Nutrition and Longevity

[moggiegirl]

My cats (4) were all in their teens when they died, but it was due to kidney problems. I later, after my fourth baby died, found out it was due to the dry cat food I was feeding them. It seems that dry food doesn't have enough moisture. The vet recommended that I feed my present cat, Baby, canned food as a supplement to the dry food. The vet also told me to read the ingredients of the food to make sure it was safe.I am now slowly switching her over to the natural foods so that she remains healthy and playful. She's 5 and 1/2 now, and I'd like to see her live past 17, which was the approximate age of the four who died.

They lived to be 17. You did a good job. Yes, feed that wet food. I always fed my cats both dry and canned and I still lost Spotty to kidney disease. The vet said it's an age related disease and you can't prevent it but I suspect not enough water in the cat's diet can contribute. It's good to flush those toxins out. Now it's just wet food for Rosie. I want to protect her from obesity which protects her from diabetes and I want to protect her from anything I can protect her from.

 

[laura mae]

Hazel lived to 19 on a combo of wet and free feed dry kibble. I think probably it was excellent genetics. She had all of her teeth and always had gleaming pearly whites with little tarter buildup. I always contended it was because she used her teeth quite liberally on me and others. She was a spirited giant Maine Coon who kind of scared other people but she and I were buddies to the end.  She was born in 1984 and died in 2003 likely of kidney issues. Between her last blood test and the end, things went from good to terrible rather quickly. In her life, At age three she suffered a life-threatening bout of hepatic lipadosis. The apartment where I lived got sprayed for pests and it made her sick long enough that she became anorexic. She was the 2nd cat in vet history who got a stomach feeding tube at Purdue Vet school!  To get her to eat on her own after 6 weeks of tube feeding we went with some dry kibble because it was the most appealing. Once she was fully healed it was canned food twice a day with a bowl of kibble to crunch between. This is the one that I fed the Purina One and the Fancy Feast to. Her full name was Hazel Supper Time because eating was her Olympic sport. She also loved drinking water out of a running faucet. I tried a fountain water bowl but the moving water was a toy and she would get the kitchen floor completely soaked by vigorously swishing her paw through the water and entertain herself by watching it drip down the wall, or run across the floor. That cat LOVED WATER.

Estelle was probably 15 when she died suddenly this past December. She was never a healthy cat when we adopted her with iffy house habits (okay she was the worst house cat ever but sweet). She had colitis issues and this is the one I gave the Wellness to in order to address the colitis. She had terrible teeth and had several pulled.  She was one of several which we have. For awhile I completely removed any kibble but I have one cat that is wiry and like the re-incarnation of Hazel. If I don't provide some free feed option I will never get any sleep. They all get three meals a day with a variety of canned foods on one plate to keep them interested.

It's mostly a variety of more expensive brands (and believe me I have tried virtually all of them with this group) and the ones that they will eat include Wellness pate and core. They are not fans of the Wellness with gravy. Merrick sometimes goes over and lately Whole Earth, First Mate are a go.  They do get the pates of the Fancy Feast as side dishes to the main course and I offer them Friskies Pate too. The later is mostly for the 2 probably stray cats that we see that come by fairly regularly. 

One of my cats (the most recent addition) was a stray cat who got the Friskies pate that I fed him to keep him from chasing the birds. He left for a bit and came back with a bad back leg. Turned out he had a shattered pelvis. We adopted him. No chip, no missing kitty signs. He was on room/cage rest and he sucked up whatever we gave him. Once he was free from kitty bed rest it became clear that he had some nerve issues that affected his ability to eliminate waste. He also refused to drink water and developed some crystals. the vet wanted me to put him on a diet for crystals and he hated it. I went to the pet food store that sells all sorts of brands and they recommened Primal freeze dried for the crystals. I heat the water more and put more of it in with the food to make him a broth and food. He gets miralax and cisapride.

Like the others, he's totally for a treat of the Friskies Pate. Lately he's not opposed to Honest Kitchen Prowl (go figure) Thankfully he's not a kibble sort of cat.

I have tried without success: Weruva, Addiction, BFF, Natures Variety, Avoderm, Canidae, Natural Balance. Those all got the firm paw down vote from the gang.

The vet clinic is totally for a complete canned food diet. I have to say this crop of cats have the worst teeth. The one who has gleaming pearly whites is Boo who eats the re-hydrated freeze dry raw. He's only 3.

I have one 15 year old, 2 thirteen year olds (just lost their sibling in July and one of the others is sick now) and one 9 year old ( the wiry one demanding food and scampers around like a squirrel) and the 3 year old.

 

 

[tarasgirl06]

I'd never heard of carrageenan-free!  As for Wellness, I used to buy it regularly, but here in US they had a massive recall a few years back; as I buy food by the case, I had to take 2 cases back to the store-- quite an inconvenience since I do not have a car -- and I was issued vouchers, which I wasn't really happy about as I didn't really want to buy a brand that had just had a huge recall.  But I did; they raised their prices by a lot, and that was the last time I had Wellness in the house.

 

[babyhuffman]

I'd never heard of carrageenan-free!  As for Wellness, I used to buy it regularly, but here in US they had a massive recall a few years back; as I buy food by the case, I had to take 2 cases back to the store-- quite an inconvenience since I do not have a car -- and I was issued vouchers, which I wasn't really happy about as I didn't really want to buy a brand that had just had a huge recall.  But I did; they raised their prices by a lot, and that was the last time I had Wellness in the house.

