mixing soft and hard food ........

Question
 Q. We have been told NOT to give your cat a regular diet of "hard food..Iams Reg.Hairball" and "soft food..9Lives chicken/tuna"...on a day to day basis.
     We keep the Iams out for her to eat as she wants and several times a day she gets our attention at the frig. to give her some soft food 9 Lives.......Please advise......
     Thank you,
     Bill  

Answer
Hi Bill!

First off, WHO told you not to feed your cat dry food? You cannot force a cat not to eat, if you do, they DO become anorexic and will stop eating all together.

In MY understading of feline medicine ( I work with cats exclusivly and follow the AAFP guidlines) that you CAN leave out some dry during the day. Cats like to snack, they are NOT meal eaters, and making them ones can be disaterous. Cats are true carnivores and need to keep their energy levels at a certain criteria.

This is what you can do.

1. 1/2 can wet in the morning and evening.
2. leave out some dry during the day

Make sure you have a high quality dry out (Iams is fine!) and 9 lives canned is OK too. You can even use Friskees wet or Fancy Feast.  If you have a vet trying to sell you a certain food all the time that is NOT prescription related, get another vet.

It WILL NOT kill your cat to do this.

NOW if your cat is on a prescription diet or has food allergies, that is another story. But if this is for routine feeding, you are doing fine.

Hope this helps!