Fat Cat/now Sick

We have a 12 year old cat who is fat. We've tried so many things with her. "diet" cat food just made her more hungry and she screamed all the time. I like to look for foods that are HIGH quality. MEAT as the first ingredient, no by products, no corn. So we had a trip to the vet this morning because 2 days ago, she stopped eating and would just lay around all day. Sick kitty. They drew blood to rule out fatty liver disease. She has a slight temp. To get her going with SOMETHING - he gave us a few cans of Hill's a/d wet food. ANYTHING right now to get her eating something! He said we would probably need to syringe feed her. But I tried just putting it in her bowl and she ate about 1/4 of a can. Which pleased me greatly.
He suggested once we get her more stabilized to put her on Hill's m/d. I DO NOT want to feed her Hill's!!! CRAP food! So is there a good quality food that you guys can suggest to keep her weight down but not trick her body into thinking it's starving? We've actually been feeding all our cats, Kirkland dry and 1/4 of a can of friskies pate wet. The Kirkland actually has a decent ingredient list with good protein source as the main ingredient. Friskies pate - not the highest quality but they get a little bit, it's not their bulk food source. I'm not into making my own raw as I don't even cook for myself!! I HATE cooking or making food!!! I used to feed RAD CAT raw years ago but it got too expensive and I see they've had too many recalls and they finally closed their business - YIKES - scary.

Hi! When you're done with the current Hills, either continue with it or increase the Friskies.

Many members have seen their cats lose weight gradually, which is very important, simply by decreasing the dry and increasing the wet .

Can you switch to all wet food? That should take care of your worry about being full but not getting fat.

Nothing scary about Rad Cat recalls, don’t worry. Rad Cat was the best quality commercial cat food to ever exist in my opinion.
Only scary thing about that situation was how the FDA treated them.

Furballsmom said:

Hi! When you're done with the current Hills, either continue with it or increase the Friskies.

Many members have seen their cats lose weight gradually, which is very important, simply by decreasing the dry and increasing the wet .

Click to expand...

So do you think Friskies pate is a good enough food for them? I want to give them the best I can. And Bea (our obese cat) LOVES her wet food when she's feeling good. I like how it gives them plenty of water content.

Since you’re already familiar with Kirkland, you might consider the Kirkland canned cat food. It’s actually a decent food with higher protein and low carbs. And it’s economical. The Kirkland dry is low protein and very high carbs which is the opposite of what you want for kitties.

From a protein and carbs perspective, the Kirkland canned is better than a lot of the Friskies.

I agree, Kirkland wet and/or friskies my boy really likes friskies pates

I see kirkland only comes in chicken and turkey which the cats won't eat in a wet food And it can't be chucks - has to be pate. YES, they are picky. They are cats - ha, ha....

abufarwa60 said:

So do you think Friskies pate is a good enough food for them?

Click to expand...

I think so, yes.

Furballsmom said:

I agree, Kirkland wet and/or friskiest my boy really likes friskies pates

Click to expand...

YUP, Friskies pate is what they have always been on their whole lives but in small amounts. Dry has been the bulk but I think that needs to change! And if it's not pate, they won't eat it. Kirkland doesn't say if it's pate or not....

abufarwa60 said:

I see kirkland only comes in chicken and turkey which the cats won't eat in a wet food And it can't be chucks - has to be pate. YES, they are picky. They are cats - ha, ha....

Click to expand...

Bummer. The Kirkland canned is pâté, fwiw.

You might check out the following two websites. The first was researched and created by a vet who is a feline nutritionist. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since 2017 so you’ll have to check labels for changes. The second is more up to date. Its value for me was that it lists ingredients for all of the foods and the dry matter analysis. I feed homemade now so I don’t use it anymore, but it was really handy when I fed canned. It’s a good starting point although I’d always check labels to be sure.

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Www.catfooddb.com

Tobermory said:

Bummer. The Kirkland canned is pâté, fwiw.

You might check out the following two websites. The first was researched and created by a vet who is a feline nutritionist. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since 2017 so you’ll have to check labels for changes. The second is more up to date. Its value for me was that it lists ingredients for all of the foods and the dry matter analysis. I feed homemade now so I don’t use it anymore, but it was really handy when I fed canned. It’s a good starting point although I’d always check labels to be sure.

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Www.catfooddb.com

Click to expand...

They MIGHT eat the kirkland - it's worth a shot. I just don't want to buy a case in case they won't eat it. I don't know if Costco is the only place that sells it.

abufarwa60 said:

They MIGHT eat the kirkland - it's worth a shot. I just don't want to buy a case in case they won't eat it. I don't know if Costco is the only place that sells it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I completely understand! Kirkland is Costco only. It’s their house brand. You can ask at the customer service counter, but I think they might take it back if your cats won’t eat it. Or you could donate it to a local shelter.

The beautiful thing about Costco is that they take back virtually anything.

For now, feed whatever your cat will eat. It's far more important for your cat to eat right now than wight loss. The Hills food is junk but won't cause any harm if temporarily fed until you can find something better quality to feed.

See these for safe weight loss tips in cats:

Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats
Mickey, my 27 lbs foster and his journey back to a healthy weight

Crash diets don't work for cats. A drastic reduction in calories results in a starving, cranky cat. You need to reduce calorie intake very very slowly and only as needed until the cat reaches the ideal weight. This may take months so you must have patience. The general rule is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. If your cat needs to lose more than 5 lbs or so, you would want to up that to 30 to 40 calories per pound of body weight daily to keep the calorie reduction from being too much. When your cat is closer to the ideal body weight, you can reduce the calories a bit more.

If you can feed only canned food to the overweight cat, that would help a lot. Any brand works. Friskies is just fine if your cat likes that. There's a Friskies variety that comes in a large 13 oz (I think) can size which you can split into multiple meals for the one cat or share with the other cats.

Azazel said:

The beautiful thing about Costco is that they take back virtually anything.

Click to expand...

they do, they're amazing, --hopefully the cat food isn't an issue if by chance you have feline rejection.

I've never seen canned food at my Costco locations other than FF seafood variety packs and friskies I use the dry Kirkland food for the colony cats. I'd be totally into trying the wet but I can't even find it on their website. Does anyone know that if it's discontinued or only in some states?

marmoset said:

I've never seen canned food at my Costco locations other than FF seafood variety packs and friskies I use the dry Kirkland food for the colony cats. I'd be totally into trying the wet but I can't even find it on their website. Does anyone know that if it's discontinued or only in some states?

Click to expand...

I think it’s a store by store thing. My Costco carries the canned. It’s not with the Friskies and FF (which are both on a shelf against a wall). I found it on the aisle with the rest of the pet food. And I’ve searched on the website a couple of times but it’s not there. You might ask at the customer service desk to see if they’re going to get it, or if they can tell you if any Costcos in your area have it.

FYI, it does have pea flour and agar agar is those are an issue for you. But they’re a bit farther down on the ingredient list.