What Is the Best Food to Feed My New Ragdoll Cat?
i’ll be given a purebred ragdoll kitty for my birthday on friday. he will be 3 months old. i was told to give him science diet kitten food. would that be the best?
i have 4 other adult indoor cats who eat whiskas. they are normal cats (not purebred) should i change them to science diet as well? its so expensive id like to just have them all on the same food. can i feed the adults the kitten formula? or feed the kitten the adult formula? would it do any harm?
i dont know too much about that kind of thing.. the ragdoll cat was so expensive i would have never been able to afford him if he wasnt being given to me as a gift (0 i was told) and i want to make sure he is healthy as well as my other cats. any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
is there a kind cat food that can be fed to all ages? i leave the others food out all the time and they eat whenever they want to. it would be difficult to seperate them.
yes for all ages–proper food for the species not science diet not whiskas
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)
An even bigger problem is that it IS dry and it dehydrates no matter how much your cat drinks
Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food. Cats are not naturally big drinkers.
95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Think about it.
Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm
Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program
http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_grant.htm
SD is not the best food around. I would look into some higher quality dry and canned food for everyone. Try Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, or Royal Canin.
Its best to feed one meal of canned and one meal of dry.
With kittens, they only get free fed kitten food for the first 4-5 months – then go on adult food twice a day. Since Raggys are a larger breed, you could continue the kitten food for 6-8 months before switching over to adult food.
You don’t want the adults to be eating kitten food, so your kitten will have to eat separate from the adults till all are eating adult foods.
The best way to start out with your Ragdoll is to keep feeding him the same food he is already eating. Whether it is the best can be argued, but the best food really is the one your kitten will eat. He is the true decider, and other’s opinions don’t really matter.
Science diet may seem expensive, but food is really not a major factor in the cost of having a cat. Sure, you can pay too much for hype and advertising, but a quality food will keep the vet bills low.
With my mix of adults and kittens, I got kitten chow the adult cats refused to eat when they were kittens. So what happened? Some of the kittens loved the adult food, some loved the kitten chow, and some of the adults now decided they loved the kitten chow. They are all doing fine.
For really older cats, kitten chow sometimes may seem a bit too high in calories, but you will be feeding kitten chow only for another nine months so things should be manageable.
Provide both types of food. They will select. Not a heck of a lot you can do expect to provide separate feedings. And with five, that becomes difficult.
I dont think it matters but give your cat a variety so he doesnt get bored (wet and dry food)
All cats have favourites xDD