What to look for in cat food.

[Catlady711]

Catlady by no means did I mean to offend you or anyone else here about what I have learned from researching cat foods. I also didn't mean to classify all vets. While many vets are extremely knowledgeable in feline nutrition, many of them have had very limited training of the basics of feline nutrition. Some have relied for years on advice or knowledge only from the pet food industry and nutritional education has not been an integral part of their training.
My point in posting the link was to pass on the information to others that may be considering switching their cats food to something more appropriate and I felt this site was a very educational. Yes it was written by a vet, apparently one that has studied a great deal on feline nutrition and lists excellent sources for her findings.
It's not that I don't trust my vet, this is just another tool to help anyone with a cat that may be having dietary issues and I feel an informed patient is better able to understand and interact with their vet.

Again sorry if you felt this was an attack on you or anyone else in the animal health industry.

Sorry it took so long to find this thread again.

No problem. I just hear so many people that doubt everything thier vet says and I've seen WAY too many of our client's pets suffer because they believed a book, the internet, their neighbor over the vets recommendations.

Some days I guess I get more riled up about it than others. I'm sorry on my part for getty ornery in return. I guess sometimes it's hard to separate myself from work. lol

[jennielynn1970]

Interesting comments on Nutro... I've been feeding that for the past few years, and I just switched out the regular lamb and rice for the Weight Management, and actually I think I bought the Nutro Max cat Weight Management the last two times, and I have had more cat barf than I can keep track of since buying it. I'm not sure if they've changed their "recipe", but something is definitely not right.

I had been using California Natural before the Nutro, and that had worked well also. Maybe I just need to go back to Lamb and Rice. Not sure. I was hoping to cut back on a few of the cats weights because they just seem to be getting chubbier..

Not sure about doing the raw diet for my two with sensitive stomachs and gastro issues. That's the only thing holding me back from doing that. Has anyone using a raw diet noticed how their sensitive stomach cats have reacted to it??

[TopCat3]

Interesting comments on Nutro... I've been feeding that for the past few years, and I just switched out the regular lamb and rice for the Weight Management, and actually I think I bought the Nutro Max cat Weight Management the last two times, and I have had more cat barf than I can keep track of since buying it. I'm not sure if they've changed their "recipe", but something is definitely not right.

I had been using California Natural before the Nutro, and that had worked well also. Maybe I just need to go back to Lamb and Rice. Not sure. I was hoping to cut back on a few of the cats weights because they just seem to be getting chubbier..

Not sure about doing the raw diet for my two with sensitive stomachs and gastro issues. That's the only thing holding me back from doing that. Has anyone using a raw diet noticed how their sensitive stomach cats have reacted to it??

Yes Jen.
Colette has a sensitive stomach. I find she does well on cooked chicken or canned salmon/sardines/mackerel with some cooked mashed pumpkin and leafy greens mixed in and a little raw meat with it e.g chicken hearts chicken liver and a bone to gnaw on once a week (lamb chop or chicken neck) I toss the latter in butter in a pan to give it some extra flavour and appeal.
I also give her 1/2 tspp of a 1:4 mix of slippery elm and flaxseed suspended in 4mls of water by syringe and this keeps her innards very happy! I have found since giving her a few Optimum dry biscuits for dessert (Eagle pack is hard to get in Oz at the mo) she has reverted to barfing.Eagle pack does not have this effect and pls be aware the dry is only a few little bikkies as dessert as I go out the door to work to distract/settle her. However I note and respond to her request to be let out to eat potted catgrass (too bad she prefers my pot of LEMONGRASS herb lol)
I think it's great to give them raw food - it's just not practical for me to do all the time - cooked has longer shelf life and has more appeal and is in many ways safer I feel.

[emily_the_spoiled]

After having one of my guys diagnosed with IBD (i.e. a VERY sensitive stomach), I switched almost everyone over to a raw diet. I was amazed at the decrease in barf piles and projectile vomiting that happened with a couple of weeks. What I found interesting was that it just wanted my sensitive guy, but everyone decreased. It is also much easier to maintain their weight.

[jennielynn1970]

After having one of my guys diagnosed with IBD (i.e. a VERY sensitive stomach), I switched almost everyone over to a raw diet. I was amazed at the decrease in barf piles and projectile vomiting that happened with a couple of weeks. What I found interesting was that it just wanted my sensitive guy, but everyone decreased. It is also much easier to maintain their weight.

Hmmmmm.... maybe I'll have to give something like this a try in the summer when I have more time. In the meantime I'll see if I can do a switchover to one of the dry kibble "raw" diets like EVO. It would be nice to have less barf piles around the house. I really do think there was a change in the recipe for the Nutro the more I think about it. I have to go cat food shopping today anyway, so I can buy some EVO or something and start mixing it in today.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Hmmmmm.... maybe I'll have to give something like this a try in the summer when I have more time. In the meantime I'll see if I can do a switchover to one of the dry kibble "raw" diets like EVO. It would be nice to have less barf piles around the house. I really do think there was a change in the recipe for the Nutro the more I think about it. I have to go cat food shopping today anyway, so I can buy some EVO or something and start mixing it in today.

Jenn, since I've had to switch all of my cats over to a grain free diet, I've noticed that they've all become leaner and I wasn't even trying to get them to lose weight except for Starr. My vet said it's because they're on a high protein diet. I've been using Innova Evo dry and also the cat/kitten Turkey/Chicken canned food. I feed them 4 small meals a day,2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. Sunny will still barf if I wait too long to feed him or if I feed him too much at once. You also don't want to feed them too much canned food at once because it's very rich and some cats will barf. Luckily my Storm can eat a good sized portion without any problems because he's the main one that needs the extra moisture.

I also found out that now Innova Evo makes 95% meat canned food in Turkey/Chicken, Duck, Venison, and Beef flavors. I tried the beef and duck and they love the duck but didn't really like the beef. Some cats are also allergic to beef and I'm not supposed to feed this to Starr. The duck is much more expensive of course. I wasn't able to try the venison or turkey/chicken because the pet store didn't have any available. I just ordered 2 cases of the 95% Turkey/Chicken since Starr can also eat this kind of meat and they already like this flavor in the cat/kitten canned food. It's supposed to be more like a raw diet but the meat is cooked.

Here's a link about it:http://www.naturapet.com/brands/evo.asp. Just scroll down towards the bottom to see the different varieties of cat food. The 95% canned food also has a little more fiber in it than the original Turkey/Chicken cat/kitten canned food. I've also noticed that since I've been feeding Sunny the duck canned food, he's been barfing much less often so I hope that this will continue. Good luck.