[Bobby dog]

What corn stuff in Authority?

[crazy4cats]

Akari-
You really did buy 200lbs of litter? Lol! I thought you were kidding! I’m not sure what you mean by corn stuff either? I feed both those brands (Authority and NutroMax) in my rotation as well as Friskies poultry platter and Chicken Soup. I don’t like the meat by products as the first ingredient on the food you are looking at, however, your cat needs to eat and it is only temporary. He will be fine. I’m sure there are cats that get that food all the time. Good luck. I know it is expensive to feed healthy food to our pets. You are definitely set in the litter category for a while!

[Akari_32]

I totally bought all that cat litter LOL I have extra money now because classes are out, so I won’t be spending $40+ a week on gas. Mom *sort of* fixed the printer, but whoes to say how fixed it will stay, and it still doesn’t print very well. It’s the most expensive piece of junk money can buy -_- But I just don’t have the money to buy something that’s going cost $1+ a day in any sort of volume (I could by a little at a time, and use a $2 off $10 coupon, rather than a $4 off $20).

He still gets Friskies Special Diet now, in his rotation, and it’s essentially the same as Grreat Choice, minus the urinary tract additives and added colors, which is why I’m thinking it looks like the better of the two options for the time being and to replace the Friskies in the rotation later (not that he needs it, but it stretches the Wellness out). Actually, the Wellness coupon may be expired…. Any body check it lately? I’ve only got the one from last month, with the Duo’s introduction.

I thought I saw that Authority and Max Cat both had corn *something*? Corn gluten, or some such? Can’t seem to find it now, though. Maybe they changed it? Oh, and neither appear to be grain free, unless I’m mistaken (I want as low carb as possible– I’ll run them both through the calculator in the morning). And Authority is *full* of fish. In the morning, I’ll dig a little deeper into both brands and see what they have to offer. Maybe I’ll do half and half, Wellness, and something else.

Either way, I’ll make it work. I just need to get creative! LOL The best part is I’m going on vacation for a week in a week and a half, and I’m so low on food. Works been chopping my hours into little pieces, I was stupid and bought all that cat litter, and there are no good cat food sales! Bleh! Lol I have 4 days off this week, so I have plenty if time to figure out cat food stuff :3

[Bobby dog]

Hey Akari:
Thought maybe you took some summer classes; I print things at school allot of times. Allot of professors prefer e-copies of papers (easier to check for plagiarism) so I figure if I am getting charged for printing privileges I might as well use it for something. lol

I’ve looked at Grreat Choice before and agree with C4c. It’s not ideal to have meat by-products as the 1st ingredient and it does have added color, look towards the end of the ingredient list. I only feed Friskies Poultry Platter pate’ for the kitty crack addicts. I have Authority on my list, but never fed it; I think it looks good.

Whatever you decide I am sure your kitty will be fine, you are very diligent about the ingredients in his food and take the time to feed him good stuff!!!!

Coupons.com has a $5 off a $25 purchase at Petsmart you could maybe price match somewhere.

[Bobby dog]

FYI: I got my Holistic Select coupons 7/22, don’t see any Wellness yet. I always forget what account I have them sent to.

[crazy4cats]

And I try to print at work. Naughty, naughty :/ We bought a printer at Walmart over a year ago for $20. It’s an HP and has worked better than any other fancy printer we’ve had. I’m wondering what you guys are studying in school?

[Bobby dog]

Hey C4c:
Buying a fairly cheap, plain, and well-built printer for just printing things like coupons is smart. You don’t need a fancy one if you are not printing photos or other documents that need to be high quality. A plain printer without all the bells and whistles is a fairly inexpensive purchase. A refurbished one would even be a smart purchase for general print jobs. I have a Canon MX860; it’s probably 5 or 6 years old. I always chuckle to myself when I say this, but one of the useful things I learned in school was from one of my computer classes. My professor was always giving us money saving tips for computers, hardware/software purchases, shortcuts to use on the Internet, cool websites and such. One of the tips that stuck was how to buy generic ink cartridges on E-bay. Luckily my printer was one of the brands that can use generic cartridges well. I end up paying about 50 -75 cents/cartridge and then turn them in for $2 credit each (up to 10/month) at Staples for office supplies. When my mom needed a new printer I researched what printer to buy according to what brand would use generic cartridges. When she commented on how much time I spent looking for the printer and how it must be a nice one I had to let her in on the secret that I was mostly concerned about generic cartridge compatibility. She was confused, but I only had to tell her how much she would have to pay for her brand of cartridge. She laughed and said “well at least the time and money spent for college paid off.” Hey, ink cartridges can be expensive. Lol

I have a degree in Human Services that I am building on; it is a very draining line of work. I am earning a degree in Health Care Management.

