Confusion About Stella And Chewy's Feeding Instructions

[sidhe]

Hey everyone! I discovered these forums while researching cat food, so I thought this would be the best place to get some answers...

I more or less "adopted" a stray cat that was living in the area. She was literally starving to death when I started feeding her. Now that I've brought her in the house and she's been spayed, I've been feeding her 1/2 a cup of purina beyond's grain free cat food.

I don't really know how much she weighs or how much she should weigh. I would guesstimate that she's about 6 or 7 pounds, but she's actually gained some weight despite portion controlling her food instead of free feeding. She has a little round belly now, but she's not really fat so much as just a little chubby and is still in her ideal range. So I am assuming that the 1/2 a cup (right in the middle of what they suggest for cats weighing 5-9 pounds) is the right amount of food for her. The best way I can describe her is "petite". She's a small cat with small paws.

The only thing though is that I'm really concerned that she's not getting enough moisture in her diet. I have a water fountain for her, but I hardly ever see her drinking out of it. I used to feed her 1/2 wet 1/2 dry but she started turning her nose up at wet food so I stopped feeding it for awhile because I can't afford having it go to waste.

So I've been researching on different kinds of cat food. I wanted to switch her to an all wet food diet but that's fairly expensive, and from what I've heard, feeding raw is actually less expensive than canned food (plus it's better for them).

I was interested in Stella and Chewy's, but I'm confused by their feeding instructions. According to them I should feed her a cup of food per day. Now, I usually go by feeding instructions because I don't want to starve my cat, but 1 cup seems a little excessive? Since she eats 1/2 a cup of kibble (or 1/4 cup if I'm splitting it with wet). I would think that would be the same for any raw food, if not less because it's better quality/little to no fillers. Not double?

ps: if anyone could give suggestions on what brands are relatively inexpensive that would be great too. My budget is tight, I would like to stick to $30 a month or less, but considering I have one tiny cat that might be able to stretch?

I've heard that even cheap wet food is better than kibble, but there's so much junk in friskies that I'd like to find something a little better if possible. If not... well, since friskies is cheap and available at the grocery store, I'd just go for that and supplement it with a little bit of fortiflora.

 

[dhammagirl]

Hi!
Fancy Feast cans, of classic pate, are pretty good, they have no grains or grain products or fruits or vegetables, which cats don't need. Here in central PA I can get them a a local grocery store for .60¢ per can. Sometimes Chewydotcom has a lower price, and if I'm getting enough other stuff to get free shipping, I get it from them. I have one cat, Chloe my tiny female, who insists on the Fancy Feast tender liver and chicken classic pate mixed with the raw rabbit, she won't eat the raw by itself. The amounts of food that the manufacturer suggest feeding is huge! Go with your experience and how much your cat wants to eat and her weight.
Cats have a low thirst drive, so wet food is better than dry. Supplementing can food with some Stella and Chewy might be the way to go. Good luck, and bless you for giving her a home!

 

[2ketzels]

good morning, i agree with the above member. i feed my smaller cat Fancy Feast - she's a real fish eater - she prefers Fancy Feast Medleys - which seem to have extra moisture or, i feed her the pate fish. she's the type of kitty who like to feed about 5 times a day but she will wait if i'm out. TIP: i notice the first time she "eats" she really just sips out the moisture, the 2nd time she eats the flakes. So...what i do is sneak in some water to her bowl & mix it a little. Also, if you are a senior you might ask for a senior's discount. i live in Canada so i don't know how it works down there. GLAD to hear of your 'new' adoption; it's very kind of you

 

[MeganLLB]

If you're confused by the feeding guidelines, I would just stick to calories. Calories are calories whether its dry wet or raw. Somewhere online you should be able to find the calories in stella and chewy

 

[2ketzels]

i rarely give my cats kibble because of the problem with boy kitties and their prostates, i believe?? but when i do give them dry food it's Blue Wilderness - maybe once a month as a kind of treat.

 

[Ardina]

For the Stella & Chewy's, maybe the 1 cup is after rehydrating? Either way, I would figure out how much she can eat in one sitting, and then feed that much 3-4 times/day or whatever you can manage with your schedule. If she gains too much weight (waist tuck disappears), then feed her less. (By the way, having a round belly doesn't necessarily mean overweight - look up primordial pouch). If she's always hungry and is losing weight, feed her more. The guidelines are just guidelines because every cat is different. Some are more active, others have faster/slower metabolisms, etc. Most cats can self-regulate, especially with meal feeding.

