Feeding: Should I just put them all out and let them hunt?

Ah, how simple was life BD (before diabetes); four male cats, three of them older, three of them (a different set) prone to chubbiness, all of them with sh*tloads of hair: Science Diet Hairball Lite for all!

Now Shadow is diabetic: would like to give him canned food, but how to keep the others away from it (and him away from the dry)?

Could give everyone low-carb food (any downside to this for civilians?), but is the higher protein load going to do a number on their aging kidneys and or lower urinary tracts?

To top it off, my vet is a dentistry fiend who claims that dry food is the *only* way to avoid rotting out their teeth.

We'd like to continue the low-maintenance routine of putting out 4 bowls each morning and just filling them up the next AM, but are willing to accept that we're going to have to go to "feeding hour", putting food out at 5:30 am and picking it up when we leave at 7, plus probably putting Shadow in a room of his own to eat (plus a snack with his PM insulin). They won't like it, but I'm told they'll adapt.

Any suggestions?

 

go ahead and switch everyone over to low carb wet, as high a quality food (first ingredient should ideally be real meat) that you can afford and that your cats will eat. I switched my crew over to all-web when Danny was diagnosed with diabetes over three years ago. So glad I did! Their health has been much improved and my chubbies all lost weight effortlessly. They like Fancy Feast, Weruva, Wellness, etc.

Please read the info at www.catinfo.org to find out why canned food is so much better for your cats than dry food -- for a multitude of reasons.

When you've read that, you'll realize that the ingredients in Science Diet light hairball formula are -- to be blunt -- crap and very inappropriate for cats. You've been paying a lot of money for poor quality food. From http://www.petco.com/product/5166/Hill' ... -Food.aspx:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose (10.5% source of fiber), Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Calcium Sulfate... (rest is vitamins etc.)

The catinfo.org site will tell you why all those grains are so inappropriate. And Chicken byproduct meal? That's defined by AAFCO as "Definition: Chicken by-product meal consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice. " It is not a quality source of protein, to say the least, nor is it as digestible as muscle meat (what we think of as chicken).

Your cats will be much better off eating wet food. Getting them off dry food may well avoid development of diabetes, avoid or reduce kidney problems (an increasing cause of death for cats), urinary issues, etc. And your chubbies will slowly get to a healthier weight without you having to restrict their diet -- mine sure did.

good luck,
laur

 

All your cats can eat low carb canned food :thumbup Dr. Lisa's web site has info on why canned foods are best and how some common health problems can be avoided, such as urinary problems.

If you must feed some dry, feed a grain-free fairly low carb brand such as Wellness CORE, Innova EVO, or Nature's Variety Instinct. If your diabetic cat gets into the low carb dry, the bgs won't be affected as much as it would if it was some "junky" dry like Science Diet (I think the "lite" one you are feeding is something like 40% carbs per cup, way way too much for a diabetic and for cats in general). Try to keep the diabetic away from all the dry food if possible.

Your vet is wrong :-Q

Do Humans eat crunchy hard pretzles every day to keep their teeth clean? No. Pretzles and other food just stick to the teeth. Only brushing the teeth will remove food particles and help keep the teeth clean, as well as regular dental visits.

A cat's teeth are no different. Most cats don't even crunch dry food more than one or two times before swallowing the pieces whole. That doesn't do anything to keep the teeth clean. To keep your cat's teeth healthy, you should ideally brush every day with pet toothpaste and schedule cleanings as needed. Short of brushing, there are gels and rinses you can give your cat but they're not as effective as brushing. Some people give their cats raw poultry necks or the fibrous poultry gizzards to chew on. This is similar to what wild cats do. I've never tried this so I don't know how well raw poultry necks and such works.

Free feed the canned food. Use a multi-compartment timed feeder (or two so the cats aren't fighting over one). Some timed feeders have ice packs to keep canned food cool. I think the most recommended brand is the PetSafe 5 compartment feeder. PetSmart sells it as do other stores.

Or you can freeze canned food into chunks and leave a couple chunks in bowls or in the timed feeder(s).