What cat food that you are feed to your cats ?

Special case for my cats, I feed them raw, it tried every wet and dry diet but they would consistency vomit and have blood & mucus in their stool. A straight raw diet has changed them for the better, I started when they were about 9 months old.

Benefits for my two cats are, no bad breath, their poop doesn't smell, no blood or mucus in poop, no more matted fur (haven't needed to clean them in more than 16 months), very smooth and glossy fur. They're also fairly slim, not a chonker, never wants to gorge on food, reliably eats two meals per day and happy with that diet.


Cons are mainly price, convenience (I made 2 weeks worth at a time, takes about an hour of prep), risk of food poisoning from touching raw meat on a daily basis, especially chicken.



TCFeline Premix: $65+tax (lasts about 4 months for my two adult (2.5 y/o) cats) Approx $20 /month
Raw ground pork/chicken: $2-$4 per lb, about 14 lb /month, Approx $50 /month
Raw pork/beef liver: $1-$2 per lb. Approx $8 /month
Raw chicken heart: $1-$2 per lb. Approx $2 /month

Total: $70-$80 for two cats per month, meat has gone up about 20%-40% though.

i'm a vegetarian and my gf is vegan so although we do feed our cats meat based foods, i don't really want to handle and prep raw meat for them.

i feed the older kitten a mix of wet and dry, firstmate dry and wellness wet. wellness had a pretty amazing deal a few weeks ago that was posted on RFD. 36 13.5oz cans for only like $95 or so.
the younger kitten is not picky at all, i'm feeding her firstmate turkey mostly, wet only.

I think eventually my costs will be high though once they are both in the young adult phase. probably $100 for 2 cats would be the absolute minimum per month on a mostly wet diet with good quality brands.
if they aren't that picky then you have some options to go with the large sized cans and that will save you a bit of money. you could also feed a mixture of high quality and sort of lower quality to average the cost down.
jackson galaxy says that lower quality canned food is still better than high quality kibble, so that was a sticking point for me.

In an ideal world I would feed my cat raw, with all the appropriate vitamins/minerals/taurine etc.
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Instead, I feed my cat:

1 x Fancy Feast pate, per day.
Note: I have tried many (well over 10 different canned wet food brands.) Her go to is still Fancy Feast pate.

1/4 cup dry: Blue Wilderness - with Chicken & lifesource bits (lol - whatever that nonsense is).
Note: I have gone through Acana,Orijen and something else I don't recall and eventually she'd get bored of it.

This equate to approximately 200 kcal per day.
Some days she eats it all, other days she eats 60-70% of it.
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As a treat, I'll sometimes give her some tuna juice, or pieces of cooked chicken.
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The price of cat food, like anything else, has noticeably gone up in the past 1/2 year?
The going rate for a can of Fancy Feast is now $0.77. A sale price is $0.70. If you are ok with buying a mixed package, the price goes down.
Sale price a year ago, was around $0.60. C'est la vie.

How bad is it to feed a cat a dry food only diet? Assuming the cat seems to drink enough water on their own.

I feed half wet half dry. My 8 months old 7.7 lb kitten gets Acana dry food in the morning and Weruva wet food in the evening. Costs about $60 a month.

crystallight wrote: ↑ How bad is it to feed a cat a dry food only diet? Assuming the cat seems to drink enough water on their own.

It's fine until they start getting kidney issues. A dry kibble diet can increase the rates for kidney issues due to lack of water intake, and can often lead to obesity. However, controlling the diet properly (and not allow free grazing)

You may think they're drinking enough water, but its hard to tell unless you are directly feeding them water or watching.

coriolis wrote: ↑ It's fine until they start getting kidney issues. You may think they're drinking enough water, but its hard to tell unless you are directly feeding them water or watching.

What if I measure out the proper amount for a full day, put it in the drinking bowl in the morning, and it's all gone by the end of the night? Seems like that would be proof the cat is drinking enough.

I have a 14 year old female Persian and a 1.5 year old Savannah. The Persian we didn't know any better for years and she was eating run of the mill dry food. She's been on dry all her life and refuses anything else. We switched to premium foods 6 years ago. She's always been healthy so we may have gotten lucky. The Savannah was raised on raw chicken so that's all he eats, but he will eat dry food as well if he gets the chance. Raw is natural for cats, yes it's more work and a lot more expensive but for their health IMO is worth it.

bobohobo2kx wrote: ↑I feed half wet half dry. My 8 months old 7.7 lb kitten gets Acana dry food in the morning and Weruva wet food in the evening. Costs about $60 a month.

I feed Weruva too. I get their stews. My cats are weird. As kittens, they were raised on dry food. For wet they would lick all the wetness from it, but not eat the solid parts. The Weruva stews are great in that they are really, really wet. My cats will eat it all up.

My budget is much higher. The Weruva Cat Stews are $3.09 per 5.5oz can. They get 2 per day + some dry food. The dry food serves 2 purposes. It rounds out to the proper caloric intake for my cats that are about 10lbs each. 2 cans is not enough, but 3 cans is too much for 2 lazy adult indoor cats. Also they won't wake me up at 3am wanting to be fed. The total damage is much higher at about $125 per cat per month. Last month there was a sale on these (buy 2 get 1 free). I cleaned out multiple Pet Valus.

crystallight wrote: ↑ What if I measure out the proper amount for a full day, put it in the drinking bowl in the morning, and it's all gone by the end of the night? Seems like that would be proof the cat is drinking enough.

