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Post by judypops on May 11, 2013 21:13:39 GMT
Our new yet slightly used:P cat, Mrs.Woman has no teeth. We have been feeding her a mixture of royal canin fit 32 that has been soaked in water to make it soft for her and we mixed it in with some canned food from Aldi. Except for when they were kittens Charlie and Morandi were never fed wet food and I have absolutely no knowledge in that department. We did have a cat years ago that was fed wet food, but I was younger and knew nothing about anything. Lately Mrs.Woman has gone off her current mix so I have been giving her just wet food for the past day or so.What I'm trying to find out is, is the wet food nutritious enough for her to have completely. Mam, Dad and I had a slight debate about this earlier. Dad thinks that the wet food is basically hydrated dry kibble. Mam thinks that it is just injected it water and provides nowhere near enough nutrition as royal canin. I think that it is a complete food and that she can be fed on that alone, but maybe a better quality one. I am in the mind that the moisture level is so high because it is mostly meat and meat contains a lot of water. Compared to dry foods that contain a lot of grain it's pretty good. The nutritional details of the food, this one is with rabbit are as follows: Composition Meat and animal derivatives (including 4% rabbit minimum),derivatives of vegetable origin,cereals,vitamins and minerals, various sugars. Analytical constituents Moisture 77%, Protein 8%, Crude oils and fats 8.2%, Crude ash 2.3%, Crude fibres 0.2% It recommends feeding up to 1 400g can a day and gives different amounts for pregnant cats or kittens. One thing I don't like it the fact it says "feed your cat as much as it eats as they can regulate their own intake" When I was on work experience they said their are cats that eat per appetite and cats that eat! I know for a fact that is true, Charlie can easily walk away from his bowl. Morandi eats his own, whatever Charlie leaves and then goes looking for more or even looks at our dinner plates !!
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Post by migsy on May 11, 2013 21:31:36 GMT
Sorry,haven't had a cat for many years,but I do remember they can be very fussy and refuse point blank to eat food they don't like.I remember my daughters very elderly cats (20 yrs plus)loved Whiskas.I still wonder about dried food and wonder how good it can be when Skip has dropped a bit in his water and seen how very much it expands,don't think I would fancy eating dried food.
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Post by cazypops on May 11, 2013 21:45:56 GMT
I have two cats, One gets Asda's own brand sachettes, at the moment meat in gravy, and fish in jelly, plus the new gocat on the side. Sometimes he want wet and other times dry. The other cat has Asda's own brand trays with again the new gocat on the side for the same reason. As migsy says cats are fussy creatures. But if they had no teeth then they would get just wet.
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Post by tonib on May 11, 2013 23:06:28 GMT
The thing to watch out for in wet food is that you feed a complete food not a complementary one. There is nothing wrong with a complementary food its just that they don't contain ( or haven't been tested to guarantee) everything that a cat needs. They can quite happily be fed in conjunction with a complete food or as a treat. Like dog food the better quality the better but also its got to be something that that the cat will eat, they can be a bit fussy Also a cat fed on wet food will drink less water than one on dried as they get a proportion of their water from the food. These links might help. here's info on feeding catsYour cat article on feedingCat food temperature & keeping
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Post by judypops on May 12, 2013 9:12:35 GMT
The food she is currently eating is a complete one, but if she will be on wet food full time I might try to find a better quality one,probably with more protein.
It says feed up to one can a day but pregnant cats should get 4 times this amount. We are still unsure if she is pregnant or not and I'm going to ask the wet to have a feel when we go for her check up next week, but do you think I should feed her more.. She gets a can a day , which is certainly more than she ever got before but I can still see her hip bones, could it all be going to the kittens, if there is any?
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Post by bextull on May 12, 2013 13:37:06 GMT
I prefer wet to dry. It is more natural and much better for health. Mainly because of its high water content. You cannot compare the wet and dry food analysis without first calculating it on a dry matter basis. On the packaging it is given on an 'as fed' basis. To compare without doing so is like comparing apples with Oranges. The wet food has 77% moisture. This leaves us with 23% dry matter. Divide the protein content by the dry matter and multiply it 100 to get the dry matter basis of protein. So in the wet food you actually have 39% protein. I found this, www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoodsETA, complete food by law MUST contain everything that cats need to survive. There are regulations set out that must be met.
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Post by judypops on May 12, 2013 14:06:46 GMT
Well that was quite confusing, you must explain it to me tomorrow, but I'll take your word for it. So is that food any good? According to the royal canin website the dry food contains 32% protein, I think. bextull you'll be pleased to hear that royal canin has come out with a beagle food !!!!
