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Old 01-01-2014, 06:17 PM
 
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Have an adult cat who I have been feeding primarily Before Grain canned cat food. She can be very anxious and eats very fast if given too much food. Believe the BG is about 150 calories a can and she really doesn't care for dry a much. It is better to feed her something like canned Wellness since it is higher calories overall?

As for dry food, I have been feeding her Wellness Core Indoor or Before Grain Dry Senior, but again the canned food is her preference.
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Old 01-01-2014, 06:33 PM
 
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The canned is better for her anyway. I'd eliminate the dry all together.

Wellness is about par with Merrick BG (I thought the BG had been discontinued?) but as you have discovered, Wellness canned is higher in calories, so if she'll eat it, add the Wellness to her rotation.

Both are fairly low carb, so that is good.

I, too, have a cat who can only eat very small portions at a time. It is a challenge to get enough into her each day. She eats canned and raw foods.

Nature's Variety canned foods are really high in calories, you could try some of those, too. Also fairly low in carbohydrates.

I am not "recommending" or endorsing any of these brands. Just offering high cal suggestions for you.

Feeding a rotation may help keep her interest in food up.

Dr Pierson has a nice list of foods with their caloric content and carb and fat content on her website:

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health
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Old 01-01-2014, 06:56 PM
 
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Thanks for the feedback. Any thoughts on how Wellness can compares with Natures Variety can? Wellness I am familiar with, but have not heard of Natures Variety before.

Would Natures Variety cans be better for weight gain compare to Instinct Raw Frozen Diets?

How does Instinct Freeze Dried Raw Meals for Cats and Instinct Raw Frozen Diets compare with the Natures Variety cans for weight gain purposes?

Basically I have one cat I need to gain about 2 pounds and one that could lose about 2 pounds.
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Old 01-01-2014, 08:14 PM
 
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Jasper was severely underweight when I got him, and I learned a cat should slowly gain weight, not quickly. I gave him Royal Canin High Protein food, he did not like the Wellness dry food. I also gave him wet food, which he did not like or eat much, as he had never had it. He has come around.

I gave him chicken, salmon, and steak bites, from table scraps.

He gained four pounds in a year. And another 2 pounds. He now weighs 12 pounds.
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Old 01-01-2014, 08:31 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh area
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Good to hear some success with gaining weight. I think these two little ones will need to gain some, and at least early on it didn't seem like it would be easy to get them to eat enough. Still not sure what to switch to, just have been letting them establish routine with their old food (which is canned at least) and then we'll see.

I would tend towards using Dr Pierson's list such as it is (now dating to 2012 it seems, still pretty complete but could suffer from formulation changes) for calories, also look for lower phosphorous, and then read other ingredients, etc. Then it's a matter of will they eat it. Throw cost in there too and it can be tricky.

I noticed a few cans I bought more recently actually list the calorie count on the can. That is nice to see, and frustrating when it is still lower than ideal. There's probably only so much volume you'll be able to get most cats to eat, and thus it is important to try to have that volume be dense enough in calories if the cat is underweight.

Also, give a lot of treats. Helps if they are not too full of awful ingredients, then it doesn't seem so bad to supplement with plenty of treats. Although I have one cat so far who is shunning any treat except Temptations. Ah well. Looks like as of today she'll at least eat the natural style temptations which is not by products but still corn, etc. Many treats are designed to be low in calories, but even then it won't take too many to have some additional impact in calorie intake, provided it does not lower intake of regular food.
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Old 01-02-2014, 05:16 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by movin2Reston View Post
Thanks for the feedback. Any thoughts on how Wellness can compares with Natures Variety can? Wellness I am familiar with, but have not heard of Natures Variety before.

Would Natures Variety cans be better for weight gain compare to Instinct Raw Frozen Diets?

How does Instinct Freeze Dried Raw Meals for Cats and Instinct Raw Frozen Diets compare with the Natures Variety cans for weight gain purposes?

Basically I have one cat I need to gain about 2 pounds and one that could lose about 2 pounds.
Wellness and NV are fairly different as far as ingredients go The NV is higher in calories than the Wellness.

