# My Cat's Diet



## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

A topic about hedgehog nutrition got me thinking about my cat's diet. I hope you guys don't mind if I use this forum as a sounding board.  

Right now he eats a mix of dried foods that I change up every so often. One thing I know from when I worked in a pet food store is that feeding one source of food for too long can cause animals to develop allergies. Chicken seems to be the most common culprit. So the meat sources in his mix change occasionally and that is also why I decided to go with multiple foods. 

His mix is like this 

2/3 orijen or acana (sometimes both) 
1/3 wellness complete health 

soon we will be adding wellness core as well. 

Oh he only gets the dry mix in the evening in the morning he gets a small amount of canned grain free Wellness. Again different varieties. I also mix a little salmon oil in his wet food to combat shedding. 

The thing I'm wondering is if I'm doing the right thing by keeping the Wellness complete health in the mix. I really believe that grain free is best and makes the most sense as a diet for a carnivore however when we had him on grain free he was steeling toast crusts, crackers, whatever he get a hold of, since having the grains in his food this behaviour has diminished. The majority of his diet is grain free so I know he's getting the nutrition he needs to be healthy. 

When we started feeding grains it was actually an accident. I had, had a particularly busy week at school and work and we were suddenly out of food (neither myself or my BF had noticed that it was running low) It would have been fine, we were going out the next day for dinner with family and we'd pick up some food on our way. When we got to the pet store the street was closed off for a concert so the pet store was not open either. URG! by then it was too late to get to another store before it closed so we had to go to a grocery store on our way home. I found the least offensive food they had (which was surprisingly not that bad similar to Wellness just a few more grains) and that's what he ate until we got to the store. After that we tried to stop feeding the grocery store food but he would beg at the kitchen cupboard every night until we gave in and gave him a little of the grain food with his orijen. When we ran out of grocery store food I decided to buy wellness and make him a food mix. 

The obsession with the grocery store food almost seemed like an addiction to me, I know that it is possible for that to happen with foods that have high fat, sugar and grain content. I'm thinking about adding other grain free foods instead of wellness complete health when we run out. I'd feel terrible if after a few years he got sick from eating grains. On the other hand he really seems to crave them and it makes me feel like something is missing from his diet that he is getting from the foods with grains in them. 

I'd be happy to hear thoughts or food experiences.


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## Amlinals (Jul 26, 2012)

I'm a big believer in both grain free, and in rotation rather than pure repetition in the diet. 
As for craving stolen snacks, who's to say that they wouldn't be doing the same thing if you had beef jerky in the cupboard, or sardines and prosciutto on your plate? If they're begging for "extras" just offer them meat-based extras instead. It doesn't necessarily mean their diet is lacking in grain, maybe just that it tasted different and different is good, or maybe especially good when it's forbidden - like cheesecake  
I crave things all the time, good and bad things, sushi, chips, poutine, teen burgers, Starbucks frappucinos - I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean my diet is "lacking in frappucino" - although holy how much do I wish my dr. would prescribe me some of that!! Hahaha!!


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

LOL! :lol: 

You make a good point. He just gets so crazed for the grain food. And he is very convincing. I wonder if weaning him off of it slowly would help. Once there isn't any in the house he might realize it's not an option. Problem is when we get a hedgehog again there will be grain foods in the house again.


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

*Re: My Cat's Diet NEW Urination Issues!*

Last night my Cat started to have urination problems. He was peeing outside the litter box right in front of us but only very small amounts at time. The amount of urine got smaller the more he tried to pee. This morning he was trying to use the litter box every 15 minutes or so and only able to get a few drops out at a time. Needless to say I rushed him to the vet this morning. He's staying at the vet for now for tests and treatment, the vet he is at now is not our normal vet because I was only getting a busy signal when I called our regular vet.

They gave me a few possibilities, a bad bladder infection or UTI, an infection caused by crystals or a blockage caused by stones. They say if it's stones he could need surgery and we'd be dealing with on-going medicine and diet control to manage them in the long term.