[Akari_32]

I just finished my summer class. It was only a 10 week course.

I must have missed the added color the first time! I see it now. Derp lol Authority doesn’t look bad, but I already tuna Wellness in my rotation, so I don’t want any more fish than he’s already getting. Same deal with the Max Cat. I will run them both through the carb calculator though, and dig a little deeper into the ingredients (PetSmart has stopped putting the ingredients for ALL their foods online, and just has one flavor to represent each line and style), and see what I come up with. I’ll get on the lap top and do it, and report back. I need to start buying today, regardless of what I find. I’ve got to squeeze any new food in get him used to it ASAP or my room will be smelling gross for a while lol

I did have a little cheapy printer, one of those little $20 ones that came with ink and everything. We had for years and years and it finally died. My brought home the business printer, and we’ve always had problems with it. It’s supposed to be some fancy wifi printing cell phone thinger deal (we hook it up to the computer, though), and all it does is give us error messages that it doesn’t know how to function, has to align the cartridges every time you turn it on (and THAT takes like 10 minutes and the thing sounds like it’s going to explode or something)– it’s terrible. I have to go online and look up error message more often than not. I don’t know what mom did to fix it, but hopefully it’ll stay working lol Replacing the company printer is not my job lol

What brand do you have, Bobby Dog, and where are you getting these cheap cartridges?? We pay like $35 for a black one for this piece of crap printer. It does print a lot, though. …. When you can get it work….

I’m going to school to be a vet tech at the moment. Hopefully in the future I’ll go to be an actual vet. Just a money thing right now.

[Bobby dog]

Vet Tech, I remember you writing that before. Maybe when you first came here? IDK

I try to stay away from color too, but I use Sheba here and there because they stop eating the good stuff. It would be a decent food if it didn’t have added color because they are all GF, oh well. I would feed Friskies and Authority over Grreat Choice. Forgot to add before I have added Nutro and Chicken Soup canned to my rotation. If you don’t want to feed low quality ingredients you will probably have to deal with some fish in the recipe in your price range; I wouldn’t worry about it since it’s not a permanent rotation. Other than 4Health canned that is 46 or 49 cents for 5.5 oz. I don’t have any other recomendations for you in this price range. Everything else is at least $1/can for quality ingredients.

I have a Canon MX860 with all the bells and whistles (it’s old now though). What brand & model of printer do you have? I will help you if I can and let you know what sellers I buy from on Ebay if you have a printer that will do well on generic cartridges. Some brands don’t; I was lucky my printer does. My professor did say Canon doesn’t typically do well using them, but I think because mine was an older model it was okay. Maybe Canon caught on to the generic deal and made newer models not so compatible with them. I got a Brother printer recently for my mom and it does great on the generic cartridges. It actually is a very nice one (all the bells and whistles she will never ever use lol) that was on sale. I would have gotten the next better model if I needed one.

The good thing was the cartridges were cheap enough for me to test out. I had nothing to loose if they didn’t work other then a few bucks, but as luck would have it they worked fine. I have been using them in my printer for the past three years with no problems. I don’t print anything that needs high quality ink like pictures, my professor did say you do need quality ink for quality print jobs. So they work fine for what I need to do.

[Akari_32]

So I found *one* flavor of Authority that meets my expectations (flaked turkey). So he’ll have a good deal of that lol I’m also going to buy 16 cans of Ideal Balance (the little cans), and I’ll get something not turkey lol I’ll be trying to print my Wellness coupons out as well. Wish me luck on that! Just booted up the piece of crap– I mean printer– and so far it doesn’t appear to be acting up, yet.

