I've read several topics in here about feeding and weight gain, but rather than putting this on a two-year-old topic I thought I'd ask about our specific situation...
We have two rescue cats. Brownie is a 10 year old, 10 pound tabby who's fine and normal weight.
Skyy is a very small cat who is also 10 years old and has lost weight. In the last year she's gone from 5.5 pounds to about 4.7, which the vet says is significant for such a tiny cat. She's very affectionate, very active, inquisitive, and playful. But, she's lost weight.
We normally feed Royal Canin Gastrointestinal dry all the time - both cats are nibblers. We feed wet food twice a day (Friskies cans, usually the "pate" with an ounce of chicken or beef broth added so both cats get some additional liquid.
Skyy SEEMS to eat normally and drink regularly, though often the food that was the "BEST FOOD EVER" on Monday morning is regarded as "WRETCHED SWILL" on Tuesday evening...
She's been to the vet this week and they did blood work - everything is normal. We took in a stool sample and they got a urine sample and checked both. Normal. No kidney problems, no parasites or worms or anything. The vet says we DON'T need to be abnormally concerned about Phosphorous since she doesn't have any kidney issues (it's a concern if the cat does have kidney problems)...
In two months she goes in for her regular checkup, so the recommendation was to see if we can put some weight on her in that time. If not, they'll bring in a person to do an ultrasound to check further. SO, we have 2 months to see if we can put some weight on Skyy... The vet suggested we look at kitten food rather than Hill's A/D, though that's an option depending on how it goes.
Yesterday I took info from here to the local Chuck & Don's (pet supply place) and looked at dozens of cans of food and bags of dry. Most of the brands we saw weren't anything mentioned in here, so I looked for foods with a good amount of protein and about a 2:1 ratio between protein and fat.
We came home with a a couple cans of Blue Wilderness Chicken, a bag of Orijen Kitten and cat dry, and a bag of Purina One Kitten dry. Along with that we bought a couple packages of tuna and jars of chicken and turkey baby food.
Tried the Blue Wilderness last night. NEITHER cat would touch the stuff. Added some tuna. Nope. Added a bit of baby food. Nope. NOTHING. They were NOT interested. We finally put together some of the regular wet food we use with a little tuna and baby food and they both gobbled happily.
I put three samples of the dry foods out. Given the choice, both cats ate the Purina One. The brown cat tried some of the Orijen, but the clear preference over both the Orijen and the Royal Canin appeared to be the Purina One dry.
OTHER than the idea of doing a completely raw meat diet or cooking our own of everything, what other things should be thinking about as we try to get Skyy to increase her weight over the next couple months?
We have two rescue cats. Brownie is a 10 year old, 10 pound tabby who's fine and normal weight.
Skyy is a very small cat who is also 10 years old and has lost weight. In the last year she's gone from 5.5 pounds to about 4.7, which the vet says is significant for such a tiny cat. She's very affectionate, very active, inquisitive, and playful. But, she's lost weight.
We normally feed Royal Canin Gastrointestinal dry all the time - both cats are nibblers. We feed wet food twice a day (Friskies cans, usually the "pate" with an ounce of chicken or beef broth added so both cats get some additional liquid.
Skyy SEEMS to eat normally and drink regularly, though often the food that was the "BEST FOOD EVER" on Monday morning is regarded as "WRETCHED SWILL" on Tuesday evening...
She's been to the vet this week and they did blood work - everything is normal. We took in a stool sample and they got a urine sample and checked both. Normal. No kidney problems, no parasites or worms or anything. The vet says we DON'T need to be abnormally concerned about Phosphorous since she doesn't have any kidney issues (it's a concern if the cat does have kidney problems)...
In two months she goes in for her regular checkup, so the recommendation was to see if we can put some weight on her in that time. If not, they'll bring in a person to do an ultrasound to check further. SO, we have 2 months to see if we can put some weight on Skyy... The vet suggested we look at kitten food rather than Hill's A/D, though that's an option depending on how it goes.
Yesterday I took info from here to the local Chuck & Don's (pet supply place) and looked at dozens of cans of food and bags of dry. Most of the brands we saw weren't anything mentioned in here, so I looked for foods with a good amount of protein and about a 2:1 ratio between protein and fat.
We came home with a a couple cans of Blue Wilderness Chicken, a bag of Orijen Kitten and cat dry, and a bag of Purina One Kitten dry. Along with that we bought a couple packages of tuna and jars of chicken and turkey baby food.
Tried the Blue Wilderness last night. NEITHER cat would touch the stuff. Added some tuna. Nope. Added a bit of baby food. Nope. NOTHING. They were NOT interested. We finally put together some of the regular wet food we use with a little tuna and baby food and they both gobbled happily.
I put three samples of the dry foods out. Given the choice, both cats ate the Purina One. The brown cat tried some of the Orijen, but the clear preference over both the Orijen and the Royal Canin appeared to be the Purina One dry.
OTHER than the idea of doing a completely raw meat diet or cooking our own of everything, what other things should be thinking about as we try to get Skyy to increase her weight over the next couple months?