dietary choices

Feb 22, 2006 15:54

so after much research i've decided to change my kitten's diet. so far the foods i have tried with her are "performatrin" - recommended by pet valu, "prescription diet p/d" - recommended by her vet, and "iams" kitten food - recommended by another vet ( Read more... )

Leave a comment

Comments 28

catyanna February 22 2006, 21:23:50 UTC
I feed them Wellness, both canned and dry. All 5 of my kitties love it.

Reply


greygirl February 22 2006, 21:32:08 UTC
Mine were both on Iams when I got them, and both got switched over to Nutro ASAP after they came to live with me. The difference just in their coats is amazing. They both went from flaky/oily to shiny/silky in a matter of a week or two.

Reply


xnikki118x February 22 2006, 21:48:13 UTC
My cats eat the Iams indoor formula. It's not that great, but it's much better than the Meow Mix my gram insisted on feeding her cat before Melanie and I moved in. 0_o ( ... )

Reply

faeryhideout February 22 2006, 22:29:32 UTC
oh my... what pet store was that? i'll be sure to avoid it... :\

Reply

xnikki118x February 22 2006, 22:47:33 UTC
Pet Wonderland. It's in Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA. I have lots of stories about the abuse the animals went through there. I quit because I couldn't take it anymore.

They get shut down every now and then for the abuse and neglect and such, but they always end up opening up again under a different name. *sigh*

Reply


_antipathy_ February 22 2006, 21:57:24 UTC
Just an FYI: Iams tests on animals.

Reply

faeryhideout February 22 2006, 22:13:33 UTC
so i have been informed, one of many reasons i won't buy their products again.

Reply

rapier1 February 22 2006, 23:03:38 UTC
When you get right down to it every place tests on animals or makes use of results from animal tests. The difference is the way in which the tests are conducted. IAMS did have some problems but supposedly (according to the Humane Society) they've been resolved by getting rid of the subcontractor who ran the tests and moving the tests to in home feeding trials. So now the tests that IAMS runs are pretty much the same as the ones run by Nutro.

Of course, P&G owns IAMS and Eukanuba and P&G itself does test around 20% of their products on animals but some of those tests are required by law (generally food additives and medications).

Reply


lost_cosmos February 23 2006, 04:27:41 UTC
There is this one brand of kitten food here in Ottawa that my Bebe was sold with that has a 1% rejection rate and is very good for kitten health... I think its called Nutriscience. It comes in a pink bag. If you ask someone at a reputable pet store [try Petsmart or Little Critters or Pet Valu] by the 1% rejection fact and the pink bag and you should be able to find it quickly.

As for wet food, you shouldn't really be giving a baby wet food right away. Its not very good for their teeth and urinary tract development. If you do want to give it to your baby avoid fish flavoured wet foods because those types do give your baby boo urinary tract infections.

[I am assuming you are in Canada however. We share the Vada fae.]

Reply

rapier1 February 23 2006, 04:58:56 UTC
I have never heard of wet food being bad for kittens, or for that matter, seafood based kitten food to be bad for them.

Can you provide a source for this? None of the material I've been able to find have said anything about this. In fact, several recommend wet food when transitioning kittens off of milk.

Reply

lost_cosmos February 23 2006, 05:50:41 UTC
A source exactly no, but my vet told me this many many years ago about the fish based wet food thing. It was in her science vet journal thing that she got monthly that one of the main components of the fish flavoured wet foods helped promote UTI's in cats. As much as they love them, they are not healthy to be fed constantly to them. Once in a while is alright but not a once a day or even once a week type food.

As for the transition thing, it just makes sense. The babies need to use those baby teeth crunching kitten kibble to get them used and cleaned. Keeping them in that moist environment isn't the best thing. I am not a high supporter of letting cats continually eat wet food either way because its just not all too healthy for them being the animal they are and there are many vets who stand behind that.

Reply

rapier1 February 23 2006, 19:14:05 UTC
I'd have to disagree for a few reasons. The mouth in and of itself is a moist environment wet food or dry food isn't goign to change that in the slightest. Even if dry food does 'dry the mouth' out cats will simply drink more water to compensate. In fact, one of the more significant problems with dry food is that it provides very littel moisture on its own. Cats, you see, evolved as desert animals that would get the majority of their daily water needs from the food that they eat. Feeding them dry food means that they have to supplement their diet with external water sources. If they don't consume enough water then it ends up damaging their kidneys and can lead to other urinary problems. Wet food, on the other hand, supplies signifcantly more moisture in the diet and supplmental water intake is sharply reduced. They'll still drink water directly but they are less likely to develop problems which stem from chronic water deficits. This is actually part of the reason why vets suggest that cats with recurrent UTIs be transition *to* a wet ( ... )

Reply


Leave a comment

Up
[]