Mow Wow!
Grayce here. Some of you have asked how I've managed to slim down. Kitties, it was easier than you think, and it came down to this: NO MORE DRY FOOD. When I had my bladder stones removed a few weeks back the v-e-t recommended a special food for me. Well, since there's 12 of us here in the Lounge and we free feed Mommy almost had a stroke at the cost. So she started doing research...and found out that many pet nutritionists consider the WORST wet food better than the BEST dried kibble. Kitties, our little guts and innards are not designed to digest vegetable matter, even vegetable protein. Now I know, a lot of us LIKE lettuce and broccoli and cocktail peanuts (Tiny Johnson!), but we wouldn't choose to eat these things over stuff like HAM, tuna and chik-hen. And there's a reason for that. We are carnivores, my friends, and we need to eat meat. And kibble, even the best, has more carbohydrates in it than our perfect little bodies can deal with effectively.
So...Mommy decided no more kibbles for us. We went cold turkey (no pun!) and one morning the kibbles went away and the wet food appeared. I was NOT happy! In fact, I wasn't sure that canned food even WAS food! KonaKitty was in the same fix. Mommy sprinkled some kibbles on the wet food to tempt us into eating and after three days we joined the howling horde in the morning, waiting for Mommy to open the cans. I was a wet food convert!
Back to my slimming secret...I've been eating wet food for about a month now and I've been paring off an ounce a week, and I'm not hungry at all. Mommy mixes each can of food with a can of warm water and mashes it up...YUM. We are still free feeding, now only with wet food and it's working out great. We have more energy, my dandruffy coat has cleared up (probably a grain allergy) and get this: our poops don't smell as bad! (Well, WE never thought they did but that's what Mommy & Daddy say.) KonaKitty is trimmer, and Johnny's not as wide as he used to be. The rest of us have remained the same, weightwise, so we're all getting plenty to eat.
Mommy is feeding us Friskies Pate (no glutens) and Fancy Feast, and her plan is to switch us over to higher-quality foods in the future. She would love to raw feed, but for right now it's too expensive, and Daddy is squeamish. Sorry, Daddy!
Because I'm eating wet foods and drinking lots of water the odds of me getting another bladder stone are a lot lower than if I was still eating kibble. Plus, I can wash certain parts (middle of my back) a whole lot easier now that I can reach! Daddy says I'm like a kitten again the way I zoom around like my tail's on fire.
So that's my secret, kitties. It might not work for everybody, but is sure has worked for me and improved all the Lounge Kat's quality of life. And that's what it's all about, right? Making the kitties happy and healthy!
Headbutts & Biteys, Grayce
We're already with you re. the kibble. Annie and Nicki would be fine without it, but Derry has to be truly starving before he'll touch wet. The boys get 1/8 to 3/16 cup dry per day and the rest canned. Definitely avoid the corn, soy, and wheat in the canned. Nicki loves Almo shredded chicken with pumpkin, not to be fed as a regular food as it has no vitamins/minerals, it's for supplementing only. Annie likes the chicken breast. Derry doesn't like any of them. LOL. Nicki will also eat salmon-flavoured Natural Balance canned (Annie too), and they all get three or four flavours of FF, the ones without the soy and wheat. Unfortunately, FF still has the by-products, but I swear it's like kitty crack and is SO hard to get them off it. I've spent a fortune (not kidding) trying every friggin' premium brand available but I have picky, picky eaters. Probably because I'm too soft (in the head) to let them get hungry enough to eat what they don't like.
ReplyDeleteTwo co-workers feed their cats raw. The one who first started doing that makes her own. She had a heck of a time getting her Himmie off corn-filled kibble and onto raw and canned mixed, but she did it by letting her go hungry...and hungry and hungry. She has a formerly feral who eats only raw, and two others who eat a mix of premium canned and raw.
The other co-worker has two indoor/outdoor cats who are used to hunting, so the conversion to raw was easy, they love it. Mine won't even eat human food. They'll lick it or maybe eat a bite, but that's it.
We get dry kibble 24/7 as our bowl is a self-dispenser. As it empties, the kibbles falls into the bowl part and Wa~La...sometimes though, it gets stuck and Pandora is the only one who mastered getting the jam, unjammed. As a treat, we get wet stinky goodness. Skeeter and Scooter(RIP) had wet food all the time when they were little and unless you kitties like your toofs being brushed, wasn't so kind to their teefs. Scooter had to have a few take out and Skeeter still has all of hers, but mom switched to dry foods. But, like we said...we do get it from time to time and mo is always sneaking us bits of meats here and there.