Freeze dried raw is one option. Other things to consider are frozen commercial raw, homemade raw, and homemade cooked. I personally feed homemade raw because it's cheaper than commercial raw and less work than homemade cooked. Of course, you can feed canned food too, as long you find one that your cat is willing to eat.

 

[SinisterKisses]

We're very new to raw food also, one week in! Being so new, I wanted to start with products that were complete nutrition meals rather than home made and having to supplement myself. We've tried a couple brands of raw commercially prepared food over the last week (Stella & Chewys frozen raw and Instinct frozen raw for example) and I've found the same thing - both for my dogs AND cats. I started in the first few days by following the feeding amounts on the bag. But it seemed like A LOT of food, especially for my 5lbs Chihuahuas! One cat in particular simply never finished his meals. So I purchased a food scale and actually started WEIGHING out their food and doing the math on what they SHOULD be eating - for example, everything I've read says feed 2.5% of your cat's body weight in food per day, for a healthy weight cat that you want to maintain (or 2% for a cat who needs to lose a bit of weight). After weighing everything out for each cat and dog, the feeding instructions on the bags of food seem to be about double what they ACTUALLY should be eating.

 

[orange&white]

Since she eats 1/2 a cup of kibble (or 1/4 cup if I'm splitting it with wet). I would think that would be the same for any raw food, if not less because it's better quality/little to no fillers. Not double?
.

Purina Beyond Grain Free Kibble: 3959 kcal/kg 470 kcal/cup
Stella and Chewy Chick Chick Chicken Frozen Dinner Morsels: 1370 kcal/kg (kcals/cup not listed)

Per pound (or kg) of food, the dry food has 3 times the calories. Because dry food has all the life, I mean water, sucked out of it, it is more calorie-dense per cup. Stella & Chewy, and any canned or raw, is going to have 70-80% water.

On raw food, you generally do want to feed as a percent of body weight, rather than in cups. Stella and Chewy probably list "cups" because a lot of people don't have a scale (and/or can't do math).

Stella & Chewy's is sold in 1.25lb bags. You would want to start a cat at 2.5%...so a 10 pound cat would eat 4oz/day. A bag of S&C would be 5 days of food for a 10 pound cat at 2.5% of food/body weight.

If you prefer to go by calories, then convert the pounds to kg's, then look at calories. You'll find that S&C chicken has 776.8 calories per 1.25lb bag. A lot of people feed 20 kcals per pound of body weight. Using the 10lb cat example: 200 kcals/day...a bag would last slighly less than 4 days.

(A common mistake people make is in thinking that an 8 ounce measuring cup full of "whatever" = 8oz in weight. That is incorrect. A cup of food generally weighs less than 8 ounces. Kibble weighs a lot less than wet food per cup.)

 

[sidhe]

I went to Aldis today and checked out their store brand, one very strange thing I noticed was that their brand (heart to tail) the 5.5 oz cans were cheaper than the 3 oz cans! So I checked the ingredients of their so called "premium" 5.oz canned food made with real turkey. Well.... I'm sure there's real turkey in there somewhere.... but I noticed that the first ingredient was "meat by product" a bit alarming when they don't even specify the animal it came from!

So I checked out the beef flavor 3 oz can and the first ingredient was beef! Next ingredient was water, then liver... and then meat by-product. However I'm not expecting the perfect food at 45 cents a can. I bought enough cans to last until I can stop by petco and check out their selection since the ingredients are basically the same as fancy feast's classic pate, but cheaper.

Unfortunately she doesn't seem to be interested in it. Then again she also wanted to cuddle.... and then play with her catnip mouse until she crashed under her box. Hopefully she'll check it out if she's hungry later. If not... I only spent a couple of bucks and I know the local ferals would love having a treat. I just didn't want to have to give her kibble.

She also hasn't really been eating her food lately. (I don't think she's sick, she's soft, shiny, her eyes and nose are clear, no coughs or sniffles, she's as cuddly and playful was ever) I think it's because my mom spoils her with too many cat treats, since her cats have the same problem with eating as little food as possible and trying to live off of treats. Which is why I'm thinking about supplementing with a little fortiflora. At least until she gets used to her new food.

