"sighthounds & siberians" wrote

You can avoid all of this by switching to a more species appropriate
diet of real meat, bones and organ meats. You don't have to use flavor
enhancers to get them to eat it, they love it! Cats can be a little
stubborn to switch over but it's totally possible. Dogs usually take to
it right away with little problems.

My cat has flat-out refused to switch. She gets as much canned food
as she wants, so I'm not going to push it. Three of my dogs have made

Hehe I had trouble getting Daisy-chan to switch as well. I just took it
slow. For her now, kibble is a treat.

With cats, it really does show in time if they are on dry. Not every cat
will have problems, but a significant portion will by age 10. They start
having urinary tract and kidney malfunction issues in much higher numbers.
Mixed feeding of dry and canned helps a great deal over pure dry feeding so
you are doing fine.

Canned is better than dry for a cat (even cheap canned) but raw feeding a
cat is (per my vet who IS a raw food fan) difficult to get right so he
doesn't suggest it as more than a side item to augment cans. My suggestion
would be to try different brands and types of canned if you want to convert
her more fully. Like, I've not had a cat yet that will touch a can that
lists 'tuna' (just an oddity, they wouldnt sell it if lots of cats didnt
like it). Daisy-chan will eat any canned type as long as it's not tuna but
she prefers to have a sort of soft pate in the morning and something
shredded/sliced in evening.

The main problem with dry feeding cats is they tend to have non-functional
'I'm thirsty' settings. I am pretty sure you can beat that with broth added
at the side of dry if you have a tough to convert cat. Daisy-chan gets 3 TB
a day. Ok, she pees alot on this canned wet food and broth diet (grin) but
that's fine.

On raw-feeding Cash, we remain and will be 50/50 due to his gulping habits.
Morning he gets his blue wilderness kibble and evening he gets normally
something raw (last night, it was a hunk of boneless salmon fillet and about
1oz hog jowl). Battling weight again as he's not getting as much exercise.
Charlotte is in school, Don's hip is giving him grief, and my neck is not
happy with me so can't ride the bike these last 3 weeks.