Best Foods For Weight Gain?

Rosepud

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Hello all, my cat is about 3lbs under weight at 11lbs, I've only had him for a week, and he's a but picky about food, I tried a kitten food wet (he only gets wet so please only suggest wet) the instinct, and he loves it, I know kitten food is supposed to help weight gain but am not sure if it's safe for continued use? He also likes the weruva slide n serves and we're going to try other instincts as well, just was wondering if you guys had any advice or knew if the kitten food is okay to use for extended use on a 1.5 year old giant breed cat(keeps growing until their 5) Thank you for any help you cam provide it's truly appreciated!
 

Rummy

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Kitten food is totally safe! The only thing in kitten food that's different from adult is the amount of calories, protein, and fat. As well as DHA which aids in development of the brain, and in adult cats it helps cognitive function in general.
I always recommend it when people come to me with a lactating or underweight cat.
 

daftcat75

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If he’s still growing, keep feeding him kitten food. Also look for high calorie pates. The big calorie number kg/kcal ME under the guaranteed analysis or feeding guidelines should be 1000 or higher. This means that there is at least 1 calorie per gram of food. So if you feed a 2.8 oz can or pouch, that’s at least 85 calories (because those are 85 g) and the 5.5 oz cans are 155 g or at least 155 calories if the kcal/kg is greater than 1000. For an active growing cat, you’ll need to feed a lot of calories. Your vet can help you determine this number for your cat.
 

daftcat75

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The greater than 1000 isn’t a rule. It’s shorthand I use to determine if it’s a low calorie or high calorie food or comparing two foods without considering the can or pouch size. It also makes for easy (lazy) math. For every 150 daily calories, you’ll need at least 1 5.5 oz can. More if that number is less than 1000. Less if that number is much greater. My Krista eats Rawz turkey which is 1280 kcal/kg or 201 calories for a 5.5 oz can. This is very helpful because I have to feed her a lot for her senior digestion while she won’t eat much at any given serving. So we get there in less food than if she was licking gravy. ;)
 

lutece

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Is he actually underweight based on his body condition? Does he feel thin and bony? Or do you mean that you think he should be larger because of his breed?
 
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Rosepud

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Is he actually underweight based on his body condition? Does he feel thin and bony? Or do you mean that you think he should be larger because of his breed?
His body condition is underweight the vet placed him between a 3 and 4, the vet believes he should gain 3lbs to be healthy and get to a 5 on the chart. He may need to gain more since they are supposed to be a stocky breed, I'm not really sure, but my goal is to just get him to healthy weight in the eyes of his vet :hyper:
 
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Rosepud

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They used this style of chart to place him, I realized there may be several styles of charts.
 
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Rosepud

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Okay so follow up question a rough estimate of his caloric intake in a day is between 500 and 600 calories is this normal or excessive? My last cat was overweight and on a strict diet of 136 calories a day so his huge caloric intake is shocking to me.
 

darg

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With kittens, feeding suggestions are often twice the calories per their body weight compared to an adult cat. I'm not familiar with the breed but if he is supposed to continue to grow for 5 years, the 500-600 calories doesn't seem excessive. Just checking a quick online calculator, for a kitten at 11 lbs it's showing 581 calories per day. That's for 11 lbs, not for weight gain. For 14 lbs. it shows 700 calories. Of course every cat is different but assuming that he is otherwise healthy, and assuming he should still be considered a kitten in terms of feeding because of his breed, it doesn't seem excessive.
 

lutece

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...just was wondering if you guys had any advice or knew if the kitten food is okay to use for extended use on a 1.5 year old giant breed cat (keeps growing until their 5)
Cats, regardless of breed, don't keep growing until age 5... "growing" is different from "putting on weight and muscle." Bone structure continues to grow until somewhere between one and two years of age (depending on the breed and the individual cat), when the growth plates close. After the growth plates close, all cats continue to fill out and mature in body and coat, and a slow-maturing cat may take up to 5 years for full maturity. It may seem as though they are continuing to "grow" between age 2 and age 5, but they are just filling out, putting on weight, muscle and coat.

"Giant breed" is a bit of a misnomer with cats, as cats don't really have "giant breeds" like dogs do. There is much more genetic variation between dog breeds than there is between cat breeds. We do have "large breeds" such as Siberian and Maine Coon, however these breeds haven't been selectively bred for very long, and aren't very different physiologically from other cats, other than having a larger average size.
 

mizzely

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You can also mix in kitten milk replacer or add freeze dried food topper onto the wet food for extra calories :)
 
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