I need advice on Cat Food.

[Gothic Sponge]

My mother's cat had to take a trip to the vet because he wasn't using the litter box. The poor cat had a urinary track infection. The vet said male cats are more prone to develop this infection, and the cause of the infection is usually dry cat food that's high in ash. I have two male cats myself, and now i'm trying to find a good (low ash) cat food for all of them. Any suggestions?


They say thank you!

[CO Liberal]

1. Try Iams, Science Diet, or Nutro

If you have a PetsMart or Petco store in your area, they should have many to choose from.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Agreed, my vet recommended Nutro...

...I got my cat from the Humane Shelter when she was 7 months old. They were feeding her Nutro, and on the first checkup, the vet suggested I continue. I go to either PetSmart or Petco.

[LynneSin]

11. My cats love Nutro - I swear by it

BTW, if you go to their website - you can sign up for their frequent buyer program and they'll send you $20 worth of great coupons.

http://www.nutroproducts.com/fbpnutroReg.asp

BTW, when I switched to Nutro - my cats poop less, probably because they are getting less fillers in their cat food!

[SoCalDem]

2. There are foods that are specially formulated..

or you could get it through your vet.. The food is pricey, but with only 2 cats, it might be worth the expense.. :) They are beauties :)

[Philostopher]

5. They can be expensive, but I think some shelf brands

are starting to put out 'urinary tract' foods that are lower in ash and less expensive. There's one in the Purina One line -- don't know if it's a shelf brand or not, but I suspect this may be the one I've seen on the shelf in pet stores.

We went through this with one of ours a couple of months ago, and our vet's advice was to do something we already were doing -- add a little canned food to the diet. A good quality canned food won't hurt them, and most canned cat food is three-quarters water. She said one of the biggest problems with cats is getting them to drink enough water to keep the stuff that irritates their urinary tracts from concentrating.

She didn't want us to start our six-year-old male cat on any special kidney or UT diet because he tends to be overweight, and that's something you'll want to watch out for, too -- most of these diets can cause them to bloat up.

We've had no more trouble with Gord, so far -- he had his UTI when the weather went straight from cool to very warm, and he didn't get with the 'drink more water' program, I think. I hope we don't get to go through this every year -- he hated having his canned food mixed with water. That was the first week of treatment -- baby Amox (that cherry-flavored crud) and watered-down canned food. It's the first time since we got him from the shelter in 2000 that I've ever seen this cat refuse food.

[SoCalDem]

9. My kitties drink more water than anyone can imagine..

Skunkie harrangues me every time i run water in the kitchen, and he will not stop until I WASH the crockery bowl..fill it with water AND ice cubes..

The others line up and wait their turn.. They go through at least 2 to 3 bowls a day.. It's a BIG crock/bowl..

[MissMillie]

3. Purina One makes a dry food for "Urinary Tract" health

It's the one I use. My cats seem to be okay with it.

I usually add some kibbles of "dental health" kibble to it.

[Randomthought]

4. Your vet is out of date

It's actually too much magnesium in the diet.
The foods the others mentioned are good and also Felidae is a food that uses cranberry meal that supposed to be good for the urinary track.

Also cats can get urinary track infections for no reason what so ever--perhaps viral. The best prevention is encouraging them to drink lots of water.

[Carni]

6. Costco/Kirkland brand

"maintenance formula for cats"

5% maximum ash content

It's about 8.99 for a 25 pound bag and I swear it's science diet "feline maintenance" it looks identical to science diet and smells identical (haven't tasted it lol I am not that curious to know! )

[underpants]

7. Probably Hill's c/d

http://www.vetamerica.com/fecdry4lb.html

Tha tis what our boy has to eat-about $12 a 4 lb bag.

[sus]

8. Royal Canin is the only cat food I know of that has NO ash.

You can find it at most pet stores. I've had my cats on it since they were kittens and they love it.

http://www.royalcanin.us/

This will reduce the amount of litterbox cleanup, too. One weekend I bought a small box of Kitten Chow to hold over until I could get to the pet store and I was SHOCKED by how it just went right through them.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. wellness is the best brand

it is made from human grade ingredient. it comes highly recommended by vets and adoption agencies

[Elad]

13. Choosing a cat food is very difficult

And paying more, or getting a recommendation from your vet, is usually not the best approach. Most vet brands, even the very expensive ones that are "specially formulated" are really not good for your pet.

This is due mostly to the use of byproducts in the pet food industry. Most of the commercial and vet brands, including the so-called premium brands (like Science Diet and Iams, etc) use byproducts as their main ingredients. Byproducts are slaughterhouse wastes, non-human grade meats, roadkill, even euthanized pets. They can be made up of brain and spinal tissue of cows from the slaughterhouse (mad cow can be passed to your pet), and tumor tissue that has to be cut off from human cuts of meat. Read the label of every brand you look at, and look for phrases like "chicken byproduct," "meat byproduct," or "chicken meal." These are all indications that byproducts are used, although the use of the word "meal" does not NECESSARILY indicate byproducts, unless the label specifically says "No byproducts" then you can assume "meal" indicates byproducts.

