Feeding Cats

Question
Hi,

I'm not sure if this qualifies as your area but since my fiance & I have gotten a
lot of help from questions posted here, I thought I'd give it a try.

We rescued 2 cats about 3 months ago, a 14 month old male orange tiger cat
and  a 16 month black & white female. We have been feeding them a dry-diet
only (Purina). Lately, they have both been having gas often. The only thing we
can think of is that maybe it is the food.

We are trying to decide what type of food is the best to feed them, if an all dry
diet is acceptable or if we need to include canned food. And whichever is
best, what brand or type is the best for them.

If this is not your area, perhaps you could refer me to someone who would be
able to answer this question.

Thanks so much for your time,
Caitlin

Answer
Caitlin,

The problem is that you have to be aware of the hype from cat food companies.  There are a couple of things to remember: (1) Cats are obligate carnivores, i.e. they can only use protein from meat sources and not grains or legumes. (2) Cats, in the wild, get most of there water intake from what they eat.

So, given an all dry food diet, look at the order of ingredients and see how high some of the grains are.  Also, there is almost no way a cat can take in enough water to compensate for the dry food.

So, I would begin by mixing canned and dry and see what happens.

I would also watch there water intake/peeing output and see if it drops a bit with the addition of the canned food.

There are some pretty high quality canned foods out there with a fairly high meat protein content.  You can check your local pet supermarket for some premium brands.

Remember, whenever you start a cat on some new food, they could get picky until they get used to it.  They can get some diarrhea from the change in diet.  However, all, in all, they should do better on canned mixed with dry then with dry alone.

Best regards... Norm.