For everyone who was on the Iams cat food post http://westseattleblog.com/forum/topic/free-iams-kitty-chow - I finally have the how to pick a cat food article up on my blog.
Here it is
http://pathwithpaws.com/blog/2010/01/30/how-do-i-pick-the-best-food-for-my-cats-health/
Thanks so much. This article looks great. I printed it out. We have a cat who needs to lose weight also.
I quit using Iams years ago when it was revealed that they use the rendered remains of euthanized pets in their products, as do a number of other leading pet food manufacturers. They may have altered their practices since then, but do check the label carefully. I would highly recommend Next to Nature on California Ave. in the Junction for good advice and clean, healthy pet food.
Excelllent article, Lenamegan.
I'm sending the link off to all my cat-lovin' family and friends.
thanks
Thanks for all the positive feedback on these articles. I enjoy writing them and I hope that they can help improve animals' health and longevity!
Great article, lenamegan - we've been feeding our cat Wellness since we found him 5 years ago. I figure that if I try and feed myself organic, whole grain, healthy foods, my cat deserves quality food too.
Regarding treats, I'm wondering what your opinion is of Wildside Salmon - http://www.wildsidesalmon.com He's become quite addicted to these since I brought home a sample from Mud Bay.
Hi Sue,
I think the Wildside Salmon is a great treat. It is 100% Salmon which you can't really go wrong with and cats seem to really like them. I have a number of clients who use these. Salmon is high in omegas which help support your brain, skin, and immune system health.
I will add a note regarding my experience with a homemade raw meat diet for my cats, which I see is recommended as an option.
One of my cats nearly died from a parasite, toxoplasma, from eating a raw meat diet that I prepared at home. According to my veterinarian, meat sold for human consumption (which I was using) is not screened for this because cooking destroys it. (I am not sure about the commercially prepared raw meat diets that are available in pet stores.)
I originally decided on the raw meat diet after reading about how it is most natural, etc., etc., but have since switched back to feeding high-quality conventional cat food.
Semele
Member
We feed our three cats Orijen and have tried Evo and a few of the others listed as well but they have done the best on the Orijen, I was surprised not to see it on your list. We do have a 17lb male cat that could stand to lose a bit so I am actually looking at doing the wet food only for him after reading this. It's worth a shot at least. Thanks for sharing!
Semele - I have recommended Orijen for dogs, in fact it is my primary dry diet I recommend for dogs but somehow overlooked that they had a cat food - Oops. I will definitely add to my list. Thanks for pointing that out!
voodoo - I always recommend that folks buy commercial raw food or freeze the meat/food before feeding to kill parasites. There is not a good way to screen for toxoplasmosis but freezing does kill it.
I just updated the article to include Orijen cat on my list and also put a sentence in about making sure raw diets are frozen.
Thanks for the feedback!
If only I had known that freezing the meat would kill parasites! I found lots of advice about what to add to it to make it well-balanced nutritionally (bone meal, veggies, etc.), but never ran across that advice. It would have saved me - and my cat - a lot of heartache.
Voodoo I think unfortunately the lack of knowledge stems from most of the vet community being so against raw diets.
It is hard to get good advise about raw diets and how to feed them safely because most of the vets still say don't feed them. I think as our community changes and more vets accept that people are going to feed raw diets and that the animals on them usually do really really well hopefully they will be able to advise their clients better about safety.
I'm already trying to help educate the traditional vets I work with. It took me many years myself to become a pro-raw diet vet. It has been the number of animals that I have seen over the years that do so well on raw that have changed my mind.
LisaM
Member
lenamegan,
Was excited to read your articles - very informative. Sorry to change to dogs - but... I am considering putting my dog on a raw diet as he has chronic colitis (once a month) but he has a "beard" (he is a WPG)and I am concerned about him spreading raw meat bits or bacteria around the house as he rubs against the carpet and furniture - do I need to worry about cross contanimation to humans that way?
Thanks!!
Lisa and Blue (in photo)
Wow Lisa that is a very good question and not one I have been asked before.
I don't know that I have an extremely straight forward answer but I will do my best.
Yes with raw food there is a chance of contamination to us from the raw food. The freezing stops bacterial reproduction but does not kill bacteria.
Definitely with the beard that is a concern. I guess it depends how much food he gets on his beard and how much he spreads it around the house.
One suggestion would be to clean his beard after eating although I realize that may be more of a task than you want to take on with every meal.
Another thought would be to cook the food and avoid the issue at all although more work for you once again.
I have also seen many of the chronic colitis or IBD dogs do very well on canned Merrick without any dry.
Hope this helps.
lenamegan, can you recommend some daily portion sizes for for both weruva canned and evo dry food? my cat weighs around 15 lbs, and she needs to lose some weight. the tables and suggestions on the packages are always confusing to me, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks!
That is a great question and I agree labels can be hard to sort through.
For your cat who is overweight she needs 280kcal/day if she weighs 15 lbs.
Weruva canned has anywhere from 84-141 kcal for the 5.5 ounce cans. You can see what flavor has what amount of calories on their website. So she would need anywhere from a little over 2 cans a day to a little over 3 cans a day.
Evo turkey/chicken dry has 602 kcal/cup so she would need a little less than 1/2 a cup a day.
The way you figure kcal requirements for cats is with these two formulas.
For normal sized cats 100 * (body weight (in kg) to the .67 power).
For overweight cats 130 * (body weight (in kg) to the .4 power).
Lenamegan, did I do this right? My 7 pound cat (not overweight, very old) should eat 368 Kcal/day? I bought weruva on your suggestion and she loves it but that would mean about 3 cans according to the pdf on their Web site w/kcal per can asian fusion) per day and I can't see that happening. She's so tiny and doesn't eat that much even with free feeding.
Thanks!
I get 100 * (3.18kg to the .67 power) = 217 kcal day . You forgot the conversion to kg. There are 2.2 lb in a kg.
Canned food has a lot more moisture than dry food so it seems like more if you are comparing to the bulk amount of dry. With my older cat (who is 16 years old) I found that I did have to add a little dry back in to his diet because he just wouldn't eat enough canned. So he is on canned during the day and then gets a little dry Evo overnight.
LisaM
Member
Thanks very much for the info - been cooking his food now for about 6 mos so no big deal!
Ah! Thanks!
2krazy4words
Member
excellent articles Lena! I've shared them with my neighbor, and will be linking them to a few blogs :-)
Any feedback on Tiki Cat or BFF?
I have not put Tiki Cat to the test with my three cat testing group but have heard good things from my clients about it. I probably need to see what my kids think of it. Many of their foods are high in tuna. It might join my list, but hasn't yet. Ingredients look ok except tuna but some flavors also have sugar which I do not like in a cat food. I will have to do some more research on it.
Tuna is the first ingredient in all flavors of BFF. I think it is an ok once a week food but not every day. My three kitties weren't very thrilled about the taste. I have heard from others that their cats love it however. My kitties prefer Weruva's fish flavors and I like the look and smell of the Weruva products better.
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