I've never fed the NV Instinct raw products. I don't feed foods that contain a lot of fruits and veggies but I know plenty of raw feeders who like the NV instinct raw products. One caution: I've read that NV raw is a bit high in bone content, leading to constipation issues. You may need to balance it out with some extra fresh raw meat.

I don't agree with the advice of giving "lots of treats". Feeding junk food is not a desirable way to increase weight gain. Feeding good balanced nutrition is better. If you must feed treats use Freeze dried raw pure proteins treats made by companies like PureBites, Bravo and DrHarvey's. All are single protein freeze dried raw meats, nothing else added, all sourced and made in the USA.

My cats are all on different diets and amounts. It's not hard to do. I keep a cat journal and note down what each cat is fed and when. They each have their own meal spots where they wait for me to put their dishes in front of them, and each of their portions is weighed out to their specific needs. (I have a food scale)

I weigh the cats weekly (baby scale) to ensure their optimal weights are being maintained.

The kitty who needs to lose must be done very very slowly. No more than half a pound a month (2 ounces a week). It's very dangerous for a cat to lose weight too quickly, the liver will shut down (fatty liver disease)

If you schedule feed, eliminate the dry, weigh portions, get to know how much each cat needs to maintain a weight, then you increase the amount for the cat who needs to gain, and decrease the amount for the one who needs to lose. That's one reason a food scale is so handy.


PS I have one tiny cat whom I actually often have to follow around with her dish to get her to finish, in order to ensure she gets enough to eat. I once let her self regulate, but she got too thin. So I plot and scheme and concoct and garnish, to get enough food into her.

Last edited by catsmom21; 01-02-2014 at 05:32 AM..
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Old 01-02-2014, 05:36 AM
 
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When our cat dropped weight due to illness, we switched him to kitten food. Easier to digest, higher in calories and in most brands with similiar flavors.
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Old 01-02-2014, 08:37 AM
 
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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?


Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
Wellness and NV are fairly different as far as ingredients go The NV is higher in calories than the Wellness.

I've never fed the NV Instinct raw products. I don't feed foods that contain a lot of fruits and veggies but I know plenty of raw feeders who like the NV instinct raw products. One caution: I've read that NV raw is a bit high in bone content, leading to constipation issues. You may need to balance it out with some extra fresh raw meat.

I don't agree with the advice of giving "lots of treats". Feeding junk food is not a desirable way to increase weight gain. Feeding good balanced nutrition is better. If you must feed treats use Freeze dried raw pure proteins treats made by companies like PureBites, Bravo and DrHarvey's. All are single protein freeze dried raw meats, nothing else added, all sourced and made in the USA.

My cats are all on different diets and amounts. It's not hard to do. I keep a cat journal and note down what each cat is fed and when. They each have their own meal spots where they wait for me to put their dishes in front of them, and each of their portions is weighed out to their specific needs. (I have a food scale)

I weigh the cats weekly (baby scale) to ensure their optimal weights are being maintained.

The kitty who needs to lose must be done very very slowly. No more than half a pound a month (2 ounces a week). It's very dangerous for a cat to lose weight too quickly, the liver will shut down (fatty liver disease)

If you schedule feed, eliminate the dry, weigh portions, get to know how much each cat needs to maintain a weight, then you increase the amount for the cat who needs to gain, and decrease the amount for the one who needs to lose. That's one reason a food scale is so handy.


PS I have one tiny cat whom I actually often have to follow around with her dish to get her to finish, in order to ensure she gets enough to eat. I once let her self regulate, but she got too thin. So I plot and scheme and concoct and garnish, to get enough food into her.
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Old 01-02-2014, 08:54 AM
 
Location: Ft. Myers
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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.

Just my slant on it.

Don
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Old 01-02-2014, 09:04 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh area
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Just to be clear, I'm kinda joking about the treats. Mainly it means you can use treats as freely as you like without fear of kitty getting too heavy. Often that is the worry with treats. Obviously treats should not make up a large portion of the food intake. But even a few will make a few extra calories. It's true when putting it out here we shouldn't assume others will find it so obvious, so fair enough.

Also, freeze dried treats have helped me a little recently. The method that seemed to work, start by feeding one of those treats then crumbling a bit more over the food. Kinda kick starts the eating, sometimes, in some cats. Nothing is sure to be transferable to every cat though.
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