Is it dangerous

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beausgrrl

beausgrrl

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to feed Wellness Grain Free Chicken and Herring canned cat food most of the time due to the herring content? I had a longer post but thought my question was a little buried in it. :)

Thanks.
-Tracey
 
I wouldn't say it is harmful to feed your cat cat food with herring in it, but I wouldn't serve it every day. Certain types of fish are higher in heavy metals and a diet based mainly on just one protein source wouldn't be balanced. That brand is also fairly expensive. Do you have your cat on it because he needs a gluten free diet? If your cat doesn't need that particular food for a specific reason. You can rotate it with less expensive fancy feast or other low carb canned.

My cats love blue buffalo canned food, but the price of it doesn't like me. They get it one or twice a week as their special meal.
 
Wellness is more calorie rich than Fancy Feast or most other "cheaper" foods. Wellness turkey is almost 40 calories per oz, whereas FF beef & chicken, for example, is 27 calories per oz. You get your money's worth with Wellness. Buying it in the 12.5 oz cans is the best deal.

As for the fish content, look to see where it ranks in the ingredients list. If it is not the first 2 or 3 ingredients, then it's probably not troublesome. If the fish is a prominent ingredient, then maybe alternate it with another variety every other day.
 
Thanks for the feedback! I was hoping to not go to a food with unknown meat by-products but may be leaning to using ff with wellness so he's not eating fish everyday. I buy the large 12.5 ounce wellness cans and have been feeding about 7-8 ounces a day since Thursday, since he's overweight and was eating too much I'm slowly reducing how much he gets but since its a big transition cold turkey from his dry and a little canned to all canned (which he loves!) I thought he'd be ok with that amount but worry I should cut down more... just scared with the diabetes diagnosis and how badly he had been crying .... He definitely isn't crying non stop like he was on the dry food but cries a little more after his meals the past 2 days.... ok, enough babble from me for now. :)
 
For cost FF and Wellness are about the same. Wellness does have more calories, although the percentages of protein, fat and moisture in the two are nearly identical (not as fed percentages):

How they break down is
Wellness - $.18/oz, 40 cals/oz 10% protein, 5% fat
Fancy Feast - $.17/oz, 31 cals/oz 11% protein, 5% fat
Friskies - $.07/oz, 31 cals/oz 10% protein, 5% fat

They are all "not more than" 78% moisture. I tossed in Friskies because that is what I feed, mixing in a little Wellness or Authority for "better" quality. I feed about 6-7 different flavors, but more often the Poultry Platter, which I just was surprised to see had turkey as the first ingredient, not "poultry by-products". But a lot of flavors have some fish in them.

I think the big difference between FF and Frisk is the carb content. FF tends to be 3-4% if I am remembering correctly and Frisk is 7-8%. Wellness must be low, like 3-4%, right? I wonder why there is such a big calorie difference?

How much does he weigh? General rule of thumb is to feed 13 cals per pound, plus 70 cals - so a 10 lb cat would need 200 cals. But an unregulated/newly regulated cat will eat up to twice as much until they figure out they are no longer starving. Both of my guys lost a lot of weight before dx. Beau went from 16+ to 10.5 (he should weigh 12) and Jeddie went from 13 to 8.25 (he should probably be 13-14 as he is part Maine Coon). They both ate a lot of food at first. Beau ate 9-10 ozs and Jeddie probably close to that. Now they eat 5-6 and 6-7, respectively.
 
Will he not eat the other flavors? The Turkey, and the Chicken dont have any fish in them.

The only other issue I bring up is that Herring has a lot of Sodium in it.. it is more than double the other flavors. I wouldnt feed it to my Merlyn after his heart dx. Sodium is not good for heart kitties but I imagine a daily diet of higher sodium food might not be ideal over time for healthy kitties.
 
Wow, such great information and help... thanks everyone... I have to sit down and take it all in and figure out his food intake amts so I can adjust accordingly.



:)
 
Sheila - Shadow was 12 pounds last annual last year and the vet said he lost weight but I didn't write down what he was when we took him last week. Have to find that out. I think it's 11 pounds but want to be sure. And since he has been eating like no tomorrow before the dry food switch, I was sure some crying after his new canned meal routine might mean he's just used to more food but worry if I should over feed since he had been starving or ride through the crying.. Reading the posts here and getting everyone's feedback helps me not feel so worried I'm keepinToday I brought out our food scale and weighed his canned food for a.m meal of 3 ounces. Mixed some evo 95% venison, kitten wellness and wellness chkn and herring.

So do lots of people feed a variety of flavors of fancy feast and if so, do your cats tummy's object to changing from the different ones? I have to go ck the box but as of last night, Shadow had only pooped a few times since his food change to all canned and it was nice and solid ( and not smelly and big like when on the solid gold katz n flocken dry!) so his variety of canned with different brands and flavors doesn't seem to bother his stomach so far.
 
I didn't answer some questions from some posters... Shadow has been getting the Wellness Chicken and Herring canned after trying other flavors over the years and having him stop eating them after just one meal. The Ckn and Herring is always gobbled up. He isn't on it due to any condition except picky kitty sydrome. :)
 
"General rule of thumb is to feed 13 cals per pound, plus 70 cals - so a 10 lb cat would need 200 cals."

I always thought that the general rule was 15 calories per pound - period - to maintain weight or to come down to a certain weight. I have a 13 pound cat that maintains his weight at 195 calories per day (13 x 15) which for him is just right. If he eats any more than that, he gains weight (he is an orange tabby - bigger than the average cat). I cannot imagine giving him 13 X 13 + 70 calories per day which would be 239 calories per day. Maybe this is based on an acrobatic cat, which my guy is not. I stick to Dr. Lisa's recommendation of 15 calories per pound.

Judy
 
My frustration with feeding by amount of calories is that none of mine eat consistently - meaning some days they'll eat all food and act like they need more and other days it's the opposite. I go through different varieties because sometimes I think they get tired of certain ones - for example they used to all love Wellness Turkey. I had to stop feeding Wellness because too much of it started getting wasted and I decided not to try other varieties because I can't trust they'll eat those either if Wellness changed something. That's what I don't like about the more expensive foods and why I'm feeding less expensive now - I can afford to waste an 85 cent/can food as opposed to $2.25/can.

So Beausgrrl, I feel your frustration about food varieties - been there, done that.
 
Something that might make him happier is to divide up the amount you are planning to feed and feed several small meals during the day and night. Not only does this make him feel like he is getting more to eat, it helps the pancreas heal. You can freeze the wet food into cubes ( I use a silicone cupcake pan, freeze, then plop them out and freeze in plastic bags) or get an automatic feeder which will open several times a day as programmed. We use the PetSafe5 and love it - only one the cats haven't been able to break into.
 
Thanks Sue, I was wondering if since he's not on insulin now, if feeding him more frequently than his normal 2x a day (with just what food he would get for that day) through out the day would be ok... he started asking for food at 2:30 today and he has been getting dinner between 3:30 and 4- I'm going to add a 1/2 hour a couple times this week and start feeding him more around 5pm so he doesn't have to go so long for a meal at night to morning. So, now I'll break his food down into 3-4 feedings and I think he'll like that more... he still may be used to more but I'll work on keeping it between 6-7 oz a day.

Thanks again.
 
That sounds like a plan. If you do start insulin, you can still feed the mini meals. You just need to not feed for 1-2 hours before you test. Food can raise bg levels in new diabetics and you want to be shooting a "real number, not one raised by food. We always tested, fed and shot while his nose was deep into this food dish. He never blinked.
 
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