Help! Feeding grain free wet food

[Honeybelle]

Hallo from a newbie on the forum!

I'm sorry to post a topic which has been discussed before but I need to ask for some advice please!

My 2 female cats are 14 years old and have been pretty healthy to date. Recently both started to gag when given food and wouldn't/couldn't eat. We ended up taking them to the vet for tests & treatment over a period of 10 days. Mirtazapine tablets eventually encouraged them to eat alongside steroid injections and antibiotics.

I thought I was feeding them 'good quality' food all their lives but having researched cat nutrition I now see that they've been eating meat & meat derivatives, sugars, and grains etc.. I'm pretty gutted that I didn't research their nutrition sooner in their lives.

We live rurally and one cat in particular still likes to hunt (and eat her prey) but the other is now more overweight and not so active. They both have teeth issues.

It seems that grain free and a high protein wet diet is a better choice of diet so I've tried them on Nature's Menu. I'm also in the process of gradually introducing a high protein grain free kibble. I dont want to go down the raw food path as I don't know how their digestive systems will tolerate raw food at this stage in their lives.

One cat (the hunter) seems to be adapting to the meat only diet pretty well but the more sluggish one named Honey is very picky. She's used to me pampering to her need for different foods and opening a tin of something else if she doesn't fancy this or that at mealtime. Now I only have Nature's menu in the house having given away a huge box of wet and dried food to our local cat rescue centre.

I don't see their stools as they poo outside so I don't know if she's constipated or has loose stools. I don't think Honey's just picky but that she also has digestive sensitivities. But she has always been a 'greedy' cat and she did eat the Nature's Menu to begin with. Then she stopped and I'm concerned that it's too rich for her.

Now I'm totally confused as to what to feed her! She may be telling me she doesn't want the new food because it's too rich for her and has tummy upsets or she could just be faddy. She wants to eat kibbles but I'm anxious now about her being dehydrated (she was on a drip at the vet's because of this).

I'm also worried about trying out different meat only foods to see which one she likes. It means constantly changing the food again which may be unsettling for her digestive system. Also one always has to buy 12 of anything which means so much waste if they don't like it.

For 14 years I've been trying to get these 2 cats to eat what I give them! Now I start the day with my head in my hands all over again because Honey walks away from the food

My vet advised me to put them on a Royal Canin 'sensitive' diet but looking at the labels of ingredients I wouldn't give these to them and am surprised that they're recommended by vets!

What would you do please? Do I persist in only giving her Nature's Menu alongside some of the high protein grain free kibbles? Do I research another wet food brand and risk constant changes in her menu and the effect on her digestive system?

Also most meat only wet foods seem to be in jelly and I think she prefers gravy.

I do see that every cat is different and we all have to find what suits each one of them. It's so comforting to know that others have issues feeding their cats but how to proceed with mine?

Any suggestions would be very welcome please as I'm feeling increasingly anxious about it all...............

Thank you for reading this post and sorry it's lengthy!

[Kay]

Perhaps Honey's diet would be easier to manage if you tried to get her to drink more, so she could manage with just the kibble. Chicken broth, diluted canned tuna water or the cat soups now widely available, might be acceptable.

Alternatively, my overweight 15 year old Tiffany will only eat the gravy or jelly from cat food, and two strays get the lumps she leaves, but this is a way of getting more liquid into her and not really wasteful if you can pass on what Honey leaves.

And Tiffany by the way vomits up cooked meats like kidney and liver, which I've assumed are too rich for her

[Guinevere]

Have you tried James Wellbeloved Grain Free kibble? My diabetic cat has turned her nose up at everything else grain free I have tried but she absolutely loves this!

The composition is: Turkey Meal (33%) potato flakes (25%) turkey fat, pea starch, potato protein, turkey gravy, tomato pomace, pea protein, whole linseed, meat free stock, omega oil, chicory extract, calcium carbonate, carrot, cranberry, yucca and rosemary extract.

My cat can't get enough of it!

