To the cat people among you. My daughters two kittens are in for neutering today boy and girl just six months. Had to do them now as they are indoor pets and big boy is becoming very difficult to live with due to his persistance at humping his sister.

They have asked my daughter has she bought the correct food to feed them immediately after the op and then also for the future now the are neutered. daughter was a bit flustered by that and said yes then rang me. Just hope they dont come out with paying for more food .  The pair of them are on benefits and therefore are having the kittens neutered on the rspca scheme at this rate the original cost will be going up far above the £10.00 for spay and chipping. Which btw I think is amazing price. They have already bought buster collars on the vets recommendation before the op which is fine and if necessary I would pay for those which until we realised they were eligible for the low cost scheme I would have paid for the whole op

I have had cats all my life and  never changed diets for these things. Yes after an op I might offer cooked
chicken or fish but otherwise back to normal

Is this more pushing by manufactures to sell their products via the vets?

My daughter and bf treat these two like their babies and will listen to the vet although the cant afford much . The cats are fed on royal canin atm both dry and pouches as thats what they were on when they got them from the breeder I feel something cheaper would be fine given their finances.
I would raw feed but they arnt happy with that but is it really necessary to use all these expensive products.
Btw the vet doesnt try pushing stuff on me think he has given up after 25 years knowing I come from a rather different angle

I am not in anyway complaining about the low cost scheme just a bit cross at the vet saying these things in particular about the food.

Lets put it this way the vast majority of pet cats are neutered, so the cat food manufacturers would be aiming their products at them far more than breeding animals.  Average Cat food is probably all aimed at the free ranging or sedentary neutered cat.

I have fed normal food after any op for my cats and never had a problem.

I have been offered the after op food from my vets but have refused after I have seen what it costs !

I make sure they have had little and often (wet food) so they recover slowly and don't overload their system. I always cage them for a couple of days as well.

I've never bought special food for after an op with cats, speying is routine and they recover quickly, too quickly sometimes and they need to have enforced rest.  I've just fed their usual wet food.

The only time I gave special food was after major bowel surgery, intussusseption, which had been an emergency.   Then I gave wet food blended with chicken broth as the cat wouldn't eat at first which is normal after bowel surgery.   The  cat had totally refused the special food that they sent me home with ;-)

Personally, I feel it's better to keep the kittens on their usual food, as their digestive system is used to it.  Maybe just treat them to  some Bio Yoghurt or goat's milk, if they like it, just in case ?

Sounds like more money making to me. Hope they dont get swayed in to buying. As you can see I have never done anything more than usual after any op. to Dill yes I can see the difference in your case.
I have offered them my dog crates ( minus dog !) for a few days to help the kittens rest.

:-D Your daughter did the right thing in saying YES, well done her.

Goldmali will probably know better than anyone, but I've never, ever changed a diet after neutering, my cats have never got fat or become none energectic they are probably trying to sell you their food afterwards, gosh they will try anything won't they. :-)

I had my two 5 month old boys neutered in November and haven't changed their diet in any way they are raw fed and were back on raw the evening after the op. Vet never mentioned food to me and he knows I feed raw.

I didn't bother with collars and they never bothered their wounds but would have had a collar for a female. My two were neither up nor down but I would watch that your daughter's boy doesn't recover more quickly and is a bit rough on the girl

HTH

I would watch that your daughter's boy doesn't recover more quickly and is a bit rough on the girl

You didn't meet my girl. :-D

I've always had male cats, but once had a brother/sister pairing and I really thought my girl would be in the worst condition and need lots of tlc, I was all ready to play nurse. :-)  But, the complete opposite happened, her brother was groggy and feeling sorry for himself and his sister I put in her bed to sleep, next minute she is in the room, jumping up on the sofa to sleep and jumping up on the windowsill to watch the birds like nothing had happened. Mind you she was always a law unto her self, lived to be 19 and most of that spent outside even in the winter. :-D

Yes here we gave fiesty girls and a wimp of a boy but my OH has said it is because I have mothered him too much and his pink sparkly collar isn't helping his cause :-P

:-D :-D Yes, he may be a little confused, but, the boys definitely prefer to be pampered. My girl would have pulled off and spat out a pink sparkly collar. :-D I don't know about the boys being called Toms, it should be the other way around!

