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cat feeding question

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  1. #1

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    Nov 2015
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    Angry cat feeding question

    i am a new cat(kitten) owner. have a 4 month old kitten and am not sure how much food is "enough" for him. i feed him about 70gms of wet food a day over two meals and keep a bowl of dry food always available. he seems to gobble it all as long as it is something he likes. quite a fastidious little thing!

    all advice welcome!


  2. #2

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    Sounds like you are doing ok. He is just a growing kitten and needs all the nutrients he can get. After neutering, you will have to monitor his intake or end up an obese cat in adulthood. Congrats on your new family member. Ours is 10 and a half yrs old and still a guts!

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  3. #3

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    Nov 2015
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    thank you, natfixit. that's reassuring.

    the gusto with which gobbles the wet food (has a strong preference for fish based ones) makes me wonder if he is being fed enough. i see that a fair bit of dry food is also consumed overnight.

    he has his surgery in december and shall monitor his intake more carefully after that.

    Last edited by gryphon; 13-11-2015 at 06:58 AM.

  4. #4
    Mamba

    Congrats, welcome to the cat people, life will never be the same again.

    We have two cats, one's a gobbler and one's a chew slowly until he eats everything, and I mean everything.

    Main problem is that with the gobbling comes the puking, we have to physically move our female cat away from the bowl to make sure she slows down and doesn't bolt her food.

    There is only so much cat puke you can clean up before breakfast.

    Agree with @Natfixit, he's a growing boy and needs the nutrients, agree also about weight gain in male cats after neutering, our male cat is the Luther Vandross of the cat world, he can pile or shed the pounds very quickly.

    I look at wet food and dry food as if I would look at food for a kid. Wet food is a high calorie yummy treat and the dry food is the well balanced nutritious diet. Just the same as with a kid you don't want to promote overeating or bad habits.

    You don't want to end up with a "picky" cat .

    Both of ours were rescue cats, knowing a bit about where they came from I understand why they have the relationship they have with food, it's taken them a long time to realise there was going to be another meal coming.

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  5. #5

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    Do you mind me asking what brand of food you're feeding him? My opinion: supermarket brands like mon petit and Whiskas are somewhat addicting because they're like junk food with higher levels of salt and additives. Can you even read the ingredients label on these cans? (In the case of mon petit, probably no.) Fish can also be very addicting to cats, and, as far as I understand, not a "natural" diet for cats (i.e. cats in the wild wouldn't go and eat fish... ). Generally, cats shouldn't be eating a diet solely of tuna as it lacks the nutrition they need. (Sorry, while I'm at it, I also believe there are some serious sustainability issues with overfishing and seafood, and I'm sure the fish going into cat food isn't the most sustainably fished and might even be coming from trawling or other destructive fishing practices.) I've also read animal byproducts is not the best ingredient to be feeding a pet. It's good to provide some wet food in their diet to help avoid a urinary track infection (usually only happens after the cat is older than 5 years, but be very careful with male cats and this can lead to a very serious condition!!!).

    For a kitten: yes, they should have as much food as they want until they're fixed when you'll then have to monitor their food. I think what you said is fine... leaving dry food out at all times and feeding a couple meals of wet food.

    Getting information: Do some research on good nutrition and good brands. I personally feed our kitten and cat Orijin dry food and Applaws wet food (only chicken is the ingredient). This is a pretty expensive diet, though...
    Be careful about how you get information, because the pet food industry is pretty confusing. A lot of brands like Hills or Royal Canin sponsor organizations like the SPCA (which is fine), so just because they're selling their food or giving it to you when you adopt doesn't mean it's the best. You'll notice many of the Royal Canin dry food packs has "maize" (=corn) as the top ingredient! Websites, too, may be run by or sponsored by these major brands. It's a major industry and not regulated as well as our human food (or at least regulated differently in all these different countries...).
    Be careful, too, about the order of the list of ingredients. Generally, the ingredients will be listed from top to bottom from the biggest percentage they consist of (e.g. chicken 75%, chicken broth, rice 1% -- you see this is a bit of a rip-off because I'm paying for a lot of water). So if makes up the highest percentage of the ingredients, they may divide up names for corn so it's listed lower down and some meat product closer to the top, when in fact that's not the case.