The printer is an HP Officejet 6500 Wireless, modle E709n. Everyone that has one complains about them… lol All’s I need is something to print coupons out with! If you could help me out, that’d be awesome! :3

[Akari_32]

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! My Wellness email is gone! I must have been expired and I deleted it 🙁 I’ll see if there are any hiding out around the internet…

[Bobby dog]

Hey Akari:
Are you looking for a new printer? Or want me to check on generic cartridges for your HP? Or both? I had an old HP printer that I tried generic cartridges on and they didn’t work with it. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but the HP cartridges were the powder type ink as opposed to my Canon’s being the liquid ink cartridges.

Just an FYI, I don’t know if you read one of my last posts reviewing some new foods I tried. Science Diet was on sale at the pet shop (this should make you proud for sharing your coupon tips!) so I looked on their site for coupons which they did offer and still do:
http://www.hillspet.com/products/products-special-offers.html
Coupons and sales right? lol I looked at the SD canned and there were very few that fell into my cat food criteria; the regular GF Science Diet canned being one of them. There’s also a few Ideal Balance that were okay, but they weren’t on sale and there were no coupons offered. The GF’s are pate’ styles even though the picture looks like it’s minced. Maybe check the regular SD recipes also to see if they are what you are looking for in canned food.

[Akari_32]

Both would be great! You’re the best 🙂

Ooh boy, coupons! I printed two, and then tried to print more under another email, but they track by IP address now, so it yelled at me LOL I’ll try an other computer later.

I was trying to print my $2 off $10 and $4 off $20 coupons out, but I couldn’t get them to print right. So no PetSmart for me today. I can still go to Pet Supermarket, though, as they’ll take their own coupons off my phone. I’ll see if one of the neighbors can print them for me and I’ll get the Authority later in the week.

For now I’ll get a bunch of Hills stuff at Pet Supermarket, and let you know how it works out.

[Bobby dog]

Okay, no problem. When you have time look at a few printers on-line and forward a link so I have an idea of what your looking for. We could have two different ideas of a “budget friendly printer” and I will check some out as well. lol

Yea, they track you on SD’s site and it doesn’t appear they reset them either. 🙁

[Akari_32]

We need something that scans and faxes. Doesn’t have to be fancy or anything.

Oh, and less than $100. I’ll help look when I get home. :3

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by Akari_32.

[crazy4cats]

I’m very proud of you girls going to school. It’s soooo expensive! I never finished my degree. I got my associates in accounting. Then went back later to get Bachelor’s, but didn’t make it due to kids and finances. Now, I’m trying to get my two boys through college. My oldest got a partial scholarship to play baseball at the University, but got injured and couldn’t play. Then lost interest in school. My youngest also plays college baseball and got injured. He, however, had surgery and has been rehabbing. Hopefully he’ll be good to go in the fall. He’s doing well in school.
Back to cat food. Lol! I was just at Target, and they had buy two get one free on some of their Sheba cans. The coupon actually worked at the register. I bought four and got two free. Check it out if you have a Target close by.

[Bobby dog]

Thanks C4c, very kind and encouraging words! 😉 It is sooooo expensive! That’s why I change from full-time to part-time to full-time… lol It all depends on finances, family, and of course everything else life has in store for me.

Good deal on Sheba! I will be driving by a Target this fall (on my way to the main campus); I miss using those Target coupons! Don’t be jealous there is also a Whole Foods nearby and a Trader Joe’s not too far off the route I travel to school too.

Akari:
I looked up your HP printer manual to find the exact cartridge. Is this the number on your cartridge, “HP 920 Black Officejet Ink Cartridge (CD971AN)?”

If this is the cartridge you are using now, I found many generic versions on Ebay. If you are interested in trying one I would recommend what I did and buy a black cartridge to try. It is a little more expensive to buy just one, but by doing this you are not spending too much on something that may or may not work. They average around $5 including s&h for one.

The price point you gave for a new printer with the specs you need, that can use compatible generic cartridges, is perfect and you will probably have a few good models to choose from. I will check in later.

[crazy4cats]

We have Trader Joes’s opening nearby this fall. Should I be excited? I know a lot of people love them.

