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IAMS vs Whiskas?
In article
, Lord_Alex wrote: Hello all, I'm new to the group and somewhat new to raising cats (I had cats as a kid 10 years ago). At the end of April I decided my house was too empty, so I went to the local animal shelter and adopted two cats - a 6 month old female shorthair (Xerxes) and a 2 year old male Persian ragdoll with super fluffy long hair (Caesar). Spayed and neutered and they get along great together. Well after the first bag of food which the vet gave me, we switched to Whiskas Meaty Selections. Both of them LOVE this stuff and everything was normal. They loved it so much and ate so often that I thought maybe the Whiskas was like kitty junk-food. Feeling guilty, when the Whiskas ran out I switched to IAMS ProActive Health with Chicken (IAMS is "premium", correct?). I think they only eat this stuff because they're hungry, it's only been a week. Caesar will sniff the bowl of food and then proceed to "bury" it by going through the scratching motions on the floor and walls. They have rubber claw covers so I'm not too concerned with the scratching. Within a day after switching to the IAMS food Caesar had diarrhea (BTW not cool for a cat with his coat) but it only lasted 3 days. He still tries to bury that food every time he walks by, but will eat it reluctantly. Xerxes on the other hand has started showing signs of a urinary infection - I'm finding puddles. (Caesar likes to go outside, puddles have shown up while he's out). Her litter box quickly took on an incredibly powerful odor of ammonia, the kind of smell that can cut glass and curls your teeth. So last night I bought the Whiskas again and switched litter (it was corn based, now it's recycled paper pellets). They both seemed VERY happy about the change, ate ALL the food and promptly took turns using the litter box. I'll find out later today if Xerxes left another surprise, I'm really hoping she just didn't want to melt her skin using the smelly litter. What do you guys think? Did the switch to IAMS annoy my cats or did it actually cause problems? I don't know a lot about cat food. I do know that you shouldn't switch foods suddenly like you did. You should mix the foods for several days until the cats are eating just the new food. Iams is supposed to be one of the best foods, ingredient wise. Whiskas is more like junk food, but still nutritious. Not as good as Iams. I feed my cats Purina ONE. It's a good quality food and they seem to like the taste. It's less expensive than Iams. 8^)~~~~~~ Sue (remove x to email) ~~~~~~~~~ http://suzie-q-wacvet.com/ http://intergnat.com/malebashing/ |
#2
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
On Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:06:46 -0500, Suzie-Q wrote:
In article , Lord_Alex wrote: Hello all, I'm new to the group and somewhat new to raising cats (I had cats as a kid 10 years ago). At the end of April I decided my house was too empty, so I went to the local animal shelter and adopted two cats - a 6 month old female shorthair (Xerxes) and a 2 year old male Persian ragdoll with super fluffy long hair (Caesar). Spayed and neutered and they get along great together. Well after the first bag of food which the vet gave me, we switched to Whiskas Meaty Selections. Both of them LOVE this stuff and everything was normal. They loved it so much and ate so often that I thought maybe the Whiskas was like kitty junk-food. Feeling guilty, when the Whiskas ran out I switched to IAMS ProActive Health with Chicken (IAMS is "premium", correct?). I think they only eat this stuff because they're hungry, it's only been a week. Caesar will sniff the bowl of food and then proceed to "bury" it by going through the scratching motions on the floor and walls. They have rubber claw covers so I'm not too concerned with the scratching. Within a day after switching to the IAMS food Caesar had diarrhea (BTW not cool for a cat with his coat) but it only lasted 3 days. He still tries to bury that food every time he walks by, but will eat it reluctantly. Xerxes on the other hand has started showing signs of a urinary infection - I'm finding puddles. (Caesar likes to go outside, puddles have shown up while he's out). Her litter box quickly took on an incredibly powerful odor of ammonia, the kind of smell that can cut glass and curls