For cat servants [Purina Cat Naturals?]

[simpsontruckdriver]

For those of us who have cats, we know we do not own them, they are rulers and we are their servants

Question is food. I give my 10-ish year old Ginger Tabby "Taste Of The Wild", but the food bill is starting to get tight for the both of us. I buy it at PETCO, but their PetcoPals rewards program just dropped from $5/$100 (5% rebate) to $5/$165 (3.03% rebate), and due to my wife's 4-month sickness then death in January I can't get their credit card. I went to Sam's Club, and their pet food section is somewhat discriminatory. An aisle-and-a-half is devoted to dog food, less than half of an aisle is cat food. The cat food is Meow Mix, cat version of Kibbles-n-Bits, and Purina Cat Naturals. They have Fancy Feast canned food, but canned food is pretty much universal (meat and juices). Has anyone fed their pussycat Purina Cat Naturals and had good results?

I understand cats are like humans, they either like the food or they don't. Unlike dogs, who will eat (*heheh*)

 

[Eric B]

We had been feeding our cats 4Health from Tractor Supply, but on our last trip out of town our farm sitter gave them Friskies Shreds and they seem to like it better. They do seem to have their preferences for what they eat....

 

[nomoretslt]

Ha. Exactly right. A couple of questions first about your cat. Is it indoors only, outdoors only or a little of both?

We took in a cat a couple of years ago (her elderly owner passed away and no family member was able to take in the cat). We’ve had cats for 40 years and were catless at the time. This cat only eats crunchies and not a lot. Since we only have the one cat for now we have been purchasing the higher priced blue buffalo. We’ve tried giving her fancy feast wet and she just has no interest in it. Our previous cats were constantly vomiting.....we fed them wet nine lives or friskies and 9 lives crunchies. Other than that the cheaper stuff was fine.This newest cat never gets sick except for the occasional hair ball. I don’t know if it’s because of the food or because she doesn’t gorge herself.

If your cat is not a show cat, I would go with cheaper brands. Tractor supply used to have sales on their food and we would price shop....sometimes the grocery store had a better deal, sometimes Rite Aid would.

The thing of it is.....they can be finicky. But they will eat when hungry enough. Usually...

Have you checked out chewy.com for the brand you buy now? They will sometimes run specials for first time customers and I’m pretty sure delivery is free. We once did a big order for cat litter because the price was great and we didn’t have to lug home the heavy bags. Our daughter also gets the food from there.

Maybe buy a smaller amount of different food to see if your cat likes it? I know you said money is tight right now.

Cats rule, dogs drool! J/k. I like dogs, other people’s dogs.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

Simba is an indoor show cat... I like to show him off to friends online

He has more than enough of his current dry food, so I can shop around, and maybe get a small bag of the Purina Naturals to see if he likes it. He loves beef and chicken, not a fan of seafood other than Tuna. I thought about 4Health, but Naturals is cheaper. When he and his (late) sister were kittens, they liked Blue Buffalo, but within a year, they no longer liked it. So, I am fully aware felines are finicky eaters!

TS

 

[JudyH]

My 11 year old boys, house cats, have always been on Avoderm varieties, grain free. So far very healthy. A bit of dry Blue Buffalo mid morning. Great weight, no bladder stones like other house cats on cheaper foods had in the past.
Can’t get Advoderm from any place now so switched to 4 Health fromTractor Supply.
The many barn cats we had over the years got cheap Friskies and Purina. The barn cats had their shots and never got sick at all. Hurt sometimes but never sick like the house cats did.

 

[dioxide45]

Any food you do try to switch over to, be sure to follow the proper transition process of mixing it with the cats prior food. So don't run out of the old stuff before you buy new stuff. You will need some of the old stuff to mix in with the new for a few weeks.

 

[Sandi Bo]

Any food you do try to switch over to, be sure to follow the proper transition process of mixing it with the cats prior food. So don't run out of the old stuff before you buy new stuff. You will need some of the old stuff to mix in with the new for a few weeks.

So I thought that was only a dog thing. My poor cats (although we don't change often).

 

[Sandi Bo]

We were almost exclusively using chewy.com autoship. Love it. For the dogs and cats. We were using science diet (whatever age, etc, seemed best for them). Just got a new German Shepherd and he's getting Royal Canine (that's a whole 'nother topic), point being we aren't a strictly Science Diet/Chewy family anymore.

And here lies the difference in this house. I buy dry food only for the cats, and would have stayed with Science Diet, including for the pup. I think the dry food is good for their teeth, and they eat it. DH Christmas shopped for them and there is all kinds of canned food around right now. He feeds them the canned, not me. He also is responsible for the Royal Canine. This is why I can be up for hours before DH, sitting here on my computer on the kitchen counter and as soon as DH is up and walking in the kitchen, he's like the Pied Piper with 2 dogs and 2 cats at his feet. PS he hates cats, so he says.

