Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with wetfood

Crazy Cat People, I need your hacks.

Medieval Maven — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 10:00:47 -0800

Is the CatMate C50 really the only game in town for feeding wet food in a way that doesn't fill me with dread about bacteria? So we ordered two of the CatMate C50 feeders (reluctantly) because we need to feed our cats 4x/day and we need to feed them wet food (many reasons; we supplement with a small amount of kibble but there are kidneys involved here so don't suggest all kibble please).

We chose this one because it seems be the only one that comes with the ability to keep food cool. Since they're getting 1/4 can at a time, it seems rather prudent and important to try to retard the growth of bacteria, no?

Well the things arrived and it seems once you get the cover off, it's nearly impossible for myself or my spouse to get it back on in a way that is similar to when it comes out of the box. The cover is loose, and I'm pretty sure that with a whole day to think about it, the fat cat could remove it and eat everything. Is there anything else we can use or hack to keep the food cool?

For reference, we like this one, not least for the reason that we can record a message (the one cat is pretty tuned to being called for meals and we're both about to change jobs and need him to eat without us). We're going to make a feeding box for the skinny cat, which is why we need two feeders.

Making the Great Canned Food Switch

Medieval Maven — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 09:28:25 -0800

Trying to figure out how much we really need to feed our cats. Hoping someone here can help because I've read everything and it sounds slightly as if I would be preparing my cats for careers as foie gras geese. OK. So after the last adventure, one of the cats is happily back to kibble, and the other one is still being a prima donna. For various reasons, we're looking at swapping them over to all-wet-food. We're getting two of these feeders. They like the Newman's Own Organics Turkey (and it doesn't make the fat one sick, like Wellness unfortunately does). The last question we're trying to answer is how much they should be fed.

The Fat One (Daeva) weighs about 15 lbs that's honestly too much. The Rotundity is getting out of hand. Daksha weighs about 9.5 lbs now after having lost a leg to a cancerous land shark, and he seems a little skinny to me right now. So obviously, two different situations. They are littermates and will be 10 years old next April.

We have a couple big bags of their dry food I wouldn't mind getting through (Natural Balance Reduced Calorie). Daksha won't eat any more than about a 1/4 of a can at a time, plus a tablespoon or so of dry mixed in to slow him down from wolfing.

So. WHAT IS THE MAGIC FORMULA? The cans say 1 can per 6-8 lbs of body weight (so I guess that if your cat weighs anywhere from 9 to 12 lbs, 1.5 cans per day would be correct. However, there is nothing on there about age and activity level - they're getting to be middle aged and they are indoor - not a lot of activity. They play, but obviously less as they get older.

We'd like to feed 1, 5.5 oz can per day, 4x per day, plus a little kibble to make up whatever the deficit is - which I can't really figure out b/c the can doesn't say how many calories are in it. The dry food has about 22 calories per tablespoon.

According to this, I've calculated Daksha needs about 160 calories to maintain - I'd like him to gain just a smidge, so 165 calories a day looks like it might do it. Daeva needs to eat LESS THAN 220 calories a day to lose some chub.

So, after all that, questions as follows:
1. What are the calories in that can of cat food? I can't find it anywhere - is there some standard about # of calories per can that I'm just totally missing?

2. If 88 of their calories are made up by 4 tablespoons of kibble per day, is 1 can per day + 4 tablespoons enough for each cat (to help one maintain and one lose)?

Thank you in advance. Other information that might help you in your answers include that the cats treat collars like Houdini treated handcuffs, and SkinnyPants will very soon go through (another) period of needing to wear an e-collar unless he's supervised constantly.

Aussie Cat Food

kathrynm — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:35:54 -0800

Calling all Aussie (and Aussie savvy) cat lovers. Looking for information on Nature's Gift. I live in Korea. Korea is not a cat country (aside from the strays). I have two choices of wet food in my local grocery. Whiskas (which I thought I had heard bad things about) and Nature's gift. Nature's Gift is an Aussie brand. I couldn't find anything about ingredients on their website. And when imported into Korea they put a sticker on the back (with that information in Korean). My Korean isn't good enough to make out an ingredient list and we're too busy at work to ask a Korean to take the time to translate.