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Post by bextull on May 12, 2013 14:23:44 GMT
Well that was quite confusing, you must explain it to me tomorrow, but I'll take your word for it. So is that food any good? According to the royal canin website the dry food contains 32% protein, I think. bextull you'll be pleased to hear that royal canin has come out with a beagle food !!!! Its low market food. I would know, I fed it. Obviously knowing exactly what meat, cereals, veg etc that go into the food is better. The various sugars isn't desirable either and its probably preserved with BHA (I currently don't have a can of it handy for obvious reasons). Check zooplus, they have great wet foods. The one I was looking at before was, www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/anomonda_carny/127132But no zooplus have gone and changed delivery cost etc, so we never got any. Petmaster do applaws wet food now. I will explain it all to you tomorrow. Yay, can't wait for countless beagle owners to feed their dogs cancer preserved food! Sadly, mam and dad wouldn't order food online for me so when Oscar is in the kennels he is having grains He'll be on supadog sensitive, but it isn't that terrible. (just, not my 1st, 2nd , 3rd or 4th choice!)
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Post by judypops on May 12, 2013 14:50:40 GMT
I doubt ordering online is desirable, I raised the topic of feeding all the cats wet food and mam just said the usual " you change your mind every week!" and the "dry food is SO much easier" Yet they had no problem feeding the stuff to our old cat who, now that I think about it probably had kidney problems :/ Getting both parents to agree is the biggest problem. Mam thinks that dry food helps their teeth but isn't dry food coated in sugar and various flavourings doing more harm than good, Morandi does have quite a bit of tartar, where as Mrs.Woman has no tartar or plague build up what so ever !!!!
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Post by bextull on May 12, 2013 15:00:48 GMT
I doubt ordering online is desirable, I raised the topic of feeding all the cats wet food and mam just said the usual " you change your mind every week!" and the "dry food is SO much easier" Yet they had no problem feeding the stuff to our old cat who, now that I think about it probably had kidney problems :/ Getting both parents to agree is the biggest problem. Mam thinks that dry food helps their teeth but isn't dry food coated in sugar and various flavourings doing more harm than good, Morandi does have quite a bit of tartar, where as Mrs.Woman has no tartar or plague build up what so ever !!!! Dry food isn't overly great for teeth. It obviously does clean them a little because its a rough surface but thats about it. If its full of grains and carbs, it wont be, not food would be. And do bear in mind that my cat had wet food for her entire 12 years, along with whatever she caught herself (so lots of rabbits) and she had sparkling clean teeth!!! Judy, she's got hardly any teeth!!!! Of course there is no tarter! But she would have hunted - ie had bones, eaten whole prey, good teeth.
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Post by judypops on May 12, 2013 15:11:07 GMT
Exactly it was a joke! I can't imagine the difficulty she would have had catching her prey with no teeth, but she does have good sharp claws,I should know, I've been at the end of them a few times
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Post by bextull on May 12, 2013 15:14:26 GMT
Maybe she had help.........
You will be happy to know that I am currently uploading pictures for a blog post!
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Post by tonib on May 12, 2013 18:05:34 GMT
Just one word of caution on what's been said somewhere in the thread - I believe the Applaws wet is a complementary food not a complete even though their dry is complete. they may have brought one out but I'm not sure about that.
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Post by judypops on May 12, 2013 18:23:39 GMT
Thanks tonib I may look into them, atm mam is still unconvinced regarding the whole switching over issue. She also tried to give Mrs.Woman her old mix of rc and wet food and she ate barely any of it. I told her that she has gone off it and cats can be fussy and refuse to eat it but no progress, I got a "well she better get unfussy" . grrr
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Post by tonib on May 12, 2013 20:35:49 GMT
By the way judypops, one of our 4 cats eats only wet food. He would rather starve than touch dried food not even a cat treat or even ham fed from a hand that has just touched dried cat food! He's fine, a healthy weight, he did have to have some dental treatment (scaling) but his gums weren't good when we got him at 18 months (or so) old from the rescue & the older cat (8 years old at the time) he came with, who eats mainly dried with a little moist for her meds, didn't have her full complement of teeth but in the 5 years we've had the pair neither have lost any teeth & after the dental work over a year ago Osiris's teeth are fine. Mind you he's a fussy beggar, as soon as we seem to find something he'll consistently eat he decides he doesn't want it any more - he gets spoilt really The other 2 eat a mainly dried with some moist. Roman loves his rc fit 32 but Lexie is sick with it so they both get jbw dried & felix wet (pouches or foil not the tins as they don't like them). Lexie was on the jbw pouches but she stopped eating them so we tried her on the Felix & she hasn't had an upset tum so that worked out OK. They may not be the best cat foods but if they'll eat it that's the main thing. None of them took to the As Good as it Looks - its odd. I'm just wondering if Mrs Woman would eat a small kibble size (without any extra water) even with no teeth, as cats don't chew food the same as humans. they're geared to kill, hold, tear. I've been looking on the internet & found that quite a number do. She may even cope with the Fit 32.
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