Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You might have to get the Cat Chow crack out of the house because they can smell that stuff a mile away! If you read that web site you already linked about transitioning your cat away from the crack, she mentions this I believe. If it's in the house, I think the cats sometimes hold out hope that they can still get some and might be more reluctant to eat the other food depending upon how truly hooked/stubborn/whatever they're going to be.
If he likes Soulistic a lot that's already a good start I think. There's no particular need to feed another dry unless you can't get him to eat enough wet, basically that's the way I would treat it. (I was, at one point, very close to having Amber transitioned to all canned food, and then she was diagnosed with the hyperthyroid and was still losing weight, so I was worried she wasn't getting enough and backslid in favor of having her eat some dry.) Orijen is better than many IMO, does still have a little fish in it which is true of many dry foods even when they are labeled as chicken, rabbit, etc.
You might have to get the Cat Chow crack out of the house because they can smell that stuff a mile away! If you read that web site you already linked about transitioning your cat away from the crack, she mentions this I believe. If it's in the house, I think the cats sometimes hold out hope that they can still get some and might be more reluctant to eat the other food depending upon how truly hooked/stubborn/whatever they're going to be.
If he likes Soulistic a lot that's already a good start I think. There's no particular need to feed another dry unless you can't get him to eat enough wet, basically that's the way I would treat it. (I was, at one point, very close to having Amber transitioned to all canned food, and then she was diagnosed with the hyperthyroid and was still losing weight, so I was worried she wasn't getting enough and backslid in favor of having her eat some dry.) Orijen is better than many IMO, does still have a little fish in it which is true of many dry foods even when they are labeled as chicken, rabbit, etc.
Good advice on chucking the Cat Chow. That stuff is disgusting and smells to high heaven.
Orijen annoys the heck out of me with their catchy little phrases.. "Biologically appropriate", my foot. It's KIBBLE. NO kibble is "biologically appropriate", not to even mention some of the ingredients in that food, the fish is bad enough.
You know I tried that a while back with my little cat. Supplementing her diet with a calorie dense high (meat) protein grain free kibble in the hopes of helping her put on a little weight, I mean.
All it did was make her poop more. A LOT more, and she did not gain any weight. Fortunately she was raised on a canned diet and did not become fixated on eating kibble rather than canned. But I gave up the kibble-as-extra-calories after a few days of cleaning out her gigantic poops, three times a day.
She just has very little interest in food, in general.
LOL I don't think Amber poops a lot, but I wouldn't really know how much (little) a non-dry-eating cat poops.
Do get strong smell sometimes, but I think that's the fish that's still in most of her wet food meals.
It's awful really. I don't know how to get her to eat anything else. I have to try to make time for testing some kind of homemade diet, but everything is already so overwhelming....
The gap between knowledge and practice, in this and so many other things, is large. Well, at least for me it is.
I'm having one heckuva time weaning off the dry food. But I'm hanging in for her sake, as I know despite her looks of being mad at me I must do the right thing for HER not me. It'd be easy to placate her w/ dry junk food, when she cries at me for it, but I need to be strong to hold back. Anyway, just had to add this rant/ramble to my thread tonight.
Got rid of the kitty crack this morning. I was thinking about it, and I remember that people used to use cat chow for baiting catfish. weird.
He is definitely wanting kibble. He scarfs the tinned, and yet wants kibble too. I feel a bit better about giving a small amount of kibble with the tinned food.
There was a blue buffalo rep telling me yesterday that their dry catfood is the very best food to feed a cat. It has the highest protein, etc. She was nice and all, but I hate being accosted in a store.
Got rid of the kitty crack this morning. I was thinking about it, and I remember that people used to use cat chow for baiting catfish. weird.
He is definitely wanting kibble. He scarfs the tinned, and yet wants kibble too. I feel a bit better about giving a small amount of kibble with the tinned food.
There was a blue buffalo rep telling me yesterday that their dry catfood is the very best food to feed a cat. It has the highest protein, etc. She was nice and all, but I hate being accosted in a store.
Sure, they are paid to say that. The reps for corn and artificial ingredient laden Purina say the same thing.
