# What to feed UTI prone cats?



## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

I thought I'd ask this here just to see what everyone thought!

So I have two cats. Both have had UTI's in the past; Brody (he's a Ragdoll, he'll be 5 in June) has only had one incident. Sneak (DMH, he'll be 6 in Nov.) on the other hand went through a month or so of issues on/off last summer. They both cost me.. oh, $600+ in vet bills.

Of course, my vet put them both on prescription diets. Science Diet C/D. I am.. SO sick of feeding them this crap, and spending $57 for a 16lb. bag to boot! Granted, it works, so I can't complain too much.

2 months ago I switched them to Before Grain wet for their PM meals. They eat the C/D dry in the AM. They have both done very well on this, no issues whatsoever *knock on wood*.

I'm SO tempted to get them off the C/D now. I have maybe 10lbs. of it left at this point. I would like to keep them on some dry food, which I know many say not to do with UTI prone cats.. but it's easier for me to give them dry in the AM's before I go to work.

Of course, I can just keep doing what I'm doing currently.. but I was thinking of trying the Before Grain kibble, since they have done well on the wet formula. Anyone have any suggestions?


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

Would you be able to give them cans in the morning before you left? For cats, they don't drink enough water, so feeding wet food is better than the highest quality dry food. 

I'm not positive but I do believe you could also put cranberry liquid gels in their wet food to help with the UTIs. 
If you go the canned route, I would recommend wellness or EVO 95% meats. 

If you go the kibble route, I would recommend EVO or maybe even Orijen. 

Hopefully others will be on soon to help with better answers.


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

Makovach said:


> Would you be able to give them cans in the morning before you left? For cats, they don't drink enough water, so feeding wet food is better than the highest quality dry food.
> 
> I'm not positive but I do believe you could also put cranberry liquid gels in their wet food to help with the UTIs.
> If you go the canned route, I would recommend wellness or EVO 95% meats.
> ...


I CAN do wet in the AM's.. I'm just not sure I want to put them on 100% wet due to cost. Right now, they go through a 5.5oz. can every 2 days between them (they each get 1/4 can in the PM). I know I'd have to feed more than that if I did 100% wet to keep their weight up, since the dry is higher in calories.


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## BeagleCountry (Jan 20, 2012)

Cats are carnivores. They do not do well on carbs. I'd suggest a PMR diet. The same 80-10-10 as for dogs. Just make sure there is enough taurine in the meat. Conveniently, mother nature has provided taurine in poultry especially chicken and turkey. Dark meat is best. It is also high in chicken heart and beef heart. I add some chicken gizzard. It is not overly nutritious but my cat likes it. She absolutely loves chicken heart. There are also taurine supplements that can be purchased. The food could be prepared the night before, covered and served in the morning.

An alternative would be canned cat food that has a high meat protein content. The last time I looked EVO and Orijen had the most meat.

Feeding a morning meal of a high protein kibble, and PMR or canned in the evening might work. 

Compare the ingredients of premium dry cat and dog food. The ingredients are sometimes almost identical with the cat food being more expensive.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

The issue with dry foods is of course that they are dehydrating. But higher protein dry foods are even more dehydrating because protein is a diuretic. So while high protein foods are ideal in many ways, they are bad for urinary health unless they come with water.


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

kady05 said:


> I CAN do wet in the AM's.. I'm just not sure I want to put them on 100% wet due to cost. Right now, they go through a 5.5oz. can every 2 days between them (they each get 1/4 can in the PM). I know I'd have to feed more than that if I did 100% wet to keep their weight up, since the dry is higher in calories.


This is for EVO 95%. They have Chicken, Beef, Duck and Venison. Orders of $50 are free shipping to your door. They have next day delivery. The 13.20z cans are the better deal because you get 158.4oz in total for a cheaper price than a case of the 5.5oz cans totaling on 132oz for about 5-10$ more per case. This way also a can would last you longer. I don't know exactly how much they would need per day. The other thing I would recommend is that if you want to keep kibble in their diet, feed 75% canned and only 25% kibble. 
Cat Food - EVO - Grain Free - Canned Food - Free shipping at MrChewy.com


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

BeagleCountry said:


> Cats are carnivores. They do not do well on carbs. I'd suggest a PMR diet. The same 80-10-10 as for dogs. Just make sure there is enough taurine in the meat. Conveniently, mother nature has provided taurine in poultry especially chicken and turkey. Dark meat is best. It is also high in chicken heart and beef heart. I add some chicken gizzard. It is not overly nutritious but my cat likes it. She absolutely loves chicken heart. There are also taurine supplements that can be purchased. The food could be prepared the night before, covered and served in the morning.
> 
> An alternative would be canned cat food that has a high meat protein content. The last time I looked EVO and Orijen had the most meat.
> 
> ...