I'm actually a college student living at home wile I finish my degree. I know it's not the best time in my life to adopt a pet, truth be told I was going to wait awhile and potentially foster cats. But life... happened. By the time she was able to trust me, had her kittens weaned, and was healthy enough for surgery, I was way too attached to her (and she was way too attached to me!).

 

[maureen brad]

I have always found that feeding instructions on any food generally instruct you to feed more then your cat actually needs. I figure that's because they want you to buy more food. Maybe I'm just cynical. As far as commercial cat food I don't know where you live but I would not think you could go the commercial route for your car and just $30 a month. Fancy feast classic pate is a grain free food. If it fits your budget why not? I feed raw .I supplement sometimes with some freeze-dried but not too often, I get mine from a supplier and mix my own nutrients and freeze it in bulk. How much you feed your cat really depends on not only her size but her activity level. My cats each eat 6 ounces a day. All three of them weigh 10 pounds and are very very active. This weekend is been extremely hot so they have not been as active and they have also not been as hungry. I think it's trial and error, I believe in raw feeding but I wouldn't feel guilty feeding fancy feast classic chicken pate. They do need a variety in the different proteins to eat though, that way she will have a rounded nutrient profile and you can be sure she's getting a balance. Do what you can within your budget. I would totally stay away from any kind of kibble .though

 

[sidhe]

I did give her some kibble this morning because she didn't touch her wet food (which I gave her as her dinner last night). She did eat the kibble though, so it's good to know she will eat, she's just being picky about it. Looks like she'll be a little tougher to transition than I thought. Either that, or she just does not care for this brand one bit. Maybe she knows something about it I don't, because she did sniff at it and approached it more than once, but something about the smell was a turn off for her. I'll try the fancy feast classic pate next. As far as I know it's the same exact ingredients list at a (slightly) higher price point, but maybe there's a difference. I did tell mom that she's officially banned from the cat treats, so maybe that will help out.

If not... back to the drawing board. She used to like friskies and the problem is she'll eat it one meal, and then when I give the other half of the can for dinner suddenly it's not appealing anymore lol (I do have one of those can lids, so it should still be fresh). Sometimes she'll eat it just fine for awhile, and then suddenly she'll start turning her nose up at it. I am going to petco later in the week, so I'll see what brands I can find and if she likes any of them. I'm not a huge fan of friskies, but if it's the only brand she'll eat, then I'll take cheapo wet food over grain free kibble.

At least with friskies it's cheap enough where I can supplement it with some fortiflora which I've heard is good for getting cats to eat. We were going to get some anyways because at least one of my mom's cats has ibd. I know it's supposed to be used as a treatment for tummy troubles and she's perfectly healthy. But I didn't think it would be harmful to her since it's just a probiotic, and I'd just be using a little sprinkle per meal instead of the entire packet anyways. I've heard nutritional yeast also works, but I'm not to keen on how it's high in phosphorus and can change the uric acid levels.

Right now she's young and perfectly healthy, I just want to make sure she stays healthy, instead of developing diabetes or kidney problems later in life because of her diet.

 

[sidhe]

I stopped by petco today and went through all of their sales. I did go over budget, (~$20 for 14 days worth of food if I only fed her wet food) but all of the brands are high quality and grain free, and friskies is significantly under budget, so I think I can use that to sorta pad it out, and it'll work in my budget (definitely going to transition her with the friskies though instead of the good stuff lol).

 

[sidhe]

ok so I lied, I was organizing the cans and she started pacing around the room and crying, so I thought it couldn't hurt to have her try one of the new ones. So I opened up one of the little less than 3 oz wellness cans I got on sale and it started out promising the way she was begging, and a tiny bit fell on the plate while I was mixing up the pate a little and she ate that right up.

But as soon as it was on the plate.... same story as the other food. She just sniffs it and walks away. I touched the wet food with my finger and later she cleaned it up but there's just something about it being offered as a meal that she finds offensive.

This cat is going to drive me crazy.

 

[Cinnabun]

ok so I lied, I was organizing the cans and she started pacing around the room and crying, so I thought it couldn't hurt to have her try one of the new ones. So I opened up one of the little less than 3 oz wellness cans I got on sale and it started out promising the way she was begging, and a tiny bit fell on the plate while I was mixing up the pate a little and she ate that right up.