[Bobby dog]

Yessssss you should be excited, silly question! I am excited to be driving by one, can’t wait to shop there. Remember Akari said they have the best popcorn ever? lol I hear they also have high quality meat that comes close to being organically raised (but it is not certified), my neighbor (the caterer) picks up TJ’s coconut water for me. A case at a time, I love it and it is the best price I have come across for pure coco water with only vitamin C added. For pet food I believe their dog kibble is Bench & Field and I have read fairly good reviews on TJ’s canned cat food.

[Akari_32]

That cart sounds right, Bobby Dog. I’ll definitely look into it! Moms wanting a printer at Sam’s Club that we might actually get. We’re both just sooooo done with the one we have now. I’ll buy some of that ink and see what happens.

Just got back from PetSupermarket! Made out much better than I thought I would. I picked up 24 cans of Venison Ideal Balance for 67 cents each (on unmarked sale from 1.20-something a piece!), and 8 cans of Science Diet for 80 cents each. The total after tax and all my B2G2 coupons was $8.54 or something like that. I also found buried treasure in the pet food cabinet and found several more cans of Wellness that I had stashed away, along with all that extra Sheba! So now I have 24 days of cat food, and should I not be able to buy more before vacation, he’ll still have plenty enough to last for a week after we get back (with 4 1/2 days extra of Sheba, ID, and SD as well). Bentley on the other hand, is down to two weeks of food. Better order some :/

I do the same with school. Take however many credit hours I can depending on money at the time. I’ll admit to not really liking school much, but I hate cashiering more, and thats about all there is to do here unless you have some sort of degree under your belt, be it from a tech/trade school or a college. But I’m getting to the interesting stuff, now, and am enjoying it more. Pre-reqs are done, and I’m starting an internship at a vets office and signing up for the vet tech program here soon. So it’s definitely picking up! There are a lot of scholarships out there, you just have to have time to dig through them all. You can take online classes too. You don’t have to do in-class ones 😉

[Bobby dog]

I love classes and wish I had the time to physically take each class; I love the lectures and record them when the professor permits to listen to again! I also hated most of my pre-req classes too. I take on-line and classes on campus. You are right, there are grants and scholarships to be had and alot of them you have to search high and low for. I am also the queen of finding used textbooks. lol

Post a link to the printer your mom is looking at Sam’s for, if you can or maybe dig up the brand and model#. I can see if there are any compatible generic cartridges for it.

[Bobby dog]

How is everyone’s summer going? The rabbit moved out a few weeks ago. There is a small bunny that I see sometimes when I am mowing. I like to think it’s him/her. Lol Now I have a nest of baby swallows in my barn. I have a family move in each year. The first nest was attacked by a black snake earlier last month. Needless to say I now look up before I walk into the barn now. Yuck, that was creepy to see that snake hanging from the rafters eating those eggs.

Sharon: I hope you are having a better time with flea meds.

So I did a little shopping this week. Stopped at the pet store and Bobby got many sample bags of Stella & Chewy’s “Carnivore Crunch” beef treats. Huge hit with him. They are about 1 x ½” long and are tube shaped. He also got samples of Precise Naturals GF Lamb, which he loved, and samples of PMI Exclusive Lamb & Rice and Chic & Rice recipes.

I found one new dry kibble for the kitties, Simply Nourish Source GF Chic & Turkey, they all love it. I like the shape; it is a small “T” shape, not too thick. I also got samples of Fromm’s Salmon ala Veg and Beef Livattini. They hated Salmon ala Veg, haven’t tried the other. It is half the size of Wellness kibble, round with two flat sides. Still searching for a third kibble for rotation. KLN’s Pure Vita might be a posssibility and the store is also selling Natural Planet Organics (both from Nutrisource’s parent company). Even though Organics is not GF I still might give it a try.

I tried the Freshpet Roasted Chicken too. Only two cats would eat it and they never cleaned their bowls. I mixed it with their usual canned and tried feeding it on its own. Archie ate a little then begged me for other food. Still trying to introduce it to them, but I don’t think they are going to warm up to it.

They had by Nature Organics Chic & Mackeral on sale so I thought I would give it a try. All the cats loved it. I am going to try the plain chicken flavor next. It didn’t have a bad regular price $1.39/6 oz. I don’t think it comes in this size anymore though.

