food quality/matted fur

[abnihon]

Is there a correlation between quality of food and knots and mats in the fur of long-haired cats?

For the past few months we've been feeding them The Good Life brand from Walmart because the price is pretty good.

But we feel that there's been a significant increase lately in matted fur on 2 of our Maine Coons.
Could there be any correlation?

I'm thinking about trying a Maine Coon specific food like Royal Canin and see if that helps.

They also have had on and off soft stools for awhile which could definitely be the food.

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by abnihon

Is there a correlation between quality of food and knots and mats in the fur of long-haired cats?

For the past few months we've been feeding them The Good Life brand from Walmart because the price is pretty good.

But we feel that there's been a significant increase lately in matted fur on 2 of our Maine Coons.
Could there be any correlation?

I'm thinking about trying a Maine Coon specific food like Royal Canin and see if that helps.

They also have had on and off soft stools for awhile which could definitely be the food.

A bit more info might be in order here but I'll make an initial dive in

I love Maine Coons. One of mine is a Maine Coon/Siamese mix. I feed free feed her Nutro Max Indoor roasted chicken dry kibble and feed her Nutro Natural Choice wet 2x daily. For variety I sometimes throw in other high end wet for her and my other cats. She never has a matted coat or dry, flaky skin. Of course heat and air conditioning can affect your cat's coat on the dry skin issue but probably has little effect on the matting.

I'm not a huge fan of the "breed" specific foods offered by some companies. I find this to be more of a marketing tool for the company than anything else.

You did not say if your cat gets an all kibble, all wet or mixed diet. If you're going to change the cat's dry kibble, mix it with what she's eating now for a gradual conversion to the new kibble. There should be no problems with changing her wet food right away.

If you are not currently using an Indoor formula that is what I would suggest you do. It tends to be higher in protein and lower in fat. I feed premium food and brush my cats daily. I've never had a matting problem with any of them. Post what you decide to do and if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

 

[minka]

Originally Posted by abnihon

Is there a correlation between quality of food and knots and mats in the fur of long-haired cats?

For the past few months we've been feeding them The Good Life brand from Walmart because the price is pretty good.

But we feel that there's been a significant increase lately in matted fur on 2 of our Maine Coons.
Could there be any correlation?

I'm thinking about trying a Maine Coon specific food like Royal Canin and see if that helps.

They also have had on and off soft stools for awhile which could definitely be the food.

I consider The Goodlife to be junk food on par with Friskies/Fancy Feast.. >__< First ingredients being corn and by-products could definitely degrade the quality of your cats coat, giving them more mats.

Originally Posted by NutroMike

I'm not a huge fan of the "breed" specific foods offered by some companies. I find this to be more of a marketing tool for the company than anything else.
^This.
A cat is a cat is a cat. Maine Coons don't need different nutrition from a Biritish Shorthair or a Norwegian Forest.

If you are not currently using an Indoor formula that is what I would suggest you do. It tends to be higher in protein and lower in fat. I feed premium food and brush my cats daily. I've never had a matting problem with any of them. Post what you decide to do and if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

I don't know where you get this idea, because every Indoor formula I've seen has LESS protein and fat because the idea (though false) is that indoor cats get less exercise, and therefor need less calories, so they reduce protein and fat. Unfortunately more carbs = more weight gain.

 

[abnihon]

I forgot to mention that they also get Fancy Feast wet food every day. They share and each cat gets about half a little can daily.

The Royal Canin Maine Coon mentions it had omega 3s for silky coat. Is this just marketing?
Or might it help to prevent matting?

Any other food brands you'd recommend for long-haired cats?

We do run our a/c constantly in the summer.
Maybe the dry fur mats more easily?

 

[minka]

Originally Posted by abnihon

I forgot to mention that they also get Fancy Feast wet food every day. They share and each cat gets about half a little can daily.

The Royal Canin Maine Coon mentions it had omega 3s for silky coat. Is this just marketing?
Or might it help to prevent matting?
Omega 3's Are better for the coat, but there are many other foods that have it included that you don't have to pay more for. A food that says it is for a certain breed is just marketing.

Any other food brands you'd recommend for long-haired cats?

