Cat Food - Raw, Canned or Kibble? (NDR)

Wow I'm impressed to see vet pushing things like raw and Wellness!  That food looks good to me, I'd be fine feeding that to my cats, however we don't have any chronic UTIs or crystals here.  I tend to believe that feeding a really really good food overall is better than feeding a special diet from a lower quality company (save for the few cases of severe allergies and other life/death conditions). 

High pH will cause crystals so it's a mix of things (ash, the pH of the water, how much water, etc). If your cat drinks a fair amount of water, you should be giving it distilled water instead of tap water. Only because some areas have high pH tap water - I live in an area like this (you can call a local spa/pool store and ask what the typical pH of your city's water is. I know that mine is high because I have to put a pH decreaser in my hot tub. If you google ideal pH for cats you'll find a range, I can't recall what it is off the top of my head.

the other thing is that my cat barely drinks water at all - so I feed him wet food to make up for the lack of water that he drinks.

A friend of mine works at a cat only vet and they swear by strictly wet diets for cats. Studies have shown, blah blah blah. The bottom line is all wet food all the time.

I feed Friskies, Special Diet. Yes, I know that friskies is pretty low on the totem pole as far as food goes but the special diet part of that means a low pH. My cat has not had any urinary problems on this food.

I have heard that there are better special diets out there - such as wellness but I haven't tried. I'm hesitant to play around with my cats food because it works. It is way too expensive and risky (if we need surgery) to play around like I do with my dogs food. So I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" mentality for my cat.

I don't know anything about feeding raw to cats. 

I used to feed my cat a home made raw diet.  I would visit this site for some basic info on cat nutrition: http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/.  It is a commercial site, but the people who put it together spent a lot of time doing the research.  You can also try joining the felinefuturediet group at yahoo groups for some recipes.  Rawfeeding is another group on yahoo groups that has information about a raw diet for cats, but they have a different philosophy than the feline future folks. 

I no longer feed my cat raw food due to time constraints (and her preference for Friskies), but I feed canned.  I will never feed dry food.  I think it's bad for cats.  They are not designed to get their moisture from drinking water - they should be getting it from their food.  Dry food does not have enough moisture for cats and a lot of cats will not drink enough on their own to make up for the lack of moisture.  My cat doesn't even drink water from a water bowl.  She gets the moisture she needs from her food.

I think some cats can be difficult to convert to raw food.  I didn't have conversion issues because I fed my cat raw from kittenhood, but I have read about people having trouble.  Even if your cat gives you troubly switching to raw, I would strongly suggest getting wet food.  That might be a little easier to transition to than a raw diet.

Liesje

Wow I'm impressed to see vet pushing things like raw and Wellness!

Oh! Sorry if I wasn't clear! It's not my vet, it's my dog food guy. He owns a little shop here and sells high end pet food. He's really pretty educated and is real interested in it. I told him about this board but I don't think he ever joined. He met Jaia and B'asia today. No, my vet wants me to stay on the Hills c/d, of course. As I'm sure he gets a GIANT kickback for selling it out of his office. Grrr...

Jewlieee

you can call a local spa/pool store and ask what the typical pH of your city's water is.

Jewlieee

So I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" mentality for my cat.

I do, too. That's why I fed the Hills for so long, but recently, it broke. For some reason, my cats all but stopped eating. We opened another bag of food and they ate from it at first, but then stopped again. And someone has been vomiting occasionally... I fed the Wellness this morning and MAN! They ate it like they were starving! I hope this clears up the problems, but if it doesn't I'll take them in to the vet again.

All 3 of my cats are free fed from 3 bowls of dry Felidae cat & kitten formula + 2 cans split up of wet Felidae cat & kitten formula split into 3 bowls per day (LOL, does that make sense?).  I've had the oldest cat for about 4 years now (she's 6 or 7 years old) and they've all being doing fine; no health problems at all. Their coats look shiny and smooth too.

Canned food is great for cats because they are not big on drinking water. My cats eat Purina1 indoor cat (I think), and have for the past 14 years (the oldest cat is 14, still doing great). They get the occasional canned food - we don't give it too often because of the stinky breath and poop issues that develope....I'm sure if you fed wet all the time their systems would adjust though, and poop wouldn't be a problem. I also have a cat that is allergic to the fish in canned food - so she can't have any, really (found this out the hard way...)

The vet told me to feed Teenie distilled water. We have well water, too, and it's high in minerals. That may have been one of the things that contributed to her bladder stones. I don't know how big of a difference it made, but I felt like I was doing something for her, LOL. If she'd decided to live a couple more years, I would have been able to gauge how successful my attempts were... 

(sorry if this is a repeat, I haven't read all the posts) 

I have a cat who had developed fairly severe urinary crystals as well and another that has them on a more mild note (he simply showed symtoms more quickly than she did).

I don't know about studies, personally, but the evolution of the cat can give you some big clues. Domestic cats have a close cousin (the african wild cat?) that lives in similiar areas to where cats were first domesticated. Areas that were and are dry and arid. Cats evolved to get larger amounts of moisture from their prey items.

