Wet food questions

Hi there,

I finally (FINALLY! Yay!) convinced my CRF cat to eat wet food. She's now
on x/d, since she showed tons and tons of calcium oxalate crystals at her
last check, as well as a stone in each ureter.
Now, it's been forever since I had a cat on wet food. Right now, Ginger's
eating about a 5 1/2 oz can a day. This seems pretty in line with the info
on the Hill's site (http://tinyurl.com/kj36q) as Ginger is a 7-8 lb cat.

But, a couple questions for all of you who feed their cats strictly wet
food: how much do you feed? How much do you feed at once? Does your cat
polish off the plate in one sitting? If offered wet and dry, which does
your cat prefer?

Ginger's eating the wet well, but eats a bit, leaves it, comes back to
it...I feed her a half can twice a day. She only eats about a forkful at
one time. She'll also totally ignore the wet if I leave the dry x/d
available. She's also on 100 mL sub-q fluids daily, a b vitamin complex
2x/week, and Zenequin daily (to clear up a nasty, nasty kidney infection).
Because her radiographs showed an oddly opaque bladder, I've also added cat
cosequin to her wet food.

Right now, she's ensconced in my guest bathroom, away from the other cats,
because I want to have a good idea of her urine output and her food intake.
I'm a little concerned that once she's back in the house with the other
kitties, I won't be able to convince her to eat the wet x/d.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Corey

D. wrote:

I give Hodge half a can of Hill's Prescription c/d at about 7:00 a.m.
and the other half at about 7:00 p.m. He will eat anything
(including a small piece of bark that came in on my shoe). He
polishes it all off in 5 minutes or less, single-mindedly. He will
accept snacks immediately afterward, which are really bribes to get
him into the other room.

Lucky you!! I have a couple cats that are IN LOVE with wet food, but
they're perfectly happy and healthy on the dry Innova that they eat.

How big is Hodge? One can of Hill's is enough for him per day?

Congrats on getting your kid to eat. My old girl would not touch food
of any kind when she had CRF. It was heartbreaking.

Ginger's always been happy to eat dry food--she went from Innova lite, to
Royal Canin Indoor cat something or other, to RC Renal LP and now on Hill's
X/D. Her renal function looks pretty damn good, but at last check (about 11
days ago) her urine look absolutely aweful.

At this point, I'm sending the RC Renal diet off for independent analysis
(Ginger had NO stones or crystals before I started her on that diet--I
question their stated CA:P levels) and I'm sort of wondering if she really
*needs* the extra moisture from the wet food if she's on 100 cc's of fluids
daily. I feel bad about secluding her in the guest bathroom, and I don't
think I could convince her to eat the wet food if she has the dry Innova
available.

Corey

"Corey Kaye" wrote in message
...

But, a couple questions for all of you who feed their cats strictly wet
food: how much do you feed? How much do you feed at once? Does your cat
polish off the plate in one sitting? If offered wet and dry, which does
your cat prefer?

My two cats at home split a 5.5oz can of wet twice a day. Otto, almost 7,
used to clean his bowl quickly but now usually eats some and walks away.
When Tiger was alive he wanted to go to her bowl, and she went to his, but
they didn't always finish right away. They'd usually go back within a half
hour or so for the rest. Now I have Isaac, an 8 pound bottomless pit. I've
been giving him slightly more than half the can since Otto hasn't been
finishing his. Isaac cleans his bowl in about 90 seconds or so. I've been
adding canned pumpkin to his food because he's had diarrhea, and it makes no
difference. Clean bowl in the blink of an eye. Then I let him out of the
bedroom and he zooms over to finish up Otto's remains.

Isaac was fed wet & dry at the shelter and the first week he wasn't eating
much for me (he had a virus) so I broke down and bought a bag of dry. I now
give them some as a bedtime snack and Isaac sucks his up in no time and the
rushes over to help Otto. If given wet + dry at the same time, Isaac would
just Hoover everything up together. Otto probably would go for the dry,
since he hadn't had any in years until now.

At work, Stinky gets half a can in the morning and a dry snack when I get in
(an hour after everyone else). She gets another half can for dinner with a
little dry tossed on top. Sometimes she eats everything right away and
other times she lets it sit for awhile. Some days she won't eat unless I
crouch down on the floor nearby and talk to her. Harriet gets about 1/4 can
of wet at a time, because she takes so long to eat. She also gets a little
prescription Eukanuba low residue dry, which she seems to like a little more
than wet food. What she really wnats is Stinky's Science Diet Light, wet &
dry, but we;re trying to keep her away from grains due to her
poop/intestinal issues.

--
Liz

Corey Kaye wrote:

: But, a couple questions for all of you who feed their cats strictly wet
: food: how much do you feed?

She eats about 1.5 small cans, ie 4.5 oz total wet food per day. Plus a
few treats, a few pieces of dry, a spoonful of cat-milk, etc. She is a
snacker! Fortunately she is not an overeater, so I can put out what I
want but she will only eat what she wants and leave the rest.

: How much do you feed at once?

I would like to feed 3/4 can twice, but sometimes it is 1/2 can thrice.

: Does your cat polish off the plate in one sitting?

Very rarely. Usually she likes to nibble and come back.

: If offered wet and dry, which does your cat prefer?

Mostly wet, but there can be days when she has a craving for dry. I
don't mind, we all need change now and then.

I think most cats are grazers. I also noticed when I adopted our kitty
a year ago that his urine was very strong smelling when we first got
him - he had been on all hard food. After a couple of days on all wet
food, there is nearly no odor to his urine. I would think that is a
good sign.

But, a couple questions for all of you who feed their cats strictly wet
food: how much do you feed? How much do you feed at once? Does your cat
polish off the plate in one sitting? If offered wet and dry, which does
your cat prefer?

There's 187 calories in a can of x/d. You would have to find out how much
she weighs first, then find out how many calories a cat her size would need.

--
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