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Old November 26th, 2010, 10:13 AM
MSteve MSteve is offline
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Wellness Cat Food

So I am a new cat owner, we got Douglas about a month ago. Now that he is settled in we are starting to switch his cat food. You'll all be happy, that we are stopping the dry Purina food that he was previously fed and switching to canned Wellness cat food.

The good news is that he loves it so switching will be easy, I've been adding a spoonful of wet food mashed into his dry food in order to ease him into the new diet. And now instead of picking at his food throughout the day he gobbles it up as quickly as possible and gets much more excited at meal time. By next week he'll probably be on a 80-100% wet food diet.

So a couple of questions, Douglas is a fairly large indoor cat, nearly 20 lbs, but I don't think he is really over weight, but big built. How much should we be feeding him? Its obvious with the new wet food he will probably eat whatever we put in front of him. The Wellness cans say 1 large can for every 6-8 lbs. So will two cans be enough? Also, there is Wellness and Wellness Core canned foods. They main difference seems to be the Core has more protein, is this worth the extra cost?

Thanks.
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Old November 26th, 2010, 10:46 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your kitty will be much happier.


It is always very difficult to answer questions on the quantity to feed a cat because it depends on his age/activity level/metabolism, etc. etc. I feed my cats three times a day and they will eat about a quarter cup to a third of a cup a day. I mix mine with homemade raw so it is hard to judge how much canned I use, but if I was to guess, it would be equivalent to three 5.5 oz cans for four cats. One is a tiny senior who eats almost nothing so I would say one can a day for each cat.

I find my cats do much better with 3 feedings while on a canned/raw diet than just two. When only feeding 2, they seem to get too hungry waiting for the second meal, over eat, then vomit.


To tell if your cat is overweight, you should be able to see a definition of a waist line, and be able to feel his ribs without too much pressure. He should have about .5 centimeters of fat over his ribs.
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Old November 26th, 2010, 12:06 PM
MSteve MSteve is offline
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Yeah I may switch to three meals a day once he's only on canned food.

Douglas is about 20 lbs and fairly inactive. He is probably a little overweight... Maybe I will start with 1 1/2 5.5 oz cans a day? (half a can per meal) And see how he does.

Also, any opinion on the Wellness vs Wellness Core?
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Old November 26th, 2010, 02:41 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSteve View Post
Also, any opinion on the Wellness vs Wellness Core?
I think the regular grain-free Wellness is better. The Core doesn't actually have more protein if you look at it as a % of calories, and it does contain potato starch for some strange reason. It's all a marketing gimmic - an attempt to jump on the grain-free bandwagon, which is made ironic by the fact that Wellness was one of the first companies to make grain-free food for cats anyway. Having said that, I still feed it occasionally (only the chicken one though, not the fish flavour). It's not a horrible food, and I firmly believe cats should have plenty of variety in their diet. Some cats get bored of eating the same canned food all the time, and variety also covers all the bases as far as nutritional deficiencies or excesses are concerned.
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Old November 26th, 2010, 03:34 PM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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I am like SCM, I feed a variety of different foods. I only feed grain free variety of food.

Main Ones:
Wellness
Nature's Variety Instinct (lots of different flavours)

Occasional:
Organics by Nature
Fromm's
Now!

Treat:
Almo
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Jasper RIP (2001-2018)
Sweet Pea RIP (2004?-2014)
Puddles RIP (1996-2014)
Snowball RIP (1991-2005)

In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.-English Proverb

“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.” Stephen R. Covey
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Old December 22nd, 2010, 11:16 AM
MSteve MSteve is offline
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Update

So I made the switch easily. He gobbled up the food and actually looked forward to meal time. Which could be a little annoying at times, but once he schedule was established he only got fussy near mealtime.

So after two weeks of no problems, he is starting to act a little funny. He used to gobble up all his food as soon as we laid it down. But now he only picks at it a little bit, and often doesn't finish. He is still eating, but not nearly as much as he used to. Its kind of like he lost his appetite somewhat. It is concerning, especially since we will be away for a week for the holidays.

Other than the food, he seems to be acting perfectly normal. Other than crying by our bedroom door a little more often (he doesn't sleep with us). He used to do that a lot when we first got him, and after we switched his food because he got hungry in the morning. But now he acts like he wants food, but only half-heartedly and then doesn't eat most of it.

He's also been drinking very little water since we switched to the wet food.
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