Enter kibble. Many cats still retain a behavior that puts them at risk for urinary problems, primarily, they don't consume enough water. One thing you can do is get a fountain for your cat, as many are stimulated to drink from moving water rather than a water dish. Second, don't give any kibble. Kibble is dry and there's no real amount of moisture to dilute problem ingredients such as those that cause crystals in cats that have alkaline urine. Hill's C/D contains a urine acidifier and that's why they can get away with dry. Other kibbles don't have this component, in general.

My "bad" cat gets NV raw medallions and they have worked beautifully at solving her problems (better than the C/D canned). Meat has both moisture an acidic properties and the medallions meet AAFCOs nutrition standards for cats (for what little that means). It's also the closest you're going to get to a natural diet for cats without going whole prey model or preparing food yourself. She's been on the raw for over a year now with no problems.

Canned is another option and I'm not sure you need anything special. Wellness turkey is a good can and it's grain free, which is a plus. Not all Wellness cat formulas are grain free so be sure to check the label, if that matters to you. Our male, whom refuses to eat raw, gets canned only. Primarily, he gets EVO forumlas, California Natural formulas, Eagle Pack, and Nature's Variety, but I'm always willing to try something new.

Finally, while you're trying to get the urine crystals under control/switching from C/D, I would look into cranberry powder. Again, it worked beautifully for us and we no longer need to add it to the cats' food.

Good Luck, whatever you choose!

ETA:

Expect to keep your cat off of dry indefinately. Their system isn't really equipped to handle it, and, therefor, old problems will eventually re-emerge.

From my experience, the water does matter as much as the food, but if you want to know the conditions of your water, including the pH, you can buy a fairly cheap testing kit from Home Depot or other department store, usually.

dlg81

I think some cats can be difficult to convert to raw food.  I didn't have conversion issues because I fed my cat raw from kittenhood, but I have read about people having trouble.  Even if your cat gives you troubly switching to raw, I would strongly suggest getting wet food.  That might be a little easier to transition to than a raw diet.

I totally agree.

We switched the female over by mixing increasing more amounts of raw while reducing the amount of canned. She previously ate kibble and wet and now eats raw happily. The male doesn't subscribe to this philosophy, and refuses to eat the cat with even small amounts of raw.

I think if you're cats absolutely love canned, you'll have any easier switching over to raw.

Pumaward. Thank you so much! Great information. The cats don't have crystals at this time. Haven't had them for years. That's why I was hesitant to switch from the Hills c/d. Because it controlled the crystals so well. As of yesterday, they are OFF kibble. They love the new canned food and I'm going to get some of the cranberry powder just to be sure. And I'll give them distilled water. It's just as easy as filling it from the tap. And we have a fountain that I will set up again. Bailey loved it, but when she died, we took it down.

 I have to put in a good word for the Instincts (Feline future) product.  I am a huge fan.  Our Hemi's been eating it since he was a kitten, and before that we had a cat that was in his twenties, still roaming and hunting and in beautiful condition, and sadly died not of age or disease, but in a cat fight (he was neutered but always defended his territory fiercely).  Hemi's a lover not a fighter and I'm looking forward to seeing him into his thirtieth birthday in about twenty seven years!

It's super easy and it's so flexible.  Cats are not as easy to feed raw as dogs - they must have true whole prey, or equivalent supplements every day.  The ground commercial products are good as long as they don't have a lot of veggies (which cats don't need at all), and have sufficient levels of organ meats -- particularly heart.  Or, a premix like Instincts takes all the guesswork out of it for me.  I just have to decide, pork, beef, lamb, goat, turkey, chicken, or duck?  :)

Update: After 2 days on canned food, the cats are already starting to show improvement. No more vomiting and they are once again "dancing" at meal time for their food. I'm done with kibble for the cats. I'm also giving them distilled water and I'm going to get another pump for a new fountain.

Thanks for all the information and suggestions!

I'd love input on folks who've switched kibble to wet recently so this is you, FIC and others too lol.

Does it affect their odor? Breath....poop....body. MOST cats I know that eat wet you know it soon as they get close to you because they reek. Granted what they eat is likely NOT top of the drawer stuff. But I'd like some honest input on this....because it DOES matter to me. Our cats BOTH are lap sitters and face getter inners and no way would that continue if they smell like what they eat...

So honest input is really appreciated...thanks!

rwbeagles

Does it affect their odor? Breath....poop....body.

To be honest, I have very little interaction with the cats, but I just went and picked up Graycee (which he hates) and smelled him. His body has no odor, but around his mouth, I can smell the cat food if I get close. Upon close inspection of the litter boxes, they appear about the same as always. There may be a slight loosening of the consistency as they're taking in more water, but we use clumping and both cats are good "coverers", so this is something I'd have to keep my eye open for and catch them in the act, so to speak... But for you, Gina, I will be happy to report my findings. This also may change as their bodies get used to the new food. The boxes smell and appear the same as they did before the change.

Our cats are not lap sitters or face-getter inners, though. Not to me, anyway. I will get a report from my husband when he returns from his business trip and report back here as well, if he notices any change. My sense of smell is much better than his, though, so he may not notice.  

I am definitely going to stick with this food if they continue to do well on it. It's a great food and DH thinks the cats deserve as well as the dogs.  

How's that?