To all my friends with cats, take note: I've become convinced that cats should not be eating dry food and I'm switching mine to a high-quality, high-protein, low-carb wet food. I've decided to make the switch even though it's more expensive, and even though every time I smell wet food or see it or it accidentally touches me anywhere on my fingers I kind of want to vomit. My cats will still get dry food once a day because Dan and I don't sleep if we don't use the automatic cat feeder for their morning feedings (and dry is the only option there), but the other two feedings will be wet food only, and I'm going to switch their dry food to a high-protein, low-carb variety while adding a little extra water to their wet food to ensure they stay properly hydrated.
If you have kitties that you love (and I know many of you do), please, please take some time to read through the info here on this website. It's a lot to wade through, but it can't be surprising to anyone that pet food companies are out to make a profit and are not always looking out for the best interests of our furry friends, so we have to be educated. To me, the information presented here makes sense, and switching my cats' food seems to me to be the best thing I can to do to help them lead healthy lives.
My little girlsIf you are interested in knowing which foods I've decided to switch to after doing hours of research, feel free to leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail!
3 comments:
I use the Wellness brand and only buy the grain free kind, which seems to be working well. I leave hard food out and then give them the soft food once a day (both are Wellness brand). I have also heard Blue Buffalo is a good brand. What have you ended up choosing?
Kim, you are obviously already much more educated about this than I was!
I'm using grain-free Wellness now because it was the easiest to get at a store, though I might switch to Merrick, which is a little higher in protein. The website I referenced recommends not giving ANY dry food, as there are very few kinds that are high in protein (and even those that are lack water, and chronic dehydration is a big problem in cats). For my sanity and sleep, though, I'm going to keep the low-carb dry food (Evo) to once a day and then add water to their wet food to make sure they are getting enough hydration.
I would look for links on the website (there is a link to charts) to check the protein/fat/carb content of the dry food you are using and make sure that it's not too high in carbs (unfortunately, you can't get accurate info off the label on the bag). Based upon what I've read, I would try to increase their wet food if you can, though I don't know how that works with leaving dry food out since having an obese cat wouldn't exactly be healthy, either. :)
Just out of curiosity. . . do you have both Lucy and Milo, or did you get a second cat?
Thanks for the info Jenn:) I do have Lucy and Milo (I have custody of Milo until the summer at least). It is going to be a nasty custody battle with a lot of law student fees:) Kidding of course.
I have heard a little bit of hard food is good for cat's teeth, to help get the tarter off, but I know soft food is much better.
Thanks again for the great info!
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