Is giving a cat an entire Churu tube once a day that bad? They have really good quality wet and dry food. Their only other treats are either freeze dried 100% chicken breast or these: https://www.amazon.com/Feline-Natural-Grain-Free-Freeze-Treats/dp/B010FDPF6K?ref_=ast_sto_dp.
How bad is a Churu a day if your cat's diet is relatively healthy the rest of the day?
Nutrition/WaterCongrats on your kitty beating FIP! She's lucky to have such devoted and loving guardians!
Thanks! She was a former foster, and her adopter told us about her diagnosis the night before she was scheduled to be euthanized, so we had to make a snap decision about a relatively unknown treatment. Very glad we decided to give it a try!
You guys.. GOD has a special place for you, no doubt. Hope I’m good enough to see you there, with ALL our, life-long, kitties. I’m gonna look for y’all if I make it.. won’t forget✍️
We have a very similar experience! It was the only thing that go us through FIP treatment. We kept going with churu a few weeks after to show her that it didn’t always mean injections.
You guys rock for doing treatment, happy for your FIP warrior!
Is there a reason you’re worried? A Churu is 6 calories, comparable to giving them two or three of the normal kibble sized hard treats a day, so they won’t get fat. Churu isn’t unhealthy or anything if that’s what you’re asking.
I’m no expert at all lol. My cats LOVE the Churu. I split one between my two cats probably every other day. I’d like to think that it’s okay for them to have them, they deserve treats and they have healthy and active lifestyles. I guess maybe just monitor your cat to see how they do. How much wet/dry food does your cat eat a day? And how active is your cat’s lifestyle?
Churu isn’t unhealthy, you can give up to 4 tubes a day for a 6-10lbs cat. My cat doesn’t eat much, she’s literally anorexic, so these are lifesavers. I have big Maine Coon and I give her 2-3 tubs a day. I buy the ones for healthy skin & fur.
If Churu is all your one cat will eat, look into Churu Nourish/Vet formula. It's a higher-cal version for situation like this.
Thank you so much, I’ll look into that. I am literally giving up, I’ve tried 20 different (premium) wet food, she won’t eat anything. She only wants Felix and Gourmet, as this is what she ate at her previous owner. I can’t give it to her anymore as we went to vet and she’s got dandruff and greasy fur. The vet said these foods are the worst, have the highest amount of sugar and carbs. Also she’s not an active cat, so she doesn’t need that. Even those she would only eat like 3-4 bites and lick the sauce. I gave her Bozita after spaying, she ate it, I’ve ordered a box, now she won’t eat it. I even bought wet food which has actual pieces of chicken, she won’t eat that either. Additionally, she’ll only eat chicken & beef flavour. I am honestly fed up, I am wasting so much food & money. Thank god she drinks water, as she will only eat dry food. I give her 2 sachets of churu skin & fur, I also ordered other snacks (pure, soups, dry cuts) so she has some variety.
My elderly cat takes medicine twice a day in a churu. So she eats 2 every day. She’s doing really well and it really helps with the medication.
For elderly cats (thin and picky with food intake)... I found that giving Gerber pureed baby food (chicken or turkey) helps an aging, frail kitty. Especially if you are trying to get meds in them.
It’s a grain free high moisture treat- a great treat for kitties.
Only way it could be bad is if you tried to give it to them as a meal replacement. Churu doesn’t provide all the nutritional value our kitties needs.
Yes, because once you run out and you don't have time to get more before the store closes, they WILL complain the entire night. Maybe even go for your ankles.
But in all seriousness, I think it's fine. The only time I've ever heard Churu affecting a cat was a cat with previous kidney issues, and even that might of been a one off thing. The recommendation is its no more than 10% of their daily caloric intake.
The first time we gave one to our 6 month old kitten, she was so enchanted she grabbed the wrapper and ran off to hide it where our other cats couldn’t find it. The next day we found her sleeping with the wrapper in her basket. Paw stretched protectively over it.
Churus are low calorie and high moisture content, so no worries there. Spoil your kitty!
Not bad enough to worry a ton about. I might not want to do it EVERY day, but I gotta be honest, the amount of “damage” this could do is minimal unless your cat has other unrelated health issues. And if they enjoy it? If you enjoy giving it? Those are much more tangible.
It’s fine, however, if you are trying to get your cat comfortable with something, rewarding them with a treat they only get when they do the thing helps, so if a churu is their fav, you would want to save it for that. Think letting you trim nails, brush fur, give medicine, etc.
It's fine. My friend's kitty is a super picky eater and her owner gave her one every day for years just to up her moisture intake. The only real risk is financial, lol.
