? What is the best grain-free, wet cat food for weight loss?

I rescued my sweet cat several months ago. She is about to turn 4 years-old and is 20 lbs! Her previous owners greatly overfed her.

Since rescuing her, she has been put on a diet and the vet highly recommended moving her to a grain-free, all wet diet. After doing a lot of research, I found several brands that seem great as far as grain-free is concerned, however, it is hard to find a good, wet cat food that is grain-free but may also help with weight-loss.

I realize there is a lot more to weight-loss involved than just what food she is eating -- such as how many calories are being fed and activity level. Since she is so large, her activity level is pretty low, but since being on the diet (which accounts for the calories being fed), she has become much more playful.

Any suggestions to which wet, grain-free cat foods (that could help with weight-loss) are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

I would recommend Weruva--it's a little pricy (but still cheaper than prescription food). Most flavors are high in protein, moderate in fat, and low carb, which is what you want to help with weight loss. Most of the other premium cat foods tend to be low in carb, but higher in calories and fat. A good diet for weight loss is protein greater than 50%, fat less than 50%, carbs less than 10%. Make sure you're double checking the calories in the food you're feeding--some flavors have more calories than others.

You can find the breakdown of the different Weruva flavors here: http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

I would also check out Dr. Lisa's weight loss recommendations: http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity#Implementing_a_Safe_Weight-Loss_Program

 

My non-diabetic, Maestro, is a large half-Siamese boy. Several months ago, our living arrangements changed from a house to ourselves, to sharing a house with somebody else. The cats are "confined" to my living area which is a nice sized bedroom plus the adjoining half bath and closet. They do go outside with me, supervised to let them get their energy out, but he was a cat who always ran full speed down the hallways. Can't do that anymore. As a result, less activity, and weight gain. Diego lost weight because of his diabetes before he got diagnosed, but Maestro gained 4 pounds making him 14.5 pounds!

Once Diego was found to be diabetic, I switched everyone over to the OTC cheapo Walmart wet foods. These foods have under 10% carbs, making them suitable for diabetics. I do not believe that they are grain free though. Does your baby have an allergy? Some of them contain rice. I noticed that maestro has lost a little weight in the month that he's been eating it too. I'm not sure if it's the MOST ideal for weight loss (the carb values are really all I'm concerned about) but it seems to work fine for us. I know that there are other things out there specifically catered for weight loss but if you have trouble affording it, the Friskies/Fancy Feast/Special Kitty route might be a good one to start out on. You may see results on them too! Best of luck.

 

I've read Dr. Lisa's weight loss recommendations over and over again! I love them.

I will look into Weruva. I've heard good things about Weruva overall (other than the price) from other people too. Thanks!

 

She doesn't have an allergy to grain, however, the vet doesn't believe her body is able to process it well which is causing her to not lose weight and even occasionally gain weight despite her strict diet. The vet mentioned seeing a lot of cats have a lot of success losing weight after moving to grain-free diets.

I will still look into this though! I appreciate the help!

 

I side with the vet. Humans are the same. I'm a huge pusher of the low carb/high fat diet not only for weight loss but to prevent a huge list of medical complications that follow from a lifetime of eating grains and sugar. Once you get her off the grain, or at least significantly reduce it, no doubt the weight will just fall off effortlessly.

 

Hi!!
There are so many good canned foods that are low carb--be warned that "grain free" is the new "thing" (tiki is very good--not the rice ones)
If you see a dry food that says NO GRAIN or GRAIN FREE it is simply not true--
ALL dry food needs a grain to bind it together-it could be a starch (even worse for a cat)
what is does mean is that is does not contain the most offensive grains-corn wheat or soy--
If you are able to go to all wet you probably do not even have to "diet" as the weight will just come off--
my 20 pound cat lost a pound the first month when he was DX with diabetes just by taking the dry away--
it has slowed down since then but as long he he does not go up I am happy!
good luck-

 

Once she starts dropping some weight, you can alternate or mix the Weruva with other foods to keep the costs down a bit. That's what I do with Bandit--he needed to lose a lb or so after gaining some weight from being on steroids. We went 75% Weruva, 25% Wellness Core for his diet until he got back down to his ideal weight, and then I upped the Wellness so he's eating 50/50 both foods again. It helps keep the cost down a bit to do a split like that.

Honestly, if she's only 4 years old you might want to look into maybe mixing the Weruva up with some pate Fancy Feast or Sheba foods to save money. The protein/fat/carb ratio is better for weight loss than some of the higher end foods like Wellness or Evo, and they're all grain free. The phosphorus levels are a bit high for those foods so you wouldn't want to feed them for weight loss to a senior cat, but they're perfectly fine for younger cats. The Sheba food numbers aren't on the catinfo charts, but I called and got them a few years ago and protein/fat ratios were very similar to most Fancy Feast. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I did with those numbers as I don't buy them anymore.

 

Thank you! I appreciate the recommendation. I did just start her on Weruva and had the same thought about mixing it up a bit from time to time to save on some costs.

Honestly, when I first started researching this whole thing, I was going to go with Wellness Core but then got a lot of flack because they use carrageenan in their wet food which has been linked to stomach cancer in cats. Do you have any information about this?

 

Great advice! Right after writing my original post, I moved her to an all wet diet and sure enough, she is starting to lose weight! Finally! I think I'm going to stick to the grain free, but also stick to the wet food for (hopefully) the best results.

 

There have been no studies that I know of that link carrageenan to stomach cancer in cats. There's lots of studies that show the effects on the gastrointestinal tract are dependent on the animal being studied (but no studies done with cats specifically, as far as I know). The research sited for claims that it's dangerous (when there is research sited) for cats are related to non-feline animals, which is not helpful since the effects are clearly species dependent.

Since there's no apparent epidemic of cats with stomach cancer who eat foods with carrageenan, I'm ok with feeding it unless it's actually proven to be dangerous for cats. I know others who take a more holistic approach to their pets' diets may disagree with me, and that's certainly ok. It's been very hard for me to find foods that work with Bandit's issues, and I'm not able to switch to something else with him without going higher fat in his diet, which I know will trigger a whole bunch of problems if I do, so the unproven risk of carrageenan is secondary for me to the real task of finding foods that mitigate his diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, IBD, and possibly early stage kidney disease. He's not a young guy anymore, and he's been doing very well on his current diet for many years.