Our cats go outside and supplement as you can well imagine, we have a doggie door. I'll spare you the pictures.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

I am fully aware of the transitioning from one cat food to the next, Simba has a habit of changing his food likes every year or 2.

TS

 

[CalGalTraveler]

We buy Iams Hairball care for 2 cats (inherited) and Hills c/d urinary RX for our old longhair. We also give them a spoonful of fancy feast at night. It is so much fun to see them come running for this. If we are late, they like to hang around to "remind" us. We buy fancy feast pate (no gravy) by the case from Amazon. It lasts 2 nights because we split a small can and they just get a teaspoonful. Dry food from Chewy or grocery store.

We are definitely cat servants. Our old guy is a Nebelung rescue and refuses to use a once used litterbox - even if scooped. I change litter every day for him or he sprays in the house.

We also give them probiotic supplement with the Fancy Feast to prevent their poop from smelling foul.

 

[DaveNV]

Our cat was rescued as a kitten from a Seattle cat rescue group. Kai is soon going to be 6 years old, and is indoors only. He is pampered, but not spoiled. He rules the house, of course, and he treats our two Mini Dachshunds like the chew toys he thinks they are.

Despite our best efforts to spoil him, this cat insists on eating only dry food. He simply will not eat wet food, no matter how much we've tried. No canned food of any sort has been deemed acceptable, and even something like fresh tuna or salmon is ignored. He wants his choice of dry food, and lots of clean water to drink. He will accept pieces of a freeze-dried fish snack treat thing, but that's about it. Oh, and he'll eat the dog's kibble, if I offer him one. But only one piece. A second piece goes uneaten. Strange cat.

We offered him his choice of several brands of dry food, and he chose "Whole Hearted Healthy Benefits" (grain free, easy digestion, chicken and egg product. We get it at Petco.) His nightly snack is "Pure Bites freeze-dried Wild Salmon Bits." He's happy, healthy, and seems content. We have the food in a multi-day self-feeder, and he eats as he wants to. Never gorges, but he does eat a few bites several times throughout the day.

After moving to the Nevada desert last year, he started vomiting daily. We figured out the artificially-softened tap water here makes him throw up. So now he gets bottled water, which goes down fine. He has his own little moving-water fountain thing. And since the cat also sometimes drinks from the dog's water dish, they also now get bottled water. Everybody seems to be doing fine.

Good luck finding something your cat likes that fits the budget.

Dave

 

[clifffaith]

Cats. It's always something. Right now Jackson is refusing the same pate he ate before we moved. That might have something to do with no longer feeding a stray cat on the back porch. I suspect he was eating just to be sure the outdoor cat wasn't going to get it. Now he will only eat Fancy Feast Grilled varieties, while Mocha eats the pate. He doesn't know how close to starvation he is -- I have four cans of Grilled left and yesterday's trip to Von's was a bust. He has also decided to turn his nose up at the "brown" crunchies (meaning the more healthy varieties) and I've had to buy him "red" dry food. Mocha will eat both, but the bowl of brown can sit for days before she nibbles it down (or I toss what's left and refresh it).

 

[stmartinfan]

Wow, Dave, how smart to figure out that the softened water was causing the issue!

Yes, I suspect most pet owners are “in service” to their animals. Our dog knows when it's time for her nightly food and proceeds to sit in front of my husband and stare at him with an evil eye type look until the food gets dished!

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

In addition to dry food, I give Simba a can of "wet" food 3x per week. A few weeks ago, I was putting it on his plate, he did his usual meow to tell me to hurry it up. This one time, as I was putting it down, he growled as if to say "Geez, servant, could you take any longer?! I am starving!" He has been a great encouragement after my wife's death in January. He took it hard (not eating much, over-grooming), but he's back to his normal self.

TS

 

[GTLINZ]

An odd tidbit - but our vet is a cat expert who has been on animal planet multiple time. She suggested (and we found this works) to keep the water bowls away from the food bowl. We keep water bowls/short glasses in multiple places and since we started that many many years ago all of our cats drink water more often.

She said cats in the wild take their food off away (for anyone seeing them try to bury their food after eating some of it) and it is natually a different place than their food source.

And we only use filtered water. It is cheaper to keep them healthy and water is critical for all of us.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

Simba actually trained us on that (water). We had both food and water on the floor next to each other. One day, we were having issues with the toilet in the next room, so we had a pitcher of water on the counter. Next thing you know, he was drinking from the pitcher! So, it's been there ever since, it's the perfect height for him.