But as soon as it was on the plate.... same story as the other food. She just sniffs it and walks away. I touched the wet food with my finger and later she cleaned it up but there's just something about it being offered as a meal that she finds offensive.

This cat is going to drive me crazy.

I know the feeling. I have two cats with their own food preferences, scratch preferences... you name it!

I tried Stella and Chewy's. Couldn't get my cats to dig in. It's still sitting in my pantry after two months of trying collecting dust. I would not recommend starting with this food. I would pick something a little easier whereby you know the kcal count and you don't have to do extra preparation to make it wet. I can't tell if you know this, but make sure you're not relying on the size of the can to determine how much to feed your cat. It's kcal's that matter. How much of that is in the Stella n Chewy's or fancy Feast can. The standard amount to feed a 6-8 pound cat is 221 kcal's. But that is for a cat with a normal activity level and one that is fully grown. It doesn't sound like you know if your cat is fully grown or even know their exact weight. My two cats are 7.1 and 7.6 pounds. I feed them a little over 300 kcals a day because they are very active. I do play with them, but they also play with one another mostly in the morning and late evening.

But I digress...

Unfortunately, after you've done your research on the best food, it's going to be trial and error with your cat. But I would advise a few things before you start the experimentation.

1. Make sure you slowly introduce new foods. She may have an allergic reaction, get an upset stomach, or not recognize the smell and reject at first. So it's recommended you start with 25% of the new food and 75% of the kibble she is use to. Do that for several days. Then gradually increase the new food by 25% every few days until she is 100% on the new food. That should be around day 10.

2. While you're introducing new food, make sure you incorporate a laxative in her diet. I use Tomlyn Laxatone hairball treatment (tuna flavor). Your vet should sell some and other versions are available at pet stores. This is essential because your cat could get constipated with the change in diet. The easiest way to see how her body is responding to the new food is to check her poops. But if she stops going frequently (at least two times a day based on a normal feeding schedule) then you might not be able to tell. Her stools should be soft, not runny, with no bloody mucous. [ I would recommend you use a laxative hairball treatment regardless, especially during summer when cats tend to shed more in preparation for their winter coats to keep her regular and avoid the irritation from the hair they consume.]

3. I agree with many of the people above. I would start with cheaper foods until you figure out what she likes. Stick with meats that are less likely to cause irritation for cats. Avoid lamb and beef. Start with chicken or rabbit. I have two cats that can only eat one of the above and are allergic to the other. So one cat vomits from chicken, while the other gets blood in her stools when I introduce rabbit or lamb. But they love the foods the other cat can't eat.

4. Start with a variety pack from Fancy Feast (the classic line) and go from there. Many people posting on the internet don't recommend feeding seafood regularly because of the mercury content, but I have a cat that only eats rabbit and seafood. If I keep her to just rabbit, that severely limits what I can feed her. So start with what your cat needs first.

5. If you haven't already, make sure you take her in to the vet for a complete check up. She will be properly weighed, they should be able to guess her age, and also you can discuss feeding concerns. Here's the part you won't like-- they may find medical problems. I just adopted my cats from a rescue and one has heart problems. It's important to get those things sorted out in addition to figuring out the best diet. You want her to live a long, healthy life.

 

[sidhe]

Thank you for the advice! I have been doing some trial an error over the past few days, and I'm starting to think that her problem with rejecting certain canned foods (regardless of how cheap or expensive it is) is that she doesn't like the texture of pate food. When I've put pate food down she'll turn her nose up at it, or she'll be very hesitant about eating it and doesn't really want to eat it. However, if I put down something like shredded chicken, turkey, or beef, she'll eat it right up. Right now I'm aiming to have her eat 50-50 kibble/wet food until she can fully transition to wet food, but I've found that she'll eat her wet food and barely touch the kibble if it's shredded, and the opposite its true if I give her a pate.

I don't know if it's just my pets, but whenever I have tried to transition them by mixing their food, they will just pick out all of the new food and leave the old food sitting in the dish. At least with my cat, the dog would just make a mess by taking a mouth full of kibble, during it on the floor, and then picking out the new kibble lol. She's never had any issues with food allergies.