That is the first and most important thing to avoid when selecting a cat food. The second thing to avoid is any fish ingredients (fish oil can be an exception, as long as it's not a major ingredient, it is a source of important fatty acids). Cats rarely know what is good for them, and cats loooove fish. But fish are not part of a natural housecats diet - they're extremely poor fisherkitties, and since fish can be highly contaminated with toxic pollutants, and modern day fish-raising methods are raising completely nutritionally deficient fish, plus the fact that the powerfully intense flavor of fish that cats love so much gets them "addicted" to it to the point where they will refuse other food, you shouldn't ever feed your cats fish. Also avoid beef. Chicken and turkey should make up most of the meat your cat eats.

Specifically for urinary problems, any cat food containing cranberry will be helpful. Look for a brand that is, for dry foods, lower than 35% protein. You may have to experiment, as some brands have easier to digest protein than others. Many bladder infections are caused by undigestable protein.

Also, your litter could be causing your cat's bladder problems. Most commercial scoopable litters nowadays are very bad for your cat. Not only do they contain many chemical fragrances and other pollutants that your cat absorbs, but they're very dusty. For male cats, this is the reason they're more prone to bladder infection, because that dust travels up their eurethra and causes infections/blockages (the clay ones are the worst, since when they come in contact with moisture they clump and expand - imagine getting that dust in your eurethra and then having it clump and expand!). I suggest switching to a dust-free wheat-based, non-fragrance litter.

Finally, as for diet, there are other things you should consider giving your cat at his meals, whether mixing it up yourself, or finding a cat food with these listed in the ingredients:

kelp
nutritional yeast
lecithin
acidophilus and other probiotic fermentation products
flax meal

As previously mentioned, Royal Canin is a very good food. I prefer Wysong Feline Vitality myself, but Royal Canin would be my second or third pick. Evolve is also pretty good. Don't go to pet stores, go to Whole Foods, or health food stores, and browse their pet section.

If your cat goes on antibiotics for the bladder infection, please, please, please, if you do nothing else, buy some powdered probiotic supplement from your local health food/vitamin store, and sprinkle a little on his food during and for a couple weeks after the antibiotics.

Good luck. :)

[jmowreader]

14. Comment on your "fisherkitty" comment, elad

Live Betta splendens is an important part of the feline diet.

It must be. We have a cat that's refined catching Bettas to a science.

For some strange reason, Bettas love to be petted. Every one of the two dozen Bettas we've had over the past couple of years (I keep a Betta in each tank to eat snails, which they love to do) has enjoyed swimming up to your finger and rubbing against it.

This cat sits on top of the aquarium toward the back where the power filter is and sticks her paw in the water. The Betta sees this paw, thinks it's a finger and swims up to it. Next thing you know, the cat has deployed its claws, skewered the Betta on them by slamming it into the back glass, pulled the fish out of the aquarium and devoured it. She does it at night when you can't catch her.

I buy my Bettas from a guy in town who breeds them in his spare bedroom. About once every three weeks I gotta call him. "Hi, it's Jim again. Whatcha got that's good?"

[Elad]

15. Here's a label comparison

Here is Wysong Feline Vitality's label. This is what a cat food label should look like:

DRY DIET INGREDIENTS:
Chicken, Chicken Giblets, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols as a source of vitamin E), Ground Wheat, Ground Brown Rice, Ground Corn, Ground Oat Groats, Fish Oil, Salt, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Eggs, Plums, Dried Wheat Grass Powder, Dried Barley Grass Powder, Whey, Dried Yogurt, Lecithin, Citric Acid, Natural Extractives of Sage, Natural Extractives of Rosemary, Dried Kelp, Garlic, Black Pepper, Artichoke, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Entercococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus lactis Fermentation Product, Dried Saccharomyces cerevisiae Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus niger Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product, Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

ANALYSIS: Protein 34%, Fat 15.5%, Fiber 7%, Moisture 12%

Here is Iams, for comparison, you can see the things I pointed out:

Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Rosemary Extract, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Inositol, Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate.

Caloric Distribution
Protein 28%...Fat 46%...Carbohydrate 26%

Guaranteed Analysis

Nutrient (percent)
Crude Protein not less than 32.0%
Crude Fat not less than 21.0%
Crude Fiber not more than 3.0%
Moisture not more than 10.0%
Ash not more than 7.0%
Magnesium not more than 0.10%
Taurine not less than 0.15%
Omega-6 Fatty Acid not less than 2.30%*
Omega-3 Fatty Acids not less than 0.23%*