Food transition

The kitties have been eating Hill's Ideal Balance since their Purina One Beyond gave BOTH of them trouble (worst with the newest bag I got but had been going on for a while before I figured out that it was the food) and made them sick. Before the Hill's food, I tried Newman's Own Organics and while this is a great food, they would not eat it. While the Hill's food agreed with them (didn't make them sick and they liked it), I was not happy with it. It only has 29% protein (30.5% dry matter) and is too high in fat (signifying they use chicken that is not good quality protein but instead is very fatty). So, I'd been looking at other foods (as noted in a previous blog post) and have decided that I will try Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken. I got a 3-lb bag last Saturday and have been mixing the two foods for a few days now. The cats seem to like it pretty well (Smokey is already picking the new food out from the old!) and, so far, are tolerating it well (one cat- I suspect Sunny- has been sick once, but only once). I'm watching Sunny very closely though because I still do wonder if she is intolerant of fish in the food (foods with fish seem to bother her more than foods without fish). If that becomes a problem, there are several foods (Blue Buffalo and Wellness) that are fish free so those are always options. Will update on how the transition is going. P.S. Purina One Beyond has NOT been recalled (yet) but the FDA is looking into reports (and picture proof) of mold in the food. I did not find mold in the food (not visibly) but it is possible that there is mold in the food that is just not visible. There are certainly several people (and at least one who posted on the facebook page) who had picture proof of mold in that food. In any case, it made both my cats sick and that's enough for me to not feed it!

Recall

I don't feed this food but I thought I'd let people know in case anyone you know does.

Suggestions for cat foods

OK guys. The cats are currently eating Hills Ideal Balance but I'm not happy with several things about it. First off, the meat content is way too low in my opinion and secondly, the protein content is too low too (only 29%). So, I'm going to switch to another food as soon as I can. These are some I've considered and I want advice about whether anyone has had problems with these foods. The thing is, it can be hard to tell whether there are truly problems are whether people have other issues not related to the food. So, here's my list. Let me know what you've heard about any of them by leaving a comment below. Thanks! Halo Spot's Stew Grain Free Formula Hearty Chicken Recipe Cat Food, Orijen Cat and Kitten, Nature’s Variety Instinct Dry Kibble, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Blue Buffalo Basics, Blue Buffalo Freedom, FreshPet Vital (the "kibble" type)

Sick kitties...

Update! I would NOT feed Purina One Beyond right now because it has made both Sunny AND Smokey sick. I got a new bag and the cats have both been sick since. Looked it up and while there is no official recall (yet), there are lots of reports of this food (all Purina actually) causing problems in cats and dogs lately (vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, increased thirst, etc) and there is early speculation that there MAY be a toxin (not salmonella or e. coli but an actual toxin) in it. I'm not taking any chances (the evidence is too strong in my case with the new food bag and getting sick) and have switched them to Newman's Own Organics. So, keep a watch out if you feed a Purina food and please consider switching to something else (especially if you feed this particular Purina brand).