We do run our a/c constantly in the summer.
Maybe the dry fur mats more easily?

The food brands I'd recommend for any cat are: Innova, Evo, Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Natural Balance, By Nature, And Simply Nourish. There are many more however.

 

[kluchetta]

When we got Clyde (he is short haired, but it's VERY VERY thick), his coat was badly matted. After several months of eatin grain free dry and grain free wet, his coat was better.

Now, several years later, his coat is beautiful, and doesn't mat at all.

 

[Willowy]

I do think food quality plays a part in matting, but I'm not sure what nutrient does this. I have twice had longhaired strays (too shy/wild to catch at first) show up completely matted, and within a month or so of eating from my feral feeding station, lost their mats and grew lovely coats and didn't mat after that. But the weird thing is that I just feed my ferals Purina Cat Chow, which isn't a great food. What were their former owners feeding them?!? It must have been pretty bad.

And my cats never used to mat at all (eating a dry mixture of TOTW, 4Health, Chicken Soup, Diamond Naturals, and one other brand of similar quality, depending what I find on sale). Now that I switched them to 50/50 dry/canned (canned foods being Triumph, Friskies, Sophistacat, and a few others depending what I find on sale), they do mat a bit--not badly, but more than they used to. I think maybe higher fat foods help prevent matting.

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by Minka

I consider The Goodlife to be junk food on par with Friskies/Fancy Feast.. >__< First ingredients being corn and by-products could definitely degrade the quality of your cats coat, giving them more mats.


I don't know where you get this idea, because every Indoor formula I've seen has LESS protein and fat because the idea (though false) is that indoor cats get less exercise, and therefor need less calories, so they reduce protein and fat. Unfortunately more carbs = more weight gain.

Whoops!!! My bad. I meant to say LESS protein! mea culpa

BTW, depending upon the cat, the idea of indoor cats getting less exercise is not false. Unless the owner of an indoor cat keeps them really busy, the indoor cat will get far less exercise than an outdoor or an indoor/outdoor cat.

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by NutroMike

If you are not currently using an Indoor formula that is what I would suggest you do. It tends to be higher in protein and lower in fat. I feed premium food and brush my cats daily. I've never had a matting problem with any of them. Post what you decide to do and if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

^EDIT - Sorry folks, I mistyped some info here. An indoor formula tends to be LOWER in protein than higher. I must have been having a brain dead day

THANK YOU Minka for pointing it out to me

 

[Willowy]

Yes, but protein and fat don't make cats fat, carbs do. So why should someone switch their less-active indoor cat to a higher-carb food?

I don't think she meant that it's false that indoor cats get less exercise, because that's true most of the time. What's false is the idea that less exercise should equal less protein and fat in their food. They need more protein, less carbs, to maintain healthy body mass.

 

[minka]

Originally Posted by NutroMike

Whoops!!! My bad. I meant to say LESS protein! mea culpa

BTW, depending upon the cat, the idea of indoor cats getting less exercise is not false. Unless the owner of an indoor cat keeps them really busy, the indoor cat will get far less exercise than an outdoor or an indoor/outdoor cat.

Oh no, I worded that oddly. I meant that the false thought is because they need less calories, they should have a different kind of food, and one with more carbs to top it off.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Yes, but protein and fat don't make cats fat, carbs do. So why should someone switch their less-active indoor cat to a higher-carb food?

I don't think she meant that it's false that indoor cats get less exercise, because that's true most of the time. What's false is the idea that less exercise should equal less protein and fat in their food. They need more protein, less carbs, to maintain healthy body mass.

Because the pet parent doesn't know any better and the company apparently doesn't either.

Yes, that's what I meant.

 

[sharky]

Omega fatty acids play a key role in coat health and to a moderate degree matting or not ... Every cat has a different "perfect" level but in general I always aim for 3.5 % omega 6 and .5 or higher omega 3

 

[auntie crazy]

Nutrition definitely has an impact on a cat's coat (improvement in coat quality is one of the nearly universal changes cat owners see when they switch to a raw diet).

A cat's natural diet contains about 25% to 35% fat, and I would think that foods containing a level of fat closer to that amount would have a better chance of promoting a good coat than those containing less.

