Best Dry Food For Overweight Cat?

[KittyCookie]

Hello!(: I am new to this forum but very excited to learn more about cats! My family just adopted a 5 year old calico sweetheart yesterday and I was wondering what is the best food to give her for weight loss? She is 12 pounds, but looks like she's (probably) 1-2 pounds overweight. The thing is, even though I'm allowed to chose what dry food to buy the cat (I work at a pet store) I am not able to feed any wet food because my mom insists that I can't feed her any wet food because she thinks it's too expensive (even though I will be paying for the food) I've heard the wet food diets are best, but since I am only allowed to feed out our new kitty dry food, what is the best option for her? She's an indoor kitty. I picked up a bag or Merrick Purrfect Bistro Weight Maintance dry food because I heard it is a good brand. Is this a good food for her?
Thank you!(:

 

[tabbytom]

Hello KittyCookie, welcome to TCS

Skip the dry food if you want your kitty to loose weight. Wet diet is the way to go if you want your kitty to loose weight. Dry food are full of carbohydrates has very little or no moisture at all and worse will be if your kitty dosen't drink any water, that will lead to UTI. Don't let your kitty suffer, not to mention visits to the vet and high vet bills.

Since you are paying for the kitty canned food, you call the shots.

Do introduce yourself and your kitty to the community in 'New Cats on the Block' under the Social Forums' and do browse around the site and check out the many good reads and informative forum threads. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

Also please post photos of your kitty for us to see

 

[KittyCookie]

Hello KittyCookie, welcome to TCS

Skip the dry food if you want your kitty to loose weight. Wet diet is the way to go if you want your kitty to loose weight. Dry food are full of carbohydrates has very little or no moisture at all and worse will be if your kitty dosen't drink any water, that will lead to UTI. Don't let your kitty suffer, not to mention visits to the vet and high vet bills.

Since you are paying for the kitty canned food, you call the shots.

Do introduce yourself and your kitty to the community in 'New Cats on the Block' under the Social Forums' and do browse around the site and check out the many good reads and informative forum threads. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

Also please post photos of your kitty for us to see

Thank you for the information! But my mom will absolutely not allow it (trust me, I've tried explaining the benefits of wet food) just because our kitty is the family pet.

 

[destinyz12]

Could you maybe pull up some convincing/reliable articles online that will explain why a wet food diet is healthier than dry, for your mom to read? As others said, it's especially healthier for weight management. Maybe if she sees the info from another source, such as a veterinarian-written article, she will give it some more thought? Also, after that maybe you can ask her to compromise and do a partial wet/partial dry diet if she still isn't entirely convinced. My mom was the same way at first, thinking a dry only diet was perfectly fine, until i sent her numerous articles about it. Now we feed mainly wet food during the day, with some dry food overnight.

And as for the food you chose- the Purrfect Bistro weight control, it looks like a decent choice since its low in calories compared to most others but I personally prefer to avoid foods with cranberries in the ingredients because over time that has the potential to become harmful if they eat it too frequently it due to the benzoic acid in them. For next time, I suggest checking out the Merrick Limited Ingredient Diet Turkey flavor. It has a similar calorie amount as the other one and better ingredients overall.

 

[orange&white]

A medium-range canned food will be healthier and help her lose weight better than the most expensive dry food. Since you work at a pet store, spend a bit of the "slow time" working up a price comparison between the Merrick dry and a selection of canned foods to rotate. Your mom is convinced that dry food is less expensive. Prove her wrong.

 

[Purr-fect]

Tell your mom that if she thinks its too expensive to feed your cat wet food, wait till she gets the vet bills when your cat develops diabetes or other problems because she was eating steady dry food. This is what happened to our cat. We only fed her (expensive) dry food from the vet and im sure she died early because of it.

Posters here have said some of the fancy feast is good value in wet food and much cheaper than the premium wet brands.

At least make sure the dry food is grain free, or you will be risking health problems.....and costs.

Perhaps give your cat half wet and half dry. This is a reasonable compromise and long lerm will actually save money in decreased vet bills.

 

[tabbytom]

KittyCookie

Could you maybe pull up some convincing/reliable articles online that will explain why a wet food diet is healthier than dry, for your mom to read? As others said, it's especially healthier for weight management. Maybe if she sees the info from another source, such as a veterinarian-written article, she will give it some more thought? Also, after that maybe you can ask her to compromise and do a partial wet/partial dry diet if she still isn't entirely convinced. My mom was the same way at first, thinking a dry only diet was perfectly fine, until i sent her numerous articles about it. Now we feed mainly wet food during the day, with some dry food overnight.

