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.
There are a lot of dry food haters on this forum, and to each his or her own. Personally, every cat I have had has been fed Iams all their lives, and each one has had perfect health, living to 16-17 years old with no illnesses ever along the way. I occasionally give Lucky and Daisy a small treat of Fancy Feast wet food, but Chewy turns up his nose at anything but dry Iams.
So, you will probably get a lot of responses about how bad dry is, but this is really a personal decision and no one's business but your own. As far as asking our Vet, we go to a Cat only Vet, and when I asked him about dry vs wet his response is that whatever we are doing is working, based on how healthy our little buddies are, so don't change a thing.
Don
When a person asks about food in a public forum, it becomes anyone's business who wants it to be their business.
No cat eating Iams all his life is in "perfect health". Appearances are deceiving. Perpetually dehydrated is not "perfect health". Making a change to an all wet, or even more than half wet, you'd be amazed at the difference in these "perfect health" cats.
Most vets know next to nothing about feline nutrition.
<edit> I guess one could use the term "perfect health" speaking in relative terms. One may see a cat on an all dry diet as in "perfect health", whereas people who understand what an obligate carnivore is and needs, and have seen the difference between a dry fed cat and one who is on a wet diet, will not look at a dry fed cat and see "perfect health".
Last edited by catsmom21; 01-28-2014 at 05:03 AM..
Status:
" Charleston South Carolina"
(set 4 days ago)
Location: home...finally, home .
8,814 posts, read 21,276,064 times
Reputation: 20102
That was the only food that my Sophie would eat. There was something in it that she did not like, those tan squares. She would separate them from the rest and pile them on to the floor next to her dish.
__________________ ******************
People may not recall what you said to them, but they will always remember how you made them feel .
When a person asks about food in a public forum, it becomes anyone's business who wants it to be their business.
No cat eating Iams all his life is in "perfect health". Appearances are deceiving. Perpetually dehydrated is not "perfect health". Making a change to an all wet, or even more than half wet, you'd be amazed at the difference in these "perfect health" cats.
Most vets know next to nothing about feline nutrition.
<edit> I guess one could use the term "perfect health" speaking in relative terms. One may see a cat on an all dry diet as in "perfect health", whereas people who understand what an obligate carnivore is and needs, and have seen the difference between a dry fed cat and one who is on a wet diet, will not look at a dry fed cat and see "perfect health".
And your degree is in what area of veterinary science ? Yeah, those Vets "who know next to nothing about feline nutrition " can't possibly know as much as someone who reads about these things on the internet. Years of schooling is SO overrated.
Yeah, those Vets "who know next to nothing about feline nutrition " can't possibly know as much as someone who reads about these things on the internet. Years of schooling is SO overrated.
I don't want to belabor this too much but I'd just like to point out that even vets admit that there is very little to nothing about nutrition that happens at vet school. All I would suggest is that you (and everyone) explore that particular issue with an open mind rather than dismiss it out of hand because it's only a bunch of cranks online saying it or something. After considering all this quite a lot, and let me tell you I feed all dry food to Amber for many years and she was seemingly in great health much of the time and had multiple vets suggest it, I think there is more to to the "dry food is bad" argument than just a bunch of kooks online.
Note I'm not suggesting you change anything. It is very hard to go against years of anecdotal experience. I'm suggesting that there is information to be learned and that there are ideals to possibly attempt to get closer to. It's much better to be open to new information and understand what it is that you're doing as opposed to dismissing whatever things out of hand. And let me reiterate, I am one of the first to dismiss cranky sounding health things out of hand. A lot of that stuff really is BS. I don't think this one is.
Last edited by greg42; 01-28-2014 at 09:04 AM..
Reason: A teeny typo
So let me put that whole wet vs dry thing aside for a minute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by graytabbie
Has anyone tried this yet? Do the ingredients look good and balanced. I also feed wet food. Just looking for a new dry food because one of my cats prefers dry.
Here's one key thing to remember about pet food, or any food really, when reading the list of ingredients: ingredients are listed in order of their weight.
Weight of something that is not dry includes the water. And when we're talking about a dried food, all the water goes away.