The last food I tried was Purina’s new Beyond canned. Found it at my Wal-Mart for $1.07/can. Can anyone say overpriced? I picked up the GF chic pate’ and the GF turkey with gravy by mistake. I didn’t read the label properly because I don’t like to feed food with gravy. I fed both flavors, they loved them. The turkey with gravy is a small chunk style food with not too heavy gravy. I’ll feed the GF chic pate’ again, not the turkey because of the gravy; another food for the rotation.

[crazy4cats]

Oh, Bobby dog, I could have done without the snake story. Eeeeek! I remember you saying that you tried Fresh Pet for your cats. Did you try the chub type food, or the more kibble like stuff? I’m wondering if my senior thyroid kitty might like it. The trick would be to keep the other cats out of it, though. She’ll be 15 next week. I’d like to feed her a little higher quality if I could. She can’t or doesn’t eat kibble anymore. I give them all the same birthday pretty much. Next week, I will have a 15, 6 and two 4 year old cats. I can’t believe the babies are going to be 4! 🙂

[Bobby dog]

That snake story still gives me the chills. Most of the time Bobby stays with me when I am in the garden which is near my barn. It was hot so he went up to the house to lay on the porch. The birds were flying in and out of the barn and I just thought they were fighting with each other and didn’t pay it any mind. Walking up to the house they were really flying low like they were trying to attack me so they got my attention. Poor things were just trying to chase the snake away. Snakes and bats make me scream like I am in a b-rated horror movie. lol I actually found the courage to get a pitchfork and knock the snake down. I just didn’t think about what to do after it was on the ground chasing me though. And where was Bobby, on the porch relaxing! Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried the Freshpet that is shaped like kibble. I would definately recommend trying any variety of Freshpet for any kitty. Although it doesn’t seem to be a fan favorite at my house I think it is a quality food. I still am going to try the chub, they just didn’t have it at my Wal-Mart. I think my grocery store carries Freshpet. I am also going to try another protein when I try it next.

[Bobby dog]

…the snake couldn’t keep up with me and eventually wiggled his way into the woods!! Hopefully, it was a bad experience for the snake and he won’t be back anymore. Fingers crossed!! 😉

[crazy4cats]

Thank you, you made a bad story worse! I really really hate snakes! I think I’m gonna give the Fresh Pet kitty kibble a try for my senior. She’s earned it. New foods don’t always go to well though. No matter how excited we are about them. Lol! I’m also adding a few new panels to their outdoor cat “condo” for their birthdays. Woo Hoo!

[jakes mom]

C4C, I started the conversation about the Fresh Pet cat food, 2 of mine like it and my 19yo hyperthyroid kitty is one of them. The other one that likes it is my 14yo girl who absolutely loves raw. The other 3 prefer basic canned pate. Give it a try, if nothing else, dog gets a new topper, right? Won’t go to waste. Mine like the roasted chicken best, there’s also a chick/beef combo. There’s another variety, called Vital or Vitality which didn’t go over well at my house. I’m talking about the kibble shaped food, have not tried the chub for the cats. I get it at Walmart, Petsmart, or local grocery store. Easy to find. BTW my youngest is 12!
Bobby dog, thanks for the tips about coconut oil, it’s going over very well! Jake loves it of course, and some of the cats will eat it. Dustin (19yo) begs for it. Every little calorie helps with that old guy! lol

[crazy4cats]

Hi Jake’s mom-
Thanks for the input. I will be stopping at Fred Meyer after work tomorrow. I’ll see if they carry it. I’ve not fed her something different from the others, but I think she needs something a little easier to eat. As she isn’t eating kibble any longer and I feed mostly budget canned. It’s too expensive to feed it to all of them. Wish me luck. I’ll give it a shot. Like you said, could be topper for the dogs if she won’t eat it. Wow! Sounds like you have a geriatric ward. Lol!

[arwyru24]

My cats really aren’t all that picky when it comes to canned food. The venison ideal balance is one of the few foods that they just absolutely don’t want to touch. I had to throw it away.

[arwyru24]

Hey Bobby’s Mom, the flea med situation is pretty good right now. Neither seem to have fleas and I got the comfortis down Wyatt with ease. I just broke it up into smaller pieces and hid those in soft treats which he gobbled down. He didn’t even know he was taking meds. He is easy like that.

