How on earth do you seperate food?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
How on earth do you seperate food?
23
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 2:07pm

We've come to the realization that Tasha is getting F-A-T! We weighed her on Sunday and she is 15 lbs!! She was 12.5 lbs when we got her a year and a half ago, and though she is big for a female, there is no denying that she was a little overweight THEN, never mind now.

The company that manufactures her special FLUTD diet (Medi-Cal), also makes it in a weight management formula. That's all fine and good, but Bailey can't eat that! He's a growing kitten and the last thing he needs is diet food.

We have always left dry food out for Tasha. She gets two thirds of a cup per day - one third in the am and one third in the pm. She nibbles on it throughout the day and night. Obviously, Bailey has found the dish and helps himself periodically. When this happens, we take him away and put him in our 2nd bedroom and give him his kitten food.

After we move on July 1st, Bailey won't have his own room anymore. He will be free to roam the apartment during the day while we are at work, and night, when we can't watch him and keep him from Tasha's food.

Can we allow Bailey to nibble on diet food, as long as he still gets his kitten food later in the day?




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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 2:36pm
looking forward to comments as i think i may be having the same problem as Elvis is getting so fat but Maggie needs the food!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-10-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 3:39pm
How many times a day are you feeding Bailey? Such a young kitten needs about 4-6 small meals a day. Their stomachs are very small and they can't eat too much at once. Is Bailey eating Tasha's food because his own food isn't available often enough?
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 4:35pm

That may be it. We don't leave his food out when we are around because Tasha is not allowed to have any. She is on a strict FLUTD-preventative diet. At night, and while we are at work, Bailey is placed in our 2nd bedroom where he can eat freely and we don't have to worry about Tasha taking his food. When we catch him in Tasha's dish, we take him into the bedroom and he chows down on his own food.

However, we can't keep him locked away for a year. Sooner or later, they will have to share Tasha's food.




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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 4:36pm

You can try feeding them on opposite sides of a door and when the food is gone, it's gone until the next meal.

Cat =^..^=
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 5:04pm

When you say "crunchies", do you mean dry food? My vet told me that a high quality dry food is best because it helps keep their teeth clean. Canned food as a treat is good, in case they ever need to eat canned food only at some point in their lives for whatever reason (I guess any condition where a higher water intake is needed). I know most store brands of dry food are crap though - most of them are blamed for causing FLUTD, especially in males.

I thought about trying to make a box to put Bailey's food in - and cutting a "door" that is only big enough for him to get in. I'd have to adjust it as he grows, of course, but by 6 months or so maybe we could just keep them on the same food, with canned wet food every other day (kitten formula for Bailey and Tasha's regular stuff for her)?




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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-10-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 5:40pm

I almost hate to open this can of worms (we had a big debate about cat food on the TLAC board some months ago), but many vets believe canned food is better for health; it is more like real food. And it really doesn't clean their teeth. Think about it: does eating cereal clean your teeth? And what would your health be like if you only ate cereal? With canned foods you can get a much higher quality nutrition. I use Petguard canned food which is made of mostly organic ingredients and has no additives or preservatives.

Pam told us on the TLAC board that many vets are coming around to the thinking that canned is better and has more available protein and less carbohydrate, which helps control weight. She said it is kind of a "Catkins" diet. Holistically oriented vets have been saying this for decades.

Canned food also provides cats with some of the all-important water they need. I've been to several lectures here in NY given by holistically oriented vets and they explained it is common for pets on dry food diets to develop problems later in life, like kidney problems. By nature cats are not big water drinkers and it is very important for them to get moisture in their food to maintain optimal health.

Cynthia




Edited 5/24/2005 5:45 pm ET ET by cyngb
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 5:53pm

I realize that cats need more protein and less carbohydrate, since they are carnivores, after all. But I've read over and over again that the hard food cleans their teeth because it helps to scrape the tartar off. Rawhide bones do the same thing for dogs. I know that cereal does not clean our teeth - it is still too soft and obviously loaded with sugar. The same goes for crackers, cookies, chips, and other "hard" foods that humans eat.

I dunno - I'm just going by what my vet and several articles have told me.

Don't wild cats (tigers and lions and such), keep their teeth clean by knawing on bones? I'm confused as to how a cat's teeth can stay clean on nothing but wet mush.




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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 6:27pm

I've been looking around on the internet for some info on this. I'm not one of those stubborn folks that refuses to see the truth when it is right in front of my face, I DO like to learn!

I always want what's best for my pets, but the contradictory info out there is enough to drive one bonkers!

Some sources say the dental benefits of dry food are vastly over-rated (though I still don't buy the cereal analogy, sorry), since cats don't even technically "chew". The dry kibble does little to clean their teeth, if anything. They simply break it up and moisten it with saliva in order to eat it. That sounds like an awful lot of unnecessary work, doesn't it!

The thing about the water content is true. But this special FLUTD diet that Tasha is on is supposed to provide enough moisture, or something, to prevent the problem of urinary tract crystals. It makes the urine more acidic... so that the crystals can't form.

Gosh... maybe I should be switching her to the wet form? They make the same FLUTD in cans - we give her some every 3 days or so and she LOVES it. I've just had this mentality over the past few years that wet food is going to ruin her teeth, even though my parents fed every one of our old cats wet food every day.

Maybe the dry food can be blamed for her being fat? We don't feed her much, yet she continues to gain weight. A friend of mine has been feeding her cat dry food only for the past 8 years, and he is also fat. Another friend's parents have been feeding their cat dry for 14 years (the last 7 of which has been Weight Control formula) and the guy is the size of a beach ball. Could it really be???




