Diet time for a fat cat...

OnTheLastCastle

Deathwing wrote: »

Buy a $1.00 can of sardines in water (if they're in oil, drain the oil).

Put one in the cat's bowl in the morning. (there's usually two sardines in a can).

In the evening, put the second one in their bowl.

BAM. Instant diet.

I really hope you were just joking, because this is a ridiculously bad idea - feeding an all-fish diet will likely cause the cat to develop vitamin/mineral deficiencies, some of those being potentially fatal.

Yeah, people really need to do research on this stuff. Cats are NOT like humans or dogs. They have really strict requirements on what they can eat for some reason.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071207182402AA7ZZdw

You can make your own food for cats, but it is fairly complex not just 'cut up meat and serve it'.

Regicid3

That cat is adorable, I just wanted to say.

3drage

Just going to throw my support in for using wet food, if they don't get enough water their kidneys start to get blocked, and wet food helps down this avenue. Blocked kidneys for cats is a terrible thing for them to suffer and is sadly one of the biggest forms of preventable death that cats suffer at the owner's hands. If they don't urinate, or do too much there is a problem.

Djeet

This wet food stuff sounds like cat lover nonsense. I've been personally acquainted with dozens of long-lived felines that have eaten nothing but crappy gorcery store dry catfood. The only real food requirements cats have are high protein content and taurine supplementation. Cats in the wild live much shorter lives then domesticated cats on a dry food diet. Cats gotta die of something, and once you remove predators, parasites and cars, then cancer and organ failure are your major reasons.

I asked all 3 doctors at my vet clinic and universally they said it doesn't matter if it's wet or dry, just feed the cat something she'll eat.

I'll probably give it a try regardless, though my cat has a serious averison to wet food even since she needed a feeding tube (she did NOT enjoy the injected wet food).

ransim

Djeet wrote: »

This wet food stuff sounds like cat lover nonsense. I've been personally acquainted with dozens of long-lived felines that have eaten nothing but crappy gorcery store dry catfood. The only real food requirements cats have are high protein content and taurine supplementation. Cats in the wild live much shorter lives then domesticated cats on a dry food diet. Cats gotta die of something, and once you remove predators, parasites and cars, then cancer and organ failure are your major reasons.

I asked all 3 doctors at my vet clinic and universally they said it doesn't matter if it's wet or dry, just feed the cat something she'll eat.

I'll probably give it a try regardless, though my cat has a serious averison to wet food even since she needed a feeding tube (she did NOT enjoy the injected wet food).

Uh huh, and here are two vets saying your vet is full of it:

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm

Dry cat food can also contribute or be directly related to certain health conditions:

Feline Diabetes
Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, does not mince words about the connection between dry cat food and feline diabetes. On her web site at www.yourdiabeticcat.com, she states, "Without the constant feeding of highly processed, high carbohydrate dry foods, better suited to cattle than cats, adult-onset feline diabetes would be a rare disease, if it occurred at all."
IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM, states, "Too often these cats are treated with a high level of steroids and a so-called 'prescription' DRY diet. I feel very strongly that this common therapeutic regimen needs to be re-evaluated. There are an impressive number of anecdotal reports of cats that were terribly ill with IBD exhibiting dramatic improvement when ALL dry food was removed from their diet."
CRF (Chronic Renal Failure)
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM, states, "It is troubling to think about the role that chronic dehydration plays in feline kidney failure. And remember, cats are chronically dehydrated when they are on a diet of predominantly dry food."

Grocery store pet store tends to be the animal equivalent of fast food. Its nutritiously poor, and generally crappy quality. Cats need protein, not carbs or sugar, never mind the things they use as filler that the cat can't even digest.

3drage

I bet Djeet also recommends Ol Roy as the highest quality food you can get for your pet.

Djeet

Well that's constructive. I never recommended grocery store petfood. Just saying I know several 20+ year old housecats that have been fed exclusively meoxmix-type food, non-diabetic, and not needing to have prescription food to deal with kidney issues.

Deathwing

I've been personally acquainted with dozens of long-lived felines that have eaten nothing but crappy gorcery store dry catfood. The only real food requirements cats have are high protein content and taurine supplementation.

Some humans eat horrible, smoke like chimneys, or pickle themselves in alcohol and manage to live forever too - doesn't make it any less unhealthy.