[crazy4cats]

Well, the fresh pet kibble did not go over well with any of my four cats tonight. Shoot, I was hoping my senior kitty would love the soft kibble. I’ll give it a few more tries. The dogs had NO problem eating it! Lol!

[Akari_32]

Wow, my guy loves anything I put down for him, and he did really well on the Ideal Balance. Didn’t upset his tummy or anything. Usually after a new food is introduced, the whole house can smell it @.@

I’m considering trying Fresh Pet. Gotta see about that fish thing.

[Bobby dog]

Too bad C4c. Bobby is going to start meowing anyday now, he’s loving the cat’s Freshpet! 🙂

Akari, you should try some Kefir for Alec. Try the Freshpet, I am sure he’ll love it. I am still going to try the chub version.

Sharon I don’t think my cat’s would like Venison either. They are funny about lamb and duck too. The Slow Cooked Venison and the Roasted Chicken Ideal Balance canned food are on my list to try even though I don’t think the venison will fly. The pet stores I frequent never carry those recipes though so I don’t know if I will ever get a chance to try them anyway. Silly cat’s don’t remember what it was like being homeless and hungry!!!! lol

jake’s mom, glad you guys are enjoying coco oil as much as we do!!! Sometimes Archie gets tired of it and won’t eat it. I just stop feeding it for a week and when I offer it again he laps it up happily.

[crazy4cats]

Well, the fresh pet kibbles were gone this morning. So, at least one of the cats changed their minds and ate them. I’ll keep trying!
Also, not sure if anyone feeds the canned chicken soup to their cats. But, I ordered a case through Amazon for $17.99. Only 75 cents a can when ordering a case. Not too bad. I was starting to have a hard time finding it at any of the stores.

[Akari_32]

Is the chicken soup grain free? Or no? Might order some in a few weeks….

[crazy4cats]

It is not grain free. Here are the ingredients for the kitten food: Chicken, chicken liver, salmon, turkey, duck, chicken broth, whole grain brown rice, white rice, oatmeal, potatoes, barley, egg, guar gum, flaxseed meal, dried kelp, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, cranberries, rosemary extract, parsley, taurine, dried chicory root, carrageenan, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, copper sulfate, calcium iodate and sodium selenite.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein 11.0% Minimum
Crude Fat 5.5% Minimum
Crude Fiber 1.0% Maximum
Moisture 78.0% Maximum
Calorie Content:
1,347 kcal/kg (210 kcal/can)
Calculated Metabolizable Energy.
The adult flavor is similar, but a little lower in protein and fat.

I don’t mind the rice that far down in the ingredients. There is a lot worse things that could be included, in my opinion. I’m just not sure if it has that bad ingredient that Bobby dog doesn’t like. I can never remember what it is called? All four of my cats will eat this food with no problems. And the price is right!

[Bobby dog]

Hey guys:
I hate K3 (menadione sodium bisulfite complex) included in recipes. I loved the explanation HDM gave us for the inclusion of K3 in pet food. I don’t mind rice, not a favorite ingredient, but it’s okay in a rotation for my kitties. I will be checking out CS on Amazon when I need to stock up again, excellent price thanks for sharing! 🙂

I am still trying to introduce Freshpet to the kitties. I just don’t want it to go to waste since I am only feeding small amounts, so Bobby is willing to help the kitties out by eating it with them! lol

[crazy4cats]

Hi-
Doesn’t look like it has the K3, anyway. Yes, since my store only had a 2 pound bag of the Fresh Pet kibble and you are supposed to use within 7 days, I also fed some to my dogs last night for their before bed time treat! LOL! I was hoping to start with a one pound bag.
There were also little tubs of dog food that looked interesting. I was hoping they were cat food when I saw them.

[arwyru24]

I did really want them to like the Ideal Balance Venison but oh well. They do eat the Nature’s Variety Venison (although its not their favorite) and they like the NV lamb and duck a lot it seems.

