How to convince someone about cat food?

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Rayen

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Okay, my sister works in a vet clinic, my mother takes the vets word as the law. My sister has no real training for animal care, in fact, for a living she works mostly in human healthcare (she takes blood mostly) but does mostly small jobs like helping hold animals and taking blood and such. Before, I just followed their line of thinking as well, until my fat cat just wasn't losing weight after being on the vet's 'diet' most of her life. He basically just told me to keep on cutting back her normal dry food until it was obvious she was losing weight, she's 11 years old and just kept gaining weight no matter how little I gave her. So I did my own research and switched her over to Wellness canned food. It's not a giant change or anything, she seems to have lost a bit of weight and has a bit more energy than before, but it's leaps and bounds of difference than 'cut back her dry food until she's eating nothing'.

For the most part, all of the other cats in our family eat a food brand called Medi-cal that is in every single vet I've come across here. Which has been fine for the other cats, and I'm tired of arguing. Now my mother has it in her head that she wants to switch them over to Hill's Prescription Diet because it's 'better'. The bag of food she brought home from has this as ingredients:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose 10% (source of fiber), Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, Calcium Sulfate, Soybean Oil, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, DL-Methionine, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Calcium Carbonate, Iodized Salt, Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Yayyy for buying cat food that consists primarily of corn.

Basically the consensus in the family is this: I'm crazy. I have no idea what I'm talking about, and because I read several different views that say all the same thing on the internet/books it's all false. It's not like cats are strict carnivores or anything. I'd like to know when a cat in the wild would climb a stalk of corn and munch down.

Again, what they're eating now isn't really any better, but the Prescription Diet stuff is much more expensive. She's convinced that because it's more expensive that it's a better quality food. She doesn't read ingredients, she doesn't consider anything about the food at all but the fact that it's from the vet and that the vet is giving her the best quality food there is.

Does anyone know how to convince her to at least not change them over to the new food? I've given up the war on trying to change her or my sister's mind that the food they feed now isn't all that great either, but I would really like to change her mind about this. Her whole point in switching them over is that they appear to like it better. I'm sure if I whipped out some Iams or Purina food they'd be all over it too, lower quality foods tend to be stuffed with animal fat to make it taste better, but that doesn't mean we'd ever feed them Iams or Purina.
 
LOL!
Well, here's the fun bit. You could make a table of product of each bag, side by side, and show the direct comparison.

If she really wants to do the right thing, maybe she wants to try raw feeding :D
If both types of food are essentially the same, then your mom is blowing an extra $5 on the Prescription diet. Oh well... same difference ;)

IMO, there needs to be wet food, plus a bit of kibble. Dentally speaking, my cat Suki's lousy teeth come from plaque buildup over time. The system needs wet material to move easily, and the teeth need hard stuff to scrape off the plaque.
What wet food is your mom feeding along with the kibble?

Like all nutritional things with pets, there seems to be a wide range of ideas. However, what works best for one tummy may not fly with another. Maybe if your mom sees each cat as an individual (rather than a collective), it may be an easier discussion.
 
NorthernAutumn wrote:
Like all nutritional things with pets, there seems to be a wide range of ideas. However, what works best for one tummy may not fly with another.
Also, all you can do is give the advice and present the best argument for your opinion, and they will either agree or not. Like Flashy's sig
"The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right."

;)
 
I still question how useful dry food is for cleaning their teeth. The entire thing sounds ridiculous. Would you go out to the store to buy something hard and crunchy as a way of keeping your teeth healthy? I'm pretty sure not. I'm sure it helps, but it is in no way a reliable source of keeping healthy teeth and gums. Just like us, cats and dogs still benefit from frequent brushing and the odd trip to the vet to get them cleaned. If you watch a lot of cats, they don't even crunch their food, they just suck it up and swallow it whole. That being said, I do feed my cat some dry food, if only because it's horribly expensive to feed solely canned food.

The other cats do not get canned food. Again, the family is stuck to the fact that canned food is 'higher in calories'. I'm not sure how true this is for Medi-cal and Hill's food, but I know for a fact that Wellness canned food is quite a bit lower in calories than the dry alternative. I would assume it's basically the same for the plain non-gravy versions of most canned food, as most dry food has added carbs in order for it to be cooked to hold the shape of the kibble.

As for feeding raw, I'm very wary of feeding a raw diet. I've only heard horror stories from local members of the dog club I was apart of. I haven't heard much about cats, but the dogs all had numerous surgeries to remove chicken bones that got stuck somewhere in them (not splintered cooked bones, just plain raw ones that didn't make it through) and teeth falling out like crazy. Until I'm confident I've found a decent recipe and have talked it over with many vets, I won't go near raw diets. I'm just going to stick with a higher quality cat food for now and worry about that later.