your teeth. So last night I bought the Whiskas again and switched litter (it was corn based, now it's recycled paper pellets). They both seemed VERY happy about the change, ate ALL the food and promptly took turns using the litter box. I'll find out later today if Xerxes left another surprise, I'm really hoping she just didn't want to melt her skin using the smelly litter. What do you guys think? Did the switch to IAMS annoy my cats or did it actually cause problems? I don't know a lot about cat food. I do know that you shouldn't switch foods suddenly like you did. You should mix the foods for several days until the cats are eating just the new food. Iams is supposed to be one of the best foods, ingredient wise. Whiskas is more like junk food, but still nutritious. Not as good as Iams. I feed my cats Purina ONE. It's a good quality food and they seem to like the taste. It's less expensive than Iams. 8^)~~~~~~ Sue (remove x to email) ~~~~~~~~~ http://suzie-q-wacvet.com/ http://intergnat.com/malebashing/ Yes, you need to switch food SLOWLY, gradually adding more of the 'new' food, in with their previous food. I have always been told by vets to take about two WEEKS to change foods, to give their digestive system plenty of time to adjust to the new food. As an aside, when one of my cats was quite elderly, and having some health problems, I decided to switch her to Wellness, since it's supposed to be one of the 'best' dry foods available. I took about 2 1/2 weeks to make the change over. About a week AFTER the change, my cat started having loose stools, slowly getting worse over the next week or so. I stitched my cat BACK to her previous food, Nutro, as fast as I thought was 'safe', and the loose stools stopped almost immediately. There is no doubt that Wellness is a 'better' cat food...but it's not better for every cat. And, it's quite expensive. I gave away most of a $45 bag And, I agree that Whiskas is kind of 'junk food' for cats. I would try switching to another, better cat food. Basically, almost ANY cat food is better than Whiskas. I would try Science Diet, since it s now carried at MANY stores, including some 'discount' stores. I know that Fleet Farm carries it, and puts it on sale pretty regularly. And for all you 'canned food only' and even worse: all you nut cases, militant 'raw food only' TROLLS, who are CERTAIN to show up in this thread, sooner or later: **BITE ME** (**NOT** the FOUR LETTER words I'd LIKE to use, either). I had two cats that lived to 16 and **18** years, with absolutely NO health problems of ANY kind, until literally one or two DAYS before they passed away, and they both ate either Iams, or Science Diet, DRY FOOD, for their entire lives. As one person has said, which I did not know: Iams used to be better food, than it is now, so that may have helped, some. SO THERE! I hope your 'raw food only' cats have diarrhea ALL OVER your beds, and your expensive leather sofa and easy chairs! *Grumble* **EVERY NUT CASE IN THE WORLD** has a computer now. *grumble*. |
#3
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
On 6/7/11 3:06 PM, Suzie-Q wrote:
In article , wrote: Hello all, I'm new to the group and somewhat new to raising cats (I had cats as a kid 10 years ago). At the end of April I decided my house was too empty, so I went to the local animal shelter and adopted two cats - a 6 month old female shorthair (Xerxes) and a 2 year old male Persian ragdoll with super fluffy long hair (Caesar). Spayed and neutered and they get along great together. Well after the first bag of food which the vet gave me, we switched to Whiskas Meaty Selections. Both of them LOVE this stuff and everything was normal. They loved it so much and ate so often that I thought maybe the Whiskas was like kitty junk-food. Feeling guilty, when the Whiskas ran out I switched to IAMS ProActive Health with Chicken (IAMS is "premium", correct?). I think they only eat this stuff because they're hungry, it's only been a week. Caesar will sniff the bowl of food and then proceed to "bury" it by going through the scratching motions on the floor and walls. They have rubber claw covers so I'm not too concerned with the scratching. Within a day after switching to the IAMS food Caesar had diarrhea (BTW not cool for a cat with his coat) but it only lasted 3 days. He still tries to bury that food every time he walks by, but will