[jakes mom]

C4C, glad somebody likes the Fresh pet after all! Do you give your guys coconut oil? My hyperthyroid kitty loves it and his coat is looking good. Adds a few calories, too. Thanks to Bobbydog, we tried it a few weeks ago. Yeah I guess I do have a geriatric ward! Only problem is Dustin with the thyroid issue. I’m pretty lucky.

[Akari_32]

Hey guys! Dropping in with an update on the cat.

I weighed him today, and he’s up to 12.4 pounds. I’m unsure how much he should weigh, and its hard to judge from all his fluff, but I think this is a pretty good weight for him. I do think he could stand to be a bit thinner, but he’s constantly hungry, and if the cat ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. I feed him at 11 in the morning and 11 at night. I haven’t been giving out much in the way of treats recently, raw or commercial, either. I do want to get some more beef heart for him because he really loved it and I do worry about his teeth. I’ll have to figure out a way to tweak him diets some to get him to drop some weight. I do want to see how he holds this weight though. So the tweaking won’t happen just yet. If he stays steady at this weight, I think I’ll just leave it how it is.

Otherwise, his fur is like silk, and he’s active and lovey (to me, anyways LOL) and does all his normal naughty cat things.

Right now, his daily food line up looks like this:

1) Ideal Balance (3x 3 oz cans)
2) Sheba (3x 3 ox cans)
3) Wellness Complete Health (2x 5.5 oz cans)
4) Ideal Balance (3x 3 oz cans)
5) Sheba (3x 3 ox cans)
6) Wellness Grain Free Tuna (2x 5.5 oz cans)
7) Science Diet Kitten (3x 3 oz cans)
8) Sheba (3x 3 ox cans)
9) Wellness Complete Health (2x 5.5 oz cans)
10) Ideal Balance (3x 3 oz cans)
11) Sheba (3x 3 ox cans)
12) Wellness Grain Free Tuna (2x 5.5 oz cans)

And then other set just like that. The Sheba and Wellness Complete Health are Turkey, Chicken, and Beef flavors. The Ideal Balance is the venison grain inclusive (he really like this, and its not too bad, just higher carb than I like). The Science Diet Kitten is Liver and Chicken. I’ve got 6 cans of Sheba, 6 cans of Ideal Balance, and 2 cans of Science Diet left over that didn’t fit into the rotation evenly that I can use later. I also got my coupons for Wellness in my email that I’ll be using as soon as I have time to plan that out and find a good deal. He’s not got enough Wellness in his diet right now for my liking, but what I’ve got now will work for now while we go on vacation, and he’s got enough food for the time being.

Oh, and I finally got my $4 off $20 coupon printed out, and Authority isn’t on sale any more 🙁 Wasn’t meant to be, I guess. Oh well. Hopefully next time it goes on sale I can get it.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Guys-
So, now my cats will not eat the Nature’s Variety Instinct any longer. So much for fancy cat food for them. That stuff is sooo expensive. They just don’t know how lucky they are. LOL! I guess my dogs’ are going to make out again!
I got a coupon for buy one get one free can of Purina Pro Plan. I think some of you feed this. Which variety should I get? I’ve never bought it before.

[Tindaisy]

I have 3 strays I am feeding. I bought the new grain free Nurti Source Cat Food. They just love it! I also tried the Taste Of The Wild grain free. They don’t like that one so much. They are eating it, but are not so happy about it.

[Bobby dog]

Tindaisy:
They sound like lucky stray kitties to get food like Nutrisource and TOTW (even if they didn’t like it). On behalf of this cat lover (well all pets, stray or not) thanks for taking care of them! 🙂

C4c:
I feed Purina Pro Plan Finesse Chicken & Liver Entrée Classic because it does not have fish or added colors in its recipe. The carbs are about 4%. All of my cats eat this recipe. I tried the Savor Beef & Carrots before because my pet store didn’t have my usual flavor and my cats picked through it, but ate it. They really don’t like chunks of vegetables in their food.

