Looking for some advice about food please

Whattado

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Hello everyone. I am new here and I would like to see if there is anyone that can help me a bit with my cat's diet. I have a kitty named Snowball that is exactly 14 pounds. She is very overweight and the vet said that she needs to be at around 10 pounds. I have had her on Hill's Science Diet Weight Management food for the past year. The package has directions for feeding based upon weight management and weight loss. I have been feeding her the amount for weight loss which is 2/3 cup of food a day. I would measure it and divide it up during the day. The vet said that I was feeding her way too much and that she should only eat 1/3 cup if she is going to eat dry food. The package says that feeding 1/3 cup would get the cat to a desired weight of 4 pounds! I tried taking her down gradually by just giving her 1/2 cup at first and she acts like she is starving. When I put the food down, she devours it immediately and then she will just sit and stare at her bowl all day.

I have tried wet food. I know it is the best for her but she won't eat it. I have tried every variety of Fancy Feast that is out there and she won't eat any of them (the vet said that we had to stick with the pate versions). She will eat the Sheba perfect portions but I would have to feed her 4 of them a day, making it a lot more costly for me and even though she likes them, she never eats the whole container. I have tried other brands in the past and failed with all of them as well. She will lick a bit around the edges and not eat the rest of it. I hate to just go off to work and not leave her any food as she really hasn't ate anything. I simply cannot keep buying cans and cans of wet food to try and then just toss in the trash with her not getting anything to eat.

She really needs to lose weight. I am just at a loss for what to do. Do I just keep giving her the wet food and have her not eat it and offer her nothing else? She literally "covers it up" like she is in the litterbox when I give it to her. Do I go down to 1/3 cup of food and just ignore her when she sits at the bowl and seems hungry? I thought about doing the Sheba food a couple of times a day and just giving her a little bit of dry food in between but the vet said to never mix the wet food with the dry food--she can only eat one or the other. I just don't know what to do. If anyone can offer any advice or help me in any way, then I would be so very grateful.
 

lisahe

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I thought about doing the Sheba food a couple of times a day and just giving her a little bit of dry food in between but the vet said to never mix the wet food with the dry food--she can only eat one or the other.
Although I think your vet is absolutely right about feeding only Fancy Feast pates (and no other FF foods), this "don't mix" advice sounds very odd to me. Feeding our previous cat both dry food and wet food is likely what kept her from becoming very overweight instead of just somewhat overweight.

Rather than just taking your cat (what's her name?) off the wet food all at once and not having her eat (that can be pretty dangerous), how about transitioning her to wet food by first feeding her some Sheba and some dry food each day. Sheba's pates should be particularly low-carb (lower than the "cuts," where the tapioca is further up in the ingredient list) and good for your purpose. For lots of kibble addict cats, it's very helpful to sprinkle some dry food or treats on the wet food. This is what we did when we took our cats off dry food, gradually cutting back the amount of dry food we fed them. Also: chicken Pure Bites treats, which are just freeze-dried chicken, are expensive by the bag but a little bit goes a long way with our cats.

Here are two articles on the site about switching cats from dry food to wet. A lots of the suggestions here are similar to what we did with our cats.

Kibble to new food
Changing from free-feeding dry food to feeding timed meals
 

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Personally I think your idea of the wet (Sheba mine eat this too along with dry) and dry is a good strategy. I don’t want to tell you to go against your vets recommendation but in my experience different vets give different advice about feeding. Every cat is different and you have to find something that works for yours. You could try it along with periodically weighing to see if you are getting results.
 

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In my experience (and I've had vets tell me the same thing), the recommended portions on dry cat/dog food bags tend to be very high. They might be good if you have a very active pet, but for most it's way too much. I'd consider lowering the dry portion and feeding FF pate (maybe try adding a small amount of chicken or fish or tuna water). Definitely do timed feedings, not open feeding. We feed at 6:30am (automatic feeder with ~1/3 cup of dry food) and 6:30pm (1/2 can of FF pate). If Snowball is on a diet, she probably will seem hungry at times, but that's the adjustment her system needs to make. Eventually it should pass. Good luck!
 