    So if you do your research, you'll find that you need to be independently wealthy so you can quit your job, go to a market every day, buy the highest quality lamb steaks, and spend your day grinding them and mixing them with supplements to create the only diet that is acceptable for any humane person to give their feline child.

    http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-should-I...itten_267.html

    (There's some other good links from a similar thread awhile back...)

    Last edited by Elegiaque; 13-11-2015 at 10:06 AM.
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  6. #6
    Mamba

    Our cats have moved with us through 4 countries. We try to switch what they're eating between brands, to give them a variety but also to ensure they don't get hooked on one brand which may or may not be available in the next place down the line.


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Nov 2015
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    thanks, mamba,elegiaque.

    let me put down all my thoughts and concerns to all you helpful, experienced cat people!

    i was advised by SPCA to feed him only dry food and give wet food only once a week as a treat. some web pages said that wet food is required or the cat will get dehydrated. after reading a million pages on the web, i couldn't find any conclusive opinion on this issue and decided to do a mix of the two.

    dry food:

    initally, i was feeding him "science diet" for kittens, later, bought small packets of "royal canin for kitten" and "1st choice" on the advice of some pet shop owners. after more research, i invested in a large pack of "orijin" (couldn't find a smaller one). luckily, his lordly self has taken to it and it won't go waste.

    wet food:

    i started with "mon petit" soups that you find in the supermarket and he used to slurp them up in one breath - even a crumb that may have gotten stuck under the dish was cleaned up. since i was told these aren't that healthy, i bought cans of applaws and kakato. he gobbles up the fish based ones. the ones with vegetable/beef etc are rejected with utter disdain while he nibbles on the chicken based ones half-heartedly all the while giving me looks that are meant to make me feel guilty, i bet. i also bought various other brands from pet shops (shall list them out later) just to see what his lordship likes - some quite pricey, some not so. i think i will finally settle on kakato/applaws. i don't like him being this picky little creature - he simply does not eat the wet food if he doesn't like it and binges on the dry food on those days.

    stranger anxiety:

    while i brought him home a few weeks ago, he wasn't scared of anyone new and would run towards their feet. lately, he has begun to run away to the bedroom and hide under the bed whenever someone new enters the house. he has no problem terrorizing us with his stealth attacks and meowing loudly to get his way but why turn a scaredy cat in front of strangers? how can i make him get over this?

    bath:

    lastly, do cats need a bath once in a while? i was told that it is better to get them used to it when they are young and so i gave him a bath with the hand shower last weekend. he wasn't too thrilled with it. is this something i need to do every now and then?

    Last edited by gryphon; 13-11-2015 at 10:22 AM.
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  8. #8
    Mamba

    In my opinion based on the two cats we have now - bear in mind this would not have been applicable for our previous cats as their tastes and personalities were different.

    Dry food: the last place we lived we could only buy Whiskas dry food in one flavour, they didn't seem to mind.

    Make sure there's always a plentiful supply of fresh water. Ours tend to completely ignore the water bowl and drink out of the plant pot water, dirty little mingers.

    Here I'm switching in between Royal Canin, Iams and Whiskas, tried the Vitapet but it seems to be day glo which kind of puts me off.

    Wet food: They get a pouch between the two of them about three times a week. I mix it in with any leftover dry food as otherwise they then turn their noses up at the dry food again and demand caviar and fillet steak.

    New people: That's a tough one, sometimes ours disappear, sometimes they stick around. It depends on the person and how they approach them. When my son has friends round it can be difficult as some kids don't know how to behave around animals. Leave him be and let him take his own sweet time. He's a cat he'll choose who, what, where and when.

    Baths: Absolutely bloody not! Cats self-clean. If you really need to bathe them - after ours were neutered they came back smelling of vets and when our male arrived he was a dirty stinking, sorry state - take a bowl of warm to hot water and a face flannel.