Also, foods containing nasty additives like red dye, ethoxyquin, and menadione sodium bisulfite would tend to have a negative impact on a cat's general health, including coat condition.

I looked up the ingredients to "The Goodlife Recipe Food for Cats With Real Chicken, Brown Rice & Garden Greens". The first and third ingredients are corn, and the only sources of protein are a by-product that (by definition) isn't a "meat" source but the bits and pieces of slaughtered chickens not acceptable for human consumption (heads, feet, intestines, etc.) and some chicken (fifth ingredient).

Besides corn, it has brown rice, brewers dried yeast, and wheat gluten.

With all those grains and the low amount of meat protein, if all the Good Life recipes are similar, I'm thinking this food is responsible for both the matting and the digestive upsets.

If you can, I'd switch the cats over to a no-grain, low carb canned cat food like Wellness, Evo, and by Nature. (Natural Balance grain-free varieties are all close to 30% carbs - way too high in my book.)

Hope you find something you like, Abnihon!

AC

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by Minka

Oh no, I worded that oddly. I meant that the false thought is because they need less calories, they should have a different kind of food, and one with more carbs to top it off.

Thanks for the clarification

Between that and my own typos I was getting confused

 

[momofmany]

I don't want to highjack this thread, but I do want to ask a question. Is this something that just started this summer?

My friend and I are both having problems with matting this summer. Neither one of us has changed foods for a long time. It's mostly with our long haired cats (I have 2 that have never been matted before and they are 8 and 11 years old respectively), but 2 of my short haired cats are also getting mats. Even with brushing them daily, the mats keep coming. We were speculating that there is something different about the weather this year (both of us have had extreme heat) that is causing some imbalance in their systems. Is anyone else noticing this?

 

[Willowy]

Sammy is matting this year. . .he never matted before at all. He has very Maine Coon-like fur. Dakota isn't matting, she was completely matted when I got her, but hasn't matted a bit since. Bunny is getting some mats around her back end and her armpits, but she's only a year old so I don't have any way to compare to previous years. Those are my 3 longhairs. Of the shorthairs, Mooch is matting a bit, but he's fat and can't reach a lot of places, so he's always been kind of icky on his back. None of the other shorthairs have any mats. I attributed any differences to the fact that I changed their diet earlier this year, to 50/50 dry/canned, and I thought maybe the canned has less fat than the dry. But maybe it is the weather. . .

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I don't want to highjack this thread, but I do want to ask a question. Is this something that just started this summer?

My friend and I are both having problems with matting this summer. Neither one of us has changed foods for a long time. It's mostly with our long haired cats (I have 2 that have never been matted before and they are 8 and 11 years old respectively), but 2 of my short haired cats are also getting mats. Even with brushing them daily, the mats keep coming. We were speculating that there is something different about the weather this year (both of us have had extreme heat) that is causing some imbalance in their systems. Is anyone else noticing this?

My neighbor is having the same problem for the first time. She was wondering about the weather too. I don't know. I'm guessing that it probably does but then I really don't have any clue about how weather patterns affect animals but it would make sense that these patterns do affect them. I know it affects their behavior.

I have not experienced this problem with Swiffer. I do feed her premium food, Nutro of course

and brush her daily.

I *have* experienced something different that has been attributed to the weather. My horse's hooves are growing by leaps and bounds. Seriously, you can almost watch them grow. The vet, farrier and stable owner have all attributed it to the weather pattern this year.

 

[kluchetta]

My longhair cats both have mats right now, which is unusual.

 

[sharky]

Age can also play a role... ie senior cats may have gone most of their lives with no mats and one day start getting them...

Odd weather could be an issue but I am in the pocket of not normal heat and above ave precipitation and also am have issues with mats ... But the one with the issue is entering her senior yrs so I am changing her diet

 

[sweetpea24]

My Schweppie is having an issue with mats too. He is medium haired but rarely.gets a mat and I rarely brush him. I think he is around 9 or 10 and he has CRF but all his kidney values are stable and he's eating an all canned diet. I know CRF cats don't have a great.coat.but Schweppie rarely mats for some reason. I just shaved all his mats off so now he has an anti-mohawk. It must be the weather because nothing else has changed. Interesting that others are.experiencing the same thing.