I have a lot of questions Background is 5 months old boys that I have had for just a few days now. They were supplied with lots of different adult cat food and some Hills kitten wet. I wanted them to stay on the kitten stuff so they have been eating the Hills kitten wet, and will continue on this, and also some adult Hills dry (the cats came with 15kgs!!) while I ween them off that and onto kitten Hills dry.

Anyway, the questions are;

- How long should the weening process be? I have been doing it for 2 days now and am down to 50% adult dry and 50% kitten dry. They are using the litter tray often, nice firm ones They are eating almost all of it although probably more of the kitten stuff (I can tell from the colour). Am I going too fast or would the weekend be fine to be totally onto the kitten dry?

- I bought some cat grass from PAH, are they too young for this?

- What 'treats' can they have as immediate rewards for good behaviour?

- When can they have, say a tin of tuna as a treat with dinner, or some steamed fish. They have their neutering coming up and I want to spoil them after.

- Currently on Hills wet and dry. At what point can I, if possible, move to just dry? Would dry Hills give them everything they want? Would it require extra supplement of fresh meat and fish?

-To cut down on washing up, smell, and and to keep the food fresher I am having them share bowls as opposed to 3 bowls each. They seem fine and are grazers and take it in turns, sometimes both dive in. Any reason why this would be a problem?

Thanks in advance

The answers that you are going to get are probably not what you want to hear. So I'll be gentle. Transferring foods should be done slowly over a period od at least 2 weeks but preferably 3 - 4. Best stick to kitten food until they are about 8 months.

They should be ok wit the cat grass.

Tuna occasionally, steamed fish no more than once a week, raw fish is even better, Mackrel, Sardines provide a good source of Omega 3 and are really cheap.

I would recomend seperate bowls to start with as sometimes one cat can become over agressive with food and push the others out. Overtime one bowl should not be an issue.

Before switching completly to dry do some research and make an informed opinion. Vet recomendations in this area are not impartital

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Karen

www.kiskasiberians.co.uk - The home of Hypoallergenic Siberian Cats


www.rawfed.com - Information on Raw Feeding

No, any input is greatly received

So thanks very much. 2-4 weeks for the kibble crossover is fine. And I wasn't sure where people stood now on the dry food only diet.

I had a cat previous who had kidney problems and her dry had to be cut down low, but then again she was fed up Whiskas and Go Cat so it's only been the last week or so I have realised how bad these are and how Hills covers the bases in terms of nutritional food. I just wasn't sure whether dry was comprehensive enough. So thanks again.

According to the vets and the manufacturers dry is comprehensive enough. However, as the vets are trained by the manufacturers then they have no first hand knowledge of the alternatives.

As you have had a cat that suffered from kidney problems I would have thought that you would want to stay away from dry as there is anecdotal evidence that the increased activity that dry places on kidneys has resulted in an increase of kidney problems in cats and dogs over the past 10 years.

To be honest there is no nutritional difference between Go-cat and Hills they both use the same base ingredients (small amounts of chicken meal and lots of fillers). If you were considering dry I would suggest one that had a high meat content and where meat is the first ingredients.

__________________
Karen

www.kiskasiberians.co.uk - The home of Hypoallergenic Siberian Cats


www.rawfed.com - Information on Raw Feeding

So Hills is as bad as Go Cat? I didn't realise that. I'll switch both wet and dry away from that asap, well ween onto something else. The vet had recommended it and said to continue with it. What is good cat food? Can't believe I didn't do more research

Well, you could start your research by reading this The Truth About Dry Cat Food from Blakkatz

Then, if you want to switch to wet food, I'd recommend brands such as HiLife, Porta21, Bozita, Applaws Kitten, as these have a high meat content.

If you're still wanting to feed dry, make it Orijen or Applaws - both of these have high meat contents.

Treats - I use Thrive and my cat loves it. Or, you could give them some fresh meat, or a little fish as treats. Just remember to not feed fish on a regular basis.

Some of these foods are only available online - for example from zooplus.

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Fit for the sunshine so it followed her, a happy tempered bringer of the best, out of the worst.

Thanks for all the info

The wet and dry food I had been giving them was min 40% meat content (dry & wet) but if I can push that up a bit that would be great.

After getting advice from others on here, my 3 month old kitten is now on Hi-Life kitten pouches and I also leave him out a bit of Orijen dry food in the daytime incase he's peckish. He seems to be thriving on this. You can get Hi-Life from Morrisons and Pets at Home and I get the Origen from Zooplus.com. I've also got him a few tins of applaws kitten that he loves and have ordered some Porta 21 kitten for variety!

In addition, I have given him some coley fillet poached in water and yesterday I chopped up some of the roast lamb we had for dinner for him and he loved it - he's had more today!

I haven't tried him with tuna yet but will do next time I open a tin (I always get the stuff in springwater).

Thanks, I'll try switching them over. The cat grass while growing got dug up

I tried a small amount of tinned tuna and they weren't interested