eat it reluctantly. Xerxes on the other hand has started showing signs of a urinary infection - I'm finding puddles. (Caesar likes to go outside, puddles have shown up while he's out). Her litter box quickly took on an incredibly powerful odor of ammonia, the kind of smell that can cut glass and curls your teeth. So last night I bought the Whiskas again and switched litter (it was corn based, now it's recycled paper pellets). They both seemed VERY happy about the change, ate ALL the food and promptly took turns using the litter box. I'll find out later today if Xerxes left another surprise, I'm really hoping she just didn't want to melt her skin using the smelly litter. What do you guys think? Did the switch to IAMS annoy my cats or did it actually cause problems? I don't know a lot about cat food. I do know that you shouldn't switch foods suddenly like you did. You should mix the foods for several days until the cats are eating just the new food. Iams is supposed to be one of the best foods, ingredient wise. Whiskas is more like junk food, but still nutritious. Not as good as Iams. I feed my cats Purina ONE. It's a good quality food and they seem to like the taste. It's less expensive than Iams. 8^)~~~~~~ Sue (remove x to email) ~~~~~~~~~ http://suzie-q-wacvet.com/ http://intergnat.com/malebashing/ Just to balance this with the "other side": When I first got Meep as a kitten, 15 years ago, the general recommendation was to feed cats dry food. So for her first 6 years, Meep ate only Iams dry. They she developed cystitis, which is a very painful urinary infection. We battled frequent attacks over the next couple of years, until I was finally able to get her on a completely wet diet. Three different vets in three different countries told me that a wet diet is better, for all cats but especially for my cystitis-prone kitty. A couple of things happened as I converted her over to wet: Her skin and fur improved, got glossy and soft. She dropped to a proper weight - she was overweight before, even after I stopped feeding her dry as free choice. She does NOT have diarrhea - quite the opposite, she gets Miralax to keep her poops adequately soft. AND - the cystitis has gone away almost completely. AND: Every Single Time I've caved and given her dry food, even high quality stuff like Wellness and similar. Every Time! She develops cystitis. Keep in mind, what your cat likes does not mean it is good for them! The vet I had when we were first fighting the cystitis called Meep a "junk food junkie". I call her a carboholic - she prefers stuff with grains, even though it is bad for her. I know the feeling: I have the same problem. She's on 100% wet food now. I use Fancy Feast mostly, anything but the "grilled" varieties aren't too bad quality. She also eats Max Cat, and Natural Choice at the moment. I can't always afford the pet store brands. Since she has been on 100% wet, her cystitis attacks have gone from 4+ times yearly to maybe once every two years, and that requires some sort of stress trigger. I am not militantly against dry food, but I do think you are taking a chance using it. Cystitis is no fun, and is dangerous, especially for male cats (thankfully Meep is not male). FWIW, I sort of fiddled with the idea of a raw diet for Meep to control her health issues. She utterly refused to even try... If you are still on the fence as to whether you should feed your kitties wet or dry, talk to your vet. Sure, research on the 'net as you are doing, but then take what you've learned here and talk to your vet. jmc |
#4
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
Jodi wrote in :
FWIW, I sort of fiddled with the idea of a raw diet for Meep to control her health issues. She utterly refused to even try... Mine loves raw food (ground turkey) with added minerals, etc. The only thing I could feed her other than canned Wellness without her getting diarrhea. But after a month or two of both Wellness and turkey (in separate meals) she started the disrrhea again. Too bad, she much prefers it over Wellness. Back to only Wellness again. Soft BMs sometimes but hardly ever diarrhea. -- "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it." Steven Wright |
#5
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
On 9 Jun 2011 17:57:07 GMT, KenK wrote:
Jodi wrote in : FWIW, I sort of fiddled with the idea of a raw diet for Meep to control her health issues. She utterly refused to even try... Mine loves raw food (ground turkey) with added minerals, etc. The only thing I could feed her other than canned Wellness without her getting diarrhea. But after a month or two of both Wellness and turkey (in separate meals) she started the disrrhea again. Too bad, she much prefers it over Wellness. Back to only Wellness again. Soft BMs sometimes but hardly ever diarrhea. I tried to get mine on a raw diet, figuring that that was what they would eat in the wild. I got the frozen stuff (Steve's I think). They really wouldn't touch it. Finally I gave up. It was a PITA to work with since it had to be frozen, cost a lot, and they didn't like it. We compromised on good quality wet food and everyone is reasonably happy. |
#6
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
Gandalf ingold1234(AT)yahoo(DOT)com (Gandalf) wrote:
.... Yes, you need to switch food SLOWLY, gradually adding more of the 'new' food, in with their previous food. I have always been told by vets to take about two WEEKS to change foods, to give their digestive system plenty of time to adjust to the new food. As an aside, when one of my cats was quite elderly, and having some health problems, I decided to switch her to Wellness, since it's supposed to be one of the 'best' dry foods available. I took about 2 1/2 weeks to make the change over. About a week AFTER the change, my cat started having loose stools, slowly getting worse over the next week or so. I stitched my cat BACK to her previous food, Nutro, as fast as I thought was 'safe', and the loose stools stopped almost immediately. There is no doubt that Wellness is a 'better' cat food...but it's not better for every cat. And, it's quite expensive. I gave away most of a $45 bag And, I agree that Whiskas is kind of 'junk food' for cats. I would try switching to another, better cat food. Basically, almost ANY cat food is better than Whiskas. I would try Science Diet, since it s now carried at MANY stores, including some 'discount' stores. I know that Fleet Farm carries it, and puts it on sale pretty regularly. And for all you 'canned food only' and even worse: all you nut cases, militant 'raw food only' TROLLS, who are CERTAIN to show up in this thread, sooner or later: **BITE ME** (**NOT** the FOUR LETTER words I'd LIKE to use, either). I had two cats that lived to 16 and **18** years, with absolutely NO health problems of ANY kind, until literally one or two DAYS before they passed away, and they both ate either Iams, or Science Diet, DRY FOOD, for their entire lives. As one person has said, which I did not know: Iams used to be better food, than it is now, so that may have helped, some. SO THERE! I hope your 'raw food only' cats have diarrhea ALL OVER your beds, and your expensive leather sofa and easy chairs! *Grumble* **EVERY NUT CASE IN THE WORLD** has a computer now. *grumble*. Looks like you have serious communication problems. I can just imagine what your posts would look like if you could color your words. Creepy, IMO. -- See also ingold1234 news-2.mpls.iphouse.net Path: news.astraweb.com!border6.newsrouter.astraweb.com! news-out.octanews.net!indigo.octanews.net!auth.news-2.mpls.iphouse.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Gandalf ingold1234(AT)yahoo(DOT)com (Gandalf) Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.health+behav Subject: IAMS vs Whiskas? Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:54:46 GMT Reply-To: Gandalf ingold1234(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Message-ID: 4df3f7a8.9563000 news.iphouse.com References: 0fb6904e-f846-44fa-88cf-5f4f857de75a h12g2000pro.googlegroups.com sme617x-E15EB5.16064607062011 news.giganews.com X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 110608-1, 06/08/2011), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean Lines: 121 Organization: ipHouse - Welcome Home! NNTP-Posting-Date: 08 Jun 2011 17:54:35 CDT NNTP-Posting-Host: d45bf0fa.auth.newsreader.iphouse.com X-Trace: DXC=i6DVU]J22Gi;OBCLmWc9cd_6RIS\jRccFbE0hKBJTo195 DM=lHmGnE1NP5TgU7fAo\A5l_h ?]c8^a1VDjB=kSQ]2`Vh X-Complaints-To: abuse iphouse.net |
#7
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
John Doe wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:
Gandalf ingold1234(AT)yahoo(DOT)com (Gandalf) wrote: ... Yes, you need to switch food SLOWLY, gradually adding more of the 'new' food, in with their previous food. I have always been told by vets to take about two WEEKS to change foods, to give their digestive system plenty of time to adjust to the new food. As an aside, when one of my cats was quite elderly, and having some health problems, I decided to switch her to Wellness, since it's supposed to be one of the 'best' dry foods available. I took about 2 1/2 weeks to make the change over. About a week AFTER the change, my cat started having loose stools, slowly getting worse over the next week or so. I stitched my cat BACK to her previous food, Nutro, as fast as I thought was 'safe', and the loose stools stopped almost immediately. There is no doubt that Wellness is a 'better' cat food...but it's not better for every cat. And, it's quite expensive. I gave away most of a $45 bag And, I agree that Whiskas is kind of 'junk food' for cats. I would try switching to another, better cat food. Basically, almost ANY cat food is better than Whiskas. I would try Science Diet, since it s now carried at MANY stores, including some 'discount' stores. I know that Fleet Farm carries it, and puts it on sale pretty regularly. And for all you 'canned food only' and even worse: all you nut cases, militant 'raw food only' TROLLS, who are CERTAIN to show up in this thread, sooner or later: **BITE ME** (**NOT** the FOUR LETTER words I'd LIKE to use, either). I had two cats that lived to 16 and 18 years, with absolutely NO health problems of ANY kind, until literally one or two DAYS before they passed away, and they both ate either Iams, or Science Diet, DRY FOOD, for their entire lives. As one person has said, which I did not know: Iams used to be better food, than it is now, so that may have helped, some. SO THERE! I hope your 'raw food only' cats have diarrhea ALL OVER your beds, and your expensive leather sofa and easy chairs! Grumble **EVERY NUT CASE IN THE WORLD** has a computer now. grumble. Looks like you have serious communication problems. I can just imagine what your posts would look like if you could color your words. Creepy, IMO. Hi John, new to this thread but i think we are looking at a win7 'livemail' thread so it's not possible to address 'who said what' because you can't tell. I use a freeware Xananews (works fine with Win7) and don't have that problem on my win7 machine. I'll address the issues instead with knowledge of who posted what ok? 1- dry food used to not be much recommended because there were few good brands. IAMS and Science diet were fairly good in comparison for a long time but they have no longer any real claim on that and in fact, purina pro-plan is better now. 2- Wellness has a big reputation but has no grain free versions sold in the Norfolk VA (USA) versions that I have ever seen (includes dogs and cats). Since due to grain issues with mine, this is a must. My uderstanding is they started grain free but lowered the quality while keeping the price the same. Like IAMS and Science diet, they now seem to trade on reputation while quality is declining fast. 3- the ethic for a time was 'wet is best' because large scale statistics showed a much larger segment of cats living past age 15 if fed wet most of their lives. Thats not all the picture though, they didnt have the same quality of food in the dry. Today the statistics show there is nothing wrong with dry food is a true quality product is used. 4- I do not 'raw feed' my cat. She gets a fair amount (close to 30% perhaps) of 'raw' but my vet advised against it as her only food and I agree. It can be done, and done well it's the healthiest diet of all, but I lack the time to adjust all the ingredients (or a source for some) to make it really work. I do raw feed at 50% of their intake for 2 dogs. 5- I have the luck of the irish to have 1 cat and 2 dogs with grain allergies. No, it's not that common and the cat can have a little wheat gluten for 2 days safe if it happens by accident, with no issues. The dogs range from 'significant' to 'high reactive'. Raw feeding completely avoids this issue if you have the time to make it work. 6- Learn to read labels of cans and check each one for petfood. Roughly 4 of 10 versions of fancy feast are grain free. It's not advertized as such but check, it's true. -- |
#8
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IAMS vs Whiskas?
