[bokiluis]

My Abby also can eat endlessly. But he shares one cat of Fancy Feast (loves the Gourmet brand too!) w/his sister. In the mornings I feed them Royal Canin dry food, but, they do not run to breakfast... only dinner. The dry food is eaten slowly throw out the day. And only one bowl (1 cup) a day.

As I am writing this, I am realizing that though he is almost 8 yrs. Old, neither one of my cats "eat too much".
The Abby though is constantly willing to eat. His sister, not so much.

Though vets have told me that Fancy Feast, is like eating McDonald's everyday... after rejecting almost every other brand, they seem so happy to have a 1/2 can of Fancy Feast each. Does this sound unreasonable?

[J_9]

<moved from Medical Conditions & Diseases to Cats>

[morgaine300]

Fancy Feast isn't exactly a premium food, no. But the people who don't like it are generally the ones feeding premium, no-grain, organic, such like that, or feeding homemade. So relative to those types of foods, Fancy Feast is crap.

However, relative to dry food, Fancy Feast is great! Despite the price, Royal Canin isn't that great a food. That's all part of the marketing hype of the food manufacturing business. Price does not necessarily equate with quality -- probably the best way to put it is that the truly good foods aren't cheap, but being expensive doesn't mean it's good.

One thing I hate about it is that it contains corn, which is an ingredient that ought to be kept out of cat food. Even Friskies canned doesn't have corn. Corn is first of all a high-glycemic carbohydrate. It puts a lot of stress on their pancreas, which was made to process things slowly, not sugar rushes like carbs. (In other words, cats were meant to eat animals.) Corn is also hard to digest. While they can digest it, you're giving them something that's hard to digest every day. Your body would not like it if you ate corn every day either.

Dry foods in general have two issues. One is that that are nearly all high carb garbage. Look at the ingredients. Look at your cat. Tell me if they seem compatible. Remember a cat would eat a mouse or a rat or a bird if they can catch it or a rabbit. They would not eat a bag of over-cooked chicken meal and corn. I'm very happy your cats don't seem to like it as well, otherwise they'd probably be big fat pigs cause all those carbs turn to fat.

The other issue is that they are DRY. That can cause or contribute to problems with the urinary tract. They need moisture to help things flow through, otherwise junk can get trapped in there. I think it's less related to levels of minerals than it is to lack of moisture. They don't naturally drink a lot of water and are meant to have moisture in their prey with their meal. They generally don't drink enough on dry food to make up for the lack of moisture. Some of us believe this also helps contribute to kidney disease later in life.

Having had a cat with diabetes (from carbs) and kidney disease (probably part from dry food and partly from the stress diabetes put on them), I became a food freak. As far as I'm concerned, I gave my cat diabetes. I don't think I've ever seen a diabetic cat that wasn't on dry food. They can go into remission by switching to wet food. (Gotta be a reason for that, huh?)

So Fancy Feast is a much better food than dry Royal Canin.

And no, dry food doesn't clean their teeth. Old wives tale. Actually, the concept works, but in reality it doesn't. I'm not saying canned is going to clean their teeth either. Just that dry doesn't and it's not an excuse to feed it.

Granted, Fancy Feast isn't the greatest thing on earth, but I think it's a better choice than Royal Canin. Personally, I think the Royal Canin is like what's eating McDonalds.

So not only is the half can each reasonable if you insist on sticking with dry (it'll help but it's not much), but it's more reasonable to just dump the dry altogether. Yes, a better canned would be better, but the cats decide what they'll eat. Mine eat some Fancy Feast, Friskies, Nutro, Pro Plan... I'd rather they had more of some premium stuff, but they won't eat much, maybe a little Wellness or something here and there. I'm still happier with that than the dry.

Oh, and you can supplement with human meat, like some cooked chicken. Good quality protein. Just shouldn't be more than about 15% of their diet cause it's missing some essential stuff.