And there's also this site which I posted earlier, written by the DVM in ransim's second quote block - http://catinfo.org/. Goes into extensive detail about the multiple reasons why dry food is bad.

I asked all 3 doctors at my vet clinic and universally they said it doesn't matter if it's wet or dry, just feed the cat something she'll eat.

The vets at the animal hospital my cat went to basically said he was likely to be blocked again in a matter of weeks if we did not exclusively feed the prescription food. 10 months and 2 checkups later, he's perfectly fine.

Sadly, many (most?) vets are not experts on nutrition, although the one I linked to above seems to be.

OnTheLastCastle

They aren't required to take classes on nutrition and are paid / gifted by pet food companies. When we got the fat cat back, I took him off his 'prescription food' and 2 years later he's sooooo much healthier.

scrivenerjones

please post more fat cat pics ASAP. thanks.

tehmarken

Yes, I was joking with my can of sardines diet ;p But it's a good supplement/treat for cats to give them some real fish/meat once in a while.

soxbox

Regarding the Wet/Dry food arguments, don't do the 'my vet said' 'your vet said'.

My scientific review said: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2387258/?tool=pubmed

TLDR: Dry food is fine - there's no evidence that higher carb diets affect cats (complex carbs are fine for cats - simple sugars less so, but that's not a problem in cat foods). High fat and confinement are the main problem, not high carb.

onceling

I recommended wet because I have a hard time keeping cats sufficiently hydrated to avoid urinary tract problems, not because of carb concerns.

Deathwing

TLDR: Dry food is fine - there's no evidence that higher carb diets affect cats (complex carbs are fine for cats - simple sugars less so, but that's not a problem in cat foods). High fat and confinement are the main problem, not high carb.

I also did not recommend wet solely because of carb concerns, although I do think they're a bad idea - I said it because of the painful and expensive urinary problems that can result from having too much dry food and not enough water...something which i've witnessed first-hand as I mentioned a couple times earlier.

That study you linked to seems focused almost completely on obesity, diabetes, and digestibility...I don't see any discussion of urinary issues at all.

soxbox

If your cat is having urinary issues, go wet, but there was a lot of talk of carbs and diabetes, and I thought that somebody needed to debunk that nonsense. If your cat drinks enough water, dry food is perfectly fine - I don't want a lot of people stressing that they may be killing/have killed their pets.

mts

Deathwing wrote: »

I also did not recommend wet solely because of carb concerns, although I do think they're a bad idea - I said it because of the painful and expensive urinary problems that can result from having too much dry food and not enough water...something which i've witnessed first-hand as I mentioned a couple times earlier.

That study you linked to seems focused almost completely on obesity, diabetes, and digestibility...I don't see any discussion of urinary issues at all.

not to get in the arguement over wet vs dry but the the obesity and diabetes issues were the issues cited by the three vets earlier.

honestly i think the more important thing is to have a better allotment of meat/fat to grains in the diet rather than wet vs dry.

LeCaustic

All this talk about dry food and dehydration now makes me realize why the cats I used to own constantly craved water. Now I know

BEAST!

i should have taken pictures of my cat..i really can't tell if he's fat or not, he's like 10 months old and his head looks really small compared to the rest of his body though so maybe he's a bit overweight? i dunno

he's an indoor cat, has an alright amount of room to run around and play in (which he does a lot of), but he seems to just be gaining weight even though i've cut his food way down (half a cup a day of Natural Balance Ultra Premium Dry)...that's like half of what they say he should eat, he seems fine with it, not hungry or anything...drinks lots of water

i've been thinking about maybe getting some wet food for night and sticking with the dry in the morning....any recommendations? maybe Natural Balance Ultra Premium Indoor wet since he's an indoor cat?

mts

BEAST! wrote: »

i should have taken pictures of my cat..i really can't tell if he's fat or not, he's like 10 months old and his head looks really small compared to the rest of his body though so maybe he's a bit overweight? i dunno

he's an indoor cat, has an alright amount of room to run around and play in (which he does a lot of), but he seems to just be gaining weight even though i've cut his food way down (half a cup a day of Natural Balance Ultra Premium Dry)...that's like half of what they say he should eat, he seems fine with it, not hungry or anything...drinks lots of water

i've been thinking about maybe getting some wet food for night and sticking with the dry in the morning....any recommendations? maybe Natural Balance Ultra Premium Indoor wet since he's an indoor cat?

he could just have a really small head.

most indoor cats would benefit from indoor formula , but they are mostly the same

Deathwing

If your cat drinks enough water, dry food is perfectly fine

If they do, sure. Cats do not have a strong thirst drive, though, and many will not. Just comes down to who you decide to trust, I guess.

honestly i think the more important thing is to have a better allotment of meat/fat to grains in the diet rather than wet vs dry.

