What they eat might matter?

[lljkk]

If skint I'd feed the Mogs cheapest possible food & feel no shame about it either, so I hope this thread doesn't turn snooty about feeding choices.

As it happens, I can afford so buy relatively nicer food for the cats, zero-low grain, high real meat, etc.

Recently, Vet complimented Cat1 & 2 for very fine condition (maybe vets always say that?, they are ordinary black cats, like a million others) . Cat1 has amazing dense shiny fur, but he had it as a kitten. Cat2 is just handsome.

Cat3 came to us as about 10yo (homed but benignly neglected). He had matt tone fur and short whiskers. After a year with us, his fur had turned much shinier and denser (I notice when applying flea stuff), all his whiskers are much longer, too.

Cat2 &3 are prone to obesity so I limit their food & chuck Cat3 out for exercise. I do very limited grooming, mostly longhair cat2.

I wonder how much difference the 'good quality food' makes, compared to other stuff we do.

Does anyone else notice cat things you suspect you can put down to just what you feed them?

Urinary blockages occur much, much more frequently in cats feed the 'moving feline' food.

Cheap food can often be a false economy as you end up with higher vets bills.

Don't know.

ASBO eats Aldi/lidl pates and the vet comments on his condition.

what sort of cats are these?

eating what the human chooses, never heard of such a thing.

I agree, SmokingCat is on a high meat % diet and looks good for it. Although I am a bit bias as I think he's the most beautiful cat ever.

As PP said, no/little dry food means a lower liklihood or developing urinary crystals.

I give mine plenty of dry food (Applaws).
From what I can figure out, the problems (to teeth at least) with dry food tends to be high grain content. Applaws is grain free.
I guess I'll know in future if they all come down with urinary crystal problems.

Cats1-2 have neck lesions they are coping with well, but vet says they're genetic, not diet-related.

When my own old boy first came to live with me he was elderly even then, frail and had just lost his 'person' and seemed to be in a decline. We decided to let him eat what he wanted because he 'clearly doesn't have long to go' so we reckoned he could go out in a sea of indulgence.

That was 6 years ago but unfortunately we set the tone for him in those first few days so he eats pretty well what he likes (subject to them not actively being bad for him) and we bend the knee in order to get his meds down. (He has arthritis so needs regular meds for his old joints.)

'What he likes' is usually AGAIL Doubly Delicious assorted meat in jelly and he seems to be OK on it with supplementary Vet's Kitchen treats for his overnight treat and some 'little extras' as suits. (He could have his pick of anything else but he turns his nose up - I do wonder what's in the AGAIL sometimes.)

One thing we do always do is give the cats wet food. Just what we do, really, and not for any fixed reason.

I've heard of the dry food/crystals issue, but not in all my years of cat ownership/rescue/foster, feeding up to 60 cats a day dry food only, have I ever seen it. Go figure.

Stinkers the cat you fed are almost certainly not sedentary or over weight. The criteria for crystals is male neutered, middle aged, overweight and sedentary then you add 'moving feline' into the mix and bingo you have a life threatening condition. Anecdotally I my experience it seems to be more ginger cats.

I think the quality of food makes a huge difference to their general condition - hardly surprising really, it's the same with humans. When I first got Archcat from the rescue 9 months ago I had no idea that many foods (wet and dry) were such rubbish. Archcat loved the cheapo pouches (Felix etc) but had terrible diarrhoea and wind, so we went over to a mixture of high-meat wet food, Applaws and raw meat (and have subsequently discovered Archcat does a fine line in self-service mice from the garden). The difference in his fur was amazing - so shiny and soft now. And no farting! The difference might be more extreme than with the average cat, though, because he's so clearly grain intolerant.

"ASBO eats Aldi/lidl pates and the vet comments on his condition." Isn't Aldi own brand meant to be surprisingly good, though? It has a much higher proportion of meat than you'd imagine. And maybe ASBO-cat also catches and eats the local wildlife too, which would give him all the nutrients he needs.

ASBOcat probably catches local sheep and deer from the sound of him!

DH used to feed MCat on Go-Cat, and his coat was really dull. I switched him to Applaws dry, Animonda and Cosma. He has the thickest glossiest coat, and he hardly sheds any fur either.