We all know that our cats should drink more water.
Being descended from Persia which was primarily a desert, cats do not have a natural thirst drive. So, they almost always do not drink enough water and this is one of the reasons 33.3% of cats will end up with kidney disease later in life. Urinary problems is also due to not drinking enough water. While kidney disease is progressive and will be terminal, urinary problems can also be fatal if not adddressed immediately.
I’m on a quest to get our cats to drink more water.
One of the most common advice is to serve cats wet food. But this brings on the dental problem because some wet food will get stuck in their teeth and increase plague formation which leads to tartar and gum problems. This in turn causes the body to produce more globulins and globulins destroy the kidneys.
Sigh…
So, most vets would recommend feeding kibble as it supposedly “cleans” the teeth, but does it really? Perhaps it does, to a certain extent, provided the cat chews the pellets and not swallow them whole. I’d say many cats just swallow the pellets whole, don’t they?
Another way to get cats to clean their teeth is to let them eat really chewy raw meat like beef or get them to chew on safe bones as they do in the wild.
Then, next comes the need to brush their teeth. How successful are we at brushing their teeth? Some don’t even allow us to trim their nails or even touch them (Minnie and Samantha, for example), so teeth-brushing would be, literally, impossible.
So, we come back to finding ways to make them drink more water.
Put more drinking bowls all over the house – been there, done that, sometimes you can bring the horse to water, but you cannot make the horse drink it. Replace “horse” with “cat” and you have got it right.
Use a water fountain – I’ve done that before too, and none of my cats were interested in it.
Add more water to their food – this only works with the Monsters…except Robin. So perhaps that’s why all of the Monsters, it was Robin who contracted the FIC recently.
I can add lots of water to canned food for the Monsters and they will lick everything up. Only Robin doesn’t like it.
And what about the Blondies?
Now, they are indeed a challenge because even though they were brought up on raw food, they decided they prefer kibble nowadays. So, I tried adding water to the kibble and they went on a hunger strike. That was months ago. And all the kibble would be wasted after that because they are moist.
Samantha, Kai and Indra eat wet food. Akira remains a challenge.
A few days ago, I started my project to add water to kibble again and I must say, it’s showing some progress.
So, first, I merely wet the plate. I poured kibble into a wet plate. To my utter surprise, they did not walk away this time!
From using a wet plate, I progressed to adding a very small amount of water. Now, I’m still adding water, a little bit more each day. Of course they aren’t exactly happy, but if they insist on eating kibble, that’s all they are going to get – slightly wet kibble. They would only eat a little and go off, but eventually, it’s all eaten up!
Yay!
My senior vet told me that’s what she did with her cat too. She kept adding water to the kibble until her cat had no choice but to eat it. But slowly, a little bit of water each day, increasingly.
I haven’t started this with Riley, though, because Riley would not even go near wet kibble. But at least Riley does eat wet food even though she prefers to graze all day on kibble. Riley still cannot eat much at one go; she still has to graze.
Next comes the issue of salt in processed foods. I wish cat food makers will not add salt to their food, but they do. I’ve asked why and I’m told cats have a minimal sodium requirement in for their diet. We are told that cats need sodium in their diet to maintain fluid balance and nerve and muscle function.
Here’s an article I just found: https://www.petmd.com/blogs/nutritionnuggets/cat/dr-coates/2015/december/too-much-salt-dangerous-cats-33345
According to this 2015 article, the recommended amount of sodium is okay for cats, but most vets tell us it is the cause of some health issues. My vet is particularly concerned about the salt content in canned foods and kibble. She told me that some brands have salt and many cats who eat it end up with a higher incidence of urinary problems.
We already know that salt should not be in the diet for cats with kidney, blood pressure and heart issues. But what about the diet of healthy cats? There is a recommended percentage of sodium for a healthy cat’s diet for fluid balance and nerve function (as stated above).
Over Robin’s FIC, I’ve been really confused because the urinary food has a higher content of salt with the purpose of making the cat drink more water. Cats with urinary problems need to drink more water. And yet, in healthy cats, if their food has too much salt (or more correctly, minerals), it can cause urinary problems. This is why healthy cats should not be put on the urinary diet.
But the other day, my vet said that if healthy cats eat food with the S/O index, they normally will never get urinary problems.
Confused yet?
What is the S/O index then? It is a terminology found only in Royal Canin foods (it stands for Struvite and Oxalate):
Foods with the S/O index means they are formulated to promote a urinary environment unfavorable to the development of both struvite and calcium oxalate crystals and stones.
But I’ve already confirmed that if healthy cats are put on this diet, it can lead to stones formation. The same goes for other urinary cat food that contains cranberries. It has the same effect.
This is one issue where I’m thoroughly confused, and I’m seldom so thoroughly confused (!) so let me try and get to the bottom of this first and I’ll post whatever information I can find.
Meanwhile, let’s get our cats to drink more water! This cannot go wrong.
Urine crystals and bladder stones in cats: https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/urinary/urine-crystals-and-bladder-stones-in-cats
This is their “freshly” wet kibble.
My next challenge is to get Riley and Juno to eat wet kibble.
Getting the Blondies to do it was already a huge achievement!
P.S. I might start them on RC’s Dental kibble again. The pellets are really big to force them to chew (but take note of it being a choking hazard, please), it has the S/O index but ingredients-wise, it has a lot of grains as do most RC cat food.