NEED ANSWER. CAT FOOD.

Question

my cat's cat food tests on animals. i am VERY VERY VERY much against this, but if my father's cat doesn't eat this food, she gets very sick, diarrhea, and pukes a lot. but i really don't want to buy this food anymore. REALLY don't want to. we've tried other foods for sensitive stomachs, but it doesn't work, and we don't want to spend a lot of money. what do i do? btw, this stuff must be delicious, they love it. and my 2 other cats don't have to eat it, they don't have sensitive stomachs. just my dad's cat.

Answer 1

i now u dont like things that is tested on animals nor do i but i suppose you could do it like weening (i dont now if this works)put three quarters of that food and one quarter of a different then slowly put more of one than the other reduce the one it has now so very slowly it will get used to the other food.I dont now if this works but this is the best i could think of.

Very good look and i hope this works :)

Answer 2

srry i think u might have to sell here

Answer 3

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon.

Some of the high end foods can be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness and Solid Gold. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 4

Hi,

I understand your concern. Whenever you change food, you have to do it gradually and using a transition technique instead of switching cold turkey. You can definitely find better food that what you are feeding now but you just have to learn to know how.

When you are choosing food, it is important for you to learn how to read ingredient labels. They tell you a lot about what kind of meat is being used and whether the food has any cheap fillers which does not benefit your cat/kitten.

You want to feed a food which is high protein - meaning the meat source must come from wholesome muscle meat. Make sure to select only food that list chicken, lamb, rabbit, beef, turkey, venison, salmon, whitefish, herring or a combination or those and not one that says by-products (chicken by product, meat by product, fish by product)

Stay away from too much fillers like corn, corn gluten meal, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, oatbrans, etc. These are all cheap filler which help reduce the cost of manufacturing but brings little to no benefit to your kitten.

You would also want to stay away from preservatives like BHA/BHT and Ethoxyquin which are proven to be harmful to your kitten. Also you do not want other artifical preservatives such as propylene glycol and propolyneglycol .You need natural preservatives such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A or Rosemary.

Your cat need an essential amino acid called Taurine. Cats can only receive this from eating wholesome meat. Choose a food that contains ample amount of Omega 3 sources - Salmon Oil, Flaxseed Oil or Canola Oil.

When you are well educated in learning how to read pet food ingredients, shopping for the best food for your kitten would be easier.

And your dad's cat seems to like the old food mostly because they are laden with taste enhancers in the form of animal fat. They emit a strong smelling taste to entice the cat to eat more. That is the reason why many people find it difficult to switch their cat to a better food.

Also, I am not sure if you aware of this but feeding a wet diet is so much better for the cat. Dry food is a huge convenience for pet owners but it benefit the cat little and can be detrimental to the cat's health.

I only feed 100% wet. I came to this conclusion after doing my own research and getting to know pets that suffer dire consequences as a result of being fed exclusively dry. These websites has great information if you are interested in learning more about feline nutrition and the proper diet for a cat.

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://cats.about.com/od/catfoo1/tp/tpca...

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.naturalmatters.net/article.as...

http://www.traciehotchner.com/cb/QandA.h...

If you are ready to switch, you may use this method to gradually wean your dad's cat off dry and onto wet.

If you have been feeding your cat dry food around the clock with a food dispenser, the first thing to do is to stop slowly. Kibble addict resist changes and it's not a good way to cut them off dry immediately. They are used to the smell of dry kibble - where food manufacturer trick their senses with addictive coating to entice them to eat. Also, your cat is used to the crunchy texture of dry kibbles and will resist eating wet.

What you need to do is a gradual transition - introduce her to wet food slowly. Start off with a mixture of what she is eating now and mix it with the wet food.

If your cats eat both wet and dry, you can eliminate the dry almost immediately. On the other hand, if they are kibble addicts, you need to go slow. Feed more times, less quantity because kibble addicts are used to having food around 24/7 (if you free fed).

A normal healthy and active adult weighing at about 6-8lbs would need about 6oz of wet food a day. For kibble addicts, you need to upped the number of feedings at the beginning but each time, serve only a smaller portion. Since they are used to eating all the time, you can try feeding them up to 6 times a day. This is just a very extreme recommendation because once your cat has established a wet food appetite, you can greatly reduced the number of feeding and increase the quantity.

Once you got your cat to eating wet food, you can now feed either 2-3 times a day. Always monitor your cat's reaction to the food. If after four weeks or so, you find that your cat seems to have grown a little more chubbier, reduce and the opposite is correct if she seems to be hungry at all times.

Sometimes, when switching to all wet using scheduled and portion control feeding method cat owners feel bad when they see their cats begging for more food. Resist the temptation to give in. Cats can very well go a few long hours without eating. Stick to your routine. But never starve a cat into eating.

The decision to switch to wet food is the correct one and I am glad that you have taken a step forward in ensuring your cat gets all the proper nutrition and species appropriate food.

Answer 5

Have you asked her vet what to do yet?