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Whattado

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Thank you everyone for your responses. Her name is Snowball (hence the beautiful, black color of her coat--lol). The Fancy Feast doesn't seem to be a huge hit but since she does like the Sheba (only the pate) and it is on the list that she gave me for foods that contain less than 10% carbs, I may try to do that one more often and reduce the dry food. The Sheba food is 1.32 oz. each. The vet said to feed her about 6 oz. of canned food a day. So, if I give her one container of the Sheba (a little less than the equivalent of one can of FF) food in the evening, would it be too much to give her 1/3 cup of dry food a day? Or should I do 2 containers of the Sheba and a smaller portion of dry? I don't want to feed her too much or feed her too little either. I know that she is going to have to have a reduction in the food that she eats but she is coming from eating 2/3 cup of dry food a day.

To me, it just seems like a better idea to start her on lowering the food gradually instead of just cutting her down all at once but maybe I am wrong. It seems like getting her used to eating a smaller amount and then taking it down later would be easier for her to get accustomed to so she doesn't spend her entire day staring at the bowl.

I also wanted to add that we just had comprehensive bloodwork done on her and everything is good with her and she is very healthy (besides being overweight). She does not have any issues and is not considered diabetic or pre-diabetic. I know that can become an issue later on if I don't help her get her weight under control, but it's not a situation where I HAVE to switch her food over immediately due to health issues.
 

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Also to add, you absolutely cannot go by feeding recommendations on the package or even ounces or cups. Calories are the only measurement that matters, and it's different for every food and flavor. Check the fine print on the package for calories per package. You have to figure out how many calories your cat needs to be eating a day before she starts to lose weight (although I would guess it would be around 200 calories, give or take).

Also, weight management foods are awful because they make your cat so hungry. They cut calories by adding a lot of low calorie fiber, but since cat's don't digest fiber it's not very satisfying to them and they get hungrier more quickly. Protein is more filling, so whatever you feed, try to pick something as high in protein as possible. Sheba is pretty good for that. There are higher protein dry foods if you absolutely have to feed dry, but wet foods are always going to be better at that because dry foods need carbs to bake into structurally sound kibble pieces. She will still be hungry on a diet because losing weight requires eating less than the body needs in calories, but it will not be as bad.

For weight loss, it's also best to go very gradually in cats because drastic weight loss causes fatty liver disease, which is very dangerous. The guideline is less than 2% of their body weight lost per week. So if she's at 14 pounds, the first week she shouldn't lose more than 4.5 ounces. Then if she's at 13 pounds, 12 ounces the next week, she shouldn't lose more than 4.4 ounces that week, etc. It's helpful to keep a chart for this, especially in the beginning when you're still trying to figure out how many calories it takes for her to start losing.

(I also agree it's absurd to say you can't mix dry and wet. I think the majority of cat owners do this to some degree!)
 

Sylvia Jones

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If your schedule allows it I would feed her smaller amounts more times throughout the day. That way even tho she is eating less overall she gets food more often. At least in the beginning while she adjusts it should help her not feel as hungry Let is know how it goes
 

lisahe

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To me, it just seems like a better idea to start her on lowering the food gradually instead of just cutting her down all at once but maybe I am wrong. It seems like getting her used to eating a smaller amount and then taking it down later would be easier for her to get accustomed to so she doesn't spend her entire day staring at the bowl.
Yes, in our experience, this is definitely the way to go! It's also great that you're already thinking in terms of carb numbers. That's so important.

I'm not sure how I missed her name in your first post, sorry! 🤦‍♀️

If your schedule allows it I would feed her smaller amounts more times throughout the day. That way even tho she is eating less overall she gets food more often. At least in the beginning while she adjusts it should help her not feel as hungry
Yes to this, too! Even if you feed one small meal when you get up and another only an hour or so later, when you leave for work, it's still better than two larger meals. It really can make a big difference in how Snowball perceives her food situation.
 

