Supplementing for extra vitamins + minerals?

Juliarghh

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Hi all!:D

I have two floofs - Seb and Blu, both 6 month old ragdolls. They currently have dry kitten food in the AM (about 7am) and access to this all day, then a wet food pouch at about 6pm. I remove the wet food before bed so it doesn't attract ants and go bad etc. They're having Royal Canin and Hills Science.

My question is - is there any additives that people would suggest adding to the dry food in particular, to increase the nutrition aspect of it. Tik Tok is covered in quail eggs, freeze dried meat, goats milk etc. What are everyone's thoughts or what are you currently feeding your kitties??
 

Box of Rain

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The big issues with dry food are not a lack of vitamins or minerals, but rather the negative effects of chronic dehydration and the overload of carbohydrates that come with feeding cats kibble. Together these factors are contributing factors in most of the (all too common) illness that cats are afflicted with.

Most cats won‘t drink enough water to compensate for the dehydrating nature of dry foods, but if you could feed moisture rich foods or tempting fluids like homemade broth to compensate (to the greatest extent possible) for the dehydrating nature of dry food, it would help mitigate the negative health consequences.

Unfortunately, there is no way to counteract the carbohydrate load in dry food, other than my cutting it out of the diet. This is simply not what obligate carnivores are shaped to thrive on.

Bill
 

lisahe

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To follow up on what Box of Rain Box of Rain says about dry food, dehydration, and carbs, I'll just add that it's meat protein, not carbs that cats -- all cats but especially growing, developing kittens -- need to thrive. The more meat protein (rather than, say, pea or potato protein) in the food the better! Any AAFCO compliant food contains minimum levels of required nutrients but cats just don't need the heavy carbs that come with almost all dry foods.

Dr. Elsey's chicken dry food is the only one I know of that doesn't have fillers. We use it as a treat, small snack, and topper for one of our cats. It's very good stuff but I still wouldn't use it as a cat's only/main food. Even feeding a wet food diet (with the small exceptions from Dr. Elsey) we add a fair bit of water to our cats' diet.
 

Box of Rain

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To follow up on what Box of Rain Box of Rain says about dry food, dehydration, and carbs, I'll just add that it's meat protein, not carbs that cats -- all cats but especially growing, developing kittens -- need to thrive. The more meat protein (rather than, say, pea or potato protein) in the food the better! Any AAFCO compliant food contains minimum levels of required nutrients but cats just don't need the heavy carbs that come with almost all dry foods.
To add to what lisahe lisahe says about dry food ( :wave2: ) and the nutritional demands that cats have for animal-based protein, cats also have a similar demand for animal-based fats to stay healthy.

One additional problem with carbohydrate-based dry foods (beyond the dehydrating effects of their species-inappropriate formulas) is that in order to get cats to eat these products (that they naturally would not) is that "food scientists" have figured out how to spray on a coating of what's euphemistically called "animal digest" that they have formulated to be irresistible to cats.

Once cats' minds get hooked on eating food sprayed with animal digest, it can cause them to reject the moist animal-based meals that they require for optimal health.

Bill
 
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lisahe

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To add to what lisahe lisahe says about dry food ( :wave2: ) and the nutritional demands that cats have for animal-based protein, cats also have a similar demand for animal-based fats to stay healthy.

One additional problem with carbohydrate-based dry foods (beyond the dehydrating effects of their species-inappropriate formulas) is that in order to get cats to eat these products (that they naturally would not) is that "food scientists" have figured out how to spray on a coating of what's euphemistically called "animal digest" that they have formulated to be irresistible to cats.

Once the cat's minds get hooked on eating food sprayed with animal digest, it can cause them to reject the moist animal-based meals that they require for optimal health.

Bill
Yes to this, too, Bill! 👋 Our previous cat came to us as a serious dry food addict... We didn't know the basics of feeding cats then so it was dumb luck that we even started feeding her a daily can of Fancy Feast, for a little variety! We were lucky to be able to take our current cats off dry food a month or two after we adopted them.
 

Box of Rain

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Yes to this, too, Bill! 👋 Our previous cat came to us as a serious dry food addict... We didn't know the basics of feeding cats then so it was dumb luck that we even started feeding her a daily can of Fancy Feast, for a little variety! We were lucky to be able to take our current cats off dry food a month or two after we adopted them.
We (my wife and I) are watching what's happening to the cat that her sister adopted at about the same time we got Desmond.

Her cat has learned to reject moist food, has become obese from free-feeding dry, and is already (in under a year) showing worrisome signs of developing diet-related health issues.

We try to offer good counsel (to a person who is not overly receptive to such things) and today my wife will deliver a small assortment of quality canned foods that I've selected to see if any might appeal.

But it is breaking our hearts to see a train-wreck happening in slow motion and having little power to stop it.

Bill
 

LTS3

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My question is - is there any additives that people would suggest adding to the dry food in particular, to increase the nutrition aspect of it.
Dry cat food is already nutritionally complete for cats so adding extra supplements to it is completely unnecessary. Some vitamins and minerals are water soluble so any extra the body gets just comes out with the urine. Too much of other vitamins and minerals can cause health issues, such as too much calcium causing constipation.


Tik Tok is covered in quail eggs, freeze dried meat, goats milk etc.

People are just using those things as toppers to make the food more appealing to the cat. And I guess to the pet owner, too, to share on social media. Why not make the food look all pretty with little sliced eggs, veggies, etc on top of an otherwise boring bowl of brown kibble or canned food?

If you want to improve your cats' nutrition, ditch the dry food and only feed canned / wet food. Dry food is not a healthy food at all. You can read Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition – Common Sense. Healthy Cats. for reasons why.
 

LouisTheCatster22

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I've been using a basic multivitamin at my local store for just over a year now - Healthy Promise is the brand. Works great
 

mizzely

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You definitely don't want to overdo it on supplements... Those toppers people use should amount to 10% or less of the calories they eat in a day.

I feed primarily canned food with a bit of dry for overnight. The only additives I use for my senior are Bonnie and Clyde fish oil for the Omega 3, and glucosamine for her arthritis.
 
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