There was a blue buffalo rep telling me yesterday that their dry catfood is the very best food to feed a cat. It has the highest protein, etc. She was nice and all, but I hate being accosted in a store.
Not really a fan. I did feed some Blue Buffalo Wilderness for a short while, but it was really only because I messed up and didn't order the dry I really wanted to get. It's only the highest protein if you count foods in the big Petco or wherever you were that day. I think the highest protein I've seen in a dry food is 60% from Wysong Epigen. Some of that is veg protein to hold the kibble together in the regular Epigen. In the Epigen 90, somehow they amazingly get most of that out and 90% of the kibble is meat (still at 60% protein in the analysis though). Pretty expensive, 10 bucks for a little 2-pound bag of the 90. At the moment I'm using a mix of regular Epigen and 90, plus some Nature's Logic. Although I recall the Wilderness from Blue Buffalo being rather expensive as well. Has a fair amount of potato and such.
I would stick with the Orijen over Blue Buffalo if you're going to feed some dry and those are your main choices. But I suppose they are not hugely different in looking at the ingredients and analysis, potato and all. Orijen hits slightly higher protein. I have a general mind to trust Orijen's ingredient sources more, but I'm not sure I'm fully up to speed there these days. They may not actually be worthy of more trust, not 100% certain, but they do own their own plant in Canada, whereas Blue Buffalo, if I remember right, does not manufacture anything themselves. (For the record on what I'm feeding with the dry, Wysong makes their own but Nature's Logic does not have manufacturing either. This is not always a deal breaker; Nature's Logic is one of the most open book about what they do that I've ever seen, specific info about ingredient sourcing and processes not just vague promises.)
Greg, since I was going to go w/ Naural Balance dry yet (like Pea & Duck) should I may as well just go Orijen instead? Do they seem better to you?
If so, I did want the grain-free NB but would deal w/ Orijen dry (has grains, yes?), I guess. But Orijen looks to have fish in it though, hmm. I know catsmom21 says no to that. What is the consensus here?
I hope to get her off dry totally soon but want her to eat well now, as she fattens up from her wght loss, to be able to get her Radioactive Iodine soon down the road asap after we get her T4 levels, hopefully, down.
Location: the wrong side of the tracks Richmond, VA
585 posts, read 2,014,607 times
Reputation: 794
I find it interesting how many of you are saying your cats prefer dry over wet - I have the opposite "problem" with all three of mine. The senior has always preferred wet and before she started losing weight, could probably eat can upon can of the stuff all day long if you let her.
My kittens are the same way. They will especially turn up their nose at a feeding of dry when their bowls are empty if they know that I know they haven't gotten their wet yet for that day.
Greg, since I was going to go w/ Naural Balance dry yet (like Pea & Duck) should I may as well just go Orijen instead? Do they seem better to you?
If so, I did want the grain-free NB but would deal w/ Orijen dry (has grains, yes?), I guess. But Orijen looks to have fish in it though, hmm. I know catsmom21 says no to that. What is the consensus here?
I hope to get her off dry totally soon but want her to eat well now, as she fattens up from her wght loss, to be able to get her Radioactive Iodine soon down the road asap after we get her T4 levels, hopefully, down.
Thanks.
Orijen is grain free, but has the usual potatoes, blueberries, and other fruits and veggies, like they all do. But the biggest strike against it, aside the fact that it is kibble, is the fish. And it's still kibble.
Orijen insists their fish is FRESH, but so what. It's still fish.
Did you try the Nature's Variety Instinct cans? Those are extremely high in calories. Of course if she won't eat them, it won't matter how high they are. I tried them for my Little Cat too. She said NO. <sigh>
Quote:
Originally Posted by killabunnies
I find it interesting how many of you are saying your cats prefer dry over wet - I have the opposite "problem" with all three of mine. The senior has always preferred wet and before she started losing weight, could probably eat can upon can of the stuff all day long if you let her.
My kittens are the same way. They will especially turn up their nose at a feeding of dry when their bowls are empty if they know that I know they haven't gotten their wet yet for that day.
Well, then...why not just chuck the dry, and feed them the canned food. SO much better for them all!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have to try to make time for testing some kind of homemade diet, but everything is already so overwhelming....
