0
Answers Home
» Food & Nutrition
» Other Food & Nutrition
One of my five cats is having problems with her new food...New hairball problem..
I've got 5 cats, and buying food for them at my local Wal-Mart is getting pretty expensive, as they're finicky little buggers. None of them tolerate cheap stuff like Meow Mix or Alley Cat or anything like that, so I switched them to Purina One: Adult Cat . But I can only get 5 lb. bags of it, and between 5 of them at 2 meals a day, that stuff disappears fast!
So browsing prices and ingredients, I came upon The Goodlife Receipe: Indoor Cats. It's cheaper than the stuff I'm buying and for the past few weeks, everybody likes it even better than the stuff before. Charlotte and Tequila WERE having a minor hairball problem with the previous food, but that's gone now with new new stuff.
The problem is that Wilbur (adult female, about 4 years old) is having hairballs now! The poor thing hacks through the night... Any suggestions as to how I should treat her? I don't want to change food brands again, and I'm not a fan of medicinal hairball treatments.
Asked by
Wilbur
on Jul 25th 2008
Tagged
in Other Food & Nutrition
Status
- This question is closed.
Best Answer
I feed my cats Purina One--always have, and they are healthy and thriving on it. I get 5# bags at our local Giant Eagle grocery, and you can also get it at PetsMart in bigger bags. It's the same price pretty much everywhere. You can also go on their website and get coupons. For hairballs, I'd grow some catgrass (you can find good sites on the Web to order seeds--very easy to grow) My cats LOVE wheatgrass and I've always got a pot in the house and one growing outside. That cures Delilah's hairball problems right away! You can also brush the heck out of Wilbur to cut down on what she swallows when she grooms herself. If she continues to cough, I'd at least call the vet to make sure the hairballs are what's causing the cough.
Izadore (Izzie) answered on Jul 25th.
Other Answers
Answers
First off, I cannot recommend keeping your cats on that food. The first ingredient is CORN and it is full of things that are just.. awful, like animal by-products.
Purina ONE is obviously not the best food in the world but it is nowhere near the worst, and on a grocery store cat food budget, it is probably the best thing you can feed.
Also, most people overfeed their cats like crazy. An adult cat only needs ~2/3 cup of kibble a day. On more expensive premium foods, you feed them even less.
For hairballs, daily brushing will decrease the amount of hair they swallow. Baths are also a good way to remove dead hair.
I don't know how "medicinal" Petromalt or Laxatone are, since their ingredients are pretty natural. Some people also feed their cat a tablespoon or so of plain pureed pumpkin.
Atrus
answered on 7/25/08.
Helpful? 
/
0
Oscar's a Purina dude too and doing just fine. He has cat grass as well for a little fiber in his day.
Oscar J. Cat
answered on 7/25/08.
Helpful? /
0