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Ditch the super high carb food for something with more meat protein, dr elsey, nature’s variety raw boost, orijen. And you will feed less and she will be more full. You can also do half her feedings as wet. My 9 lbs and 10 lbs cat each split a half of a 5.5 Oz can and split a 1/2 of NV raw boost and they maintain their weight quite well and don’t beg much if at all. The hills food is nothing but filler carbs which run through them fast and don’t leave them feeling satisfied. Sheba pates aren’t terrible either so I think switching to a higher quality food and doing half wet would be your best chance at her loosing weight.

And as other have said the feeding recommendations on bags can be pretty far off. I would do by calorie. The average indoor cat should only have 20 cals per ideal weight. So if you kitty should only be 10 lbs I would limit her to 200 for the whole day.
With a mix of NV and Sheba that would equate to 1/5 a cup of NV (at 500 cals a cup) and 2.5 servings up the Sheba a day (at 41 cals per portion for the chicken pate). You could also just sub some kibble if you didn’t want to use half a portion.

That way your cat will loose fat, build healthy muscles, and slowly loose weight. Might take awhile but you don’t want weight to drop too fast for cats.
 

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Hello everyone. I am new here and I would like to see if there is anyone that can help me a bit with my cat's diet. I have a kitty named Snowball that is exactly 14 pounds. She is very overweight and the vet said that she needs to be at around 10 pounds. I have had her on Hill's Science Diet Weight Management food for the past year. The package has directions for feeding based upon weight management and weight loss. I have been feeding her the amount for weight loss which is 2/3 cup of food a day. I would measure it and divide it up during the day. The vet said that I was feeding her way too much and that she should only eat 1/3 cup if she is going to eat dry food. The package says that feeding 1/3 cup would get the cat to a desired weight of 4 pounds! I tried taking her down gradually by just giving her 1/2 cup at first and she acts like she is starving. When I put the food down, she devours it immediately and then she will just sit and stare at her bowl all day.

I have tried wet food. I know it is the best for her but she won't eat it. I have tried every variety of Fancy Feast that is out there and she won't eat any of them (the vet said that we had to stick with the pate versions). She will eat the Sheba perfect portions but I would have to feed her 4 of them a day, making it a lot more costly for me and even though she likes them, she never eats the whole container. I have tried other brands in the past and failed with all of them as well. She will lick a bit around the edges and not eat the rest of it. I hate to just go off to work and not leave her any food as she really hasn't ate anything. I simply cannot keep buying cans and cans of wet food to try and then just toss in the trash with her not getting anything to eat.

She really needs to lose weight. I am just at a loss for what to do. Do I just keep giving her the wet food and have her not eat it and offer her nothing else? She literally "covers it up" like she is in the litterbox when I give it to her. Do I go down to 1/3 cup of food and just ignore her when she sits at the bowl and seems hungry? I thought about doing the Sheba food a couple of times a day and just giving her a little bit of dry food in between but the vet said to never mix the wet food with the dry food--she can only eat one or the other. I just don't know what to do. If anyone can offer any advice or help me in any way, then I would be so very grateful.
You can definitely feed both wet and dry. Honestly, if a vet told me that I couldn't, I'd be getting a new vet because that's ridiculous.

Have you tried a timed auto feeder? My cat, who I adopted at 2 years old, was at first very reluctant to eat wet food. But I had the same problem you did in that I didn't want her to starve all day. I started dividing her kibble into four portions that she got every six hours. Then I started giving her very small portions of wet food when I got up the morning, before leaving for the day, when I got home, and when I went to bed.

This went on for a few months. It wasn't easy and sometimes I felt like my life was revolving around feeding my cat. I also threw a lot of wet food away. But eventually it worked. As she grew more comfortable with wet food, I very gradually reduced her dry food. I think her smaller dry food portions in the auto feeder kept her from being stressed over not being fed, but also kept her hungry enough to start experimenting with eating more of her wet food. I still have to coax her to eat wet food sometimes, but now her diet is almost all wet food. Over the past month, I've reduced her to only 3 grams of kibble per day that I use as treats for things like brushing and nail trims. It's been a 2 year process to get her on mostly wet food, but I'm glad I went at that speed because I think it resulted in fewer regressions. I think the key to making changes such as reducing dry food and introducing wet foods is to go very, very slowly.

