Hi everyone,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here ;}
I have a 14-year-old cat, Wintressia, who is in good health. She has never had any serious illnesses or surgeries. She is a lifelong outdoor cat (my mother refused to have pets in the house) who has transitioned to being half-indoor, half-outdoor in the last two years.
I became obsessed with her food when my dog died of cancer, two years ago. I wanted to make sure my cat was on a grain-free, high-meat, very nutritious, etc. etc. food. I tried the gamut until I found a few that fitted both her tastes and my standards:
-Wellness canned
-Merrick Before Grain canned
-Ziwipeak canned
-Weruva canned
Over the course of the last year, I phased out the Wellness and Before Grain, because it just didn't smell right to me (it smelled too sweet/artificial), and my cat seemed to be preferring the Ziwipeak and the Weruva.
I thought things were rainbows and unicorns with the Weruva, because it looks fantastic and Win scarfs it as if it were ambrosia. But then I realized I should be looking at more than just "grain-free with meat as the first ingredient".
So, Win is around 8.5-9 lbs. By what seems to be fairly generally-accepted wisdom, she should be getting 20-30 calories of nutrition per pound per day, which comes to anywhere from 170-270 calories a day. Alternatively, the can of Weruva says a cat should be fed 1 ounce of canned food per lb. of body weight. (Win was almost 9 lbs on the last trip to the vet in February, so I'm going to err on the heavier side.)
Something else I read said that cats should be getting about 12.5 grams of protein a day, and 5.5 grams of fat.
Then I looked at a 3-ounce can of the Weruva. The "guaranteed analysis" is:
Crude Protein (min) 10%
Crude Fat (min) 1.4%
46 calories
But ... are those percentages how much of the canned food is protein? So, 10% of those 3 ounces is protein? If this is the case, that means my cat is getting 10% of 3 ounces - my math is terrible, but Google says that 10% of 3 ounces is 8.5 grams.
So then, per can, my cat is getting -
8.5 grams of protein
1.1 grams of fat
I feed her 3 cans a day, so:
9 ounces of food (total)
25.5 grams of protein
3.3 grams of fat
138 calories
By those calculations, she's not getting enough calories, but she's got the other requirements (protein and fat) met by a landslide. She isn't gaining OR losing weight, so I'm not concerned about that, and her appetite is fantastic (probably too fantastic, really.)
Am I correct on my conjectures about the content of the canned food/percentages? Should I be worried that she's low on calories?
I know I've been massively paranoid about Win's health since my dog died, so I don't know if these are needless fears. :/
Any help/advice is appreciated! Thank you :}
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here ;}
I have a 14-year-old cat, Wintressia, who is in good health. She has never had any serious illnesses or surgeries. She is a lifelong outdoor cat (my mother refused to have pets in the house) who has transitioned to being half-indoor, half-outdoor in the last two years.
I became obsessed with her food when my dog died of cancer, two years ago. I wanted to make sure my cat was on a grain-free, high-meat, very nutritious, etc. etc. food. I tried the gamut until I found a few that fitted both her tastes and my standards:
-Wellness canned
-Merrick Before Grain canned
-Ziwipeak canned
-Weruva canned
Over the course of the last year, I phased out the Wellness and Before Grain, because it just didn't smell right to me (it smelled too sweet/artificial), and my cat seemed to be preferring the Ziwipeak and the Weruva.
I thought things were rainbows and unicorns with the Weruva, because it looks fantastic and Win scarfs it as if it were ambrosia. But then I realized I should be looking at more than just "grain-free with meat as the first ingredient".
So, Win is around 8.5-9 lbs. By what seems to be fairly generally-accepted wisdom, she should be getting 20-30 calories of nutrition per pound per day, which comes to anywhere from 170-270 calories a day. Alternatively, the can of Weruva says a cat should be fed 1 ounce of canned food per lb. of body weight. (Win was almost 9 lbs on the last trip to the vet in February, so I'm going to err on the heavier side.)
Something else I read said that cats should be getting about 12.5 grams of protein a day, and 5.5 grams of fat.
Then I looked at a 3-ounce can of the Weruva. The "guaranteed analysis" is:
Crude Protein (min) 10%
Crude Fat (min) 1.4%
46 calories
But ... are those percentages how much of the canned food is protein? So, 10% of those 3 ounces is protein? If this is the case, that means my cat is getting 10% of 3 ounces - my math is terrible, but Google says that 10% of 3 ounces is 8.5 grams.
So then, per can, my cat is getting -
8.5 grams of protein
1.1 grams of fat
I feed her 3 cans a day, so:
9 ounces of food (total)
25.5 grams of protein
3.3 grams of fat
138 calories
By those calculations, she's not getting enough calories, but she's got the other requirements (protein and fat) met by a landslide. She isn't gaining OR losing weight, so I'm not concerned about that, and her appetite is fantastic (probably too fantastic, really.)
Am I correct on my conjectures about the content of the canned food/percentages? Should I be worried that she's low on calories?
I know I've been massively paranoid about Win's health since my dog died, so I don't know if these are needless fears. :/
Any help/advice is appreciated! Thank you :}