If the water bowl is empty by the end of the day, then that's typically a sign that your cat wants more water. You should be refilling the water bowl at least twice a day.

joeyjoejoe wrote: ↑ If the water bowl is empty by the end of the day, then that's typically a sign that your cat wants more water. You should be refilling the water bowl at least twice a day.

Sure, so then I fill the water bowl back up when it's empty or near empty.

The point I'm trying to make though is that if I'm able to measure how much water the cat is drinking then is it still bad for the cat to be on a dry kibble only diet?

For example, it seems that a 10lb cat needs around 200-300ML of water per day
https://vetfocus.royalcanin.com/en/doc-10.html
https://www.preventivevet.com/cats/how- ... ehydration
https://www.petmd.com/blogs/nutritionnu ... rink-30049

So if my water bowl can hold 150ML and the cat is drinking 1.5-2 bowls per day, then it should be getting enough water without the need for wet food.

joeyjoejoe wrote: ↑ I feed Weruva too. I get their stews. My cats are weird. As kittens, they were raised on dry food. For wet they would lick all the wetness from it, but not eat the solid parts. The Weruva stews are great in that they are really, really wet. My cats will eat it all up.

My budget is much higher. The Weruva Cat Stews are $3.09 per 5.5oz can. They get 2 per day + some dry food. The dry food serves 2 purposes. It rounds out to the proper caloric intake for my cats that are about 10lbs each. 2 cans is not enough, but 3 cans is too much for 2 lazy adult indoor cats. Also they won't wake me up at 3am wanting to be fed. The total damage is much higher at about $125 per cat per month. Last month there was a sale on these (buy 2 get 1 free). I cleaned out multiple Pet Valus.

I recently switched my cat's diet to 1/2 raw 1/2 wet in an attempt to alleviate some of the pains after she goes to the loo (from an owner's perspective). On her previous 1/2 dry, 1/2 wet diet, she would consistently poop twice a day and the odour was highly unpleasant. Now it's about once a day, the stool seems more firm (less likely to stick to her butt/leg fur) and the odor is much more tolerable. Her coat also feels softer. I'm planning to switch her to a full raw diet after she finish her current wet food cans. I calculated this will roughly bring her food budget up to around $85/month. The raw food is Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Signature Chicken Medallions/Bites and I get them from Global Pet Foods.

I noticed that she stopped drinking water after switching off kibble and onto raw. I'm slightly concerned but I'm wondering maybe it's because the raw food already has moisture in it, plus I add a little bit of water when mixing it.

bobohobo2kx wrote: ↑ I recently switched my cat's diet to 1/2 raw 1/2 wet in an attempt to alleviate some of the pains after she goes to the loo (from an owner's perspective). On her previous 1/2 dry, 1/2 wet diet, she would consistently poop twice a day and the odour was highly unpleasant. Now it's about once a day, the stool seems more firm (less likely to stick to her butt/leg fur) and the odor is much more tolerable. Her coat also feels softer. I'm planning to switch her to a full raw diet after she finish her current wet food cans. I calculated this will roughly bring her food budget up to around $85/month. The raw food is Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Signature Chicken Medallions/Bites and I get them from Global Pet Foods.

I noticed that she stopped drinking water after switching off kibble and onto raw. I'm slightly concerned but I'm wondering maybe it's because the raw food already has moisture in it, plus I add a little bit of water when mixing it.

I find similar results, my cats poop once a day or once every two days, and the poop are very firm pellets, and the poop no longer smells, just the ammonia in the urine. The difference was undeniable in terms of their litter box. This is due to the cat using up most of the nutrients, unlike processed cat food where a lot of the fillers just get pooped out partly digested.


My cats coats are always complimented on, and I always get asked how often I groom them, how much hairballs I get, and how often I bathe them. I tell them the truth, I groom them maybe once a week, sometimes longer depending on how busy I am. I have never gotten a hairball since I got them, and I also never bathed them except for that one time I mistakenly tried to rinse a paw in the sink. Rookie mistake.


As for water, I also notice they drink much less water, I don't even know if they do. I still leave a water bowl out which eventually evaporates away but I've never seen them drink from it since I transitioned them to raw. I do add water to the raw food, almost to a slurry.

Just like in the wild, felines get most of their water intake from the meat they eat. There's tons of moisture in raw food and my Savannah drinks a lot less water compared to the Persian that is on dry food. Completely normal. One should become concerned if their cat starts to drink a lot, it's a sign of diabetes.

raw food

https://catinfo.org

Website to compare food brands. They will tell you what is junk and what is good.

http://catfooddb.com/

Been feeding our cats dry food, and whatever wet food is on sale. They've been good with it for several years now.

We recently switched their dry food to Crave, and they've been chowing down on that, no problem.

Raw 100%. Their shit don't stink anymore.

Lostpas wrote: ↑ Raw 100%. Their shit don't stink anymore.

This can't be said enough!!!! Also cat breath is much improved LOL

I feed my two 6 months old kitten Fancy Feast wet food (different varieties) in the morning and evening and kitten chow dry food in the afternoon. They have not once vomited. I also feed them Hills Science kitten food once in a while, when on sale.