(Just FYI the petsafe 5 meal feeder has worked well for us)
 
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Whattado

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Has anyone used the Crave brand or Taste of the Wild brand of dry food? I just did a search on Amazon for high protein dry cat food and it was some of the higher rated ones. I really don't know anything about them.
 

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Has anyone used the Crave brand or Taste of the Wild brand of dry food? I just did a search on Amazon for high protein dry cat food and it was some of the higher rated ones. I really don't know anything about them.
Those are much better than your standard kibble, although they rely a lot on peas to inflate their protein counts, which admittedly is hard to avoid in dry food. I'd put Wellness Core in this category too, maybe a bit better.

A tier above and relying mostly on animal protein would be Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic, and Orijen.

(But of course eventually more wet food is the goal for multiple health reasons!)

Edit: also keep in mind that these high quality foods are high in calorie and you need to feed much less, which also is partly why they are more expensive per pound.
 
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Whattado

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Thank you for posting those links. Unfortunately, they are incredibly expensive. I now know that I need to put her on a higher quality food but the simple truth of the matter is that as a single mom with not the greatest income, spending $84.89 for a 12 pound bag of cat food in addition to 2-3 cans of wet food a day is just not doable for me. Plus, I would hate to spend that kind of money only to discover that she won't eat it.

The Wellness Core is a bit more doable in terms of cost (it's still over $40 but that is around what I am paying for the Hill's although it is a larger bag). I looked at the feeding recommendations for it and it said for a cat that is 10-15 pounds and doing combination feeding should get 1/2 cup of the dry food and one 3 oz. can of food a day. Does this still seem like too much? Would it be ok to feed two packages of the Sheba perfect portions (1.3 oz.) twice a day and reduce the amount of dry to 1/3 or 1/4?

The Sheba has 47 calories per container. The Wellness Core has 497 calories per cup so:

* 2 containers of Sheba per day = 94 calories
* 1/3 cup Wellness Core = 165 calories

This (assuming she finishes the wet food which she doesn't often do) totals 259 calories a day. Or, if I feed 1/4 cup of dry then the total calories is 218 calories).

Currently the food that she is eating is 300 calories a cup and she is eating 2/3 cup so she is getting around 200 calories right now. I guess I am just not understanding how increasing her calorie intake is going to help her reduce weight. She is going to get more calories by switching up her dry foods. Is it because the higher protein food helps burn calories more quickly?

I'm very sorry for all of my questions and my complete ignorance on the subject.
 

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Yes but I would get the Regular non indoor type.
Also I would buy from chewy or a pet stores online site. I’m not sure if amazon is an authorized retailer of NV it may be, but unless you can confirm I would steer clear of amazon when buying pet foods, they are known to not handle foods properly, store properly, and sell expired foods And even fake foods depending on the source.
 

cheesycats

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Thank you for posting those links. Unfortunately, they are incredibly expensive. I now know that I need to put her on a higher quality food but the simple truth of the matter is that as a single mom with not the greatest income, spending $84.89 for a 12 pound bag of cat food in addition to 2-3 cans of wet food a day is just not doable for me. Plus, I would hate to spend that kind of money only to discover that she won't eat it.

The Wellness Core is a bit more doable in terms of cost (it's still over $40 but that is around what I am paying for the Hill's although it is a larger bag). I looked at the feeding recommendations for it and it said for a cat that is 10-15 pounds and doing combination feeding should get 1/2 cup of the dry food and one 3 oz. can of food a day. Does this still seem like too much? Would it be ok to feed two packages of the Sheba perfect portions (1.3 oz.) twice a day and reduce the amount of dry to 1/3 or 1/4?

The Sheba has 47 calories per container. The Wellness Core has 497 calories per cup so:

* 2 containers of Sheba per day = 94 calories
* 1/3 cup Wellness Core = 165 calories

This (assuming she finishes the wet food which she doesn't often do) totals 259 calories a day. Or, if I feed 1/4 cup of dry then the total calories is 218 calories).