Purina ONE Beyond food review

Update! I would NOT feed the food right now because it has made both Sunny AND Smokey sick. I got a new bag and the cats have both been sick since. Looked it up and while there is no official recall (yet), there are lots of reports of this food causing problems in cats and dogs lately (vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, increased thirst, etc) and there is early speculation that there MAY be a toxin in it. OK, so as most of you know, I've been feeding my cats Purina One Beyond for a while now. I did not intend to start feeding this food but the food they had been on (Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul) was recalled because of salmonella so I tried this and when I tried to switch them back, they did not tolerate it well so I had to stick with this Purina stuff. That's not all bad though. For example, I can get the Purina much easier (the other was very hard to find) and don't have to make a special trip to get it. I also figure that if it is ever recalled, with Purina being such a large company, I'll hear about it sooner. But here is an overview of what I think of Purina One Beyond Chicken and Whole Oat Meal Recipe. First off, here is the ingredient list... Chicken, chicken meal, whole brown rice, soybean meal, whole barley, whole oat meal, soy protein isolate, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), dried yeast, dried egg product, natural flavor, dried beet pulp, fish oil, phosphoric acid, caramel color, dried carrots, salt, calcium carbonate, dried sweet potatoes, dried apples. OK, so chicken and chicken meal are a great first two ingredients for any food and are a great way to start. Whole brown rice is a quality grain so I can't complain about it either. Soybean meal I would rather not see (soy has little nutritional value for cats). Whole oat meal is another quality grain addition. Soy protein isolate I don't like seeing for the same reason as the previous appearance of soy but also because protein isolate tends to imply that they are trying to boost the overall protein content (I would rather see them boost the protein content with another animal protein). Animal fat always is questionable because the origin is not listed but at least it is naturally preserved. Dried yeast is not going to hurt anything. Dried egg product is a good ingredient because eggs are high in protein and are an excellent addition. Natural flavor is OK but I would like them to say what "natural flavors" they are using. Dried beet pulp is in most cat foods and is a fine ingredient. Fish oil is an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids so seeing it is always good. The next two ingredients are not important. Dried carrots, dried sweet potatoes and dried apples are all very good ingredients that show a high quality food. The other ingredients in-between are not of significance. Overall, the food is a well made, healthy food. This is really a very big step for Purina! I would like to see a few more animal protein sources (some type of fish or turkey maybe) but I'm comfortable feeding this to my cats. They seem to like this food and do not seem to be gaining any weight on it (Sunny already was overweight when I started them on it). If you are looking for a good quality food that you can find easily, you might look into getting this food.

Spring is in the air!

Well, it's been a WHILE since I updated my blog but here is an overview of what's been going on. Smokey and Sunny are doing well. I still need to get Sunny to lose weight but with two cats (one of which is NOT overweight and is extremely active), it can be hard to get one to lose weight while keeping the other one happy. Still working on it though. Lilly is also doing well. She seems to enjoy her out of cage time and doesn't seem to be getting overweight (gotta watch for that in guinea pigs!). Seze (my leopard gecko) is doing fine. The aquariums have been doing well for the most part. The disease (in November) did not kill all the fish (2 black skirt tetras, both platies and 2 danios lived) though the danios have died since then (not sure what killed them but since I had them a while, I'm guessing old age). I've added a few fish since I last updated including 2 khuli loaches (cool little fish) and a new school of glowlights (quarantined this time!). The reef doesn't currently have any fish in it but the corals look good. Still battling an aggressive algae but I think I'm finally getting it under control.

Another Reason to Quarantine...

I almost ALWAYS quarantine new fish that I get for an aquarium, but recently, I got a small school of glowlight tetras (5 to be exact) and decided that it was a lot of bother to quarantine them. I decided to add them (after acclimation of course!) directly to the tank with no care taken to make sure they were indeed healthy and disease free. Well, all looked good for about a day and then I lost one of them and then another within a day. I attributed this to stress (not ALL the fish you get will always survive) and didn't think much of it. Then I lost one of my cardinal tetras (one I've had for a good long time) and another glowlight. I decided that medicating the tank with a mild anti-bacterial medication (MelaFix) would be a good idea so I added the correct dose to the tank. The next day things were still not looking good and I had lost one of my black-skirt tetras (I've had them a long time too!) so I decided that moving ALL the remaining fish to a hospital tank for treatment would be the best solution. The remaining fish consisted of 2 cardinal tetras, 2 glowlight tetras, 2 zebra danios, 2 black-skirt tetras, and a platy. Well, now (after a week of being medicated in the new hospital tank) I have lost both glowlight tetras and both cardinal tetras. I was looking last night to try to see WHAT disease this was (because it didn't look parasitic but the bacterial medication clearly wasn't working) and discovered, to my horror, that it was likely the dreaded "neon tetra disease", which does NOT only affect neon tetras but any species of tetra. It doesn't affect other fish quite as much, but it can still cause disease in them too. The worst part is... it is not curable and fish become infected by eating on another dead fish (something that is very hard to prevent in aquariums). So, only time will tell if the black-skirt tetras will be OK or not (they're the only remaining tetras and one can only hope that the other fish will NOT be affected). What is the lesson in this??? ALWAYS quarantine your new aquarium fish!