Most of my brood eat primarily canned food (and people food), with dry food
always available for snacking. The only cats I have ever seen devour the
expensive "high quality" canned food were half-starved new arrivals. They had
come from such awful circumstances that they would have eaten paint off the
walls too.
Say what you want about Friskies canned, but I have two who will eat nothing
else. At least Sylvia (found last spring skinny as a rail and hugely pregnant)
will eat dry food in a pinch but she would rather live on Friskies shredded
turkey and cheese in gravy. Marie, one of my own cats, lives off of the
Friskies Prime Fillets in gravy. She's 9 years old and has refused all other
forms of cat food, including dry, her entire life....but she will eat chicken,
turkey, tuna, meat baby food, asparagus, Chinese take-out curried chicken...you
get the idea.
Everyone (except Marie, of course) likes Kirkland dry, several varieties of
Purina dry, Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's
Soul. If I were to feed only one brand of dry, I woiuld go with the Chicken
Soup variety. Read the label. In terms of quality and nutrition, it's good
stuff. And they like it.
I supplement with a lot of people food....usually one meal a day is people
food. In November and December I cooked a turkey every other weekend. It's
cheap that time of year (a 20 pound turkey cost about the same as a case of
Friskies canned at Wallmart), they love it, it's good for them, and if I put it
in on Friday night before going to bed and cooked it at around 200 degrees, I
woke up to a warm house and salivating cats. I look for boneless skinless
chicken breasts on sale for 1.99 a pound, buy 4-pound cans of tuna and salmon
from a discount grocery.
If there's something they like -- like Marie Callendar brand rice, chicken,
cheese and broccoli casserole (for Little Sister Fuzzy Toes, a true gourmand
who also likes fruit pastries, cheese filled coffee cake, bagels with or
without cream cheese) or chicken and cheese quesadillas (for Selma) or pureed
sweet potatos (Bandida) they get it from time to time. (We had quite a run on
pumpkin cheese cake around here when the discount grocery got a ton of it after
the holidays.)
My personal cats tend to live to be around 18 years old. The fosters plump
up nicely, get over any issues of food aggression quickly, and socialize well.
So I must be doing something right. Never had any cases of diabetes or gout.
And if I tried to switch them to a primary diet of high-end dry food they would
probably kill me in my sleep. Or pee in my shoes for revenge. So I think I'll
just keep catering to their tastes and keep the peace.
Debbie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
body{font-family:
Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color:
#ffffff;color: black;} Isn't that the truth. We have cats that I can put
tuna in front of and they won't touch it. Then we had the one who would only
eat the Wal Mart brand Albacore tuna. When we were bottle feeding we had a
horrible time with some of them - they would still be drinking ONLY KMR if
allowed. I remember mixing home made formula (evaportaed milk, baby cereal, egg
yolk, with a drop of corn syrup) - most loved it but some refused to get near
it.
We have one cat on S/O 9prescription diet) for urinary tract infection. The
vet told us to put one of the others on it also. Patches almost died. She
stopped eating altogether. It took us forever to get her eating again. She went
anorexic. With using the abacore tuna and Friskies Pacific Salmon - she is now
back up to 10 pounds and doing great.
-----Original Message-----
From: Belinda
Sent: Mar 16, 2007 1:42 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: any other catfood suggestions
And then you have those cats that simply WILL NOT eat the "good stuff", I
can beg until I'm blue in the face, I have a few who will eat anything BUT I
have a couple who will stop eating if I only put down the "good stuff", they
just won't have it. I make the change gradually, teaspoon at a time in their
regular food, I've even had them eat it for a while after taking months to get
them switched over and then suddenly they just refuse to eat it any more. I've
gotten my group off Fancy Feast 3 times in the last several years but they
ALWAYS eventually quit eating the "good stuff" and after a few days of them not
eating they get their Fancy Feast back. I'm not happy about but I know all too
well the dangers of not eating and I ain't going there!!!
I have to disagree with some of the below. It is nice to want to feed your
cats the very best, however circumstances beyond some peoples control make that
impossible.
-- Belinda happiness is being owned by cats ... Be-Mi-Kitties
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