taxtell

Yay!

Mumzilla

I no longer have an inside cat, but I have the most spoiled barn cats in the county. 4 are mine and one is the Amish neighbor cat who decided this whole being fed in the barn thing is the bomb! They are addicted to Kit n Kaboodle. It is all they will eat - and I am ok with that. Giving them anything more expensive or "better for them" is futile as they have their own version of the raw diet (being barn cats and all!). When I still had my inside cat (RIP big guy) I got the better foods for him but he got very sick and died last year. :( After he got sick he refused to eat anything except....Kit n Kaboodle. And yes - he would have starved to death - cats can be that stubborn. But it isn't really even stubborn so much as physiology - if they can't smell it or sense it - they won't eat it (per my vet). I am assuming the cheaper - not as healthy - foods have additives that trigger the sensor in cats. So IMHO - if they are healthy and happy, then let them eat what they want.

TamaraS

I have tried more than once to switch my two to raw but they just aren't interested and at 13 and 12 years of age I am not going to force it.

I have realized though after talking to holistic vets and doing a lot of reading that if possible cats should not be eating dry food at all. Mine have been on strictly canned for a few years now and it has made a HUGE difference in body condition and coat quality, they even seem happier. I was in the same position you were in with my one girl. She was 18 lbs and I was so worried about diabetes and her heart. After switching them to a grain free all canned diet and of course measuring the food appropriately for them (they do get slightly different amounts) my girl is a beautiful 12 lbs. She lost 1/3 of her body weight in 1 year and she is so much happier.

Do a little reading here Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basis of Feline Nutrition to understand the rationale behind no dry food.

Marian

Thanks for the link. I used to feed my cats dry food because it was easier, since they never all seemed to want to eat at the same time. I was also out of town a lot for work, and I could leave them overnight with a bowl of dry food left out for them to munch on. But my Mickey is one of those cats who can't be trusted to free-feed without getting fat and the vet said that the grain in the Iams I was feeding him was very fattening for an indoor cat. So I switched to feeding canned food and have done so for about five years now.

Since I last posted, Mickey has decided that Solid Gold is only for special occasions and not for every day consumption.

I have been able to switch him to something else--but I'm not sure it's any better than FF, to be honest. I'm now alternating between Purina ProPlan (chicken and rice and beef and chicken and rice) and Royal Canin Ultra Light, both of which he seems to love.

I haven't had the time or energy to try and cook for him yet (long story).

TamaraS

I know about the difficulties you are having finding a food that your cat will eat. I have one that is fairly picky and my mom has a cat that won't eat anything other than Fancy Feast as well and he has even been starting to go off of that. My girl only wants to eat chicken based foods (I would love to get some different protein sources in her) and she will eat fish, so that I buy fish foods as a treat once in a while.

Just an FYI, I did try strictly canned at first but it wasn't until I started feeding the grain free canned that my big girl lost her weight. That seemed to be what made the difference.

Here are some links to foods that mine have found very palatable. Mine are on the Wysong full time. They eat mainly the Chicken Au Jus and for a treat they love the Chicken Stew. The one that they go crazy over and my mom's will actually eat as well is the Almo Nature. Most of these websites have store locators, although I have discovered that not all stores that carry the food are necessarily listed.

Almo Nature - Almo Nature
Holistic, Natural Dog Food, Raw Dog Food, Cat Food, Pet Food, Ferret Food, Cat & Dog Supplements
Welcome to Weruva
Petropics - Tiki Cat, Tiki Dog - For the Pets We Love

taxtell

This is great advice, particularly on the grain free. These are also good foods from what I know.
I tried desperately to get our clinic cat PJ to eat raw, but I cannot.
I feed him most of these foods and some of Merrick's Before Grain (grainfree) line.

As an aside, every time I see the title of this thread, I think of Andy from the Office singing "Break me off a piece of that Fancy Feast."