Catsmom hinted at this above but what that means is the "chicken" that's the #1 ingredient actually isn't because the water is considered in making it the #1 ingredient. Having chicken meal up there in second place makes it a little better than some foods actually, but it still means there's a lot of brown rice, brewers rice and chicken by-product meal. Note that by-product meal will be made up of things we as humans don't often if ever use from chickens, like feet and beaks and that kind of stuff, maybe feathers even.
Unfortunately, I am not up on the costs of many different dry foods. If someone asked me that they absolutely had to feed dry food and which one to suggest, I'd probably say Orijen, although it has a fair amount of fish which is not ideal. Maybe Wysong Epigen 90. Or Nature's Logic. But that stuff is just varying degrees of expensive!
What I would suggest you do is read some ingredients and try to find something that is a little more appropriate. Try to avoid "powdered cellulose" (sawdust!) for sure, and "brewers rice" and anything that's "by-product". Look for meat MEAL higher in the ingredients.
Grain vs grain free in a dry food could actually be its own debate. If it doesn't have grains, it's going to have a lot of potatoes, peas or sweet potatoes, or all of the above, or some other similar vegetable matter. It's debatable which of these is more appropriate. Grain-free gets the marketing and is more expensive, but the reality is neither is particularly appropriate. It's impossible to make dry food without some kind of grain or starchy veg like this. It could maybe be argued that the veg is no better than something like brown rice or oats, although corn and wheat at least to me seem always worth avoiding.
One food that comes to mind as mid-priced but somewhat less offensive in ingredients is Taste of the Wild. The one variety is chicken meal then a lot of peas, but not grain, and no by-products and no sawdust. But I'm just not up on the rest of all these dry foods. I will say, there are plenty I'd would find worse than the one you posted, even with the by-products and sawdust. Ranking levels of not that good is tough but I do understand not being able to afford. Keep this in mind though always: even some pretty cheap canned foods are likely better for the cat than pretty expensive dry. I understand if the math still doesn't work for you though. If I run across a brand of dry food that seems like it would be worth suggesting at some moderate price levels I will post it here.
One food that comes to mind as mid-priced but somewhat less offensive in ingredients is Taste of the Wild. .
I haven't done a carbohydrate count on Taste of the Wild dry foods (I'm not that capable, yet) but when I was feeding mostly dry, before I began feeding only wet or raw, my cats got FAT, fast, while eating Taste of the Wild dry vs other dry cat food.
But maybe my two cats were the exceptions rather than "the rule"
I haven't done a carbohydrate count on Taste of the Wild dry foods (I'm not that capable, yet) but when I was feeding mostly dry, before I began feeding only wet or raw, my cats got FAT, fast, while eating Taste of the Wild dry vs other dry cat food.
But maybe my two cats were the exceptions rather than "the rule"
I'm sure it's pretty high in carbs. That would be true of pretty much any food at that level though, because carbs are cheaper than meat, generally, probably even the cheapest meat.
And most cats that eat dry food will get pretty fat, at least if they are free feeding. Controlling portions would be very important for any dry food. And actually that is a whole new can of worms to open, trying to figure out how much intake a given cat should have and how many calories are in the food....
Controlling portions would be very important for any dry food. And actually that is a whole new can of worms to open, trying to figure out how much intake a given cat should have and how many calories are in the food....
Most foods will direct you to give a cat 1/2 C each day. I found that was a little much for my two monsters when they were eating dry food only; I cut them back to 1/3 C each day. Now that they're eating wet food (when they damn well feel like it ), they get a couple of tablespoons.
Most foods will direct you to give a cat 1/2 C each day. I found that was a little much for my two monsters when they were eating dry food only; I cut them back to 1/3 C each day. Now that they're eating wet food (when they damn well feel like it ), they get a couple of tablespoons.
Right but the foods can vary widely in calorie content, plus cats can vary widely in what they need to take in in terms of maintaining weight and not being too much. 1/2 C of most dry foods would be way too much I think for my tiny little 6 and 7lb cats.
Plus, it has been demonstrated that pet food manufacturers aren't anywhere near consistent in terms of their recommendations. The only way to get a good gauge on how much to feed is to know first a) how many calories your cat should be taking in and b) how many calories are in a given amount of the foods they are eating. Only then can you accurately figure out how much to feed.
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.
Yeah, those Vets "who know next to nothing about feline nutrition " can't possibly know as much as someone who reads about these things on the internet. Years of schooling is SO overrated. 
), they get a couple of tablespoons.