[meriad]

Hey there and welcome to CC

One of my cats Harry has a suspected grain intolerance so by default all my cats are fed grain free. I've tried various of the expensive wet foods and none of my cats would eat them so after lots of trial and error my lot are now on a combination of

Dry food
Arden Grange light (because 3 are confined to house and garden so don't get all that much exercise) or regular Arden Grange
Sanabelle Grande (a larger grain free kibble to help keep their teeth clean and also helps re hairballs)

Wet food
The best advice i was ever given is that the best food for your cat is one they'll eat; no point you trying to force your cat to eat something it doesn't like - the cat will win . And you name it - I've tried it. Mine now get Felix as Good as it Looks as that's grain free and Sainsbury's own brand chunks in gravy. Another of my cats Abbie is less fussy and I'll often give her different foods; purely because i buy them in the hope Harry and gang will eat them, but they won't - so thank goodness for Abbie; she'll have them . And just because a food says 4% xyz meat and meat derivatives doesn't mean it's all that bad. It just means the named meat is 4% and the rest is made up of other meats. All foods have to comply to a certain standard.

I have bowls of dry food down all the time for them and they get 1/2 pouch wet each every morning and evening. Weekends or when I'm home all day they may get some more at some stage.

Re the Science Hill - sad thing with that is that many vet practices get kick-backs from the reps / company they buy from for the stock they sell. So the more they sell the more they get... so of course they'll recommend it.

Waitrose own brand tins in jelly I think are also grain free. Butchers classic is a superb food - really good value, high meat content and no cereal. See if your cats will eat that.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

[Honeybelle]

THANK YOU to all of you who were kind enough to reply to my post! I haven't replied sooner as I didn't receive any notifications letting me know that I had some replies! I've just checked in and seen the replies and have hopefully adjusted my settings so I should get email alerts next time!

I really appreciate all your feedback and ideas to help me with Honey's diet

After a lot of trial and error and 'wasting' new food I've at last found what she seems happy to eat Let's hope it continues that way!

I've stuck with Nature's menu and found that she will eat the Adult Chicken & Turkey but not the Chicken & Fish which my other cat Beauty will eat. Also Nature's Menu were kind enough to send me out a sample of their Country Hunter selection and these seem to go down well. The pouches are 75g which means they don't stay in the fridge too long and get eaten quicker before they get 'bored' with one flavour only. Also they have a better selection of additives (cranberry etc..) than Nature's Menu Adult cat food which is useful as Beauty my other cat has a problem with urinary infections. I'm cautious at the moment because the Country Hunter food does smell very rich to me but the next couple of weeks will hopefully show whether their digestive system can cope with it.

Yes, I've been feeding them James Beloved kibbles for a while which they like but it still has rice and maize (I think, without looking at the label) and I'm a bit purist about no grains at the moment.

I'm now phasing in Simpsons kibbles which are very high protein which I understand senior cats need more of, and also healthy additives. I'm trying for a ratio of something like 75% moist wet meat to 25 % dry. Simpsons kibbles are very expensive but they definitely eat less of this type of food then the selection of meat derivatives I was giving them before.

It's so hard with cats because each will eat one thing and the other something different. Also things can change as they age (just like us!!) It's so reassuring and such a comfort to hear that many other cat lovers have experience of the same issues!

Thank you again to all of you who took the time to write in reply to my post. I was very anxious when I wrote it! Let's hope I've found the balance of foods for the moment at least!

[LittlePenBigHeart]

Hi Honeybelle

I work in a pet shop where we're given extensive nutritional training. The Nature's Menu is a really good wet food for them, with a nice, high meat content and the grain free one is obviously better. Thanks to the awful adverts for things like Whiskas, KiteKat and the like, people think grains are in some way good for cats. They aren't. Grains aren't a natural part of a cat or dog's diet and if you want to give your pet the best, they should have as few of them in there as possible. You're right about the Royal Canin. Unfortunately, vets are given very little nutritional training and in the same way doctors are swayed into recommending medications by the pharmaceutical companies who sell them, vets are swayed by the pet food companies who sell the food. The sad truth is that a lot of the health problems these foods are prescribed for could actually be resolved by a good-quality food. They're also commonly very high in fats and sugars, which aren't good for the cats but also make healthy foods unappealing to them. Imagine being offered broccoli if you'd been eating doughnuts for months on end! It's also worth bearing in mind that there is NO LEGAL REQUIREMENT for pet food companies to list all the ingredients clearly, so the lower quality foods miss a lot of things out, whereas the better products are far more transparent.

