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Sounds like a combination of the Wellness and NV cans should work well.
Any thoughts on the kitten formula of the cats for an adult cat?
Kitten formula vs adult vs senior vs indoor vs whatever is pretty much just marketing.
One thing the kitten formula might do is give a smoother consistency of the food, as in ground up more finely. Sometimes in a given amount it is higher calorie density than a normal adult food, but that is not guaranteed to be the case.
Basically you want to know how many calories you are trying to get in, and how many calories are in the food you are serving, either by can or whatever other portion you might be using Simple math will allow you to go from full can calories to per ounce calories if you need to use portions of cans. The CatInfo chart will give amounts for full cans. Using weight of food for additional portions would be better than volume because the cans are sold by weight and thus the full can calorie amounts are by weight. (Although if you are doing something like roughly half a can, you're probably okay.) Any other way you're just guessing.
One problem I still ran into though is that various info that suggests how many calories a cat should take in seems to have wider variation in the numbers than is strictly helpful....
I keep seeing the statement that canned is better for a cat than dry, and I don't want to get into that debate, but the fact is there are some cats who simply will not eat canned food. Our 3 are that way, I put down some Fancy Feast canned for them occasionally for a treat, and Chewy will walk away from it, Lucky will pick at it and then go back to the dry food dish, and Daisy is the only one who likes it.
It has been that way for every cat we have had, they seem to prefer dry for the most part. As for health benefits, most of ours have lived to be 17 or so and have had very few, if any, medical problems during that long life. So my experience tells me that dry food is not the devil some people make it out to be. In fact, when I have had this discussion with several Vets over the years they say they feel dry has some benefits like teeth cleaning ability that wet does not. In fact, one Vet said he equates eating only wet food as going to McDonalds every day for a human, it might taste good but is not good for you long term. Now, I do feed Mama Cat at the shop canned food because I want her to get as much protein in the one meal a day she gets, and canned seems to maybe do that better.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They require meat and moisture in their food to thrive.
And dry food has NO dental benefit. Do you eat Fritos to clean your teeth?
A cat eating dry food every day can be equated with a mc donald's diet. Or worse. Cats may "live" to be 17 on a dry diet, but they aren't thriving. If you made the switch you'd see a very very big difference.
Dry food is sprayed with "animal digest" or other flavor enhancers to make the cats eat it. It's such an unnatural diet for an obligate carnivore, that the manufacturers have to make it appetizing somehow. That's why they prefer it.
Cats can be transitioned. It can take work, and often die hard addicts can take months to be transitioned. But, it can be done. For any cat. It just takes work and dedication, sometimes a lot of work, a lot of patience.
Sounds like a combination of the Wellness and NV cans should work well.
Any thoughts on the kitten formula of the cats for an adult cat?
I don't really have any faith in "kitten" formulas. I think they are labeled for the consumer, not the pet. If you want to keep some in the rotation for the skinny kitty, it can't hurt, but I don't know how much benefit it will be either.
I think feeding small meals more often, weighing them and keeping track of how much kitty is getting so you can get more into her each day is the most effective way to put weight on a cat who is otherwise healthy, or to help a cat who is ill get at least enough food to maintain her weight.
Is the cat underweight because of a health issue? I meant to ask before but forgot.
Noticed the NV kibble is very high in calories. Seems like Wellness and NV can rotated with a couple sprinkles of NV kibble a on top should make for a good steady plan of a few extra calories.
Well here's my 2 cents and I might sound crazy. My husband and I have 6 cats. I have raised them since birth. At first I would feed them Blue Buffalo or something compared. They were always "scrawny" looking, especially for males. I switched to Fancy Feast dry/moist and they finally started looking like healthy cats. I know that people say (and ads too) that you should feed your cats/dogs..any pet the best "natural" food that is out there. However our animals are domesticated now and have more domestic blood than wild blood. Maybe our domesticated animals aren't as adapt as their ancestors.
Somewhere on their website it has information on their formulations (having more than the usual amount of individual vitamins added, I think) pertaining to desired weight gain.
Tried EVO before and my cats don't care for it. Are you recommending the food or guidelines?
I am going with Variety Instinct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leanansidhex
EVO canned food.
Somewhere on their website it has information on their formulations (having more than the usual amount of individual vitamins added, I think) pertaining to desired weight gain.
Can Nature's Variety Instinct canned be used for both weight loss (slightly smaller portion) and weight gain (slightly larger portion)?
It's all about the calories. For weight loss, feed less. For weight gain, feed more.
So yes, you CAN do it. But...
Of course, just like for humans, it's not always that simple. The trouble with trying to feed more is that the cat tends to only eat so much volume. That is where having a more calorie dense food is helpful. The trouble with trying to feed less is that a cat (like a person) may well react to having less volume too and bug you about feeding all the time.
So, trying to have weight loss while using a calorie dense food may not work that well. Not sure. The key is just to have the calorie intake be less. For an example, Cats in the Kitchen (from Weruva) Double Dip (chicken and beef) is popular with the new kitties, but I use it as an extra treat because it would take so much of it to feed them as their main food that I don't think they would get enough calories in. For weight loss though it might be helpful, just doesn't have that many calories, only about 70 I think in a 3oz can. That translates to only about 120 calories in 5.5oz, which is pretty low. Most of the standard 5.5oz cans have at least 150 calories in there, and some get up to 200 calories and more. The Instinct is in the very dense 200+ calorie range for a 5.5oz can. The portion amount you'd have to feed a cat trying to lose weight might just be too small to keep the cat happy.
Stay away from stuff that is labeled as reduced calorie, light, weight loss, etc. Mostly that stuff has some meat taken out and replaced with varying types of non-meat lower calorie filler.
You also need to do a calculation and make sure you don't feed your cat too little when doing weight loss. This is discussed in much detail on the catinfo.org site.
Tried EVO before and my cats don't care for it. Are you recommending the food or guidelines?
I am going with Variety Instinct.
No I'm not "recommending" EVO. Just letting you know, based on something I read, somewhere on their website, over a year ago, that EVO canned may be an option for a cat who needs to gain a couple of pounds.
Their "guidelines" would pertain only to their products.
Sorry if my post sounds terse, It's not meant to be. I'm just tired and can't find a better way to explain my first post.
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, It's not meant to be. I'm just tired and can't find a better way to explain my first post.