TS

 

[DaveNV]

Wow, Dave, how smart to figure out that the softened water was causing the issue!

Thanks. It was strange, because he never had a vomiting issue before we moved here. So we figured it had to be something different here. The food was the same, but the water is very different here. He'd eat, drink water, and within a few minutes would throw up undigested food and clear water. We thought we'd try bottled water, since we drink that (it tastes better than the softened stuff) and that was the key. There have been a few times when I've forgotten and filled the dog's dish with tap water (they have no issue with it) and the cat would start throwing up again. That was how we figured out the cat was drinking the dog's water. Changed out the dog water for bottled, and the problem stopped. So it was pretty specific. Now it's part of the feeding routine, and we buy six-packs of two-gallon jugs at Costco. Not terribly expensive, and the animals are happier for it.

Dave

 

[clifffaith]

 

[VacationForever]

Thanks. It was strange, because he never had a vomiting issue before we moved here. So we figured it had to be something different here. The food was the same, but the water is very different here. He'd eat, drink water, and within a few minutes would throw up undigested food and clear water. We thought we'd try bottled water, since we drink that (it tastes better than the softened stuff) and that was the key. There have been a few times when I've forgotten and filled the dog's dish with tap water (they have no issue with it) and the cat would start throwing up again. That was how we figured out the cat was drinking the dog's water. Changed out the dog water for bottled, and the problem stopped. So it was pretty specific. Now it's part of the feeding routine, and we buy six-packs of two-gallon jugs at Costco. Not terribly expensive, and the animals are happier for it.

Dave

You may want to look at having reverse osmosis system installed. We did a single tap/faucet one where the company installed under the kitchen sink in our previous home here and our current home has a whole house R/O system. We absolutely love it. We also have softened water which is great for not having calcium build-up but definitely not healthy for drinking. The single sink one was done by a local company here, and marketed with/by Costco. We hated the company and do not recommend them.

 

[dioxide45]

There are also several self install under sink R/O systems available on Amazon.

 

[DaveNV]

You may want to look at having reverse osmosis system installed. We did a single tap/faucet one where the company installed under the kitchen sink in our previous home here and our current home has a whole house R/O system. We absolutely love it. We also have softened water which is great for not having calcium build-up but definitely not healthy for drinking. The single sink one was done by a local company here, and marketed with/by Costco. We hated the company and do not recommend them.

We had a new R/O system installed when we moved into the house. It didn't matter - the cat still threw up. I have no idea why. But it's easy to stick with the bottled water, since that is working.

Dave

 

[VacationForever]

We had a new R/O system installed when we moved into the house. It didn't matter - the cat still threw up. I have no idea why. But it's easy to stick with the bottled water, since that is working.

Dave

Mm... do you have a TD/PPM meter? Measurement has to be below 20 PPM dissolved solids, otherwise the R/O system is not working as advertised. You can pick a cheapo Made in China TD/PPM meter from Amazon for less than $20. I use the TD/PPM meter for my hydroponics.

 

[DaveNV]

Mm... do you have a TD/PPM meter? Measurement has to be below 20 PPM dissolved solids, otherwise the R/O system is not working as advertised. You can pick a cheapo Made in China TD/PPM meter from Amazon for less than $20. I use the TD/PPM meter for my hydroponics.

I don't. I'll check into it. Thanks.

Dave

 

[msvca]

We have fed our cats Purina Cat Chow Naturals Indoor cat food for years. We have tried other foods like Friskies or Meow Mix and this seemed to be the preferred food. We have had to switch one of our cats to a Royal Canine variety for digestive issues and it is a lot more expensive but cheaper than the vet bills. I would suggest trying the Purina and see how it works for your cat.

 

[DaveNV]

Mm... do you have a TD/PPM meter? Measurement has to be below 20 PPM dissolved solids, otherwise the R/O system is not working as advertised. You can pick a cheapo Made in China TD/PPM meter from Amazon for less than $20. I use the TD/PPM meter for my hydroponics.

Ok, so I bought a cheap one off Amazon, as you suggested. I checked the RO water. It reports 19ppm on average. I tested it a number of times. Ran the RO water for a bit, captured a few ounces in a glass, stirred the water around with the end of the tester, and it averaged as low as 17 and as high as 21. Most often it was 19, spot on. The LCD indicator screen stayed green.

By contrast, the tap water, which is artificially softened with salt pellets, returned more than 500ppm. The LCD indicator turned red.

What does this mean? Google is telling me these numbers are not unexpected.

And I still don't know why the RO water makes my cat throw up.

Dave