 

[babyhuffman]

I can totally sympathize with you regarding the way quite a few companies will give you coupons to use for their products instead of reimbursing you with a check. When you complain about a product in most cases, you never want to use that product again. It really is quite irritating.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I wouldn't have minded, but the price went sky-high, and as we live in L.A. Metro where everything is unbelievably expensive, it just got too high for us.  It's too bad, because they did enjoy it.

 

[babyhuffman]

I don't know why companies do that. Why should the price of food be higher in one part of the country than the other. Its just plain wrong.

 

[suzannef]

My beloved Anastasia lived to be 17.5 (1992-2009). She was free-fed: Iams dry for the first part of her life, and Innova, Evo, or Blue Wilderness dry in the latter part. She died of kidney failure, and at the end she got baby food and homemade pate'.

She was my first cat, the cat who taught me how special cats are, and I loved her very, very much. I wish I had done better by her. I didn't have the money or knowledge or time to take care of her the way I do my cats now. Wet food was a rare treat for her. She seldom had toys because my dogs would eat them.

Still, 17.5 years is a pretty good run. I attribute that more to genetics (and being an inside cat) than to diet. The same was probably true of my grandfather who lived to be 89, despite smoking for 70+ years, eating red meat daily, and never eating any vegetables. (I'm afraid I don't take after him.)

My current herd of cats eats some raw, a tiny bit of kibble, but mostly grain free-canned, fed 3-4 times a day. I do believe that free-feeding or grazing is a more natural way for cats to eat. I leave canned out for a few hours at a time and it hasn't caused any problems, but they're all super-picky and don't seem likely to eat anything remotely "off". Unless it's a bug - yuck! ;-)

 

[jojobeenn]

My grandmas cats always seem to live to a long age. They eat dry kit and kaboodle and wet friskies along with tons of temptations treats because they're spoiled. Most hit at least twenty. The last two that passed away were FiFi at 25.5
And Maigui (that's spelled wrong. Pronounced mog-why) at 23

 

[weebeasties]

Buster is 22. He was fed mostly dry. He got wet food in the evenings. I switched him to only wet about 5 years ago due to constipation issues.

 

[moggiegirl]

I really enjoy reading all your posts. There are a lot of long living cats here.

 

[indie-n-button]

My cats are on raw atm, they're just between 1-2 years old as of now though!

However, one of my cats, Indie, did had HORRIBLE stomach problems when I first got him, and I tried him on some kibble and that just made it worse. I switched him onto raw soon after and he's never had a bad stomach since! None of my cats get hairballs either, and they're rarely constipated (this only happens when I accidently give them too much bone!), and their fur is SO SOFT!! They're all a really nice weight too, and raw feeding imo is SO MUCH more easier than feeding dry!

Their poops aren't stinky too, and they don't poop as frequently as I've seen commercial-fed cats poop. They poop maybe every other day, sometimes every third day, and even then it's very small sausages and doesn't stay soft for long (commercial cat poop stays relatively squishy for sometimes even days), I think that's probably a sign that they're actually USING the stuff they're eating!

They do get some kibble as a treat every so often, but it's not as a meal type of thing, I just give them a few biscuits every so often when I'm trying to train them or something like that.

 

[babyhuffman]

I keep dry food and water down all the time, and feed Baby the wet food three times and sometimes four (sometimes she wants a little midnight snack). I'm not sure what her prior family fed her. The rescue fed dry food only. Either way she's doing well.

 

[zed xyzed]

I feed Midi commercial raw in the morning and a high quality wet a supper time, his previous owner free fed him cheap kibble. When he came to live with me I feed him a high quality dry Orijin but wet and raw made sense to me so I made the switch about 3 years ago.  

 

[bonepicker]

My current cats are 9 and 7, they get canned and purebites freeze dried chicken. Kibble makes them throw up, so I don't feed it!

 

[bonepicker]

My grandmas cats always seem to live to a long age. They eat dry kit and kaboodle and wet friskies along with tons of temptations treats because they're spoiled. Most hit at least twenty. The last two that passed away were FiFi at 25.5
And Maigui (that's spelled wrong. Pronounced mog-why) at 23

Did they go outside?

 

[kttn]

strictly indoor rescue persian, he was already 12 when i got him and had a history of abuse/food neglect. got him on a wet diet and had him for another 13 years, lost him to liver cancer. in those 13 years he only had yearly checkups, he was such a healthy boy.

i really do believe in wet food. you can see it reflect in their fur quality and energy levels so fast, it's really no contest

 

[tarasgirl06]

My grandmas cats always seem to live to a long age. They eat dry kit and kaboodle and wet friskies along with tons of temptations treats because they're spoiled. Most hit at least twenty. The last two that passed away were FiFi at 25.5
And Maigui (that's spelled wrong. Pronounced mog-why) at 23

Amazing longevity no matter what their diet, and on that diet, all the more so!!!

 

[tarasgirl06]

I don't know why companies do that. Why should the price of food be higher in one part of the country than the other. Its just plain wrong.

Yeah, and although I'm sure they don't miss me, we were consistent loyal customers and they lost us by doing that.