I can't speak for other countries but over here in the UK, the best food I know of (unless you want to go with the raw food) is Canagan, in terms of both wet and dry food. It has no cereals in it, no grains, a really high meat content, and lots of added goodness like Vitamin E to preserve it, rather than using anything artificial.

However, the problem with switching cats onto any of these foods, especially when they have jippy tummies already, is that people often do it too quickly. Cats have an enzyme in their tummies called pepsin, and it helps to break down the meat in the food. If they aren't used to a higher meat content, they can react badly to a sudden switch because they just aren't ready to cope with it yet. It has to be done REALLY slowly. With one of my cats, Dylan, this meant doing it three or four kibble pieces a day to begin with, mixed in with the awful Purina One he was on at the time. It took about 6 weeks to get him fully over to the Canagan but we got there and he's doing SO much better for it.

The other thing to bear in mind is that switching from a really low quality food like Royal Canin or Whiskas or Purina One to Canagan might be too much of a leap, even doing it slowly. Generally, we'd recommend using a sort of halfway point. Foods like More or Symply have a pretty good meat content (between 20%-40% approximately) but not as high as Canagan (60%-65%) so it's a good stop-gap on the way to a high-meat food. Again though, any change absolutely MUST be done slowly.

Sounds like it's all going well, though. Long may it continue!

[alanc]

Have you tried Thrive? It is also grain free, not in Jelly and has high meat content. It is slightly cheaper than Canagan. I have been feeding Thrive to Tilly ever since she had a bad bout of Pancreatitis over a year ago. She loves it.

[Honeybelle]

Hi Honeybelle

I work in a pet shop where we're given extensive nutritional training. The Nature's Menu is a really good wet food for them, with a nice, high meat content and the grain free one is obviously better. Thanks to the awful adverts for things like Whiskas, KiteKat and the like, people think grains are in some way good for cats. They aren't. Sounds like it's all going well, though. Long may it continue!

Hi and thank you for posting such an informative reply

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner but for my own health reasons I can't spend a lot of time online and for some reason I'm not getting any email notifications when someone replies to this posting. I've written to an administrator but no reply and I don't see what more to do with my settings.

What I mainly wish to say is that I totally agree with all you say here and I hope this thread is read by other people who have issues with how to best feed their cats.

My vet practice in the UK swears by Royal Canin and my previous vet by Hills. My cats have always refused to eat both brands. Yesterday my vet was quite determined that cats should be eating some carbohydrate and that the new wet food I'm giving them should have some in it. Nature's Menu wet food doesn't have any carbs in it and I've read that cats don't need them anyway.

I feel very strongly about how cat food is marketed. I fed my 2 cats what I thought was 'good food' for 14 years. It wasn't. I thought Purina One was a good quality food until I read the small print and learnt more about feline nutrition. Then I was shocked. Also to read what's in the Gourmet range (on the tin itself) I have to use a magnifying glass!!

Having thought I was doing my best for our cats and almost been 'snobby' about their good nutrition I was gutted to see their nutrition could have been much better.

Both Honey and Beauty are now eating Nature's Menu wet food and Simpsons kibbles. Canagan looks a good one too. They wouldn't eat Thrive.

I think I changed their diet too quickly and would echo for any other readers that a slow introduction is important.

My two seem much better on a 75% high protein wet food diet with 25% kibbles. They love the kibbles and prefer them when they've been hunting and got a jippy tum. But I've found that giving them a few kibbles and then swopping plates to the wet food often works!

I hope this is a useful thread to other readers X

[LittlePenBigHeart]

That's great news, Honeybelle. I'm so glad you're finding a useful approach. When you start really looking into what goes into pet foods and what should or shouldn't be in there, it's a hell of an eye opener! Bird foods are worse. Where in the UK there's a law that there has to be a minimum of 4% animal products in a cat or dog food, there is literally no regulation over bird foods at all. They can put any old rubbish in it and as a result, you get such great ingredients as chalk and talc in some of them. Nice, huh!?

Anyway, good luck. Let us know how you're getting on!