All wet food diet questions. How much & type?

[mattm1124]

I wanted to make a new thread from my last so the new questions didn't get lost. Oreo is now on a wet only diet since she won't eat the dry Young Again anymore. We were feeding Fancy Feast Chicken Pate at night feeding only, so now she just gets that more times a day. I read that cats should eat between 20-25 calories a day based on weight. Oreo is 10.8 lbs and Fancy Feast cans have 99cal per can. Am I right that she should be eating 2 cans a day now? We were feeding her a 3rd of a can at night but dry the rest of the time.

2nd question is if we put out a full can in the AM and then go to work, how long does that wet food stay good being out? She doesn't typically eat it all at one time and keeps going back to it. We don't get back for like 8 hours or more and don't want her eating spoiled food. We also used to give her a dry food snack over night or she wouldn't sleep. Once again, don't know if wet food is ok to leave out like that over night, especially with the heat on in the house now.

My 3rd question is, is it ok to switch up the flavor of FF pate we are feeding each day so she has some variety? Today can be chicken but then tomorrow beef, and the day after that the turkey and giblets? Can we mix two together some days? I know it may not be good to switch foods quickly but since they are the same brand and similar protein, carbs, etc numbers didn't know if that works? Or is it best to just feed the chicken only. I would assume she'd get tired of that one so we bough the variety pack. Is there a better wet food brand to buy?

Thanks for any help.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

Hi. Two cans would be a little over 18 calories per pound. That may be enough for her. Cat's needs vary based on their activity level and other factors. I feed my girls 4 cans of their food each day. It has 76 calories per can, so it comes to just over 16 calories per pound for them; however, I also give them bone broth, PureBites freeze dried chicken treats and occasionally chicken breast meat.

Wet food can be left out. My girls are fed every 6 hours (4x daily), and any leftovers are left out for them to graze on until the next meal. I have seen many people here speak of leaving food out much longer than that. Adding water to the food helps keep it moist. You may want to consider using an auto-feeders to break the food up into smaller meals throughout the day rather than giving all of the food for the day in two meals, or some people freeze a portion so that it is available later once it thaws.

It depends on your cat whether or not you need to mix up the flavors. For my girls, I feed the same food for every meal every day, and they are fine with that. I prefer it because I do not want to mix in a bunch of different proteins and increase the chances of allergies/sensitivities coming into play. On the other hand, some people say their cats will lose interest in a particular flavor after awhile, so they have to switch it up.

There is a link in my signature to Dr. Pierson's cat food database. You can filter by your desired criteria, so it is very helpful when looking for foods to try. As far as a 'better' brand to try... there are many varying (and sometimes strong) opinions on this subject. As you have probably already noticed, a LOT of people here feed their cats Fancy Feast and are fine with it. My experience with it and opinion of it are different than the majority. I fed it to my girls in the beginning of their transition to wet because it was the only wet food I could get them to eat much of. (So, I am thankful it was around for me during that time!) But, they had 'poop issues' while on it. They struggled with constipation (which they never had before), and their poop was small, dark and hard. Willow even had an anal sac rupture from not being expressed correctly when she would go because of the bad state of her poop. That was when I ceased feeding FF completely. I do not like the fact that even the chicken feast pate has fish in it or that it contains artificial ingredients. A couple of brands that I think have some good options are Tiki Cat and Weruva. My girls did not care for the Tiki Cat options I tried, but they like the Weruva Chicken Frick A Zee. (I look exclusively for chicken because I know Willow is allergic to turkey, and I have had reason to suspect that some other proteins, like fish, may also cause issues.)