This is definitely important. Sure, they would get some plant matter in the process of eating their prey, but nothing like the amounts that are in some of the dry foods.

jhunter46

Here is my fat cat.

Trying to eat my head

3drage

Deathwing wrote: »

I also did not recommend wet solely because of carb concerns, although I do think they're a bad idea - I said it because of the painful and expensive urinary problems that can result from having too much dry food and not enough water...something which i've witnessed first-hand as I mentioned a couple times earlier.

Male cats especially have problems with not getting enough water and crystalizing in UT due to dehydration. Wet food tends to take the problem completely out of the equation, which I think any concerned pet owner would be glad to do. (or those facing severe vet expenses in the future).

EggyToast

I feed my cats mostly raw food, like Primal frozen nuggets. One cat isn't a huge fan so he gets a little can of wet food and my two guys share a little kibble for variety (some non-grain stuff). Their fur is incredibly soft (we didn't realize how different it was until we petted some other cats after owning our guys) and they have tons of energy -- well, one much more than the other (the one who loves raw food has more energy). My raw foodie is often complemented by my vet saying that he's all muscle, very sleek, and very healthy.

Of course, if I told her that he was on a raw food diet, she would probably say it's unhealthy. On the other hand, saying it after she inspects my cat for health might be a way to show it's a good practice.

Not all cats can take to a raw food diet, since it's very rich in flavor and many are used to their old foods. It's like, if a person only ate potato chips, and then was given broccoli, they'd think it tasted pretty gross because they just want to eat chips. But it might be worth a shot for all you cat owners and the OP. I don't really care about the organic stuff, but the primarily-meat ingredients are great. I just put out 3 nuggets and my dude eats them during the night as they thaw.

3drage

EggyToast wrote: »

I feed my cats mostly raw food, like Primal frozen nuggets. One cat isn't a huge fan so he gets a little can of wet food and my two guys share a little kibble for variety (some non-grain stuff). Their fur is incredibly soft (we didn't realize how different it was until we petted some other cats after owning our guys) and they have tons of energy -- well, one much more than the other (the one who loves raw food has more energy). My raw foodie is often complemented by my vet saying that he's all muscle, very sleek, and very healthy.

I've been told from a few people that the cooked chicken product in foods isn't all that great for cats as the cooking process denatures proteins making it difficult for cats to process.

Of course, if I told her that he was on a raw food diet, she would probably say it's unhealthy. On the other hand, saying it after she inspects my cat for health might be a way to show it's a good practice.

Reminds me of a Zen Buddhist story where a Buddhist master approaches a house in perfect harmony, but notices the person inside is meditating incorrectly. The master instructs the person inside to meditate the correct way. When the master came back the house was out of harmony.

onceling

BEAST! wrote: »

i should have taken pictures of my cat..i really can't tell if he's fat or not, he's like 10 months old and his head looks really small compared to the rest of his body though so maybe he's a bit overweight? i dunno

Head over to take a look at the profiles here:

http://www.iams.com/iams/pet-health/body-condition.jsp

And then you can see if your cat is too big and work from there. Here are my personal recommendations if you would like to move to wet food:

Solid gold

Innova/Evo/California Natural
Natural Balance that you mentioned is good
Wellness

There is no harm mixing wet and dry, and especially when moving a cat to a new diet please go slowly over at least 2 weeks. You can buy plastic covers for cat food at the store so it will keep in the fridge, although you may want to let it warm up some before feeding to the cat.

