Dry Cat Food

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terri1962

terri1962

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My one and half year old non diabetic cat will not eat wet cat food. It has always been available to her since I had my diabetic cat(GA) Lilly on nothing but wet food. The year and half year olds food was up on the counter where the other older cats could not get to.
Anyhow if she will not eat wet food what is the best dry food to feed her. Right now she is on Purina EN which they put her on at the vet when she was a kitten due to runny poop.
Is there anything better to feed her?

Terri
 
wow, I hate when somebody asks that question... :lol:
It's easier to answer when somebody asks "what is the best dry food for my diabetic kitty", because if you have to pick one, you'd pick one that was as low carb as possible. There's a couple on Binky's Dry Food list that are under 10%.

I know plenty of people are in the same boat you are in, Terri, and I'm sure that somebody will come up with some specific brands/types. I am guessing you'd want something "grain free", but I don't know enough about dry food to tell you one kind or the other. When my cats ate dry, they always wanted the junky "store brand". I'd splurge and buy them the most expensive brands on the shelf at the grocery store, and they didn't want it. Like kids with ice cream....they want the junkiest flavors. Plain vanilla isn't good enough, they want something with chunks of chocolate and pieces of candy in it!

Carl
 
Maggies Mom Debby said:
Wellness CORE and Evo are the lowest carb dry foods.
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I'd go with these, to reduce the chances of your non-diabetic developing diabetes. And maybe keep offering a little dab of Fancy Feast - who knows, one day she might try it.
 
Here's a link to Binky's Dry....
The three lowest are
Nature's Variety Raw Instinct 7%
Innova EVO Cat & Kitten 8%
Wellness Core 11%
If carbs is the biggest issue, anything other than those 3 and your up into the 25-40% carbage range.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/dryfood.html
Carl

sorry, edited to actually include the link!
 
here is another option to consider - while it's technically dry food, it really is freeze dried raw food and oh so much better than regular dry - it can be fed dry or with warm water added.

My girls like it dry for the crunch factor.

It's Stella & Chewy's freeze dried cat food dinners. Petfooddirect.com just started selling it, after I asked them for two months to add it to their lineup -

here's a link: http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product/50 ... -for-Cats-

It comes in 4 flavor options - I use chicken, beef (but not the combo pack).

hope this helps.
 
Hillary & Maui said:
It's Stella & Chewy's freeze dried cat food dinners. Petfooddirect.com just started selling it, after I asked them for two months to add it to their lineup -

here's a link: http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product/50 ... -for-Cats-
Click to expand...

Stella and Chewy's product web site: http://www.stellaandchewys.com/cat-products.php

There are other brands of freeze dried raw out there but not all are nutritionally complete. Some are only training treats (for dogs)/supplemental foods. Nature's Variety's freeze dried raw is one such brand.

Another possible food to feed is a dehydrated raw food such as The Honest Kitchen's Prowl or Grace (and if anyone is wonder, neither of these are suitable for diabetics). You do have to mix the food with water to rehydrate before feeding. Does your cat like canned food gravy? You could mix some gravy into the food to make it more appealing.
 
terri1962 said:
My one and half year old non diabetic cat will not eat wet cat food.
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Hi Terri,

This may sound harsh but here goes....

I'm sorry but I refuse to cave in on this one. If she were in my house, she'd eat canned food. Period.

Your cat is only 1.5 years old and is not so old and set in her ways that you should be caving in so quickly.

Please see the Tips for Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food - top of the sidebar at catinfo.org. Note that it took me THREE long and VERY frustrating months to get my cats (7 at the time with the oldest being 10) off of a 100% dry food diet and eating a 100% canned food diet. They had never even seen canned food and had no clue that it was even food.

I will bet big bucks that I have met more dry food addicts than anyone on this planet and I have never failed yet at getting them on a proper diet.

Humans give up too easily. Plain and simple.

It takes a lot of work and a lot of patience but it can be done with every cat - in my very strong opinion. It is just up to the human to keep trying.

Please also understand that the issue of dry vs canned is NOT just about carbs and diabetes. It is about so much more than that. It is about overall health and ESPECIALLY urinary tract health.

Pay me now or pay me later....

And, sorry to sound harsh here but EN is an atrocious diet. Please read the ingredients on that food - keeping in mind that your cat is an obligate carnivore with a low thirst drive.

Also, see Opie's pictures on my Urinary Tract Health page for a good look at how cats often suffer when fed water-depleted diets.

Roll up your sleeves and get to work on transitioning your girl kitty to a proper diet before you end up with another diabetic...or one that has UT health problems...etc...etc....

The year and half year olds food was up on the counter where the other older cats could not get to.
Click to expand...

If this is unattended food and not meal fed, you are breaking the first rule of getting a cat to transition. No cat...no child...is going to eat what is good for them if they have a bowl of dry food...or a bag of Doritos in front of them..... 24/7 or for many hours in the day.

Again, please see my Tips for Transitioning. If it was easy to do with every cat, the Tips paper would not be 8 pages long.
 
PS...my once-die-hard kibble addicts who kicked and screamed (meowed...) through what they thought was pure animal cruelty during the transition off of dry food....now eat only a homemade diet and no commercial food.
 
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