As for the quote about advice above, that really doesn't work well in this case. ;) These are just as much my cats as the true owners. I've raised every single cat that's come through our lives in some way or another. Helped to name them all, helped to train them, helped to keep them busy. Don't even get me started on how many times I've had to give them medication or cut their nails just for them to latch on to my arm and rip it to shreds. There's not a cat in our lives that hasn't left a scar on my hands/arms after I tried to help them. If I can do something to help them, I will. It's not something I can mention in passing then just never bring up again. They're apart of my family too, and the last thing I want is a family member eating something that's not entirely healthy for them and suffering down the road because of it.
 
It was mentioned to me that most carnivores' teeth stay clean & free of plaque through the crushing of bones, and the thickness of muscle which they chew. However, your avg. house kitteh doesn't get raw diet (complex to feed), and thus doesn't have the scraping sensation provided by bones. (No toothbrushes in nature ;) )

In my personal, non-vet opinion (which is more focused on dental than nutritional) wet food is decent for the moisture content which keeps the guts moving. Typically though, it is mush that doesn't do much for teeth. My cats are fed a dental diet kibble (in conjunction with wet), which brings the cat kibble size closer to that of a large dog. Suki splits each kibble in two by chomping it, then consumes 1/2. However, she has only used her front teeth for this exercise, and they are beautiful and white (7-8 years old). As a rescue, I have no idea what her history has been. ON her last vet visit, I was informed that the back teeth are a mess, in an advanced stage of peridontal disease. We're now coping with that reality, from a feed & dental standpoint

However, being realistic about the cost for a basic cat dental in my area (upwards of $300), it is not an affordable luxury at this time. Regular brushing would be ideal for sure ;)

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Prevent-Dental-Disease-and-Save-Your-Cat-From-a-Lot-of-Discomfort&id=520628

Like I said, there are plenty of opinions on this subject: http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm
Obviously, certain varieties of wet and dry food are better than others. There are some good comparative scientific reviews out there by independent sources that might offer further guidence.

I haven't focused on this until recently, so I am still learning. Here is an interesting link to a cat nutrition email group: http://cats.about.com/c/ec/25.htm

As for your family situation...
You could offer to pay for the cats' nutritional needs entirely, and make it your mandate to oversee all aspects of their care. However, if these animals are members of your family and live in the family home with you and your mom/sister, I guess you have to worktogether to find a solution.

Maybe sit down together and explore all the feeding options as a group, making an educated decision together. That way, you are not arguing a point as much as coming to a solution together.

You are obviously quite passionate about this topic... perhaps you might consider taking an animal nutrition course locally or through an online college together with your sister :).

 
Sometimes you just can't change people's minds :(. I have tried to change my coworkers mind (who insists that Pedigree dog food is healthy) and I have tried to change my MIL's mind about her cat food.

I have read that feeding a cat 100% wet food, even of the lowest quality, is 100% better then feeding just dry food. Maybe you can try to find a vet (even out of your area) who would be willing to speak with your family or write you up something. Maybe there is an article written online by a vet?

I recently switched my 2 kitties to canned food. They both get 6oz each per day. I do leave out a bit (1/4 cup for the day) of dry food for them to snack on during the day...but I will soon be taking that away because they are eating less and less of it as the days go by.

My ultimate goal is to feed a raw diet. It makes so much sense if you follow the guidelines and make sure your cat/dog is getting all that they need. Cats who are let outside and are capable...will kill and eat animals, so they are already partly on a raw diet. Cats/dogs are meant to eat raw. I have been reading and there are more pet deaths on a commercial diet then a raw diet. If you are worried about choking...then you can grind the bones.


I'd be talking to her vet and telling him to cut the bull-sh*t! Is a vet really that stupid to think that a pet food full of corn is healthy???

 
Unfortunately, most vets have very little nutritional knowledge. The classes they take in vet school are short (a few hours) and taught be pet food companies (and not the good ones). They also get a cut of the foods they sell and some get extra stuff for selling certain brands. A vet is probably not the best place to get nutritional advice.

That being said, there are some vets out there who know better. They have taken extra courses or just done some basic research about proper diets for cats (and other species). Holistic vets are usually better for this. You can try calling or visiting some vets in your area that are more holistic. Some have good websites. See what foods they sell and what they recommend. I know there are some internet articles about proper diets form vets. I am not sure if you will find anything on this one, but it is worth a try.

Maybe you could at least try to get them to use a high quality wet food or give some raw meat 3-4 times a week. It would be better than nothing. Even some canned fish (do some research about what kinds are OK) will be better than just some crappy dry food.

When I see wild cats and wolves raiding corn and wheat fields for food, I will consider giving my dogs grains. Until then, they get grain free foods.
 
tell her cat will poop less with a better food, eat less, less hairballs, better weight control, no allergies that arise...but in the end you may not change them
 

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