Healthy Diet

[Jarnco5]

#1 Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken Formula Canned Cat Food - no carrageenan and in my opinion better than Innova Evo. Canned food should contain lots of moisture if used to transition a kitten from it's mothers milk.


For a kitten not getting enough hydration you can mix the above with Just born Milk replacer with equal quantity of water. My kiitens did not like the milk replacer alone.


Things to ad to your cats diet:

Plain Yogurt

Sardines - King Oscar with no salt added and in pure spring water

Chicken livers - boiled enough to kill germs

Hard boiled egg

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Dry foods are nice so when you go on a short vacation the cat or cats can self feed.

Top dry foods in nutritional value and least harmful to a cats digestive tract in my opinion are:

Orijen - chicken flavor

Innova EVO - Chicken

Natures Variety Instinct - Chicken flavore or Rabbit Meal Formula

Applaws - chicken flavor


*** Only problem is cats may not eat dry food. I suggest starting by using a blender on the dry food and keeping the resulting powder in a container to keep it fresh adding it to a canned diet to transition the cat or kitten to that flavor.

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Cats do not drink excessive amounts of water so it is crucial that their meals contain the vast majority of water they will need. High moisture levels are important for proper organ function.

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I hope this is helpful and that others will contribute with more than just adding brand opinion. Even with the brands of dry food listed taste is a major issue. The cats must like the food and that's a huge issue.

The dry foods listed above are considered pretty darn healthy so please don't just bash them because most dry foods are not. Use science and reason and I am sure we will all learn something.

 

[Jarnco5]

My intent here is not to reply to my own message rather to expand on it... I did not cover raw diets that may be purchased.

* Nature's Variety Instinct Raw -
http://www.petfooddirect.com/Produc...t-Grain-Free-Raw-Frozen-Bites-Chicken-Formula

* Freeze Dried Feline Natural Chicken & Lamb Feast - http://felinenatural.com/

Click on shop online at the top of that link then location and then scroll down to the cat food. If you click on the cat food you will then get a breakdown of ingredients.

* Feline's Pride Premium Raw Cat Food - https://www.felinespride.com/

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A snack potential not to be forgotten - homemade chicken jerky. I found this link in a thread already on this forum however am re-posting it. Hope nobody takes offense ;-)

http://www.shop.joeysjerky.com/

 

[Jarnco5]

Once again I find myself posting on nutrition and in my ow thread... lol

I was caught up in trying to find what is correct for my cats and these are my current thoughts:

Canned and Dry 50-50 mix is my goal. (wet food and dry compliment each other)

Canned food will be: Nature's Variety Instinct - chicken, duck and rabbit flavor.

Dry Food will be: Innova EVO - chicken flavor.

Current dry food rankings in my opinion in regards to being healthy and in regards to my cats taste:

#1 Innova EVO - chicken flavor
#2 Orijen - chicken flavor

#3 Natures Variety Instinct - Chicken or Rabbit flavor.

My cat "Archer" liked both EVO and Orijen chicken over Instinct Rabbit... it seemed he liked Innova more however it has not been tested directly with Orijen - chicken and was only tested against rabbit flavor Instinct. Archer was back and forth with Orijen Chicken and Instinct Rabbit so I need to test Instinct Chicken. No back and forth with EVO chicken and Instinct rabbit, he liked EVO chicken period and that's why the #1 rating for Innova EVO chicken at this time over Orijen chicken. Note: Orijen costs the most and EVO also has far more protein.

Cats can be feed twice a day however to keep them from eating large meals that encourage vomiting you feed three times a day in smaller portion. Try to ensure they stay excited at meal time to the point they want to climb your leg in the case of an F2 or F1 Savannah. If they eat fast and act hungry try a small portion more... if they ever walk away take it away.

Raw foods and homemade are not needed and hard to get the nutritional balance correctly. Snacks only serve to knock delicate nutritional balance off. Raw foods run bacterial risks as well... good idea wrong in practice... in my opinion.

When feeding extra cut it down to 3 times a week max.... 2 times a week an egg\sardine mix, sardines free of salt and packed in water and 1 time a week milk replacer mixed with wet food in this case Nature's Varriety Instinct canned. (this would be beneficial if kept limited like this) No snacking as it creates begging.

