(no subject)

[madbaker]

First, I've had days like this.

Mild trauma for the kitty yesterday -- just as he was ramping up to run laps and chase things, we forced him into the cat carrier and the car. Yowls proceeded from the unhappiest cat in the world as we drove to the V-E-T.

The visit itself was okay (unlike here, although the temperature was indeed taken) -- he mainly needed an inoculation. The vet complimented his coat, although I don't think Galen was in any mood to appreciate it.

He's now 12 pounds, 10 ounces. (Sheesh. Our previous cat seldom cleared five pounds.) The vet suggested weaning him away from the wet food, saying that it's better long-term for his teeth. I hadn't heard that before. I suppose we'll try it, although Galen likes having his teeth brushed, thanks to the poultry-flavored toothpaste. We usually brush his teeth after we clip his toenails...

Ah well. Back to work.

What I'm reading: Neal Stephenson, The Confusion (finally)

Comments

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

He's about the same size as the Harriman!

Funny about the wet food...I was just told to start feeding ti regularly to Harri and Patrick because the dry food has too many carbs, and cats were meant to eat meat almost exclusively (it's not an Atkins thing - believe me, I asked), and cats tend to gain more weight eating it.

Maybe she just meant older cats, though...

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Galen weighed more than I expected (I figured 12 pounds even), he is clearly not overweight. Long and lean, that's him.

Wet food sticking more to the teeth and causing tartar buildup makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose. farmount, want to weigh in? No pun intended. Really.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

No, it makes complete sense. Sigrid - the red girl - had been fed exclusively wet food for the six years before I adopted her. I only fed dry food to all my cats (which is why being told that the veterinary community had "changed their thinking" on this was so weird), and she hated it. She'd sniff at it, look up at me, and then go over to the fridge and yell at it. She was no dummy; she knew where the real food came from!

She's also the one who learned the meaning of the word "can" and who taught it to Harri and Patrick.

She also loved champange, but that's another story...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the "sticking to the teeth" thing, because dry food absorbs lots of saliva in the process of being eaten.

I feed my cat(s) dry food because it doesn't stink up the house, is easy, and that's what they're used to. It's possible that cats will overeat on wet food because it doesn't take much effort to get down. But weight control is a different issue than teeth.

[farmount.livejournal.com]

See my reply to madbaker about this topic... for everybody on this thread!

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Re cat food ... I am sure you'll get plenty of advice on either side of the fence.

The problem with dry food: high carbs.
The problem with wet food: tooth issues.

Either way seems to be a no-win in one aspect <g>

My vet suggested we do a mix in the long run, not all wet, not all dry (and I seem to recall farmount thought that made sense as well).

[farmount.livejournal.com]

See my reply to madbaker about this topic...

Vet notes

[farmount.livejournal.com]

I tend to tell clients to feed dry food for a few reasons:

1. they can "free-choice feed" which for most (although not all) cats means that they are unlikely to do the "gorge and vomit." It also is much more they way cats feed in the wild.
2. the same nutrition in a can versus an equivalent amount of kibble has a huge cost difference. There's a lot of water in a can of wet food, and it's expensive water. One comparison showed that if you were to figure out the cost of water in a can of cat food it was around $3.00 for 12 ounces -- pricey!
3. dry food has a mild abrasive property on the teeth, not unlike eating apples with us. No, it's not much, but it is something.

There are dry foods out there which are specially designed to prevent tartar build-up, such as T/D. I can speak from personal experience that my cat Aurora (who is now 13) had her teeth cleaned when she was 5, again when she was 13, and only had one tooth with a nasty resorptive lesion which had to be extracted. My cats love the taste of T/D and will preferentially pick it out of the bowl. Another nice thing about T/D is that in general cats do have to chew the kibbles before swallowing, so there is less of the "scarf-n-barf" syndrome. T/D is in dry form only.

Worried about carbs versus protein? Check out some of the new diets such as Purina DM (Diabetes Mellitus, although some vets jokingly call it "dead mouse") or Prescription Diet M/D which bills itself as the "Catkins diet". Both are high protein, low carbohydrate diets. Both are available in wet and dry forms.

Good things about wet food: if you need to dilute your pet's urine (such as stones in the bladder, kidney problems, etc.) then you want to feed them wet food. More water going in = more dilute urine. This is perhaps more important for dog owners who want to prevent lawn-burn from dog urine. Also, wet food tends to be more "stinky" which is appealing to cats. For cats that are not feeling well (especially if their little nose is stuffed up with an upper respiratory infection) if you take wet food and microwave it for 5-10 seconds the food becomes warm, and thus more stinky, and thus more appealing.

Why, yes, I am at work right now... :)

Re: Vet notes

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And my cats probably thank you, too. Although they'd be more happy if I stopped putting them in hats, I think.