Conference misery::feline_v1

    I've never seen it here;  I would try asking your vet.
    
    (An aside:  is UK cat food actually very different to American?
     I get the impression from reading these notes that it is.)

    I also get the impression that UK food must be very different
    from American.  I personally have never heard of low-ash food
    in this country, neither have I ever heard of any cat getting 
    the sort of blockage problem that is mentioned.
    
    As you know, Lizzie recently had a toilet problem due to his
    broken pelvis and, whilst the vet said that this problem 
    could be permanent, he never once mentioned a special diet.
    In fact, he actually said that I should just feed him as usual.
    
    However, I am willing to be proved wrong if anyone knows better.
    
    
    April 

    Is IAMS cat food considered low ash food?  They have a toll free number
    to call (for those of you who are interested for a free sample and
    questions 1-800-525-IAMS). If you would like I could call and
    ask them if they distribute in the UK? 

    Yes, thank you, it would be interesting to know.
    
    I looked on my tin of Kit-E-Kat (actually, the cats' tin of Kit-E-Kat,
    I don't eat it!) last night, and it does contain ash.
    
    Is the ash-free food tinned, dry, or what?  For those of you interested
    in a UK cats' diet, my three cats have one large tin of cat food
    in the morning, one in the evening, and then some of the dry biscuits
    for supper.  They also have milk, and whatever human food they can
    beg; meat, cheese, etc.  (And some strange things; Pandora's favourite
    food is roast chestnuts.)  Hector also supplements his diet with
    mice, birds, and so on.  They also occasionally have raw ox heart
    or liver instead of one of the tinned food meals, for a treat.
                                  
    I know the biscuits (Brekkies, Go-Cat, or what have you) can cause
    problems if the cat doesn't drink (all of mine drink water), but
    I have never heard of the tinned food, even though it does apparently
    contain ash, doing any damage.
                                  
    Helen.

    Re: .4
    
    I don't think you can get ash-free food, just low ash food.  Most
    U.S. canned cat food lists the percentage of ash on the label
    (sometimes in mighty tiny print).  I don't know the current thinking
    about ash and FUS, but I remember being told by a vet a long time
    ago to stay away from canned food with more than 3.0% ash.
    
                       

    RE: .5
    
    and least there be any confusion, you have to compare the ash on
    a dry basis. Consider a can of moist food is about 75% moisture.
    If it contains 3% ash, that is about the same as a dry food containing
    9% ash.
    
    The dry foods that are considered low-ash contain about 5% to 6% ash.
    There are some low-ash moist foods, but they are hard to find. Hill's
    produces Science Diet moist and canned C/D.  Some of the commercial
    moist foods that are fairly low in ash are Friskies Buffet and KalKan
    (meat and poultry; stay away from seafood and organ meat).
    
    Deb

    Maybe UK cat food has already cut down on the ash.  I seem to remember
    reading on the Wiskas tin that it had 0.02% ash content (may be
    wrong about the exact placing of the decimal point).
    
    I've never heard of the cystitis-type problem either but it may
    be a case of different terminology over here (a wide variety of
    cat complaints are described by the vet as "problems with his kidneys").

    okay,time for stupid questions...
    
    1)  what is ash ? why do they put it in there?
    
    2) i read in here that organ meat is high in ash?
       i have been buying the kittens chicken livers at the store and
       and cooking it up for them,the only thing i add to that is a
       little chicken gravy. i thought that this diet would be better
    for them,but now i am not sure.
    
    
    kelly

    Noters,
    
    This conference has a decent list of keywords that you can
    use to help you find information that exists in the file.
    Do a SHOW KEYWORDS to find the topic you're looking for.
    
    Then you do a DIR/KEYWORD=xxxxx to find the notes that have
    been assigned that keyword.
    
    In this case, a DIR/KEYWORD=ASH, finds note 178 that talks
    about ash.  Ash is often talked about within FUS notes so
    you should probably do a DIR/KEYWORD=FUS and find those
    notes as well.
    
    Donna

    RE: .6
    
    That should be about 12%, not 9%.
    
    Deb

    Re: 1203.7
    
    I was substantially wrong - Whiskas contains 2.5% ash):-(
    
    Still quite low though.
    
    

    re: .3
    
    Several months ago I called IAMS to ask about their "low ash/
    low magnesium" claim, especially compared to Science Diet c/d.
    The people (several) that I spoke with assured me with no
    hesitation that IAMS was every bit as good for cats as c/d.
    But...their job is to get me to buy IAMS!
    
    Anyone know if Cornell, Tufts, etc. have done comparisons?
    
    	Penelope