Best food for long cat life

In My Humble Opinion
1

There really should be a factual answer for this.

I have two year-old neutered male cats. I want them to live long and healthy lives.

The longest-lived cat I ever had lived to be 18. She died of cancer; I could have treated her but it was hella expensive, involved a 70-mile each way trip to a college with a veterinary school at a time when I didn’t have a car, it might not have worked, and–she was 18.

What she ate in her life was, Puss N Boots cat food, nasty smelling stuff that was full of some kind of bones, and raw calves’ liver cut into approximately half-inch chunks. She got liver several times a week and she loved it. She was also an outdoor cat who caught and ate cicadas, grasshoppers, and small rodents (mice, moles). She was quite healthy her whole life, until the end. Great fur (and lots of it, she was a Maine Coon cat), bright eyes, no signs of stiffness or pain in her daily activities. Being a cat she did sleep a lot, but she did a fair share of pouncing, too.

My more recent cats have lived to ages 14 (female) and 16 (male).

I have done a bunch of online searches to find out what’s best to feed neutered males. I’ve been told that once they reach a certain age they do better on wet food than dry food, but you can find anything to back up any weird opinion, on the internet. I want facts. What is the best thing to feed them so that they will never get sick and they’ll outlive me? Point me to some experts.

Currently feeding them Royal Canin for Neutered Male Cats (up to 7 years old).

ETA: It’s dry food, they are indoor cats, and they are domestic shorthair, basically, alley cats.

2

Whatever you feed them, there’s no guarantee that they’ll never get sick and they’ll outlive you. But you’re doing one thing right already: keeping them indoors.

3

About all you can really do is ask any vet who you’re reasonably certain is competent, and take his advice.

4

I find mine do just fine on Fancy Feast. I’ve had seven cats live from kittenhood to the grave with me, and all but one made it into their late teens. One lived to be 21. I believe 18 is an average lifespan for a well-kept cat.

Don’t fall for the hype of special yuppie diets and blends of vegetables and snake oil. Cats are carnivores, and meat byproducts are fine for them. I often tell the story of the big pet food scandal back in the 2000’s, when dozens of cats died and dogs got deathly sick from pet food tainted with antifreeze. The meat had been imported from China. It was all high-end specialty brands. My working-class Fancy Feast was unaffected.

5

Our vet is a strong proponent of wet cat food. Easier to digest and provides the water that cats need. Ours quit drinking water once we switched to wet food, and seems well hydrated. She gets two cans of Fancy Feast per day to maintain her weight.

6

I use both dry and wet food for my pack of cats. They are indoor/outdoor.
In the morning my 3 adult cats split two 3oz cans of Fancy Feast Poultry and Beef sliced collection. The gravy lovers gave one very loose stools and they don’t care for salmon or tuna apparently. ALso they do not care for any other brands, no matter what.This food is eaten up and licked up in about 3 minutes.

Then they turn to the dry food bowls where I put about 1/2 cup total. They always start crunching on the dry food next. it’s always been Iams or Science Diet for my pack of cats, I switch it up between flavors now and then and they still eat it.

I take away the dry food bowls if there is food left when they leave. Around 5pm I put another 1/2 cup of dry food in their bowls. I refuse all subsequent attempts on their part to whine for more food later. they just get snuggles and love then.

Fresh water is a must for my cats, they all take a turn at the water bowl everyday so I have a reservoir type bowl that circulates the water. It’s from K&H called CleanFlow.

My 13yo cat boy is doing great, lean and strong with clean teeth, guess the mice and chippies he eats help with tartar removal according to my vet.

7

Yeah, gushyfud is the way to go. I started researching after my big tomcat became diabetic and learned that dry food can be up to 30% carbohydrates–that’s fine for humans but disastrous for cats, whose normal diet is at most 3-5% carbs from whatever their prey has in its stomach. High carb food, sprayed with substances to hype up palatability and demand feeding gives you a too-fat cat who’s a diabetes spot marked X. The lack of hydration from dry food is also a big concern and it’s terrible for their teeth. Pate style wet cat food is the way to go–all those gravy heavy cat foods are likewise too high in carbs. Or you can feed a raw diet but that’s more of a PITA and canned Friskies is a decent balance of nutrition and cost.