So, if anyone has any information on the "Chicken with Pilchards" and/or the "Kangaroo" (why do I find it slightly disturbing to be feeding my cats kangaroo?) I'd greatly appreciate it. The other flavors have been deemed eight paws, two tails and two noses down.

Previously I had been feeding exclusively kibble (Royal Canin Hairball) which is all my vet carries (aside from Rx food) but The Princess aka Gidgette decided to have random puking episodes (everything looks normal but a borderline low/normal BUN and a lowish ALT. The vet grinds up the meds and I mix it into wet food. The Queen aka Ivory won't go without what the Princess gets. So they split a can of food and get a tiny bit of kibble to munch on during the day.

Help me feed my kitty

lollusc — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:56:55 -0800

I understand that the best cat diet is exclusively wet food. Kittens are supposed to eat small portions every few hours. I am asleep all night and at work for 8 hours during the day. Can I leave wet food out for free feeding or will it go bad? What if she won't eat left-out food? I adopted Shoggoth, a 9-week-old kitten, a few days ago. I want to do the right thing and only feed her wet food. (I was convinced by a post to metafilter by a vet a while ago, but I can't find the link right now). But she isn't really a fan of food that has been in the bowl for more than about half an hour - I guess it smells different? She'll eat it if she's really hungry, though. Can I leave wet food out for free-feeding during the day? And if I can't/shouldn't, will it matter if she goes 8 hours between feeds?

I'm a bit worried about doing this right, because it doesn't seem to me that she is eating very much right now. She manages about 85g of wet food a day (one pouch). Sometimes a little more; sometimes less. The packet says she should be eating 1-2 pouches plus 1/4 cup of dry food per day. There are certainly some flavours she prefers and will eat more on those days.

As a related question: is Whiskas (wet kitten food) really as bad as people say? In references to it on the web, I see people classing it with products that have high carbohydrate content or grain content, but the ingredients list on my packet only lists meats, meat by-products and vitamins/minerals. The first ingredient is meat. The fat and protein content seems pretty low, but I think that's because they are including water content when calculating percentages, and it's hardly different at all from the content of the top brands like Science Diet etc. (Whiskas kitten food = 9% protein, 8% fat; Science Diet = 12% protein, 5.5% fat). Science Diet lists grains and by-products and soy and so on in the ingredients, which Whiskas doesn't. Could it be that the Australian formulation of these brands is different from the North American one?

I understand that some pictures might be of assistance in answering this question.

What to do with cats who don't eat wet food?

chudmonkey — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:54:51 -0800

My cats are effectively ignoring their wet food in favour of their dry food. What can/should I do to keep them eating healthily? I'm a very happy dad to three 7-month-old tabbies, but I'm afraid my lack of cat experience is turning me into a bit of a worrier.

The rescue foundation that we adopted from gave us a supply of food and told us to keep using it, because it's apparently primo stuff. (Wellness brand canned wet food, and Orijen brand Biologically Appropriate Real-Food Kibble)

We feed the cats wet food twice per day, around 12 hours apart. They get kibble in between, and we take the kibble away around 1 hour before wet food time.

My problem is that they don't eat the wet food. I've taken the portions down to about 4 tablespoons per day, each. They nibble at it, but they always leave the bulk of it to dry out and get disgusting in their dishes, and then they spend their time wailing at me for "Crunch Particles", which is their term for kibble, as far as I can tell.

I want to be a good dad, but I'm highly opposed to buying a bunch of brands of cat food until I find one they like, and I'm starting to feel like a real chump laying out 6 portions of ignored food every day. I don't know what to do... If I stir kibble into the wet food, it's a crap shoot: sometimes the mixture gets fully devoured, sometimes its' just a waste of kibble.

What I'm hoping is that I can simply feed them what they like (dry food) and stop feeding them the wet food they ignore, but I certainly don't want to compromise on nutrition. Ideas? Suggestions? Anything? Please? I'm freaking out over here.

Thanks in advance!

Kibble vs. Can

cal71 — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:41:25 -0800

Dog Food Question: What are the pros and cons of wet vs. dry food for dogs (assuming both are high quality)?