My cat is fully grown, but it's true I don't know how much she weighs. Like I've said before though, she's petite. She's also not very active. She's confined to my room because she's scared of the other cats. She likes to look out the window, sleep on my lap, scratch her post. Occasionally she likes to play with her catnip kick toy or chase her favorite wand, but over all I'd say she doesn't get a lot of exercise. I would say that she's a little overweight.

 

[sidhe]

Sorry this thread is mostly just me talking to myself at this point!

I was browsing others raw food threads, and seeing the options for making my own food looks really interesting, but I am pretty wary of making my own cat food. Mainly for the same reason I am wary of human supplements. I don't know if there's any sort of regulation, or any guarantee what I would actually be getting with any given supplement. At least there's some kind of standard with commercial pet food.

For right now, I think I've worked things out so she can at least eat an all wet food diet, between buying expensive brands when they're on sale and friskies (the varieties that don't have carrageenan, which is everything but the pate. which works for me since she doesn't like pate foods anyways). Now that I've discovered that her issue is with pate foods specifically and that she'll eat other textures just fine, she doesn't even really want kibble anymore.

To give you guys a good representation of her size, she looks a lot like the cat in this video, except a little chubbier. Like I've said, she's on the petite side, so her ideal weight is probably closer to 7 pounds than 10 pounds.

 

[orange&white]

There's not really any magic difference between the supplements the pet food manufacturers add to food and the supplements that we add to raw food from scratch. I do have the same wariness about "powders stuffed into little capsules" that you have though. I hope that by getting the "real food" balanced, then the minimal supplements should round out any nutritional shortages and hopefully not be too much to do harm to my cats.

I have been reading your posts here with interest, so please don't feel like you're talking to yourself due to lack of responses. You seem to be doing a lot of independent research, which is great!

 

[maureen brad]

I understand your frustration. I found a trick to get a cat to eat new food or, wet food with medicine mixed in. I bought a box of Purina Feline Fortiflora thru Amazon. It is a box with about 20 packets in it, simply sprinkle it on the food like you would season your own meal with salt or pepper. My cats will eat anything that this is on! I learned this thru Lisa Pierson DVM (www.catinfo.org) it is a probiotic but, I would not use it for that purpose, it contains animal digest , that is the same awful stuff that kibble is sprayed with to get cats to eat it. Think about it, why would a cat eat kibble? A hunk of dry as heck cardboard? Because makers spray it with this , otherwise no cat would touch kibble. it is not a natural species appropriate food, without digest they would not recognize it as edible.It is a handy trick, I have switched cats over to new food using this, wish I had found it years ago.Nutritional yeast can also work but, Fortiflora always works, I hate pilling cats too but, if they have needed medicine and the vet says I can crush the pills and mix with food I do, initially cats won't eat, they know something is in the food, when I sprinkle fortiflora, on it problem solved.Vets sell it but at considerably higher price than amazon, the box lasts forever because I rarely have to use it.I carry some in my purse in case I run into people who are having a problem getting their cats to eat, I give them away .

 

[sidhe]

I noticed an ad for the honest kitchen, and it looks pretty interesting, and it would be feasible since 1 box would last a long time with her and I wouldn't be feeding her any junky stuff, but I noticed it does the thing that a lot of pet food does these days, and lists a bunch of ingredients that are good for humans, but not so much cats and dogs (pumpkin, spinach, cranberries). I thought re-hydrated food might be a good alternative to dry food but all of the reviews say that it turns into a weird pasty texture that cats don't like.

I did order some fortiflora since my mom's cats have ibs, so I'm going to try that with her (especially since most of the on sale pet food was pate lol).

The one thing that bothers me a little is that I'm used to feeding her a mix of wet and dry, I put the wet food down as her actual meals and then dry food down in case she gets hungry during the night. These days she has no food left after dinner. Logically I know she's getting enough to eat and I have been feeding her too much food, but it still bothers me. Maybe I can get her a little treat ball or something and fill it up before bed time in case she gets hungry or bored during the night (which means banning my mom from giving her treats, which is notoriously difficult for me to do).

 

[orange&white]

If she's 3 pounds overweight you need to get your mom on board with a diet plan that gives her a set number of calories per day...and no extras. The treat ball to make her exercise for food is a great idea!