I cut out Yogurt as cats are not real big on it and a milk replacer has pro-biotics and other good stuff.
Thus you don't need Yogurt for pro-biotics. Sardines have nice Omega's and eggs are filled with good things. Egg whites are healthy when cooked if serving raw and I won't then take the white out.

The fact to me is the canned and dry should be a good brand and like it or not are probably the best for the cat nutritionally. I think a lot of us just get to caught up and over think things when it comes to our Cats

 

[admin]

Great post - thank you!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jarnco5]

You're Welcome...

I have been caught up in trying to figure out the best diet for my cats... and having them like it.

For dry food it's Innova EVO - Turkey & Chicken (Grain Free) and for canned it's Nature's Variety Instinct - any flavor that does not have pork so I dropped the rabbit flavor because it's got pork.

I will supplement the diet with these things three times a week... Sardines, Egg, powdered kitten milk for nutrients and pro-biotics and chicken and turkey or parts of them like liver and hearts.

I think over that is over thinking things... these are easy and clean unlike raw food that probably stands to harm the cat more than some of the things we tend to worry about in canned or dry food. Raw may be natural it does not really translate to the best.

I still have to perform the flavor test on Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken vs. Orijen... in the dry category.

 

[admin]

You're Welcome...

I have been caught up in trying to figure out the best diet for my cats... and having them like it.

For dry food it's Innova EVO - Turkey & Chicken (Grain Free) and for canned it's Nature's Variety Instinct - any flavor that does not have pork so I dropped the rabbit flavor because it's got pork.

I will supplement the diet with these things three times a week... Sardines, Egg, powdered kitten milk for nutrients and pro-biotics and chicken and turkey or parts of them like liver and hearts.

I think over that is over thinking things... these are easy and clean unlike raw food that probably stands to harm the cat more than some of the things we tend to worry about in canned or dry food. Raw may be natural it does not really translate to the best.

I still have to perform the flavor test on Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken vs. Orijen... in the dry category.

Let us know how it goes...we really appreciate you sharing this as I think your posts will help many others...

 

[Jarnco5]

Paige,
My cats tested the dry food today, Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken (grain free) vs. Orijen Chicken also grain free... The winner for my cats was Innova Evo.

One cat seemed to go back and forth somewhat however favored and ate more of the Innova Evo and the other completely favored Innova Evo.

Paige, You probably know this however for those who don't both those brands are in the highest quality dry foods.

Odds are if someone wants a high quality dry cat food Innova EVO would be the easier one to get your young cat to shift over to from moms milk or wet food. Kittens can be tough however getting them used to the flavor helps. My cats love any flavor wet food. Just use a blender if you must to powder the dry food up and add to the wet food during transition and then later transition to the way the bag of dry comes as they learn to accept it.

I am sure they might like some cheaper brands better however the purpose was to find a high quality cat food my cats would like and now I have done it

In my home the staple of the diet is now:
Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken (grain free) for the dry food
and
Nature's Variety Instinct for the canned - flavors without pork best in my opinion.

This is healthy and the most palatable of the healthy foods as far as my testing. I think canned and dry are both needed in a cats diet. Wet is mostly moisture and dry is well dry however nutrient dense.

My cats still get the snacks I mentioned in earlier posts. They loved the egg next to the regular food served today.

 

[Michaela]

Paige,
My cats tested the dry food today, Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken (grain free) vs. Orijen Chicken also grain free... The winner for my cats was Innova Evo.

One cat seemed to go back and forth somewhat however favored and ate more of the Innova Evo and the other completely favored Innova Evo.

Paige, You probably know this however for those who don't both those brands are in the highest quality dry foods.

Odds are if someone wants a high quality dry cat food Innova EVO would be the easier one to get your young cat to shift over to from moms milk or wet food. Kittens can be tough however getting them used to the flavor helps. My cats love any flavor wet food. Just use a blender if you must to powder the dry food up and add to the wet food during transition and then later transition to the way the bag of dry comes as they learn to accept it.

I am sure they might like some cheaper brands better however the purpose was to find a high quality cat food my cats would like and now I have done it

In my home the staple of the diet is now:
Innova EVO Turkey and Chicken (grain free) for the dry food
and
Nature's Variety Instinct for the canned - flavors without pork best in my opinion.

