anybody here feed their pets Evo or California Natural?

[Nansel]

I feed my cat Evo canned, along with Felidae kibble. We started him on the Felidae because he kept stealing the dog's Canidae out of its bin. Canidae/Felidae another good holistic brand, and a bit cheaper than some others, although I've found it can be harder to get sometimes.

My cat loves his Evo canned. We might switch him to the EVO kibble, too. But he can be fussy and likes his Felidae all right.

[Kalidurga]

Ok, I now have a problem related to this. My 5-month old male kitten just spent a week at the vet with a mystery fever-- he's doing better now, so that's not the issue. His eating regimen is.

For the first two weeks I had him, I fed him a combination of Wellness canned and kibble on a twice daily schedule. While he was at the vet, they apparently fed him Purina pouch food multiple times a day. Now when I give him the Wellness canned food, he licks off all the juices and leaves the meat behind. He'll eat the kibble, but I would prefer he get some canned food as well.

My female of the same age would eat at least an entire can of wet food a day if I let her (she eats like a horse), so I'm also concerned about what'll happen as I begin trying to feed them in the same room.

Oy. Any suggestions?

[Brandi]

I need to ponder this?

[jesvetmed]

Have to enter my two cents here...
Multiple studies have shown that a majority of dogs and cats fed raw diets shed salmonella and even ecoli in their stools. They are not sick, but they can spread the bacteria around their environment. Especially at risk in these situations are people with less than average immune-systems (ie children and elderly, or anyone with illness or on immune-suppressant drugs).

I know that many clients SWEAR by the health of their pets since starting to add raw diets, but the risks are definitely there.

[jesvetmed]

Have to enter my two cents here...
Multiple studies have shown that a majority of dogs and cats fed raw diets shed salmonella and even ecoli in their stools. They are not sick, but they can spread the bacteria around their environment. Especially at risk in these situations are people with less than average immune-systems (ie children and elderly, or anyone with illness or on immune-suppressant drugs).

I know that many clients SWEAR by the health of their pets since starting to add raw diets, but the risks are definitely there.

OK.. I'm off the soap box!

[Brandi]

I would not worry about him not eating the wet food at this point. As long as he is eating the kibble and getting food and clean water the other will work itself out.
I have a cat who will only eat the juice as well. And the other cats finish the rest of he's food for him.
There is a lot of pro's and con's to wet food and everyone has thier opinions. My cats go outside during the day, but the cat door gets closed at night. In order to get them all inside I give them wet food. It works well and even though it is the wet version of thier dry food they still think it is a treat.

[smilingcat]

To reduce the risk of cross contamination from salmonella and E. Coli, we take the whole chicken less the organ meat, dunk it in stock pot (a small one: 16 qts) full of boiling hot water for about a minute to kill any surface bacteria. Then we grind up the whole chicken with the bones. portion it out for each serving and freeze. The bone doesn't get cooked. Meat only gets cooked on the surface. Cats love it and they get all their micro-nutrient from the bone... Chicken at $1.00/lb. organ meat removed, "pasturized", ground, and frozen may cost $1.25/lb. versus canned premium food of $1.30 per 5.5oz.

We have one older cat who just had a full senior check up. Blood work, urine test etc. His urine pH was on the high side. We think its because of his preference for the dry food. The ash content in the dry food is much higher than the wet food. We are hoping to get him back onto the wet food and raw chicken. He avoided the wet food because of his teeth. Poor guy has lost half of his teeth over the years and just had three more pulled after his check up and dental cleaning.

Evo is good, California Natural is good. Wellness wet is good, the dry have about 5% ash content.

If you decide to grind your chicken please let me know. There are few guidelines. And why you don't want to feed preground meat.

smilingcat

[Eden]

Hey everyone - need some food advice here now. My poor boy kitty had a urinary obstruction last night (He'll be OK - I caught it very early, before he got backed up and very sick so that was good). I really do not want to have to start feeding him Hills..... (or any of the other brands from Menu foods - we don't care if we poison your pets....), but at least one vet tech I talked to is convinced that its the only cat food that work for crystal prone kitties.

Does anyone else know of a good cat food with good ingredients (NO glutens, fillers, junk... preferably no grains at all) formulated for cats prone to urinary crystals? I'd also prefer to keep him mainly on canned, since that is good for cat's UT health as well.