do you have to feed your cat cat food?

[Elvisisboss]

trying to help my older cat who has allergies.

could you feed a cat say Iams or james well beloved biscuits (as this is what he has)

and say sardines, chicken breast and fish per day?

all fresh instead of like whiskas etc?

thanks

[meep]

I'm not an expert on cat nutrition, and haven't researched lots of different food or the 'raw meat' diet that some owners put their cats on; I'm sure other members can give some expert advice on this.

But I would say that cats need a very well balanced diet with all their essential nutrients. Cats need taurine in their diet, which is only found in meat; without it they can run into seroius medical conditions, a common one being blindness.

I think if you wanted to stop feeding your cat catfood, and start giving it a mixture of fresh meat, biscuits and more alternative things you'd need to be very precise on monitoring exactly what nutrients and balance of protein vs carbs you were giving your cats, as it does need to be exact to keep your cat healthy and happy.

Cat foods conveniently come with the 'right' balance so we don't need to worry about it too much. Take the cat food away and it could absorb a lot of time making sure they are getting everything they need and would get naturally.

It is do-able; I have heard of people putting their cats on a 'raw meat' diet, as it's considered more natural. Some breeds of cat (such as Bengals) thrive on such diets. But I am also aware that a lot of cats have, from kittenhood, been brought up on cat food and so to suddenly change their diet, even if the food you're giving them in essence is better and more natural, could upset their systems.

Out of curiosity, what probed the question?

[Elvisisboss]

hiya thanks for that, well my older cat has serve allergies to everything, literally anything you can think of he is allergic to it!

i thought that maybe if i jsut gave him his biscuits and oily sardines (omega oils for his coat) and chicken breast, salmon (oils again) as well as his biscuits, it might help him out a bit? as his allergic to alot of food aswell!

he is 11 now, just wondered if it would help him out? he is also on laxative for his life as since a kitten he gets bunged up, and consitpated so much he pooed and created a new hole inside himself!!!

poor flippin cat had more operations than most people have hot dinners!

thought a change might help him out? if it isnt worth doing i wont do it, but maybe i could jsut put a tin of oily sardines into his diet twice a week instead?

[dandysmom]

Awww, poor boy! Like meep, I'm no expert on nutrition, but I can't see why sardines or salmon once a week could do any harm....I defer to the experts here.

[calismum]

There must surely be some hypoallegenic cat food out there? Natures Best, J wellbeloved etc. What about some of the science diets or have you already tried al that?

What a nightmare - poor cat.

Good luck

CM

[Elvisisboss]

hiya he has james well beloved & iams biscuits, i think they are a 'complete' food? would that mean he wouldnt Need his cat food?

we have tried every food, so far these two seem to be thes best, and infact tesco own are better for him than both of them!! his coat never shown so much and he stopped scratching for ages on that!! so we do mix that in with it!

his very big about 17lb and bigger than a dog!! but his pure muscle, been weighed etc at the vets, his a siamese x tabby or BSH any way big cat!!

with the biscuits he cant eat them alone he has to have his lax on it thats why we give him meat aswell cos he wont eat his biccis with the lax on it!

plus he eats Alot!!! we put water with his food which mean we can give him less lax!

poor cat!! i gave him some oily sardines 3 days ago, never seen him eat so fast!! loved it!!

can you feed just a 'complete' biscuit diet? i feel like the cat would miss out on vits though? :-S

[calismum]

A lot of the dried foods say they are a complete diet which means you do not need to feed anything else.

You could try that and only give him a small amount of wet food to put his lax on.

CM

[Kim]

Hio and sorry to hear about your cats' problems. The foods you mention are complete foods, so your cats could have them only, but I see no reason why you can't add chicken, fish and sardines, probabaly much better than all the c**p in some commercial foods! Some complete foods such as Royal Canin and Hills offer a variety for cats with sensitive stomachs. I personally would avoid Iams, apart from the ethical issue with them, I don't think the food is very good and have heard of lots of people who have had problems with it.

[Elvisisboss]

hiya oh ok! he actuallh just finished his last bag of iams, i bought him another one to try for sensitve tums for senior cats no wheat and things looks very good cant remember the name now though!

bought him some more sardines in oil & bit of fish!

so would biscuits (complete biscuits) and fish / chicken etc be ok to feed?

my new kitten has gone off of his kitten food flix/whsikers/ science hill & tesco own he does not like any of it but he LOVES his biscuits!! have a mixture of purina complete & whiskers & james well beloved complete!

hell eat that anyday over his pouches now so was a little worried i gave him some salmon and a little bit of tuna only a tine bit as i dont think the brine is good for them, and he was purring like mad!!

ill wait till my other cat has finished his food, currently stocked up to about 15 boxes!! and ill give it a go!!

thanks for the help!!

[Hreow]

You can only feed biscuits if you want. If you add fish and/or meat to that, you should serve it as treats because you may "unbalance" the diet if it's a large share of the food. Just like humans where you for instance need Vitamin C to deal with iron, there are other balances that need to be kept. Or you can research the nutrients and proportions that cats need to make sure that the extras are balanced.

My cat does the opposite. He'll only eat wet food, doesn't consider dry-food as food of any kind. And for a cat that eats **everything** else... He didn't even eat dry food the time the vet banned him from food for two days, so it's not something we're going to get him to eat. Shame, because it would be better for his teeth and we could give him puzzle-balls to keep him occupied, but no big deal nutritionally. He gets gristly, fibrous bits of meat to do the toothbushing on for his treats. Your only concern with dry food is to make sure he drinks some fluids, catmilk/water/muddy puddles..., as the dry food doesn't come with a built-in water-ration.

Don't feed them human tinned tuna, though.