This is healthy and the most palatable of the healthy foods as far as my testing. I think canned and dry are both needed in a cats diet. Wet is mostly moisture and dry is well dry however nutrient dense.

My cats still get the snacks I mentioned in earlier posts. They loved the egg next to the regular food served today.

Hi
Thank you for all the posts.
Love the post and all the information .
I am a new SV and Bengal mommy and learning a lot from this site.
I have a SF boy that I took off the Iams dry food that the breeder had him on because of diarrhea that is now gone. He was on raw and dry.
Now I use raw only.
Can I use Grain-Free Freeze Dried Cat Food for snaking when I am not home instead of dry food? Is it better then dry cat food - like Stella & Chewy's Grain-Free Freeze Dried Cat Food.
Are there better freeze dry food out there.

Any advice.

 

[Jarnco5]

Michaela,

My cats were on Innova EVO wet and Royal Canin when I got them... My cats puked a lot on that and one had bloody stools and specks of blood in his barf. Cut the Royal Canin and went grain free dry and no problems, also switched the canned to Instinct non pork containing flavors. All healthy happy cats now.

As far as Freeze dried being left when not home, if you left it with no water that would not be good for the cats, might dehydrate the cat. If you added the water to the food then it would run the risk of bacteria growing on it because it would be being left out in large quantity right?

I am not of the school that raw freeze dried is better. I do believe you need to find a high quality dry and I have. Dry is harder to get cats to switch to though. At least from my observations. That does mean it's not healthy. I use grain free.

Yes, cats can get dehydrated from dry food too, however its made to be served dry. Freeze dried is not made to be served dry. Can you yes, if your cat will eat it? I always have fresh water on hand.

Many cats are on all dry food and most will drink enough water and live long lives. That said I serve a combo of wet and dry boosted with healthy extra's. Eggs, Sardines (packed in water no salt added) etc..

With the freeze dried the companies claim the drying processes they use kills bacteria so I favor it over frozen raw that has a higher likelihood of bacteria . I don't like dealing with frozen raw... to much potential for bad bacteria in my opinion.

Read my posts in this thread will give an idea of extra's to add to the diet.

This is a partial list of the dry raw cat foods available today:

Prowl - cat food - all ingredients dehydrated

Stella & Chewy's - all ingredients freeze dried

ZiwiPeak - all ingredients air dried

Grace - all ingredients dehydrated

Sojo's - all ingredients freeze dried

Addiction - all ingredients dehydrated

Wysong - all ingredients freeze dried

Only Natural Pet - all ingredients dehydrated

Primal - all ingredients freeze dried

Feline Natural - all ingredients freeze dried

Vital Essential - all ingredients freeze dried

Grandmas Lucy's Artisan - all ingredients freeze dried


As you can see it's gotten competitive and the marketing ploy is to claim it's better for your cats. I personally don't buy it. If you find a good one and maybe the one you use is, you would be better than me at informing others why you find it better for your cat than a "quality high meat grain free dry"? From your own info your cat was not on a high quality dry food. That means you never tried one am I correct?

I am open to being educated... adding water to freeze dried makes it a real raw again and bacteria can grow without thorough cleaning after feeding.

Lots of people on this forum are probably more experienced with freeze dried than I am and I hope they chime in here.

I tried raw that was frozen... cats ate it however they eat canned with as much if not more enthusiasm.
That's why I picked a healthy canned food to mix with my quality dry food.

 

[John Popp]

I'm pretty sure your breeder is the same as mine and I am still miffed at what they send people packing with. They primarily feed raw, but transition outgoing kittens to both dry and canned. I haven't had any issues with loose stools with our new kitten, but in large I think that was because he was a few weeks older and better prepared to come home than our first.

Currently we are doing a slow transition back to a full raw diet. I still like them to be comfortable eating canned and dry as for short stays away from home it just makes it easier on their caretaker. Also, being accepting of some kibble allows us to put them on 24 hour auto pilot if we need to go away on an overnight trip. Just can't always have someone providing their raw food 3 times a day or twice a day for canned/dry.

With our new boy no loose stools nor digestive issues. His trek to getting on a complete raw diet is much more thought out than the last time, and what you sort out in the first few months will set the road map for what they want to eat moving forward. I definitely don't expect the same robustness in all the food I put in front of them, just need to know they'll eat it and at the end of the day still have a preference for their raw diet.