Question about my 25 week old kittens eating habbits?

Question

They liked canned food and dry but now they wont eat canned just the dry, i tried switching brands/flavour/size of meat etc and back to same as before but they are just eating the dry stuff. Is this normal and is it ok they only want dry. They seem fine in themselves no behavior or toilet changes.

Answer 1

Feeding a cat a healthy diet is of the utmost importance for the good health of every cat.
Many people feel that dry is the best way to go. Vets feel it is the way to go. Why? Vets are taught very little about nutrition and they are taught what they know by the Pet Food Companies. The companies push dry as it is the very cheapest food in the world to make as they use fillers, vegetable protein and things that cats do not eat in normal life like veggies and fruits. Of course the veggies and fruits are NOT good for human consumption and thus they get it free or for pennies so the big suppliers can get rid of it.
Dry does not keep teeth clean. A cats jaw is made to grab, tear and shred. They have no chewing action. When a cat barfs he throws up the chunks of food. Sometimes the dry shatters but that doesn't rub on the teeth either. A vet told me that she had an elderly cat around 20 who had had wet food her whole life and never had a problem with her teeth, but she had a 7 month old kitten who had to have every tooth pulled since they were so bad he was sick.
Dry food causes diabetes, UTI's, Kidney problems and the list is to long to continue.
The proper food is a diet for an obligate carnivore. Remember you have never seen a lion chasing a biscuit. Your cat needs wet food of good quality. It should be high in protein and under 10% carb. You should not feed your cat fish or seafood more than 1 or 2 meals a week if that much as they become addicted to it and it is high in phosphorous and low in nutritional value.
http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfo...
Here is a chart of most wet foods. The good and the bad. Look for one that is high in protein and low in carbs. Fancy feast is a good middle of the road one, and the cheaper brands but still following the rule are much better than any dry ever could be. Wellness is on the higher end with higher cost. But you have good food.
It is cheaper to feed a cat the wet as they are filled up faster. Think if you are hungry and eat a bag of potato chips you are soon hungry but if you have a nice piece of chicken you are filled up longer. The same for a cat. I began adding small amount of water and mixing it in good for the meals and now add 1/4 cup water to 1/3 cup wet food. It is now like soup. It keeps the food from drying out and Cessan eats when she wants. She is a grazer and I let her be happy. She gained the weight she needed and then the weight gain stopped. If your cat is over weight he will lose weight on a wet diet.
Here is a link explaining very clearly cat nutrition and care. It is excellent and I think every new cat owner should have to read it first.
http://catinfo.org/ Good luck to you and your sweet kitty.

Answer 2

Hi!

I find that some cats just get bored :-)

Also, is it always the same flavour of tinned food, or are there various flavours? I have noticed that my cat loves a certain brand of wet food, but doesn't like the tuna variety.

I would say that if they want to eat the dry food, as long as it is a good quality food, then by all means feed it!

Perhaps give them wet food once every other day - it might give them a taste for it again.

It could also be that they are very full up from the dry food. Have you tried giving them wet food only in the morning when you know they haven't eat much overnight? This might make a difference! :-)

xx Emmie

Answer 3

Just be careful when changing foods and brands as you have done as this can upset their tummies.
If they will only eat the dry then they should be fine, lots of cats only eat dried food but I have heard that this can cause some medical problems.
Get a good brand, not the cheap stuff.... you tend to get what you pay for.

Answer 4

It's fine for a cat to be on an all-dry diet so long as it's high quality food (i.e not a supermarket brand). You'll probably notice them drink more water than when they were eating canned too - this is fine also.

Chalice

Answer 5

Hi Bumblebee! I'm a professional Librarian AND a cat lover, so your question caught my eye. I did some searching on the web, and found a good article from a company called "Pawprints and Purrs" about caring for kittens.

About food, this article says that either dry or canned food is fine for kittens, as long as it is specially made for kittens--not just regular catfood. It also mentions buying good quality name-brand food--maybe you've heard that there have been problems with the safety of pet food made in China. You should stick with kitten chow from the grocery store, a pet store, or even better, your vet.

From this article, it doesn't seem like canned food is better than dry or vice versa, but it does give two advantages of dry food--it's less expensive and it doesn't go bad as quickly as wet canned food. And it sounds like your kittens have decided that they like it better, too!

From my personal experience, I prefer feeding all my cats dry food instead of canned, because it keeps their teeth cleaner and their breath better smelling!

Good luck with your kittens! BTW, your local library should have some books about taking care of cats--even teaching them tricks!

Answer 6

i have one which will only eat wet, and one which will only eat dry - they're just like us - they have their own preferences. Just make sure there's plenty of fresh water - and a word to the wise, limit the amount they put out - I had a cat once which would just gorge and gorge on dry, and not drink water, then throw up when it expands in tummy!!! runed the carpet, and the sofa.....

Answer 7

Dry food is better for them anyway.. just make sure they have a bowl of water down too to keep them hydrated... nothing worse than a dried out pu... erm... cat

Answer 8

yes they can eat only dry some people feed just dry but make shore they have plenty water

Answer 9

mine do exactly the same thing! i assume its normal as cats can be fussy little so and so's when they want, in fact thinking about it sometimes my male cat only wants the wet and not the dry so it works both ways!

Answer 10

that's perfectly normal.my cat's are the same,they'll start eating the canned meat again when they get bored of eating just the biscuits.don't panic.