cat eating dog food

[k8bailey]

Hi I posted a few months back to ask for advice ebout my 2yr old cat who pretty much stopped eating, we've tried everything and eventually got him eating fresh cooked chicken and tinned salmon!! but the cost of this... well you can imagine!

Anyway, my mum has two dogs and said she used to have a cat who loved dog food. So she gave me a packet to try frankie on and he LOVED it!!

so my question is - is there any harm feeding a cat, dog food permenantly? he still eats a small amount of dried cat food aswell.

[LoftyLottie]

Dog food is much lower in protein than cat food and cats need a high protein diet. Your cat is still young and obviously needs the correct amount of protein. The dog food won't hurt him, but he should not be fed on it as a main source of diet. If he likes dried cat food, try him on Hills for adult cats. He won't need a great amount to get his daily required nutrition, so although it is expensive, it does last a long time.

Just leave the dried food down and let him graze. He won't starve. Like most cats he has you just where he wants you and I would stop feeding him the chicken and salmon. He will realise in time that you have him sussed out.

(I am presuming he is a healthy cat!)

[k8bailey]

thanks for your advice - he is healthy but has lost alot of weight, which is the only reason I resorted to the posh nosh!!

We've tried leaving food down for him but have a problem with our other cat who is now overweight due to eating frankies food too! not to mention the neighbourhood cats who are enjoying the 24 hr buffet we've been providing - lol!!

[LoftyLottie]

Mmmm, difficult when you have another cat who scoffs all the food. My cat is a 'grazer'. She doesn't eat very much at one 'sitting' and justs eats a few pieces of dried food every now and then. I do recommend Hills though for small eaters. I am not sure how you can go about stopping greedy guts eating it though!!

[wiggal]

Hiya,

We have great fun stopping my cats eating the dog food as they seem to love it, but it does give them very upset stomachs, and so the vet advised us not to let them eat it.

We first thought they had a stomach bug, so took Splodge to the vets as he was the worst, and they asked if they could of been getting hold of the dog food, and we said yes, they had! We stopped this, and soon after we had no more problems!
Dont know if this was just our cats, or the food we feed the dogs! But we keep the cats well away now.

[LoftyLottie]

Our cat has to be fed on a high ledge otherwise her food gets scoffed by the dogs. And, goodness me, high protein cat food does awful things to dogs' digestive processes......................poooh!

[Tichfield]

Feed it natural cat food - raw meat.

It does not have to be fillet steak!

[lankeela]

LoftyLottie is right in saying that cats require more protein than dogs, but they also require a diet that contains Taurine, because they cannot make sufficient Taurine in their diet themselves, and dog food does not contain it. It is an essential nutrient which helps to avoid certain deficiencies. Dogs do not need taurine in their diet, so dogs and cats must stick to their own specific foods. Cats are carnivores and cannot live on a vegetarian or low protein diet. They need protein in the form of meat, fish and fat. Taurine is not found in plants or cereals. This is why dogs can survive on a vegetarian diet, but cats cannot.