If your vet simply means there are better canned foods, there are. But many vets have never even heard of them, and if he means Science Diet he's full of you know what. If he means not to give it at all and stick with that dry, then he's also full of it. Vets, by the way, are not nutritionists. There are exceptions, but the vast majority of them know very little about food. So much of what is out there is nothing but manufacturer marketing, and that includes the hype going out to the vets.

Do some reading:
Feeding Your Cat   Know the Basi
Cat Nutrition.Org

[Sariss]

Just to put it out there, corn is pretty darn digestible when extruded (it's about 90% digestible in that form). Not defending it as a whole, but the 'corn in pet food is not digestible omg' is a huge myth.

And yeah, there's only two diets out there that I know of that clean teeth (but omg vet diets, bad bad bad). I have a cat who wakes up from anesthetic like a terror, which makes me not want to put him under again. His teeth were getting bad, so I've been feeding him a dental diet (he is impossible to brush teeth), and they are a heck of a lot better.

[morgaine300]

First, I never said it was "not" digestible. It is hard to digest. It's hard for people to digest as well. There are things that ARE hard to digest, plain and simple. I don't know what is so "myth" about it.

As for dental diets -- you think you need a PRESCRIPTION to get a food that can clean teeth? It's just bigger kibble. Explain exactly why you should have to get some "special" vet diet just to get bigger kibble. That is like a) having to get a prescription to be allowed to brush my teeth, and b) being only allowed to buy toothpaste at the dentist's. What a big marketing crock. And YES, most of the vet diets ARE bad.

I do have to wonder if you've ever actually looked at the ingredients on that junk. How about an example. When my cat first became diabetic and a vet (not my current one) wanted me to get W/D. I couldn't afford it. So he said then at least get kitten food since it was "higher protein and lower carb." Well, W/D is exactly the opposite of what he just suggested: higher carb and lower protein.

The man doesn't even know what's in the food, and yet he "prescribes" it. Another crock.

Instead of the crap vet food, why not give your cat some raw turkey necks to chew?

I can't wait until one of your cats becomes diabetic. Then you can come back and we'll discuss this again. It totally amazes me that the vet community STILL doesn't seem to make the connection between food and diabetes, and other common diseases - and I can think of very few "vet" diets that are not high-carb garbage. I don't know what "two" are dental diets, but I definitely know one of them. If you don't know what is bad about it, perhaps you too need to go do some research.

Start with the two links I gave. Spend some more time learning instead of defending those awful foods. Do they have you in their back pocket as well?

[Sariss]

Whoa, wow. Chill out. I was just saying that in the form they use it, it's digestable. I think 98% digestible, I'm not sure. I only know that because my brother works at an ethanol plant and they process corn for pet food companies and it was info he gave me.

My cat is picky. He only eats two diets, and this one helps with his teeth and managed to reverse most of the tartar already there so I am sticking to it because I am not risking another anesthesia related injury if I need to put him under for a prophy. I'm not touting it, I'm giving personal experience. I'm not a nutritionalist so I stay out of diet debates and I don't recommend diets at work BECAUSE I would want to do more research before going off about something.
The only thing I really know about the dental formula I feed him is besides the kibble size, it contains a polyphosphate blend that binds calcium to saliva that is supposed to reduce the mineralization of plaque on teeth.
But I don't use it for that mumbo jumbo. I use it because it works, and I've literally tried close to 50 diets with my cat.

I'm not sure how you felt threatened in my post to the point where you decided to all out attack me, but lay off. If you'd sit back, chill out and be a bit more tactful with your information and not so condescending, maybe people would listen to you.

[morgaine300]

Perhaps these two statements:

Not defending it as a whole, but the 'corn in pet food is not digestible omg' is a huge myth.

When I never said it was "not" digestible. So I was repeating what I actually did say.

(but omg vet diets, bad bad bad).

And this, which is a very sarcastic statement - and when you get sarcastic about something that someone else feels strongly about, and sound like you're essentially making fun of their opinions, then yes, that might make them react. Especially when at the same time it sounds like you're defending the vet diets. There are bigger food fanatics than me who would have reacted worse.

And if you weren't being sarcastic, it sure sounded like it and I otherwise don't know why you'd say such a thing in that manner.