Urinary tract and cat foods (orijen and innova)

[rolenta]

Hi all. I'm currently feeding my cats (one indoor housecat and one outdoor feral rescued cat) innova, although I'd like to switch to Orijen as I have switched the dogs over to Orijen, now I'm just waiting for the Innova to run out (the dogs eat it up faster than the cats!). Anyway, I'm actually in the process of moving out to a farm, which is where the feral cat is, and my MIL also lives out there. She told me her cat had to be on a special diet due to urinary tract problems, although I think she just feeds him Friskies or something... Anyway, since there's going to be food outside for the feral cat, she wanted me to find out whether or not Innova and Orijen are good for her cat, since he will no doubtedly be eating some of it.

The Orijen website said this:

Q: URINARY HEALTH? Does ORIJEN promote urinary health?
A: Yes. Due to the high meat content and low magnesium content, ORIJEN is naturally acidic and helps promote a healthy bladder.
ORIJEN foods have a pH of about 5.5, which is naturally mildly acidic and well suited to the maintenance of healthy bladder function in both cats and dogs.

The innova website has an FAQ with a similar question about urinary health but for some reason, I can't get it to give me the answer.

Anyway... can someone help me out with this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[yosemite]

Our nutrition guru Sharky should be along soon to give you some answers to your questions.

I just switched our kitties to Orijen. Bijou was getting too fat on his other food.

ETA: Wet food is healthier and better for a UTI prone kitty.

 

[sharky]

Wet food is best... Magnesium IS NOT the ONLY uti mineral calcium and phos also are in there/// SO far I have yet to find a UTI friendly NO grain in DRY ...

This is when I suggest find a food with some corn or corn gluten as it does the best to balence chickens levels with easy... MEAT and Meat meals are HIGH IN CA and PHOS due to bone content.. WHich every brand use s some bone

 

[rolenta]

So does that mean that the wet varieties of these brands would be good?

ETA: I was considering switching to raw, as in just ground up meat and nothing else... would that be good?

 

[sharky]

Raw is hard to say.. BUT a complete raw is about 70% muscle meat, 10-15% organs, 10% bone and a few % veggies if desired ... some do great on it ... My CRF girl did and her UTIs cleared other s havent had that luck

 

[yosemite]

Originally Posted by sharky

Raw is hard to say.. BUT a complete raw is about 70% muscle meat, 10-15% organs, 10% bone and a few % veggies if desired ... some do great on it ... My CRF girl did and her UTIs cleared other s havent had that luck

Do you not have to add any vitamins or taurine?

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by Yosemite

Do you not have to add any vitamins or taurine?

Taurine NOT really since it is both organ and muscle meats( if you cook them yes).. I added her kidney viatimins after a long talk with the vet decided not to try to puch a " supplement for raw on her"