Here's an article from Catinfo why canned food is better than dry food

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

 

[Purr-fect]

Dry food is much more convenient to feed your cat than wet. But this isnt about convenience, if you love your cat you will make the effort. Its the right thing to do. I did not know how important wet food is to cats until our girl developed diabetes. ..which we likely caused following the vets advice of feeding hills prescription diet dry food.

 

[KittyCookie]

KittyCookie



Here's an article from Catinfo why canned food is better than dry food

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

Dry food is much more convenient to feed your cat than wet. But this isnt about convenience, if you love your cat you will make the effort. Its the right thing to do. I did not know how important wet food isView attachment 179915 to cats until our girl developed diabetes. ..which we likely caused following the vets advice of feeding hills perscription diet dry opp.

I completely agree with you guys!(: I just can't convince my mom that. Even after telling her about the health risks associated with only feeding dry. I want our cat eating what's best, but my mom won't allow it. "My home, my rules" she says.

 

[KittyCookie]

Tell your mom that if she thinks its too expensive to feed your cat wet food, wait till she gets the vet bills when your cat develops diabetes or other problems because she was eating steady dry food. This is what happened to our cat. We only fed her (expensive) dry food from the vet and im sure she died early because of it.

Posters here have said some of the fancy feast is good value in wet food and much cheaper than the premium wet brands.

At least make sure the dry food is grain free, or you will be risking health problems.....and costs.

Perhaps give your cat half wet and half dry. This is a reasonable compromise and long lerm will actually save money in decreased vet bills.

I will mention it to her, but I tried to discuss it with her this morning and she said not to discuss it again, or there will be consequences (aka I will be grounded). She is very stubborn because she's had cats her while whole life and she thinks her way is best, no matter what.

 

[Purr-fect]

Ahhhh... grounded....so what? Lol

You will have to stay inside with your kitty......

Work on your mum slowly.

Wet really is better.

 

[KittyCookie]

Could you maybe pull up some convincing/reliable articles online that will explain why a wet food diet is healthier than dry, for your mom to read? As others said, it's especially healthier for weight management. Maybe if she sees the info from another source, such as a veterinarian-written article, she will give it some more thought? Also, after that maybe you can ask her to compromise and do a partial wet/partial dry diet if she still isn't entirely convinced. My mom was the same way at first, thinking a dry only diet was perfectly fine, until i sent her numerous articles about it. Now we feed mainly wet food during the day, with some dry food overnight.

And as for the food you chose- the Purrfect Bistro weight control, it looks like a decent choice since its low in calories compared to most others but I personally prefer to avoid foods with cranberries in the ingredients because over time that has the potential to become harmful if they eat it too frequently it due to the benzoic acid in them. For next time, I suggest checking out the Merrick Limited Ingredient Diet Turkey flavor. It has a similar calorie amount as the other one and better ingredients overall.

I asked her and she's agreed to let me Chnage the dry food to that that you suggested, thank you!(: I will be returning the old kind today and getting the LID diet Turkey instead.

Ahhhh... grounded....so what? Lol

You will have to stay inside with your kitty......

Work on your mum slowly.

Wet really is better.

Very true!(; More time with kitty is always great! I'll continue trying to convince her. What are some good quality lowish costing wet food options that I can look into to show her as a comparision to dry only?

 

[maggiedemi]

Friskies is only about 50 cents for a big can here at Walmart. Would your mom at least let you get a few 50 cent cans and give her half a can once a day? That's only 25 cents a day!

 

[KittyCookie]

Friskies is only about 50 cents for a big can here at Walmart. Would your mom at least let you get a few 50 cent cans and give her half a can once a day? That's only 25 cents a day!

My mom said she doesn't want Cookie (our kitty) getting a taste for wet food because my mom thinks then the kitty won't eat any dry. Honestly, my mom is just stuck in her ways and needs to be more open to what's best for Cookie.

 

[maggiedemi]

Next time you are at Walmart together, show her the Friskies for 50 cents. Tell her one can would last two days. Then her other meal could be half a cup of dry food to graze on. It's really affordable to do it this way, half wet, half dry. At least one meal a day should be wet. Trust me, she will still graze on the dry food throughout the day if you leave it out.

 

[lalagimp]

I'm just going to answer the original question from experience. My boys are on raw. They used to be on kibble. I got them off prescription kibble and onto Nature's Variety Healthy Weight chicken. Tommy is supposed to be 13 lbs so he was getting 60 grams of the food per day. Stewart is supposed to be 12 lbs so he was getting 55 grams of the food per day. It was tons better for them than their original Hills Metabolic they were on for a few years.
Those are the two lower calorie foods I used. Metabolic was about 300 kcal per cup and I think NV was around 340 kcal per cup. Obviously they were allowed to eat more of the crappy one than moved to a more controlled amount on the over the counter.
Now they each get at least 5 oz of raw, but I'm working on a maintenance amount since they reached their goal. I got Tommy to lose 8 lbs on just kibble and Stew, 4lbs.