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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2000
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 6:57pm

Actually it's going to be more than two cents as I feel so passionately about this subject as I've seen it work wonders in my boys who have IBD. So here goes.....(I'm going to cut and paste from some of my previous posts in order to save time).

Unfortunately, most veterinarians like most doctors know very little about species appropriate nutrition and like doctors who push the prescription of whatever pharmaceutical rep is courting them I feel vet's in many cases do the same with prescription food. For example, Science Diet is everywhere and it is absolutely the worst. In fact my vet even had to agree that it made my one cat who had CRF worse! Cats don't need prescription food if your feeding a high quality canned diet. What they need is MEAT as that is species appropriate and attempts to be as close to what they would typcially eat in the wild.

I feed only premium canned food with high quality protein and NO grains. Being obligate carnivores, what they need is meat not cereal. In nature a cat wouldn't eat grain. Now short of buying small rodents for them that pretty much leaves canned food or a raw diet. Dry food is cereal based(corn,wheat, rice) and generally consists of low quality protein, fillers, preservatives and any number of other additives. The truth is the dry food is anything but healthy for a cat as it does not compare nor reflect a cat's natural diet. The natural prey diet of the cat contains between 65%-75% water. The cat, having evolved on the plains of Africa, has adapted to quench their water requirements entirely on the moisture content in their prey.

Due to its nature, commercial dry cat food contains no more than 10% moisture. Contrast the 10% moisture in dry food to 75 - 78 % moisture in canned food and you can see that canned comes far closer to be a species appropriate diet than dry. With of course the ultimate diet being a homemade raw diet but that's not possible in many cases.

In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content, meat-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only approximately 3-5 percent of her diet consisting of carbohydrates. The average dry food contains 35-50 percent carbohydrates. Some of the cheaper dry foods contain even higher levels. No wonder so many cat's that are fed strictly dry food end up with FLUTD's, IBD, diabetes and/or end up obese.
Our kitties are simply not designed to utilize that high a carb load and therefore very little gets used as energy and ends up being stored as fat.

I would recommend eliminating the dry food entirely, feeding the adult cat twice a day and the kitten 3 to 4 times daily using a high quality canned food. At each feeding give them what they will eat in 30 minutes. Make sure you have fresh water out but don't be surprised when she drinks very little of it. When feeding canned they get their water from the food.

Long story short, I did this in July 2003. I pulled all dry food up and now feed strictly premium canned food, what they will eat in 30 minutes twice a day. Right now we're using Nature's Variety Prairie Rabbit and Prairie Lamb. I can report that within 24 hours of eliminating the dry food the diarrhea was gone, NEVER to return! Now my one kitty does still vomit occasionally, which is why I feed the novel proteins only and he's being treated by a veterinary acupuncturist and things are going very well. We have never had an issue with weight or FLUTD's and they are thriving with shiny coats, bright eyes, good teeth(yes it is a myth that you have to feed dry to keep their teeth clean). Their teeth were designed to tear flesh, not eat meat flavored cereal. By high quality I mean foods like Wellness, Natures Variety, Petguard, Innova, Merrick. Foods with either NO grains, or very limited grains and ingredients.

Another thing that is bad for kitties is to leave food out all day. In the wild, cat's have to catch prey so therefore they wouldn't be eating or grazing all day long. It's work catching your own food and they're lucky if they eat once a day. Eating twice a day would be a luxury. If cats are constantly eating they don't get the fasting periods they need for their bodies to cleanse and repair itself as they are constantly focused on digestion. It's also a prime reason cats are finicky eaters. Finicky eaters aren't born, they are made by their owners. I equate dry cat food to "kitty crack".

In regards to dry food cleaning their teeth, many veterinarians are coming to the realization that this is a myth that needs to be dispelled. First, dry food is hard, but brittle, and merely shatters with little to no abrasive effect on the teeth. Second, a cat's jaws and teeth are designed for shearing and tearing meat, and cats that eat dry food grind it in a way that it ends up between their teeth. There it ferments into sugar and acid, thereby causing dental problems. Third, many cats swallow the majority of their dry food whole and thus receive minimal benefit from chewing motion. There are many factors that contribute to dental disease in the cat such as genetics, viruses, and diet.

If you experiment in this area and try it I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the overall health of you cats.

Good luck, Lynn

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-07-2005
Tue, 05-24-2005 - 7:52pm

So, ok, I'm going to ask, because I honestly never thought about the cat food. I grew up with dogs, whom we always fed dry food. I assumed that was because the canned stuff was gross in their food bowls, but my parents were buying the food, so I don't actually know their reasoning.

Bad Annie and Chalimar have always eaten the dry Cat Chow. Chal loves it. She races into the room whenever I open a new bag. I've attempted to give them canned cat food in the past, and Bad Annie vomits it right back up. They seem happy with what they have. WE had a little bit of a weight issue, but since moving into the condo, they've lost a half pound each. (Condo is 2 floors, apartment was 1.)

I mean, I just want to do what's best for my girls. Reading these posts, I just realized Annie is going to be 9, which is senior, right? So do I have to switch her food? And I'm getting a new kitten in a few weeks, which means kitten food. They're free-fed now. How the heck do I switch?

Oh, the headache. And I still think canned cat food is gross. But I also have issues touching raw meat for myself. I'll survive, if I have to.

** Noelle

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