8

I’ve had nine cats, and seven of them lived to be 16-20. I’ve fed them canned Friskies, with occasional Fancy Feast. None of their deaths were related to their diet.

9

A vet told me (long ago) that it was good to feed your cat both wet and dry, and to vary flavors, so that if they ever needed a special diet they would not be completely entrenched in one food and refuse to eat anything different. Dunno if that really makes sense or not but I try to follow that strategy.

My indoor cats prefer dry food (Iams) and barely touch their wet food (I’ve had the highest level of success getting them to eat Fancy Feast). I would switch them to an all-wet cat food regime for a while if I could, but as I am out of the house for 24 hours at a stretch fairly often, ad-lib feeding dry cat food is a must in my house.

I have an outdoor cat as well (don’t judge me, the vet suggested it as an alternative to giving him up, since he had huge behavioral issues) and for the last few days a pathetic stray kitten has been showing up at my door (great, I really need a fourth cat!) One thing all four cats have in common: they prefer adult cat food, wet or dry, to the kitten food, and no one likes Hills Science Diet of any kind. I wouldn’t ever buy Science Diet at this point, but it’s the only canned kitten food I can usually find. When my current batch is gone, I think I’ll give up on wet kitten food and just slip some chicken or beef to the under-one-year crowd to get them extra protein.

10

Dry cat food ratings: Best Dry Cat Food – PoC (pictures-of-cats.org)

It’s not clear what criteria they use to compile such lists. One thing I do notice is that some brands do not advertise special formulations like “for kittens” or “for neutered males”; it just says, e.g.: “Grain-free recipe with real chicken… For cats, all life stages”

11

I would assume that the literal best food is the ones they evolved to eat. So probably hamsters and hyraxes and such.

12

Can cats reliably take out hyrakes? They’re not that small, and seem rather jumpy, not to mention they tend to have their buddies looking out.

I have not seen commercial cat food in mouse or hamster flavor (I asked!). You can get rabbit…

13

Our vet also told us that cats become addicted to dry food for some reason. Maybe it’s the carbs, much like humans?

14

Maybe one can concoct kitty junk food that tastes good but isn’t necessarily nutritious. Cats like MSG, for example.

15

I thinks so too. And it’s dry food that gets regurged on the carpet. I may try another can split in the evening instead of dry food. I feed them all the same but they’re not the same weights, acivity either.

16

I thinks so too. And it’s dry food that gets regurged on the carpet. I may try another can split in the evening instead of dry food. I feed them all the same but they’re not the same weights, acivity either.

17

My vet said the reason she recommends wet food over dry is that cats tend to get fat on dry, since the fats in dry are concentrated (apparently they use fat to make the dry stuff stick together into clever shapes). Also as was mentioned above, for the water content. I think probably that fat is why some cats tend to get hooked on dry food. I also look for the highest protein content, so I stick with Fancy Feast. I think “grain-free” is a fad that I hope will soon die off, since all the grain-free I have checked has LESS protein, although you would expect it to have more. I have no idea what they put in it if it’s not more meat, but I’ll pass.

18

I never heard that before, but it sure is consistent with the experience I’ve had.

Maybe a way to wean the cats off of only wanting dry food is to mix dry and wet, gradually increasing the proportion of wet? I’ll have to think about how I could implement that strategy.

19

My cats have stayed healthy when I’ve kept their dish full of dry food (Purina One) and let them eat as much as they want, supplemented with wet food (and a cat drinking fountain to encourage them to drink enough water). The advantage to dry food is that I could leave plenty out whenever I needed to go away and leave them alone for the weekend.

But, your cats may vary. Some cats, like some people, have issues with overeating and some don’t.

20

You should include some canned food in their diet. Some cats will develop diabetes if they are only fed dry food. Even grain-free dry food is full of veggies and lacking in the real bioavailable protein that they need.