More exercise is a good idea, some cats simply respond to less food by being less active, which is both counterproductive and can be dangerous for them if they are not getting enough nutrients. A change in diet slowly with play time with a person or another cat can help the process.

mts

3drage wrote: »

Male cats especially have problems with not getting enough water and crystalizing in UT due to dehydration. Wet food tends to take the problem completely out of the equation, which I think any concerned pet owner would be glad to do. (or those facing severe vet expenses in the future).

yea. urinary issues in males is of particular importance to get treated. UTIs can be fatal in males

Octoparrot

onceling wrote: »

BEAST! wrote: »

i should have taken pictures of my cat..i really can't tell if he's fat or not, he's like 10 months old and his head looks really small compared to the rest of his body though so maybe he's a bit overweight? i dunno

Head over to take a look at the profiles here:

http://www.iams.com/iams/pet-health/body-condition.jsp

That's the same chart as in any vet office. It's a shame that the chart doesn't take into account whether one's pet is built like Mike Tyson.

mts

Octoparrot wrote: »

That's the same chart as in any vet office. It's a shame that the chart doesn't take into account whether one's pet is built like Mike Tyson.

those things are really just guides. each animal is different

Asiina

Yeah, I have two cats. One is a shorthair and it's easy to identify the things on that chart. The other is a massive, 15 lbs Maine Coon, but he's not at all fat. Just a giant cat full of muscles.

Also I feed both of mine only dry food. I've had a cat get obese on wet food, so decided only dry food for these guys. I've tried giving wet food as a gift on christmas, but they just lick up the sauce and leave the meat.

If you're worried about water consumption while limiting food, you can get one of those water fountains. They're about $30 and my cats love it. They like playing with the water stream and drinking directly from it rather than the bowl. You just need to be careful to wash them out, since fur can get caught in the motor.

BEAST!

Octoparrot wrote: »

onceling wrote: »

BEAST! wrote: »

i should have taken pictures of my cat..i really can't tell if he's fat or not, he's like 10 months old and his head looks really small compared to the rest of his body though so maybe he's a bit overweight? i dunno

Head over to take a look at the profiles here:

http://www.iams.com/iams/pet-health/body-condition.jsp

That's the same chart as in any vet office. It's a shame that the chart doesn't take into account whether one's pet is built like Mike Tyson.

my cat looks like this



is that a problem?!?!!

seriously though, he doesn't look fat when sitting, side to side he looks cool..but it seems like he has a big belly that goes down..i'll probably try the indoor cat wet food though as part of his diet

i'm not too concerned with UTI luckily, he really seems to drink a lot of water..i have one of those that is always circulating and he likes that a lot better than standing water

mts

BEAST! wrote: »

my cat looks like this



is that a problem?!?!!

seriously though, he doesn't look fat when sitting, side to side he looks cool..but it seems like he has a big belly that goes down..i'll probably try the indoor cat wet food though as part of his diet

i'm not too concerned with UTI luckily, he really seems to drink a lot of water..i have one of those that is always circulating and he likes that a lot better than standing water

its only a problem since it looks like your cat is actually a dog

3drage

mts wrote: »

its only a problem since it looks like your cat is actually a dog

Lies! Filthy evil lies!

VisionOfClarity

Asiina wrote: »

Yeah, I have two cats. One is a shorthair and it's easy to identify the things on that chart. The other is a massive, 15 lbs Maine Coon, but he's not at all fat. Just a giant cat full of muscles.

Also I feed both of mine only dry food. I've had a cat get obese on wet food, so decided only dry food for these guys. I've tried giving wet food as a gift on christmas, but they just lick up the sauce and leave the meat.

I have a Maine Coon as well and she is about 11/12lbs and she won't touch wet food, at all. I've tried multiple brands and multiple flavours but she is only interested in dry cat food. If you give her nothing but wet food for a few days she just doesn't eat. She drinks water quite happily on her own so I'm not concerned about the hydration. The vet is happy with how she is, so so am I. Though we may need to look down the road at hairball medication and food

2868

My cat is so fat. It is on wet food dietary management recipe. He rides a skateboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LusU1hVA7c

Deathwing

I feed my cats mostly raw food, like Primal frozen nuggets.

Good to hear of someone else using these - kinda considering adding these into at least one of our cats' diet, we got some samples from the local pet store, and the boy loved them, although his sis turned her nose up

Would like to try and get them on a homemade raw diet at some point, but no room for a meat grinder and not a big enough freezer atm.

If you're worried about water consumption while limiting food, you can get one of those water fountains.

Yeah, if you're going to go forward with dry food, I would definitely recommend having one of these. Ours kinda ignore it these days after we switched to all-canned, but before that they loved it - especially funny to see them take their toys over and try to drown/wash them.

A few pictures of our kttehs, Nikki and Tasha:

OnTheLastCastle

Cats are rad.