"cshenk" wrote in message ... John Doe wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav: Gandalf ingold1234(AT)yahoo(DOT)com (Gandalf) wrote: ... Yes, you need to switch food SLOWLY, gradually adding more of the 'new' food, in with their previous food. I have always been told by vets to take about two WEEKS to change foods, to give their digestive system plenty of time to adjust to the new food. As an aside, when one of my cats was quite elderly, and having some health problems, I decided to switch her to Wellness, since it's supposed to be one of the 'best' dry foods available. I took about 2 1/2 weeks to make the change over. About a week AFTER the change, my cat started having loose stools, slowly getting worse over the next week or so. I stitched my cat BACK to her previous food, Nutro, as fast as I thought was 'safe', and the loose stools stopped almost immediately. There is no doubt that Wellness is a 'better' cat food...but it's not better for every cat. And, it's quite expensive. I gave away most of a $45 bag And, I agree that Whiskas is kind of 'junk food' for cats. I would try switching to another, better cat food. Basically, almost ANY cat food is better than Whiskas. I would try Science Diet, since it s now carried at MANY stores, including some 'discount' stores. I know that Fleet Farm carries it, and puts it on sale pretty regularly. And for all you 'canned food only' and even worse: all you nut cases, militant 'raw food only' TROLLS, who are CERTAIN to show up in this thread, sooner or later: **BITE ME** (**NOT** the FOUR LETTER words I'd LIKE to use, either). I had two cats that lived to 16 and 18 years, with absolutely NO health problems of ANY kind, until literally one or two DAYS before they passed away, and they both ate either Iams, or Science Diet, DRY FOOD, for their entire lives. As one person has said, which I did not know: Iams used to be better food, than it is now, so that may have helped, some. SO THERE! I hope your 'raw food only' cats have diarrhea ALL OVER your beds, and your expensive leather sofa and easy chairs! Grumble **EVERY NUT CASE IN THE WORLD** has a computer now. grumble. Looks like you have serious communication problems. I can just imagine what your posts would look like if you could color your words. Creepy, IMO. Hi John, new to this thread but i think we are looking at a win7 'livemail' thread so it's not possible to address 'who said what' because you can't tell. I use a freeware Xananews (works fine with Win7) and don't have that problem on my win7 machine. I'll address the issues instead with knowledge of who posted what ok? 1- dry food used to not be much recommended because there were few good brands. IAMS and Science diet were fairly good in comparison for a long time but they have no longer any real claim on that and in fact, purina pro-plan is better now. 2- Wellness has a big reputation but has no grain free versions sold in the Norfolk VA (USA) versions that I have ever seen (includes dogs and cats). Since due to grain issues with mine, this is a must. My uderstanding is they started grain free but lowered the quality while keeping the price the same. Like IAMS and Science diet, they now seem to trade on reputation while quality is declining fast. 3- the ethic for a time was 'wet is best' because large scale statistics showed a much larger segment of cats living past age 15 if fed wet most of their lives. Thats not all the picture though, they didnt have the same quality of food in the dry. Today the statistics show there is nothing wrong with dry food is a true quality product is used. 4- I do not 'raw feed' my cat. She gets a fair amount (close to 30% perhaps) of 'raw' but my vet advised against it as her only food and I agree. It can be done, and done well it's the healthiest diet of all, but I lack the time to adjust all the ingredients (or a source for some) to make it really work. I do raw feed at 50% of their intake for 2 dogs. 5- I have the luck of the irish to have 1 cat and 2 dogs with grain allergies. No, it's not that common and the cat can have a little wheat gluten for 2 days safe if it happens by accident, with no issues. The dogs range from 'significant' to 'high reactive'. Raw feeding completely avoids this issue if you have the time to make it work. 6- Learn to read labels of cans and check each one for petfood. Roughly 4 of 10 versions of fancy feast are grain free. It's not advertized as such but check, it's true. You might want to add this site...a good reference source: http://www.petfoodratings.net/cats.html This is pretty comprehensive and quite explicit, as well as lengthy. But now I'm getting rid of a lot of worthless wet food I have on hand, and making a shopping list to find better food for my cat and new 10 week kitten. |
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