ship now.
