My F2 Kitten (5 months) Will Not Eat Dry Food Any Suggestions

[Dantes]

Jacq, transitioning a cat over to dry does not mean the person only feeds the cat dry. Even if they did some high quality dry is now as nutritious as any wet and sometimes more. Water can be added to dry and the only logical reason one has against dry is it supplies to little moisture. That can be taken care of in many ways. The original poster wanted to know what "type" dry a cat would like... to that who knows?

I have posted a lot on that topic, finding a high quality dry that is also palatable to the cat.

You want an opinion... your post is not helpful and is to opinionated. My opinion.

My *experience* is that if I give my cats a single meal of dry, they will refuse to eat the next meal if it is either raw or canned. And my ragdoll gets what we call "poopy butt" (25 lb ball of fluff dragging poo all around the house, not fun). And is more likely to urinate inappropriately if he gets more than one meal of dry.

When on raw, their poo is nice and compact (and doesn't create poopy butt).

My DSH died prematurely from eating a "high quality dry" diet. Kidney failure. My hardwood floors serve as evidence and the stains remind me every day.

My other DSH didn't ultimately die from eating a "high quality dry" diet but he had 10 years of problems with crystals and PU surgery.

My opinion is that I don't like your opinion much. Kibble is nasty (see: http://www.poisonedpets.com/pet-foo...entary-available-in-media-library-collection/ *) and creates an addiction and is linked to illness in cats. I understand wanting to feed it for your convenience, but it is not a good choice if you want your cats to be healthy and live long lives.

Note: I tried to link directly to the video but was unable to, the video is halfway down this page.

 

[Dantes]

some high quality dry is now as nutritious as any wet and sometimes more. .

Where is the proof of this statement? It contradicts everything I know about kibble, which is a mosh of stuff heated to the point that it no longer has nutrients, so they have to add all the nutrients back in.

Which is more nutritious, getting all your nutrients from vitamins (these days many synthetic and/or from China), or getting all your nutrients from eating natural food?

 

[Dantes]

Out of curiosity, and you certainly don't owe me an answer, but do you work in the animal food industry?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[Jarnco5]

Becky, I have never advocated for or against a dry only diet. What I have done is acknowledge that if you can have your cat eat dry food and only dry food at times... not all the time, you will probably feel at ease leaving the cat home alone for short vacations 1 or two nights free feeding. I also know that some really good dry foods exist today. Orijen and Innova EVO turkey and chicken for cats and kittens are two of them. Those have all the essentials that a cat needs. Probably far better than most if not all wet and raw food diets on the market. That does not mean better for them (the cats) As has been pointed out they are to dry. I have always advocated mixing in something good like Nature's Variety Instinst wet (canned) and adding a few things other than that from time to time. What I did not do is judge the original question. As you know I did jump the gun a bit though in singling someone out... my bust for not being more thorough on seeing the set up of thew overall responses before getting to Jacq's post. Having read the ones before her it makes complete sense she would post that comment.

To answer your question "NO" I do not work in the food industry however that said my expertise is in human nutrition and fitness. Currently I study Regenerative Medicine, RNA interference, Targeted cancer therapies and Broad spectrum anti virals for an investment firm.

 

[Jarnco5]

I was wondering the same thing.

There is a difference if you put in the time... example my cats don't get sick on the foods they now eat. They did on the food previously fed. They are still on a wet\dry combination. Grain free is huge.

 

[Jarnco5]

Further recalls in the Raw food industry would be serious. If pet food companies get careless on dry and canned food at least those germs are killed through the process. Raw food the germs may just be frozen.

I am certainly not against raw food or arguing it's not the best. No person can say either my feeding my cats is not the best way. As has been pointed out many good diets exist. My only point is lets not be to one sided or to quick to judge.

I liked the posted video however lets apply it to all types of foods not just dry... if we do that then we are being impartial.

Thanks for posting the video it is a warning to owners who love the animals they have to research everything.

 

[Dantes]

I also know that some really good dry foods exist today. Orijen and Innova EVO turkey and chicken for cats and kittens are two of them. Those have all the essentials that a cat needs.

Then the marketing worked on you.

Probably far better than most if not all wet and raw food diets on the market.

Again, please explain how you come to this conclusion.

To answer your question "NO" I do not work in the food industry however that said my expertise is in human nutrition and fitness. Currently I study Regenerative Medicine, RNA interference, Targeted cancer therapies and Broad spectrum anti virals for an investment firm.

Now I understand why you seem so sure of your "findings." What I would like to know is whether you think a human can get all of their nutrition from some vitamin pills and/or protein powder? I know that I, as a human, would not like to eat that way, and my powers of deduction lead me to believe that I could not survive on that sort of diet.

My perspective comes from my own diet: I do not eat processed foods, I do not eat fast foods, and I don't eat any foods that are deceptive as to their contents. Yes, that means that I end up cooking most of my own food from scratch using high quality ingredients, but it's not that difficult, and results in superior nutrition. Why wouldn't I do the same for my pets? It's not that hard.

I suppose if I were looking at bags of kibble I might believe that that bag of Origen is a higher quality than Purina, but that does not mean that either of these come close to a raw or home-cooked meal. Anything that is processed means that it has had the nutrition cooked out of it and has to be artificially re-fortified; there is no way that it could be better than non-processed or minimally-processed.

 

[Dantes]

There is a difference if you put in the time... example my cats don't get sick on the foods they now eat. They did on the food previously fed. They are still on a wet\dry combination. Grain free is huge.

I don't understand at all what this means.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Further recalls in the Raw food industry would be serious. If pet food companies get careless on dry and canned food at least those germs are killed through the process. Raw food the germs may just be frozen.

There have been many recalls and significant deaths in the past few years caused by carelessness in the manufacture of dry/canned pet food. There have been many recalls in the past few years, and quite a few just this year alone, due to salmonella contamination in dry/canned food. Obviously those germs are not killed through the manufacturing process. I do not recall any instances of this happening with raw food but obviously the potential is there.

One thing to note is that most manufactured raw food (Feline's Pride, et al) are made with human grade ingredients. Such is not the case with other commercial foods which can include diseased and old animals. The quality of the protein in diseased and old animals is not as high as that in human grade meats.

 

[Dantes]

Further recalls in the Raw food industry would be serious. If pet food companies get careless on dry and canned food at least those germs are killed through the process. Raw food the germs may just be frozen.

Again, I don't understand. What further recalls? The Salmonella "recalls" are to prevent us humans from poisoning ourselves (because apparently we're all too stupid to know how to handle raw meat), not our pets. Cats have internal systems *intended* to eat food that is all germ-y. How do you think they get away with eating rats and mice and dead stuff that's been sitting around?

There is no proof that any pets have died as a result of raw food diet. On the other hand, thousands of pets have died from kibble.