No, they don’t require grains but they do need some veggies in the diet, mostly for the fiber and vitamins. I suggest every cat owner, next time they go to the big grocery store which sells those little containers of growing wheatgrass, buy one, and bring in a new one every couple of weeks.
Purina’s Smart Blend has too much corn, imho, but at least the primary ingredient is meat.
I have a dog and a cat now, but at one point a few years ago I had three dogs and three cats, of all ages, metabolisms, and energy levels, living with me! If you want your pets to achieve a healthy weight, or at least maintain the weight they are now, and you aren’t lucky enough to have multiple pets who are able to be free-fed without growing overweight (these are the exception rather than the rule IME) - you just have to start at a certain baseline (say a can of wet food and a quarter cup of dry food per cat per day) and adjust individually depending on their hunger and weight. I’ve successfully managed both weight loss, and healthy weight gain, but it’s not easy. Especially with multiple pets, always trying to eat everyone else’s food.
For your pukey kitty, I would set up her own feeding area in a separate room where you can close the door, and give her a half hour or so alone at mealtimes where she can eat peacefully. A lot of cats in multi-pet households become nervous/overcast eaters, and it’s not good for her to be barfing all the time.
I have two cats who eat two cans of food in the morning and two in the evening. Usually, there’s a little left in the morning, which I dispose of and start over. A neighborhood cat visits from time to time about 4-5 evenings a week and I feed him a single can, as well.
A lot of you have mentioned feeding dry food. My male cat has had two very painful urinary tract infections, which my vet says were caused by eating dry food (the second infection occurred after he discovered and broke into a hidden bag of dry food on his own…he loves the stuff). I’ll still feed them a handful of dried food every now and then, but I mostly avoid it.
Have any of your cats experienced urinary tract infections from dried food? Can you recommend a particular brand that might be deemed safe for more regular feeding of a male cat with a history of UTIs?
FTR, both of my cats are 12 years old (one male and one female) and of medium weight. My girl drinks a lot of water, but the male rarely any at all.
If you give cats dry food, you must be sure they drink enough water. I would think, however, that the wet food would supply their water needs.
I’ve always fed my cats only dry food, and plain old Purina Cat Chow at that, and over nearly 40 years and a half dozen cats I’ve witnessed only one UTI. However, I’ve always had female cats, and that might account for the difference.
I’ve got the only cat in the world that is hard to drag into the kitchen for dinner while the others whine, yet when she is alone and whining, I am puzzled until 
ah, she wants water. She’s the cat that practically comes into the shower with me to lick water off the walls, and drinks from the faucet in the sink.
Yes, the canned food does help their water needs. My female is a water lush, but she also doesn’t eat as much as my gluttonous male and I’ve only recently noticed her increased water intake since we moved to the desert.
The first time I gave them dry food (and the first time the male contracted a UTI), I left them for the weekend with dry food and a large bowl of water, but apparently he needed more. When I came home and refilled their water he lapped for like five minutes straight. Prior to this, neither had shown much of an interest in water, so I didn’t know I’d left an insufficient amount (and I felt horrible).
The second time he caught a UTI, he discovered a hidden bag of food in the garage, tore through it and pigged out on it. I gave him water afterwards, but apparently the damage had been done.
Yes, my vet says that UTIs are far more common in males than in females (the reverse is true in humans, unfortunately).
Sounds like my girl. She’s frequently thirsty to the point where she’ll drink from a toilet if her bowl gets empty. I wonder if this is a female trait, because my male hardly ever even looks at the water bowl.
I’ve also read where excessive thirst and peeing (which my female also does, but in her box or outside, thankfully) is a symptom of diabetes. I’d taken them almost completely off of seafood since it was causing my male cat problems. After noticing that the female’s thirst and urination increased, I did a little research and discovered that a low-starch diet might help. I’ve started feeding her seafood again, but she’s still constantly thirsty. Haven’t taken her to a vet (I haven’t decided on one in our new city yet), but she doesn’t seem to be displaying any other symptoms. In every other way, she looks, eats and is behaving normally.
Most major brands of cat food sell “Urinary Tract Health” dry formulas. IIRC, urinary pH plays a role in the whole thing, so these foods help regulate that. If the problem gets really bad, they have prescription food for cats with chronic UTI’s. My BFF had a male cat with chronic issues. He had surgery to shorten and widen his urinary tract so that blockage would be less of an issue. He is still prone to infection, but has not suffered any blockages since the surgery. He eats prescription dry food and off the shelf canned food.
If your cat has a history of urinary problems and you’ve currently got him on almost exclusively canned food, count your blessings and stay away from the dry food completely.
And almost every single one is the equivalent of junk food (including/specially the prescription diets), and some of them should only be fed on a temporary basis, NOT permanently.
I’m currently dealing with a dry food-addicted, wet food-hating male cat that had a recent urinary blockage. My goal is to eventually get him off dry food completely, but I’m sure he has other plans. Meanwhile, based on my recent research, the best quality “Urinary” formulation dry food I could find out there is Wysong brand “Uretic” formula, which is what I’m slowly mixing into the Royal Canin “Urinary SO” prescription/ripoff crap, now that he’s no longer having any blockages.
At the same time I’m trying to find a canned food that he won’t completely turn up his nose at. But based on the wide variety of brands/flavors he’s rejected, I will eventually have to get tough and move to Plan B. But with his recent issues and all the dietary changes as of late, I don’t want to rush things, lest he murder me in my sleep.
Have you tried Medley?
No, but from what I gather in a Google search, that’s a variety of Fancy Feast?
With him, it seems the chunkier/thicker, the better. And even then, he’ll usually just poke at it and maybe take a few chunks. He won’t so much as touch any food that’s a uniform paste consistency, specially if it’s really liquidy. So, basically, the more like dry food it is, the better - which is a bit of a catch-22. And yes, I’ve tried soaking his favorite dry food in water, both warm and room-temp.
So, yeah, if that stuff is chunky, I’ll give it a try. I’ll try any other chunky canned food, if anybody else has any other suggestions - the chunkier, the better.
Medley is Fancy Feast’s premier can food. Both my cats will eat only Medley for can food, and all the cats in the neighborhood like it. However, it is not chunky. In fact it has a lot of gravy.
I am extremely interested in your newletter.
I tend to feed my cat twice a day – morning and evening – about the same amount, usually kibble in the AM and wet food at night. And I’d say at least two or three times a week he eats, takes about five minutes of contemplation and pukes up all over something. Yesterday it was right in the middle of my bed. What a treat to come home to.
I’m just afraid if I leave him a heaping bowl of kibble he’ll over eat and end up puking more.
You say you’re giving him dry food so I must assume you’re buying a bag from a store. Have you even looked at the bag? There is a chart with feeding recommendations on all pet food.
Yes, that will happen the first couple of days. But once he realizes that he doesn’t have to scarf it all , that more food will be there, he’ll usually stop.
Cat grass can help with this as well as various hairball treatments.
Good advice taken. Thanks and good luck with your cat!
My cats cannot free feed. My princess ended up weighing in at 18 pounds, and her brother at 16 when I free fed them. They now get fed twice a day, either 1/4-1/3 cup of dry food each, or 3 ounces of wet food each. At last check she was down to 14 pounds and he was down to 11. The only problem is that he now steals human food every chance he gets, but they are also much much less picky about what they eat. I guess they’re hungry enough that they’ll pretty much eat what I give them now. Also, the change in her energy was amazing. I had never had cats before and everybody told me to leave food out and that they get less playful as they age. I now know that my girl was just too fat to play.