 

[tabbytom]

I completely agree with you guys! I just can't convince my mom that. Even after telling her about the health risks associated with only feeding dry. I want our cat eating what's best, but my mom won't allow it. "My home, my rules" she says.

Yes, agree with her. It's her home and her rules but just don't get into any arguments with her.

Show her the reasons why wet is better than dry and convince her about the consequences your kitty is going to face if she goes on dry.

In the meanwhile, make sure that your kitty has enough water fresh water intake each day.

 

[destinyz12]

KittyCookie do you live in the United States? Here, the Fancy Feast classic pates and the Sheba pates and cuts are relatively cheap and good quality for the price (they are grain-free with meat as # 1 ingredient). And definitely remind your mom and show proof in writing that an all dry diet can lead to diabetes and other health problems which will result in high vet bills and possibly compromise her lifespan. Here's another thought- do you know what she was eating before you adopted her? Chances are, if she was at a shelter or rescue that she was eating both wet and dry already. If your mom still doesn't budge, make sure to monitor her portions of dry food given. Definitely don't free-feed since she needs to lose weight. I would try limiting her daily intake to 1/2 a cup, split into 2 or 3 servings. That's about 180 calories a day on the new food. If she's still pretty active, maybe increase that amount slightly, to 200 calories a day.

 

[KittyCookie]

Next time you are at Walmart together, show her the Friskies for 50 cents. Tell her one can would last two days. Then her other meal could be half a cup of dry food to graze on. It's really affordable to do it this way, half wet, half dry. At least one meal a day should be wet. Trust me, she will still graze on the dry food throughout the day if you leave it out.

I'm just going to answer the original question from experience. My boys are on raw. They used to be on kibble. I got them off prescription kibble and onto Nature's Variety Healthy Weight chicken. Tommy is supposed to be 13 lbs so he was getting 60 grams of the food per day. Stewart is supposed to be 12 lbs so he was getting 55 grams of the food per day. It was tons better for them than their original Hills Metabolic they were on for a few years.
Those are the two lower calorie foods I used. Metabolic was about 300 kcal per cup and I think NV was around 340 kcal per cup. Obviously they were allowed to eat more of the crappy one than moved to a more controlled amount on the over the counter.
Now they each get at least 5 oz of raw, but I'm working on a maintenance amount since they reached their goal. I got Tommy to lose 8 lbs on just kibble and Stew, 4lbs.

Yes, agree with her. It's her home and her rules but just don't get into any arguments with her.

Show her the reasons why wet is better than dry and convince her about the consequences your kitty is going to face if she goes on dry.

In the meanwhile, make sure that your kitty has enough water fresh water intake each day.

KittyCookie do you live in the United States? Here, the Fancy Feast classic pates and the Sheba pates and cuts are relatively cheap and good quality for the price (they are grain-free with meat as # 1 ingredient). And definitely remind your mom and show proof in writing that an all dry diet can lead to diabetes and other health problems which will result in high vet bills and possibly compromise her lifespan. Here's another thought- do you know what she was eating before you adopted her? Chances are, if she was at a shelter or rescue that she was eating both wet and dry already. If your mom still doesn't budge, make sure to monitor her portions of dry food given. Definitely don't free-feed since she needs to lose weight. I would try limiting her daily intake to 1/2 a cup, split into 2 or 3 servings. That's about 180 calories a day on the new food. If she's still pretty active, maybe increase that amount slightly, to 200 calories a day.

I am located in the US (: We got her from Craigslist and her previous owner said she had fed her whatever grain free dry food was cheapest each time she went to the store, the previous owner have gave us the rest of Cookies food: Rachel Ray Nutrish. I don't if the know owner gave her any wet food because she never mentioned it. I went to Petco today and picked up the Merrick LID Turkey dry food as some cans of cat food (because I had coupons to try a few different cans for free) And my mom has refused to let me give the free cans to the cat. I talked with her again (very respectfully) about how wet food is better and she threatened to get rid of the cat and said that she doesn't want to have to deal with cleaning dishes or the smell of wet cat food left out. We adopted the cat together after the sudden passing of our previous kitty, Lacey.

 

[tabbytom]

In that case, deal with your mum respectfully and don't jeopardize the welfare of the cat. The cat must live with you all peacefully and happily. Don't have any conflicts in the house over a poor kitty. Think more for the kitty and I do hope that all of you have a happy time together.

If it's dry food, then so be it but just make sure your kitty gets to drink more water.

All the best