Fun fact: Inaba, the company that makes churu, started off as a fresh tuna harvester for Japanese consumers in the early 1800s. They only branched into pet food in the mid 1950s. And today they still produce canned tuna for humans! I think the price reflects the quality of their product and the fact that they source and use real meat.
not sure about "real meat" in world of chemical replacement for example KFC uses chemically enginnered meat for their burgers and why japanese can't uses chemicals that resemble meat to our vision and smells for cat nose
Wtf are you talking about when you say chemically engineered food
My cat loves them! And she literally refuses to drink water so sometimes I squeeze them into a bowl and water it down a little to make her get more moisture 😅
Hi! My cat is also terrible at drinking water so I add lots of water to his food and even his Churu packet, but did you find anything else that worked for you?
Hi! I just wanted to say as someone with two cats who also used to be bad water drinkers, I highly recommend the CatMate or PetMate brand water fountain! It needs to be fully taken apart and thoroughly cleaned around every 2-3 weeks which can be a pain, but it’s so worth it imo. My cats drink tons of water now, it’s helped a ton. I got it from Amazon. Make sure zoo buy some filters to go with it and replace them when you clean it.
Literally nothing lol Churu packets in water to make a little soup she will drink is my best bet. She also likes Purina HydraCare packets too!
have you tried a different water bowl? I switched bowls and my cat started drinking more. I guess he didn't like the old one.
Have you tried a cat water fountain? The sound of trickling water sometimes reminds cats that would otherwise forget that it's there.
Also, make sure their water is in a different area of the room than their food. A lot of cats instinctively don't trust water near their food due to contamination concerns.
my kitty loves churu, but i only give her one once a week tops. partly because i dont want to buy more that frequently… i dont think its too bad for them though? its basically meat paste, right?
My cat used to be 12 lbs and over the course of a year went down to 8.5. Vet didn’t seem to think it was a big deal and no tests found anything wrong. But I started giving her daily churu to help put on weight and she loves them and is closer to her old self again. She had turned skeletal before but not anymore, really glad I found these. She was never an overweight cat by the way and not food motivated at all. It’s the first wet cat food product she has ever enjoyed and I have tried many.
The biggest problem I see here is bankruptcy
My cat loves them, but I’d I give a whole packet he gets loose stool. I also save special treats to use as a tool in the event they need medicine or something.
Maybe fine for the cat, which is your main worry. However, is there any jurisdiction where that package is recyclable? I live somewhere they cannot process it.
So, when my kitties have needed help with nutrition or I wanted high quality treats, I went for organic baby food with only chicken and, as it is in a glass jar, it is completely safe for the environment, too.
Thinking about it, your cats are getting much better quality treats since it's all human-grade, infant-grade even, rather than a processed meat product for pets made in a plant who knows where, with what inspections and quality control to ensure listeria or whatever wasn't invited into the process.
I'm out of Churus and googled "churus healthy reddit" to see if I wanted to buy more when I found your comment. Thanks for sharing a different perspective.
Aw. It was kind of you to take the time to reply to such an old post, coldjesusbeer.
Do not be fooled. We fucked up baby food too once upon a time. Gerber in the US somehow managed to get ground glass in their product back in 1986.
And this is more recent:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/29/health/baby-food-toxins-update-wellness/index.html
But yeah, I do hope that the standards for human food might be a smidge more rigorous than for pet food. :)
Please give your kitty scritches from me.
My youngun is off at the vet getting spayed right now. Cross your fingers.
It’s grain free but what’s the sodium content? A lot of people forget about the salt. Quite a few new brands have been developed in Korea with low sodium as a selling point which makes me wonder if the original Churu could be better in that area. I don’t know because the original Churu is rare where I live (not Korea).
Just checked the tuna one, no salt added. There is green tea extract though, which I thought was interesting.
My kitty is on a prescription urinary track food and my vet said we can give him churu as a treat. That is amazing because usually you cannot give your kitties anything else when they are on this kind of diet!
My cat was traumatized by having to yo to the vet and now shes not eating. Are they healthy enough to provide them as meals?
Awww, definitely can’t be a meal replacement but if that’s all she’ll eat give it to her. I hope she calms down 🙂
use it as a topper for their regular food? mixed in, they might eat the food altogether.
my girls try to eat the wrapper and completely forget what their tongues are for if I feed from the tube.
They are pretty good for them, I wouldn’t worry. Mine is enjoying a crab flavor right now.
My cats hate churu…
Is it OK for kitties that have renal problems?
My concern is, if churros are bad for their kidneys?
that's an excellent typo, but another poster above mentioned that her cat on a kidney-safe diet is allowed these treats by her vet. I'd say yes, but you may want to consult your personal vet.
(all I can see now is a cat with a churro in their mouth instead of a Churu.)
We did it every day for three months while treating our kitty for FIP (it was a great distraction during injections). Towards the end, she figured out that if she cried, she'd get two! Kitty survived FIP, and she's no worse for wear after her few months of being spoiled!