Sorry to start another thread on the subject of feeding, but am confused between what I feel strongly about and my vets advice.

background, we are picking up our 2 cats in 10 days. I saw them a few days ago (they are 2 neutered sisters, both 2 in April, both housecats living in flat).

One is lively, inquisitive and sleek, correct weight for her size. The other is bigger in that she has hanging under her belly, she is semi long haired tho so is hard to see too much about her size but my impression is she carries more weight that is ideal, the owner says she has put on weight since neutering, the other hasnt. Shes a lovely sweet cat who is lazy and loves a fuss, the other more active, although both gorgeous!.

At present they have 1/2 portion each of Whiskas pouch in the morning and then dry JW throughout the day, they have cat milk each day and biscuit based cat treats.

Am, hoping due to move to house with stairs and lots of space, toys, climbing trees and people to play with that our slightly podgy lovely girl will be persuaded to be more active and naturally lose a little (she isnt huge, just a little overweight), but my main issue is diet.

From reading up and also taking on board your views on here, I decided I would continue with JW but in slowly reducing amounts until they are eating a lot less, but still give them half of what they have now, but in the mornings give half pouch of HiLife, then in evening give each some Applaws, and on other evenings give cooked chicken etc. or some raw if I can face it!

For treats Ive bought the strips of dried fish and chicken and the treats which are freeze dried prawns and chicken. Want to replace te carb based treats slowly, and also cut down on too much cat milk.

My goal is to reduce their carbohydrates as understand this isnt ideal and think will really help the tubby tabby a bit.

Problem is I was fine with this until I phoned my new vet today to make appointment to take them for checkup and discuss diet etc.

I was very much told that dry is best - for teeth and overall - I put my views over that I am more comfortable with them having a more natural diet for their species, ie a much better and higher quality of meat protein than they currently have and less carbs, I dont feel they need them, but I got a gut impression Im going to be pushed on the dry. So do I go with what I feel, bearing in mind Im dog and equine literate but new to cats? I cant help feeling 'vet knows best' as some people do with doctors! (tho not me, interestingly!)

Or do I look for a vet who is more sympathetic to my view? this was person who answered the phone, not one of the vets and maybe they themselves will be more open to my opinions, but am a bit worried am going to get strongarmed that dry is best! and am worried if I do what I feel I may be wrong and dont want to do the wrong thing by the cats.

Im having a crisis of confidence in what to do, I really want to give them a proper diet that really benefits them and only minimal dry food to be left out when Im out etc.

Please can I ask what you feel on this? sorry for such a long post!

crikey! that was War and Peace!

If you havent yet fallen asleep - what she was saying was that eg Whiskas and JW are both complete foods and 2 types is too much? but if you are feeding wet and dry they are eating less of each arent they? or is that not right? cos Applaws isnt complete, its complemetary, is it bad for them if they have Hilife and JW thats complete then cooked chicken etc or Applaws that isnt complete? I cant see how thats wrong but thats the impression I got!.

Hi Tabby,

Firstly black and white you are right and your vet is wrong. The statement that "dry is best - for teeth and overall" is inaccurate. Dry food does not clean teeth as completely as everyone is made to believe through constant marketing. If this was the case why would vets be seeing an increase in dental problems and the manufacturers starting to sell special dental food and dental products.

Your approach suggests someone who has researched what is best for their cats health and understands their needs. I applaude you for that. Stick to your guns.

Just remember that whist freeze dried treats are better than carb based ones, because of the smell being so concentrated cats normally go wild for them. You have to remember whilst each priece seems small they are infact the equivalent of feeding them something 60 - 70% larger.

__________________
Karen

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


www.rawfed.com - Information on Raw Feeding

what you are planning to do is exactly what I AM doing and my vet has absolutely no problem at all. Stick with it. You are doing good!

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins

thank you both SO much, you have no idea how much better I feel for your comments! and thank you for the advice re the dried treats, will make sure I bear that in mind!

You know when you really feel strongly about something and somebody goes 'er ..no!' it kind of knocks you back a bit! so thank you very much both!

can I just check re the whole 'complete' and 'complementary' thing? from what ive read am assuming its right that the pouch and the dry should be complete to make sure they are getting things such a taurine in right amounts, but is fine to give them complementray such as Applaws and raw or cooked chicken etc in the evening too?

is minefield lol! I swear feeding my children was never so complicated! neither was the dogs or the horses! xxxxxx

A complete food has everything in it
Like a balanced meal, it has the right amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein and vitamins and minerals for health. It doesn't matter if it is a tin of complete food or a pouch or a portion of dried food the meal is essentially the same and nutritionally balanced.

So if you feed complete, complete, complete, then that is fine, but if you start adding complimentary foods eg chicken then you have raised the protein portion of the diet and so therefore the food is then unbalanced. The chicken although not bad for them doesn't contain the same amount of vitamins and minerals that the equivalent weight of the complete food has.

The feeding of treats and bits of chicken, prawns and the tin of Applaws will alter the balance of the food.

thank you for the advice and the info, what do you feel would be best then? am keen to feed some fresh and a really good quality tin like Applaws but I dont want to do them any harm xxx

I have 11 cats(9 indoor),leave dry food down 24/7,dont really do treats.or extras,and i have no problems and i dont worry about it either! i do think people worry far to much about feeding issues

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(formally clare7577)

thanks for your thoughts hun xx

I feel a bit uneasy about being too perfectionist about feeding cats

many people can only afford to buy at the cheaper end of the market, and I feel a good quality dry food is preferrable to cheap wet food

I'm afraid more cats will end up being pts instead of finding loving homes if potential owners are frightened off by being told they have to spend ££££ each week on specialist cat food