Food Help

Hi there! New here... looking for some suggestions with food before I pull all my hair out. I have three cats (1 yr, 8 yr and 12 yr) that I am trying to switch over to all canned due to my 12 year old being diagnosed with diabetes two months ago, no other health issues with the other ones aside from the 8 year old recently gaining quite a bit of weight. Anyway I am going broke trying to find something they will eat. From what I understand they need to be eating between 6-8 ounces each per day. I am either splitting one 5 ounce or two 3 ounce cans at each feeding and they will only take a few bites and then walk away. I do put out a cup of dry food (Evo) a day between all three of them mostly because I am just so worried about them not eating enough. The vet said it is bad if the diabetic kitty doesn't eat enough as well as the overweight one not eating. I have pretty much tried all the suggestions, unfortunately the freeze dried salmon treats were an absolute hit but now it seems as if they won't eat anything without those sprinkled all over the food (which is getting expensive). Enough rambling sorry... I guess what I am asking for is if anyone has had any breakthoughs with a particular type of food that has worked with finicky eaters. Thanks :smile:

 

Hi and welcome to the board.

Read Janet & Binky's Food Charts to get ideas as to what food you want to try.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html

I tend to rotate between Fancy Feast, Wellness, and Friskies with mine. I don't normally feed the same food back-to-back because they are picky and will walk away. The same food they might snub today they will eat tomorrow. They have me trained. Look over the link above and I think you will see there are many brands/varieties you can try and see what they like that will fit in with your budget.

You can probably decrease the amount of dry EVO you leave out for them and you will get better response when feeding canned food. I would need to find the link, but look at the package at the calorie content for the EVO. I think one cup has more calories in it than all three cats need during the course of one day, so they probably are not that hungry by the time you open a can.

One other thing to consider is how your cats eat. Mine can be very hungry, eat with gusto, and still only eat one or two teaspoons before they walk away. They always go back a little later for more, but don't eat a lot at one sitting/meal.

Have you tried Bonita Fish flakes? Some cats like them and from what I understand, you can buy generic fish flakes at Asian markets. Maybe someone will come along who uses these flakes.


Evaluate the calories the cats are getting with the EVO, and maybe that will account for the lack of interest in the wet food. You could try leaving out less EVO, and see if the appetite for the canned improves.


Best,
Pam & Layla

 

The general rule is to feed your cat whatever low carb brand he/she likes to eat, you can afford, and can find in the local stores. Use the canned food charts: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html, or, if you live outside the US, http://binkyspage.tripod.com/nonusfd.html Some popular brands fed by members here are Fancy Feast, Wellness, Innova EVO, Special Kitty, and Friskies. A suggestion is to choose a couple different brands and buy one can from each of those brands and test them out to see which ones your cats like and don't like. That way you're not buying like a case of food only to find out that none of the cats will eat it.

Unregulated diabetics are always hungry so at least let your diabetic cat eat as much as he wants. You can use a timed feeder for this.

You don't need to feed any dry food. Even a "good" dry food like EVO can keep blood glucose levels too high. Don't remove the dry food completely just yet. Doing so will have an impact on your cat's blood glucose levels so it's very important to be testing the blood glucose levels at home.

Freeze dried treats on top of canned food is a great way to get a cat to eat but some learn to expect treats at every meal :lol: You can crush up freeze dried treats into a sort of powder and just sprinkle a little bit on top. The package will last longer that way. What brand of treats are you using? Some are more expensive than others.

 

The answers to your questions, including how to transition your cats to wet food and how to deal with obesity are at www.catinfo.org . The calories in a whole cup of Evo are hardly conducive to weight loss. Mine get some Evo too, but it's a tablespoon apiece and not every day.

 

Thank you for all the helpful advice so quickly. I cut the amount of dry food to 1/2 cup today (for all three) and will continue to do a little less every day. I also went and got a Relion Confirm and all the necessary supplies at Wal-Mart so I can begin to check her at home. She seems to be doing well, she is currently on 1 unit of Prozinc twice a day. I see other people have the same problem as I do where one day the cats lick the plates of Fancy Feast chicken clean so I go buy a whole case and the next day they are not so crazy about it UGH! Anyway, will keep trying. Also I noticed that the Merrick Before Grain foods say they are now complete and balanced (instead of just supplemental) anyone tried them yet? Also what about the Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys Shredded Chicken and the Shredded Turkey? Acceptable?? Thanks again

 

The Before Grain web site still says that the canned foods are for supplemental feeding only.

Check the ingredient label on the Before Grain cans in the store. If only meat or fish and water are the only ingredients, then the food is not nutritionally complete. They are ok as an occasional meal/treat. If vitamins and minerals are listed, then the food is nutritionally complete.

Those are on the "new" canned food list: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html The shredded chicken one has 10% carbs and the shredded turkey one has 9% carbs, both "low carb".

 

Before Grain is switching to nutritionally balanced formulas.

You can tell the difference between the old and new cans by the labeling.

The old ones say 100% - beef/chicken/salmon/etc. These are not balanced.
The new ones say 96% - beef/chicken/salmon/etc. These have been changed so that they are now balanced.

My local pet store currently has both as they switch over their stock. I have to watch to get the 96% ones.