ReplyDeleteWe are a combo house - they get wet food 2 times a day and have dry kibble to munch on - BUT we do get the grain free dry because we switched to it when Floyd was sick. They get fancy feast - I have tried to switch them to a high quality, grain free wet food but they won't eat it for the most part. Funny thing is that the younger cats are the ones that are more finickey (mainly Virgil, who won't even look at anything that isn't in pate form). We also tried raw - also a no go. I keep hoping that one day they will change their minds (I still try with the grain free wet) but it hasn't happened yet.
ReplyDeleteWe always have some grain free Katz N Flocken out but mostly eat our pouch food--we don't like any canned food that the Woman gets us--as she always goes for that health food stuff--no grains and organic human quality food. Darn her. She keeps trying to get us to eat raw food but we keep refusing..
ReplyDeleteI free fed all my cats dry food and give them canned food as a treat...Mommy Cat and Daddy Cat get wet food everyday, but they've gained weight this winter (they are always heavier in winter, slim down in summer), but they will both be 10 years old, so it might be harder for them to lose it this year...I know it's harder for me to lose weight since 40!!...Have a great day friends...xo...Calle, Halle, Sukki
ReplyDeleteYep...can't wait til the kittens leave home and everyone can go on canned! The Catkins Diet works! I got Disco down from 16# to 12.5# in 2 months--a little too fast really...but after 3 months with dry available (not free choice for him but sneaking kitten food) he's right back up to almost 16# again...and actually Fancy Feast is not that bad a canned food when you look at the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteOh GREAT! We been gettin free feed Meow Mix along with our regular Evo canned breakfast and dinner (which we like fine). But NOW TBT read the post an says he thinks we are gonna try going without Meow Mix. See, that was our back up when we wanna be fussy about the canned stuff. He says we will still get Hills Sience kibble as treats though...
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting - Archie is on a mix of wet and dry food right now. Over here vets often recommend expensive but concentrated dry food sold through them - I wonder whether that's got loads of carbs in too - I've never been able to afford it so far. I must investigate wet food more and perhaps increase the proportions Archie has, and perhaps get a small packet of the other just for treats! xx
ReplyDeleteWell, we get wet and dry too, but I must say you look darn good!
ReplyDeleteOh Grayce!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing the secret to your beauty and slim-ness!
It really is quite horrifying to know the kinds of stuff that are put in cat food. But like your mummy says unless you have money to spend, these are what us hoomans have to feed our kitties! It's great to do a little research though to find the best there is!
Charlie loves his wet food - especially gravy ones - but he also likes the dry - but it's a special dry diet for his teeth. Not that he needs to sharpen his teeth even more!
Anyway me and Charlie are very very glad that you are feeling fitter and healthier. You certainly have movie star poise and demeanour!
Take care
x
Flip and Jackie have wet food twice a day and a little dry in the morning as snack. Shadow does not eat dry at all. They eat fancy feast fish and shrimp and Authority chicken and turkey because they do not contain any by-products or glutens. Jackie and Shadow both have lost weight. They look healthier and more energetic :).
ReplyDeleteWe totally agree with the no dry kibble point of view, and eating a grain-free diet. We love our raw food diet! We eat chicken, rabbit, beef and venison medallions. I haven't had bladder stones in almost 4 years now.
ReplyDeleteps: You can find the cat shoes in lots of places. Do an internet search under "T.U.K. cat mary jane shoes" and you'll find lots of sources!
I'm quite slender, but I will pass this information along to mom, MOL!
ReplyDeleteWe're with you, Grayce! We get mostly wet food but still some dry food because we love it so much!!
ReplyDeleteI think my mom would go all canned food for us except that Russell would vacuum it down before anyone else could get to it. So free feeding on that would just mean Russell feeding on it!
ReplyDeleteLove a Grain free food! They say a raw diet is suppose to do wonders for animals. I know for a fact that raw diets can get expensive and can be messy at times. Especially if you have a pet that likes to pick out certain things in the food
ReplyDeleteThat's brilliant, I am going to start mixing the canned with water!!!
ReplyDeleteGood job on the conversion!! Great news that everyone is doing better on it. Cats really need the moisture in their food, makes a big difference. If you ever decide to go raw, you could probably still feed your wet food along with it during the conversion. And you would be surprised, if you have the time to price shop and have the freezer space, you can probably spend less then the canned food :).
ReplyDeletethis is really interesting...i need to get my Petie trimmed down...and right now i free food. mostly dry (EVO or something equally expensive and good!) with wet food as a treat1}! maybe i should try wet more often..
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad you switched to wet food! All dry food can make cats gain weight and also can also contribute to diabetes and renal failure. We eat low carb Fancy Feast all the time and we are doing great! All the best
ReplyDeleteBoots, Ozzie & Brenda