Here is a list of the flavors I would feed (including the recipe I currently feed of the Finesse line) and some of the undesirable ingredients they contain to help you choose:
~Finesse – K3, artificial flavors, meat by-products:
Chic & Liver Entree Classic
~Savor – K3, artificial flavors, meat by-products, fish:
Beef & Carrots Entrée Classic
Chic & Spinach Entrée Classic
Turkey & Veg Entrée Classic
Salmon & Wild Rice Entrée Classic
~Focus – K3, artificial flavor, meat by-products, fish, added color:
Chic & Beef Entrée Classic
Kitten Chic & Liver Entrée Classic

As Tindaisy mentioned, Nutrisource has canned food and my pet store just started carrying it. I am going to try some out. Also, if you need to add something else into the rotation the Purina Beyond GF chicken canned food was a hit with all my cats. Not particularly budget friendly, $1/3 oz can at Wal-Mart, but they liked it and the recipe is not bad.

[crazy4cats]

Bobby dog- Thank you, I’ll check them all out!

Tindaisy- A big thank you for feeding the strays! They are very luck! I will check out the Nutrisource as well!

[Bobby dog]

C4c:
One more thing. That Pro Plan list is my usual no starches, glutens, soy, minimal or no grains etc. The Pro Plan line has about five varieties and about twenty recipes all together (I kid you not). I went through each recipe under each line to eliminate what does not agree with my kitties. So depending on your pet food criteria you may find more recipes that your kitties would like and do well on.

Everybody, Betsy Greer posted a link on the review side to a pet food calculator that you mind find useful and the site looks like it might be interesting as well:
http://fnae.org/dmb.html?inputboxm=72&inputboxi=7&button.x=103&button.y=22&button=Click

[Bobby dog]

Here is the carb calc from the website Betsy posted a link to:
http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

[crazy4cats]

Oooh! I like the second one. Thanks!

[Barbara O]

OK…here I go again. I have two cats presently…a Maine Coon Cat and a Savannah. My Maine Coon is about 17 years old…The Savannah is around 5. Both were rescues, one from a breeder who was breeding the Savannah to death…the other from the Humane Society. I ordered a bag of Halo grain free cat food and my two cats are wild about it…They will turn their noses up at everything else if it’s out. They loved Taste of the Wild before I introduced Halo. I have three feeders and usually keep three types of dry food out for them, next to a waterer…I give them just a little canned food in the AM…not much, just enough to make them know it’s only a treat…The will eat raw chicken as a treat, and they love the juice I pour off the canned salmon and tuna…I rotate the canned food..sometimes it’s cheap food…sometimes when I find the best of the best on sale, they get it…as I said…this is a treat…I am presently feeding them grain free Canidae…grain free…They grudgingly eat it…wanting me to put the Halo out…I won’t feed anything Purina because I know how they manufacture the food…(animal science degrees can ruin you when you see what they dump in the food)…they will eat Natural Instinct…but above everything, they love the Halo….I will actually feed them canned tuna….people grade…A can will last two days as it is a treat…same thing with canned chicken….Feeding outdoor strays….you can feed almost anything…because they will catch birds and mice…and anything else that looks nourishing…My vet in Texas said the food for inside animals was critical but the outside cats can get by a little cheaper because they really do get the actual taste of the wild…

[Bobby dog]

Hi Barbara O:
A few of us on this thread have been weening our cats off of kitty crack…this may never happen, but we do our best. I also try not to feed fish to my cats, tuna especially. Moisture is critical for a cat’s UT system. Currently I am now down to feeding each cat approximately two tablespoons of dry GF food a day. Hopefully, I can ween them off of dry food as well. Again, that may never happen.

I would love to feed my cat’s quality food consistently however they are finicky and after many years of cheap canned cat food, they like what they like. Sometimes they get half Wellness (or other quality canned food) and half Purina, sometimes straight Wellness, and sometimes just Purina when they turn everything else down. I would rather feed Purina then have health issues due to a cat not eating food.

I do think Halo’s recipes look great. I have fed it in the past to my dog, but stopped when I contacted them and asked who co-packs their food and they would not disclose that information to me. I believe one of the regulars on this thread feeds it to their cats with great results.

Regardless if a cat is a stray or not dry food is not an ideal diet for a cat and I do not consider canned cat food, meat, or raw food a treat for them; I consider them healthy foods for a cat regardless of the quality. Please check out catinfo.org for information on what is important in a cat’s diet. There is an abundance of information on this site about nutrition and other subjects concerning cat care that I am sure you will find interesting! 🙂

[Author]

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