Dry food (halved) v Dry food light (Cat)

~Chameleon~

larmy16 wrote: »

Chameleon I am looking at the amounts of the weight for what he should be. I don't have the bag to hand but think it was 50-65g - he gets approx 25g or 1oz exactly.

Then one pouch of either Natures Menu or Felix. I don't think this is a lot of food for a cat his size which is 5.5. I was aware that you must not cut a cat's diet too quickly or too much or they could become ill.

This is why I am worried about him. Well I will let you all know what the VN advises. Thanks for responding everyone.

As hotcookie101 has already said, the best person to talk to is the VN running the obesity clinic at your practice. She has access to your cat's medical history and can advise accordingly. We can only offer generic advice here and I certainly would never presume to know how best to treat your cat or offer any medical advice. It's neither ethical or within the remit of this forum.

Good luck with him, and I'd love to know how you both get on xx :A

Fire_Fox

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

No, I said feeding another type of food on top of an already complete diet was like adding pudding/sweets, regardless of whether it's wet or dry :rolleyes:

I'm actually growing quite tired of this personal crusade you've developed regarding cat food. I said before you were obsessed as a joke but now I clearly think you are!!!

What have I said in this thread that can be construed as a personal crusade? I asked questions as I sought clarification not to catch you out!

moneygoround

My cat was 5.7kg 3 years ago, vet says she should be 4.5kg (her target weight) or ideally 4kg :eek: because she wants to give her anaesthetic to clean her teeth.

She has only ever eaten Go Cat dry food, supplemented with third to half a small tin of tuna in the evening. Vet said tuna wouldn't do any harm, but to change her food to special weight loss product at prescribed rates. Well, she hardly lost anything (0.5kg in two years) on this diet, so we stopped the tuna, put her back on the Go Cat but at 10% less than the amount recommended for a 4kg cat. This means that she gets 30g twice a day. She now weighs 4.5kg :j and does not eat all the food she's given so cannot be hungry. She's a lot more active and a lot more affectionate too.

I hope this helps.

larmy16

Moneyground many thanks for your very encouraging post. It just goes to show that it can be done and as your cat sounds just like mine was weight wise and is now the weight recommended makes me feel optimistic.

He is very affectionate and deeply contented which may be his problem!!

At least when I am following the VN advice I will know I am doing my very best to tackle the problem.

suki1964

I know nowt about cat nutrition but a friend of mine had the fattest cat in the world - till she put it on Burns and stuck to the guidlines.

The cat can still beg for England but now goes and catches his own supplements - a win win situation all round

Spudette

Hi,

Well IMO a lot of the light foods are not as Light as they make out for example.

The new Royal Canin Light Food has more Fat per pouch than 1 Almo Nature Chicken Breast Can. Yet the Almo Nature Can is not stated to be a light food but the Royal Canin is.

I am not saying this happens with all foods but I found it quite interesting.

HTH and GL

larmy16

Thanks Spudette. As per my original post I do not want to change to a light if the ordinary is a calorie equivalent. Its like someone who loves butter but eats a low fat spread and then has three times the amount.

Anyway as said will let you know how he gets on Saturday. I actually saw him jump a half height wire fence yesterday back into our garden! I was quite impressed!

paddypaws101

Hi Larmy. I have found this info in a book called 'Your cat @ by an American vet Elizabeth Hodgkins...
'Feline light foods are universally very low in fat and this is compensated for with an increase in processed grain plus carbohydrates plus indigestible fibre....The cat experiences even less satisfaction from protein and fat signals to the brain and craves more food. More highly processed carbohydraete stimultes even greater production of insulin which leads to more deposition of fat. The cycle continues.The cat does not lose weight unless proportions are reduced to near starvation levels. Worse still the cat is always hungry and miserable'

This woman specialises in feline nutrition and used to be a senior advisor for a big pet food company!

She argues strongly that a cats are obligate carnivores they should eat MEAT, only meat. She says pretty much any wet food is better than dry, and to choose wet food that has a maximum of 10% carb content.

lostinrates

re halving a food: (regardless of other thoughts on wet/dry/raw).

This is not a good idea. Food is not just calories, its RDA of other nutrients. What ever my personal feelings bout dried food the better ones do use science to look at the RDAs very closely and the main virtue of a very good dried food is that this, theoretically minimises the research and effort for owners.

The recommended daily amount of a food is a good guidline. If its not working I'd try a diferent routine that suits your cat but remains balanced...whch ever route you choose to follow, not halving his current normal food.

Good luck!

emlou2009

would it not be a bit easier to just feed a little less of it than to mix it about? say spread the pouch over 2 days instead of one, and weigh out a couple of grams less than it says you should be feeding of the dry instead of free feeding? i dont know if you are free feeding or not, i just used it as an example