They haven't called with the results yet, I'm expecting the call any minute now. But they were saying that if it's crystals or stones then the food is the problem. Thing is since I made the original post he's been on a grain free diet, of the most recommended brands I've heard of. (Orijen, Acana, Wellness Core, and Canned Grain Free Wellness, oh and recently Natural balance Green Pea and Duck) Before that though he always had a little grain in his diet. They kept pushing the prescription diet saying that the so-called Natural Brands aren't scientifically proven and the Prescription diets have science behind them. However I know that most Prescription diets are not grain free and a lot of what I've read states that grain is often the cause of these types of urination issues. I feel suspicious of the vet because they started pushing the new diet before they did any tests and because I know that the science behind the prescription diets is done by the company making the food and may not be all that reliable.

I'm seriously considering finding another vet clinic that will work with me to change his diet without trying to sell me prescription foods that I don't really trust. I'm so confused about the food issue because it really seems like everyone has different science to back up their version of the best diet for cats.


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## tigereyes319 (Nov 10, 2012)

Has your normal vet tried to push the prescription diets on you? If not I would discuss this with them. The vets get a kick back from the company if they sell the food that is why they push it so hard. Just like the drug companies for Drs. If they push one type of birth control they get a bigger discount/ kickback from it. The vet seems like it is more concerend about profit than the care of your cat. I could be wrong but... it is up to you to decide what is best for your furkid. Did they even ask you what type of food he was on before pushing the diet? If he didn't have the problems before he went grain free then he may need a little bit of junk food in his diet like the hedgies do not all the time just every so often. Just a thought is all I have no expierence with cats since I get around them and am miserable with allergies.


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

Yeah I know how they like to push the brands of food that they sell and it is a conflict of interest because they'll make more money by selling it to me. They did ask what food he is on but didn't seem to have a high opinion of grain free diets, although we did not discuss this in detail. My other vet was apathetic at the check up (I've only been there twice) and didn't seem to care what he was eating (although the secretary gave me an information package that listed Science Diet as a quality food :roll: ). My thinking is that if I want vet help with his nutrition I'll have to find a qualified nutritionist. I don't want to be fighting the vet on this every time we have an appointment. And my regular vet never impressed me too much so maybe it's just time to find a different vet. Unfortunately this will probably mean a more expensive vet 

Also I just spent a good two hours reading this web site by a vet in the states. http://www.catinfo.org it's very informative for anyone interested. It also had a little paragraph about how softening dry food with water causes some issues with bacteria growth and is making me rethink the recommendations to feed hedgehogs moistened dry food when they have trouble chewing. I think I'm just going to convert both Koloth and Tiberius to canned food and eventually a homemade diet if we can make it work. This vet grinds her own fresh meat for her cat's homemade diet and I don't see us having the space to store a meat grinder so we'd have to find a different way.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

That's rather annoying that this vet feeds her own cat a homemade diet with fresh ground meat....then turns around and pushes prescription diets and saying that the higher-end natural foods aren't good/aren't proven/etc. :roll: Be consistent, good lord. I know they make money on that kind of thing, but...still. The first care of a vet is supposed to be the health of the animal.

I'm sorry your kitty's having urination issues.  I wish I could offer help, but I don't know a ton about cats outside of basic diet requirements and such. I'm definitely going to check out the site you linked and bookmark it with my other animal info. I hope you guys can get something figured out for Tiberius, and if you guys do venture into homemade diets, you should definitely post about it! I absolutely love reading about things like that.


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

No, the vet that feeds the raw diet was the one from the website, not the one that we saw today who recommended prescription food to me.  I was probably not very clear while I was writing. 

Anyway we have Tiberius home now, we need to take a urine sample back to the vet in the morning. They gave us this special litter that won't absorb the urine when he pees. When we got home he peed right away and I was like, great if we get him to do that again with the special litter we'll take the sample back right away and we'll have this all figured out, so I replace his normal litter with the new stuff and got him to drink more water and he tried to pee again a few minutes later and as he was stepping out of the litter box he put too much weight on the edge and tipped the whole thing over. So I had to call the vet to find out if we could still use the special litter or if it was contaminated and they told me to wash it. URG! :lol: So I put in a strainer and washed it and pulled out all the hairs and dust from it as best I could. And my fiance made something to weigh down the litter box so it won't happen again. 

We've been having the worst luck lately with animal health and I just wish everything would be normal long enough to enjoy it.


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