Community Chat

[hckynutjohn]

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@GoodyShoes wrote:
For those of you who use canned cat food, how much do you give your cat at once, and how many times a day do you feed your cat? and, how do you store partial cans? my cat is about 3 1/2 years old and he weighs about 12 pounds.

We usually use dry cat food, but my cat threw up on Friday morning, and then again, sometime overnight before yesterday morning. He has not thrown up since early yesterday morning. He seems to be open to eating about a half a can of fancy feast pate. I have to stay with him while he eats. I’m hoping that he will keep it down and have a bowel movement.


@GoodyShoes 

We have 1 that is 8 years old, and 2 kittens. Their primary foods are all dry foods. We do not feed them, or our dog, canned food as their primary nutrition.

As long as they all are drinking enough water, they don't need canned food. That's the way we've fed our over 30 Indoor Only felines. All of them lived into their mid to late teens. Five of them to over 20 years old.

hckynut 🇺🇸

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[Goldengate8361]

Each of my 4 cats get two small cans per day, plus all of the dry food they want. I make Temptations treats readily available, too. 

[occasionalrain]

I feed my cat Blue Buffalo grain free dry that he always  has available and a can of 5.5 Oz wet food, half in the morning, the other half in the evening. I brush him daily so he doesn't get hair balls. He also has organic cat ****** available and filtered water. The throwing up is usually a hair ball, but if he can't keep anything down, it could be serious, so he needs to see the vet. Also, if you have indoor plants, he may have eaten from one, so google to be sure they are safe for cats.

[moonandthestars]

@Jesse Ann   @GoodyShoes Yes, cats can and do eat canned pumpkin.  very nice way to help with constipation. 

You can serve it from a can of pure pumpkin or there are some cat foods that have some of their varieties mixed with it.  It's great to cure or prevent constipation.  If I'm remembering correctly the brand wureva comes to mind.  They have some nice varieties with pumpkin and without.  The ones my cat likes is very liquidy.  Just her preference.  That's really the thing, it can take a while to find the right food. Over the years, when I get someone new, I usually go to petco and buy a large variety of single cans and we figure out what they like.  I also try small bags of different dry foods. My current cat is very very particular about all of it.  When she came to me she was 5 and had been in shelter and multiple foster homes.  She was not used to eating wet food at all, but we transitioned into her having some every day.  I leave out dry food all the time (she likes in particular Natural Instinct ultimate protein the chicken flavor and sometimes the duck).  For wet food, there are a few she likes and we do them in a rotation, but probably the favorite is blue wilderness in paticular the wet salmon food.  Also soulistic from petco has some nice options.  I only buy 3 oz cans or small packets of food, but for my girl it's really almost always too much.  You can store the remaining canned food under those plastic snap on tops or cover with plastic wrap, but my girl will never revisit an open can!  I truly wish they would make 1 or 1.5 oz little servings.  That would be so much better.

If your kitty is throwing up maybe hairballs?  maybe constipation?  maybe an allergy to some of the food you are feeding?  Always a good idea to check in with a vet to make sure nothing more serious  is going on.  There are things you can do for hairballs.  pumpkin for constipation is best but there is also something you could get from the vet (lactulose).  Allergies would just be to try to eliminate the allergen(s).  Make sure your kitty also is drinking enough water.

[Lpink]

I feed my female cat, 2-1/2 yrs old, a spoonful of wet food, Fancy Feasted grilled, once in the evening and a scoop of dry food in the morning.  The canned cat food fits into a lock-n-lock container... perfect size.  I keep the leftovers in the refrigerator and the next day.... microwave a spoonful in a dish with a napkin cover for 8 seconds and she just loves it.  Followed Jackson Galaxy for his opinions.  Very helpful.

[GoodyShoes]

He seems like he is on the mend!  No more throwing up.  He has an appetite.   He had probably 6 oz of canned cat food yesterday.  He pooped last night.  He stayed snuggled up to me instead of under the bed like he did when he was feeling so badly.  Thank you.  

My other cat died at the end of last year.  The vet never could figure out why my other cat was sick.  It started out similar to this, and so we were very worried about our remaining cat.  Within two weeks, we had to put her down.  In the end, she lost the use of all of her limbs.  Very strange.  Likely something neurological like a brain tumor, but it happened so fast.  My vet said she had never seen anything like it before.  She even started asking if my other cat had been outside (she hadn't) because it progressed a little like rabies (she never acted rabid though).   She was the sweetest cat ever.

[candys mine]

@GoodyShoes  Your Vet had an interesting thought.  Look up Dumb Rabies.

So glad your kitty is doing better.

I always thought that Canned food had less Calories than dry food as it had more water in it.

[wagirl]

When a cat vomits alot, it can become dehydrated very quickly--I would be on the phone to the vet ASAP. I have heard from more vets lately, that cats should not be given dry food at all, so I do limit my cats dry food to just a small amount that covers the bottom of her bowl. She gets wet food a couple times a day. Also, pumpkin is good for cats as well as dogs--I was giving a scant teaspoon with her wet food a day for awhile--they love pumpkin. My cat went thru a  week or less where all she did was vomit and had diarrhea--  ended up she has IBD and was not able to absorb the food she was woofing down--she got so skinny that her bones showed thru---but after some meds and good quality canned food ---- I even gave her a bit of full fat yogurt too, she is back to her beautiful self again. And she has a thyroid issue too, so she gets a cream rubbed into her ears every day. she is 13 years old now--this happened this past summer. 

But call your vet!!

[Mindy D]

It's not abnormal for cats to throw up once in awhile. If he or she starts frequently throwing up, then you might need a vet appointment. 

[hckynutjohn]

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@wagirl wrote:

When a cat vomits alot, it can become dehydrated very quickly--I would be on the phone to the vet ASAP. I have heard from more vets lately, that cats should not be given dry food at all, so I do limit my cats dry food to just a small amount that covers the bottom of her bowl. She gets wet food a couple times a day. Also, pumpkin is good for cats as well as dogs--I was giving a scant teaspoon with her wet food a day for awhile--they love pumpkin. My cat went thru a  week or less where all she did was vomit and had diarrhea--  ended up she has IBD and was not able to absorb the food she was woofing down--she got so skinny that her bones showed thru---but after some meds and good quality canned food ---- I even gave her a bit of full fat yogurt too, she is back to her beautiful self again. And she has a thyroid issue too, so she gets a cream rubbed into her ears every day. she is 13 years old now--this happened this past summer. 

But call your vet!!

@wagirl 

"No dry food at all"? Never heard that before. Our long time vet has had all of our large feline family eating dry cat food as their primary nutrition for over 2 decades now.

The wet food he said would be primarily to add fluid to their eating. As long as our cats are not sick, and our several water bowls need refilling regularly? I have no plans on changing.

As I said in my other post here. We have had over 30+ Indoor Only Felines over the decades. They all lived into their teens/mid and late/and our last one we euthanized a few months ago was a few days shy of 21 years old. She was not the only one to make it to 20.

I personally think knowing early when your cat is not feeling well makes a huge difference. Like humans, the sooner the better. We have been owned by so many now, we know all, or most, how a feline reacts when they are not feeling well. To me that is much more important than wet versus dry.

hckynut 🇺🇸

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