Thank you Carrington I agree. As for collars well I havnt had to with mine in the past and dont know how these two will be but she has the collars anyway. The reason they had them done together was to try and make it a little easier on the girl otherwise advice preference would have been to  leave him as long as possible,they are just 6 months, as they are indoor cats he wouldnt have been sireing any babies. They had to weigh everything up and I think they made pretty good a desions.

  "boys definitely prefer to be pampered" goes for the human race as well lol

The collar is a cast off from one of the girls as she managed to get it off within a few minutes !

My two cats are indoor cats and both spayed. Neither of them got special food and they are on bog standard IAM's dry cat food and some pouches that I can't remember the name of. You can get dry food that is formulated for indoor, neutered cats which probably has less calories but mine have never needed it. My two were spayed when I got them as they were both around a year old, but with previous cats I've never bothered with special food after an op.

My moggie which live with my mum next door ( his choice!) eats the cheapest of cheap dry food (Go Cat I think as it is all he will eat) and pouches and he is fit and healthy at nearly 15. As cats are much fussier eaters I don't think the manufacturers get away with putting quite as much rubbish in the cheaper foods as dog food companies do, so I'm sure your daughter could find a cheaper food and they wouldn't come to any harm - but someone may know different :-)

As cats are much fussier eaters I don't think the manufacturers get away with putting quite as much rubbish in the cheaper foods as dog food companies do

Ah but they do -mass produced dog food is way ahead of cat food in quality at the moment. Simple example: Whiskas contains just 8 % meat, Pedigree Chum (as in cans for both) has around 50 % meat (varies a bit according to variety). For anyone on a budget, the best cheap cat food is Classic which has 49 % meat. (Again cans -I would not feed dry to any cat again.) Classic is the only high meat content food you can get other than in pet shops -and at 49 %, it's not even all that high.

See I knew someone would know better :-D :-D - but then Royal Canin only has 12% protein so changing to a cheaper one probably wouldn't be that much worse really :-) I used to feed mine Applaws tins which is supposed to be 75%+ meat but it became really difficult to get so I changed to a different one - the tuna looked like tuna and the chicken like chicken though!

It's hard to tell from the composition for wet food because about 80% is 'moisture' - the Classic cans at PAH come out at 8.5% Protein

Very confusing for my brain at this time of night! :-D

I'm just impressed your cats will eat what you give them! My ragdoll will only eat one variety of a dry food (royal canin indoor longhair) and that's it. He won't eat ANYTHING else at all-I really want to put him on raw like the dogs but no chance!!

My two are ragdolls too but don't get the impression they will eat anything lol - they will only eat iams chicken and getting them to accept that it was the same stuff when they changed the shape of the biscuits was hard work :-) They aren't so bad with wet  food because they only get a wee bit. The moggy will only eat wet food in jelly not gravy too!

My ragdoll will only eat one variety of a dry food (royal canin indoor longhair) and that's it. He won't eat ANYTHING else at all-I really want to put him on raw like the dogs but no chance!!

I had 3 or 4 cats that would not eat anything but dry. I used to feed one meal of dry and one of wet (too dangerous to feed nothing but dry as it can cause blockages in male cats), and those cats would then only eat once a day. I then stopped the dry and went to one meal of raw and one meal of cans and it took a few days but in the end they had no choice but to eat. They love it now. :) Much the same happened when I ditched the cans and went 100 % raw. Now I have the problem that some of the cats wont eat anything with bones such as chicken wings, so that's the current project, getting them to CHEW as well. They will get there in the end I'm sure.

> it took a few days but in the end they had no choice but to eat.

I thought you had to be careful with cats not eating? don't they suffer from liver problems if they don't eat for a couple of days?

Right Goldmali I will give it a go-if nothing else his repulsed face will amuse me! Might start with a natural instinct type mix first as I know cats are more difficult to get right than dogs (which I've got sussed!).