    Hold the cat gently on a towel on your knee, give him love and reassurance, dip the flannel into the water and squeeze it out so it's damp not wet and towel him down, repeat until clean, it will feel like cat licks and a sight more relaxing then putting a scratching ball of hate into a bath.

    If you really feel you need to put a detergent or something in there use an eco friendly shampoo but a small amount, cats are really sensitive to smell.

    Guilty looks: You do appreciate you have given your house, body and soul to your new overlord don't you? Resistance is futile.


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Nov 2015
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    13
    Quote Originally Posted by Mamba:
    In my opinion based on the two cats we have now - bear in mind this would not have been applicable for our previous cats as their tastes and personalities were different.

    Dry food: the last place we lived we could only buy Whiskas dry food in one flavour, they didn't seem to mind.

    Make sure there's always a plentiful supply of fresh water. Ours tend to completely ignore the water bowl and drink out of the plant pot water, dirty little mingers.

    Here I'm switching in between Royal Canin, Iams and Whiskas, tried the Vitapet but it seems to be day glo which kind of puts me off.

    Wet food: They get a pouch between the two of them about three times a week. I mix it in with any leftover dry food as otherwise they then turn their noses up at the dry food again and demand caviar and fillet steak.

    New people: That's a tough one, sometimes ours disappear, sometimes they stick around. It depends on the person and how they approach them. When my son has friends round it can be difficult as some kids don't know how to behave around animals. Leave him be and let him take his own sweet time. He's a cat he'll choose who, what, where and when.

    Baths: Absolutely bloody not! Cats self-clean. If you really need to bathe them - after ours were neutered they came back smelling of vets and when our male arrived he was a dirty stinking, sorry state - take a bowl of warm to hot water and a face flannel.

    Hold the cat gently on a towel on your knee, give him love and reassurance, dip the flannel into the water and squeeze it out so it's damp not wet and towel him down, repeat until clean, it will feel like cat licks and a sight more relaxing then putting a scratching ball of hate into a bath.

    If you really feel you need to put a detergent or something in there use an eco friendly shampoo but a small amount, cats are really sensitive to smell.

    Guilty looks: You do appreciate you have given your house, body and soul to your new overlord don't you? Resistance is futile.
    okay - shall do the warm towel approach next. i see that when i take him near the bath tub now, he digs his claws into me and refuses to even look at the tub. he used to sleep there at times. i could fool him just once, it seems.

    haha@guilty looks. i find that almost all things i buy now are for the kitten. he has indeed taken over!.
    Last edited by gryphon; 13-11-2015 at 11:31 AM.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    South of Sweden
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mamba:
    Congrats, welcome to the cat people, life will never be the same again.

    We have two cats, one's a gobbler and one's a chew slowly until he eats everything, and I mean everything.

    Main problem is that with the gobbling comes the puking, we have to physically move our female cat away from the bowl to make sure she slows down and doesn't bolt her food.

    There is only so much cat puke you can clean up before breakfast.

    Agree with @Natfixit, he's a growing boy and needs the nutrients, agree also about weight gain in male cats after neutering, our male cat is the Luther Vandross of the cat world, he can pile or shed the pounds very quickly.

    I look at wet food and dry food as if I would look at food for a kid. Wet food is a high calorie yummy treat and the dry food is the well balanced nutritious diet. Just the same as with a kid you don't want to promote overeating or bad habits.

    You don't want to end up with a "picky" cat .

    Both of ours were rescue cats, knowing a bit about where they came from I understand why they have the relationship they have with food, it's taken them a long time to realise there was going to be another meal coming.
    Let's hope your cat doesn't end up like Luther Vandross too soon...RIP. Mind was also a rescue cat but somewhat neglected in his original household, until we adopted him and now we have one spoilt cat. Watching on You Tube, Judith Kerr's Mog The Forgetful Cat, that is ours all over. But he doesn't eat eggs.

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