Feeding cats

[minesatea]

Hello
What’s the best for feeding cats? We are currently giving dry in the morning then wet in the evening. Is this enough?
They are nearly 5 months old. Not neutered yet as advised they need to be 2kg and not that weight yet.
Photo attached!

Thanks

Just throwing in a recommendation for a raw diet. My cat had massive digestive problems until I started feeding her a raw diet, it’s expensive but very worth it.

@thecatneuterer Price doesn’t mean anything. There are some very expensive foods out there that are absolute crap full of fillers etc. Hills, Iams etc. And some very good ones that are a bargain (smilla, Ferringa).

And wet food does matter. Maybe not in relation to urinary issues but cats are obligate carnivores (can only survive on meat) so feeding a food with only 4% meat clearly isn’t the best for their long term health.

High meat content and grain free should be an absolute minimum. Using zooplus and foreign brands (from countries that have laws preventing such crap unhealthy food like Felix etc. being sold) you can feed a great diet for around the same price as Whiskars.

@Madwife123 As I said in the thread I am not talking about general quality, rather about the magnesium content in cheap dry food, which apparently does seem to be related to price. And there have been studies linking cheap dry food to urinary crystals and blocked bladders in male cats.

It's not something I can talk about with authority as I haven't studied it myself and am not a vet, but it was something one of our past vets undertook her own academic research on and which seems to be backed up by other vets.

It isn’t just the magnesium content. It’s magnesium content PLUS urine that is less acidic that leads to urinary crystals. If the cats urine is acidic the magnesium doesn’t have as much of an impact.

The main cause of cats urine being less acidic is grains in the food and food having less moisture. The meat content is therefore also really important. But yes cheap dry food is also the worst offender of low meat content and full of grains. However brands such as Hills are also known for this and yet are quite expensive.

It’s a minefield and without a lot of research very difficult to know which foods are good or bad. I actually studied feline nutrition as an online course and yet was caught out recently with the Applaws issue.

@thecatneuterer While I’ve got you here and I notice you posted recently about neutering at 1kg. Do you happen to know of a vet (North West England) that will neuter at 12 weeks if the kitten is above 1kg? Spent WAY too long phoning around to be told they will neuter ferals at 12 weeks but not owned cats. I’m a big advocate for early neutering and wish more vets would get on board with it.

Zooplus is well worth a look for good value quality food.
My cats like James Wellbeloved dry and a mix of wet and cooked fish/chicken

Oh, interesting about Hills. Right then, so cheap dried food AND Hills ...

As for neutering at 1kg, even we, a specialist neuter clinic, don't neuter clients' cats at 1kg unless there is some particularly compelling reason to do so. For clients we say 12 weeks, which is normally quite a bit more than 1kg. I believe there is a list of vets that will neuter at 4 months (but I've forgotten how to find it), but not at 3. But yes, I wish it would become standard - there are far too many vets still insisting on six months which is terrible from a general welfare point of view.

Had a look and my vets (NW) says 12 weeks

@NotMyCat Thanks I’ll give them a ring.

I managed to find an early neutering list but when I phoned the vets they all said that’s for ferals only.

The small rescue I help out at would really like to be able to neuter kittens before rehoming as the drop off rate of those coming back for neutering is quite high and while they have neutering contracts it’s actually very difficult to enforce.