feeling guilty about buying from pets 'hell' paradise...

... the pet food saga continues. i tell ya, it never bloody ends! why me!?

well as some know i buy my food from pets paradise as they are the only people licenced to carry naturapet foods :roll: and you all know how guilty i feel about buying from that place. them and ACA pups [where i got kuma from] are the biggest byb and puppy mill 'supporters' in australia. i got really upset last time i bought my food which was last week. ithere was a litter of akitas there so of course i felt really sad and guilty for obvious reasons relating to kuma and akitas in general. also, just then i was doing a search on barf for kuma and stumbled across a discussion about pets paradise and the condition of the animals they sell. well that has reignited my anger from last week.

thing is, if i dont buy from them, i dont really have any other options when it comes to dry food. there is zilch here! nothing! every attempt to find a decent food from a reliable and friendly place has failed. so, i remember a discussion about people who only feed wet. what do you think about it and how would i go about doing it. shops here have tonnes of good quality canned foods and pheobe loves kumas home cooked meals. only problem is getting them to eat things in one go. i know pheobe can do this, but pepe... hmm im not so sure about. and what about keeping their teeth clean? any info on this would be great. it would be great if i could avoid that hell hole of a pet shop all together.

 

Hi Kyles. I'm sorry you are feeling guilty. You know some people believe that a diet consisting of soft food only is better. These people believe that dry food, should only be given as treats a few times a day. For example 6-10 pieces of dry food per day as treats. I personally don't think a mostly soft food diet is bad at all. Given the choice between having to feed my kitties only hard food or only soft food, I would pick the soft food.

Another option is to feed mainly soft food and give them those cats treats that are hard and crunchy (tartar control treats). I'm sure they have those is Australia. You could also attempt to brush their teeth if that is a concern. Although, I think Pepe would have an absolute fit if you even tried! :shock: The other option is to just make sure they have their teeth and gums checked by their vet once a year and if a dental cleaning is needed, then so be it.

There is so much debate about hard food Vs soft food and unfortunately both sides have yet to prove they are right. There have been studies done, but not well enough to prove either side is correct. So, if you want to just feed them soft food, in my opinion that's perfectly fine. It would be nice if you could find some of those tartar control treats for them too.

 

i don't think that there is a difference other than what your cat will eat. buster refuses to eat soft food. i have a friend who mixes dry and soft food but she doesn't do it often because soft food gives simon the runs. i think i just depends on your cat and which type they prefer.

 

If you're going from free feeding dry to meal feeding canned the transition might be easiest if you start out with several small meals at first. For example, if Pepe will be getting 2 cans daily you can start with 4 - 1/2 can meals throughtout the day and gradually work down to 3 larger meals and then 2 even larger meals daily. He will pick up on the schedule and will begin eating his full meal in one sitting without a problem. Good luck.

You might find these articles helpful:

Does dry food clean teeth?
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... antheteeth

Why cats need canned food:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... cannedfood

 

thanks for those links nern. i was reading about the obesity thing and that would be a bonus. although pepe is not overweight by any means, we do not want his big belly getting any bigger. nor do we want him growing bigger than he is suppose to be [maine coons are prone to hip dysplasia]. only thing is figuring out how much theyd both eat. ive still got about a month left of dry so i have alot of time to work it all out. the teeth thing is interesting too. kuma has been on a soft diet for a long time and i havent seen any negative changes in her teeth at all, yet youd think shed have bad teeth because she doesnt eat bones or kibble. seems cats are exactly the same.

kuma is also getting a diet makeover too :lol:

 

Nern, the link you posted is very informative. Thanks for sharing. At least for now I'm comfortable feeding Hugo with can food which he loves. He is not very much into dry food. What the articles wrote was true. I do realise Hugo doesn't chew his dry food.