Senior cat food?

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Hi all,

My two cats are now a lot more settled. We've had them about 6 weeks now (ish) and they've moved from Royal Canin fit 32 (what they were fed on at the rescue) with Felix 'as good as it looks' onto Royal Canin indoor with the same wet felix.

My question is... as they are approx. 10 years old should we be putting them onto 'senior' type cat foods? Royal Canin don't seem to have one that I can see. They seem pretty happy... they go manic early morning and manic late evening but otherwise are happiest asleep! They don't seem any less active than most cats I know and cause chaos in 'their' room where they are shut at night with their various beds all upturned in the morning and toys launched around.

They look healthy and shiny now but both got dandruff - caused by stress? - when they were first here and the girl was over grooming we think as she looked oily and made her ears bald! The boy had suspected stress induced cystitis but that has now cleared up and between them we've only had about 4 sickness incidences since they arrived (turns out they dislike mackerel....).

So... should I change their food? Or is Royal Canin indoor pretty good? I know they should probably have 'better' wet food but I think they are addicted to Felix and turn their noses up at pretty much anything else.

Sorry for the waffle... I'm desperate to give them the best home they can have now after so long in the rescue.

Will add photos if I can see how...

Thankyou!

Charlotte

antw23uk

Hi Charlotte
Well done for giving them a loving home and wanting the best for them.
I cant really advise on a commercial food for them (I despise the stuff) but what i would recommend is adding some raw food to their diet in the form of chicken wings, lambs heart etc ... this will improve the dandruff, keep their teeth clean and healthy and ... well try it, you will be amazed at just how balanced and happy they will be :T
For a dry coat, dandruff i would say work from the inside out. Supplement with some olive oil, perhaps some nice oily fish to get her skin nice and oily and ths her coat nice and oily/ moisturized as well
Are they on a dry food only? This is really not good for them despite what advise we get from the vets ... have you noticed vets always have a commercial cat food overpriced for sale just when 'you need it' :mad:

bacardi66

My remaining cat is 18 and from the time he and his brother were about 12 I switched them from regular Whiskas to Whiskas Senior wet food in addition to Royal Canin Outdoor 7+ dried food. They carried on having Science diet Oral care dried food too - I like to cover all options! Royal Canin do make a dried food for more senior cats but my cat wasn't keen on it. Ive read many pros & cons about wet food versus dried food so in the end have carried on feeding both.

I also would recommend Yumega oil for cats - I give it to my cat and its made a big difference to his coat and skin - no sign of any flakiness and his fur is much softer and easier to groom.

Your cats might be too old to embrace the raw food option - by the time I read about it and tried it on my cats they just turned up their noses and stalked off! But its definitely something I would go for if I was to get young cats again as I think its the most natural and healthy option for a cat.

~Chameleon~

Royal Canin do an Age12+ food (wet & dry) which I used to use. However, I've recently stopped using them as the formula of their food has changed to include far more cereal. I now use Nature's Menu wet/raw food along with Almo Nature dry food which is totally grain free and hypoallergenic. My cats are in their early 20s and are both thriving on this diet.