This totally.....but if feedig any kibble at all then please wet it down. Cats need to be aided in their taking in of moisture....thus wet food or raw is the very best for them. Even a lower quality canned will be better then a higher quality kibble for cats!:wink:


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

I just wanted to make a suggestion... if you decide to go all canned, ordering from Pet Food Direct when they have promo sales or free shipping can save you a bunch. Also, if you have things auto-shipped, you can save 15 or 20%. I look out for the good sales and then stock up. Another thing I do is to add some slightly less expensive wet foods into their rotation, like Evangers (some of those are $16 or so for a case) to keep the cost down. Even if you had to add something super cheap in your rotation and feed it a few times a week that would help significantly. Also, the larger the can, the less you pay. I have five cats, so we go through food much quicker than you do, but anything I have the option to get in a 12-13oz can, I go for it. So much more cost efficient. I generally order 6-7 cases at a time of EVO, By Nature, and Evangers for about $80-100 per order. Some other foods that make it into their rotation are California Natural, BFF, Wellness and Canine Caviar. Mixing in some water isn't a bad idea either, especially for kitties with urinary issues.


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## AveryandAudrey (Sep 20, 2010)

Ive heard good things about giving them cranberry supplement, and yes wet food is good as they dont often drink enough water. Some cats are just more prone to UTIs than others are as well.


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

Seeing as I feed the dogs PMR, I have considered it for the cats. 

I've just read so many things about it being a royal PITA that I've been afraid to switch LOL. That and I know cats have more.. specific requirements than dogs (so it seems!), so I'm afraid of screwing them up, especially since they've already had "issues".

I *have* tried pre-made stuff on them before, the NV Instinct stuff and Primal. The NV Instinct they did not tolerate well.. think exorcist vomit.. blah. Primal, they did see to like. 

In the past, I did include some of the cheaper wet food brands to their diet (like Nutro), and that's when they got their UTI's. It's funny, actually, because at the time it was the ONLY wet food they ate, so I fed it anyway. And go figure, AFTER I introduced the wet food for 50% of their diet, they both got UTI's.  That was when they were eating some crap food from Petsmart because it was the ONLY thing I could find that Brody's stomach could tolerate (he had constant loose stools when he was younger and could only eat dry food with a high fiber content). So I'm sure a few things played a factor, it was just strange that a month after I introduced the first wet food either of them had ever eaten in their lives, they got UTI's. But now they're on the Before Grain which is pretty darn good, and priced reasonably (I can get them at my local pet store for around $1/5.5oz. can).

I'm not sure they'd eat the dry with water on it, but that is a good idea. I can try it! They have a fountain that they LOVE, and they do seem to drink quite a bit (that's probably from the C/D though).


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

My male cat Benny has had several UTIs.. had them almost constantly on the first food I had them on (Whiskas), then the vet made me switch to Science Diet S/O (I think that's the Urinary one...), he didn't get much better, having one every month.. finally I switched them over to EVO/Orijen/Horizon Legacy and they almost disappeared, maybe once every six months to a year.. now they are on half canned and half raw and he hasn't had one since. The half canned is because they will not eat enough on raw to sustain their weight. They love pork and beef and mice mostly, though I do feed some raw salmon and chicken too. They will just barely eat chicken necks.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

If/when you can get them to switch they are actually really easy to feed raw to. Cats only need about 7% bone, I feed the other 3% in heart and/or organs!:thumb:
I always suggest start offering them stuff and see how they do!:biggrin:
Check out my thread that's on here about when I was looking at swapping my Ducki over....and I think it's rawfedcats.org that's a good one as well!:wink:


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

I'll have to look into raw more. I know Blue Ridge Beef sells the ground mixes that I could always try first, just to see if they'll even eat it.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

kady05 said:


> I'll have to look into raw more. I know Blue Ridge Beef sells the ground mixes that I could always try first, just to see if they'll even eat it.


Our 3(my Mum's Boots and my 2 Ducki and Pidgin) won't touch group meats(well the girls will ground sardines and tripe, but not normal meats) so if they won't that's not really telling you much!:wink:


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