Currently the food that she is eating is 300 calories a cup and she is eating 2/3 cup so she is getting around 200 calories right now. I guess I am just not understanding how increasing her calorie intake is going to help her reduce weight. She is going to get more calories by switching up her dry foods. Is it because the higher protein food helps burn calories more quickly?

I'm very sorry for all of my questions and my complete ignorance on the subject.
You don’t want to increase calories. Stay at or under 200 calories. And the main point is making sure you’re feeding a quality food. Hills is not quality and it’s over priced for what it is and you’re using more of it than you would a meat based food. You want the food you feed to draw most of it’s calories from meat not plants. High protein is good but most brands use massive amounts of peas, potatoes, and other veggies to up the protein of the cheaper high protein foods.

Remember a 12 lbs bag would last you probably over two months for feeding a cat that only needs 200 calories a day. Especially if you’re also feeding the Sheba. A 10 lb bag of the nature’s variety lasts me a month for 2 cats at 1/2 cup a day split between the two.
So you don’t necessarily have to buy a 12 lbs bag. Get on petcos website or go to a store and just get a small bag to try. Petco will take back any food your cat doesn’t like. They carry NV and orijen, both high quality foods.
Chewys website will also refund for any food your cat doesn’t like And usually u can donate the left over food to a shelter. They carry dr elsey and NV.

Edit: also you shouldn’t be getting 2-3 cans a day. As I broke down for u in my first post if you’re feeding Sheba late you only need one of those 2 portioned containers a day if you are also feeding a high quality food.

So let’s break it down. Chewy has 24 cat case of Sheba pates for 14$, that would get u through most of the month on those. Then NV 5 lbs bag is 25$ and 40$ for the 10 lbs. the 10 lbs is more cost effective because it would probably last u 2 months in an air tight container so costing about 35$ a month. 40$ all together for Sheba and NV if picked the 5 lbs bag each month.
 
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molly92

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What you feed absolutely depends on your budget too, and I definitely don't think a food is "bad" because it isn't "perfect." Use what works best for you. Another tip, if you can get to an in-person pet store, ask about their return policy. You can often return food even if the bag's already been opened. And Chewy has had a pretty generous record of refunding your money if a cat doesn't like something in the past. They may still do that.

You're right, it is confusing that the higher calorie food is better for weight loss. I'll try to explain better. A cup of a weight loss food might have 300 calories but be full of carbs, whereas a cup of high protein food might have 500 calories. You wouldn't be feeding 1/3 of a cup of both though. 1/3 cup of the weight loss food (100 calories) would be the equivalent of 1/5 cup of the high protein food (also 100 calories). So the cat gets the same amount of calories even though the amount of kibble is smaller. And, even though they're eating the same number of calories, they stay fuller on the high protein one. That's what I mean by the higher calories being better. But most people think it terms of cups instead of calories, so the weight loss food companies focus on stretching those calories across large amounts of kibble.

I like your plan of 1/4 cup of Wellness a day, so 218 calories total. You can start a little higher, then taper down to that if you'd like (like you said, no rush here). Then you'd want to weigh her at least weekly to see if your diet is working, or if you need to decrease it more. My cat was 14 pounds at her heaviest, and I needed to get to 175-180 calories a day before she started losing weight. Now she's at 11.5 pounds, and my vet doesn't want her to lose any more because she's FIV positive, although she still looks like she could lose a little more and be in good shape.

A normal bathroom scale (hold her, then subtract your weight) will give you a good estimate of where her weight is, although to really know exactly, you can look into a baby scale or appropriate kitchen scale.
 
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molly92

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And one more thing I forgot to mention, when trying a new food, just to be on the safe side, it's best to mix it in with the old food for about a week or two. Some cat's are fine switching quickly, but in some cats, a sudden change can cause diarrhea.
 
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Whattado

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I like your plan of 1/4 cup of Wellness a day, so 218 calories total. You can start a little higher, then taper down to that if you'd like (like you said, no rush here). Then you'd want to weigh her at least weekly to see if your diet is working, or if you need to decrease it more. My cat was 14 pounds at her heaviest, and I needed to get to 175-180 calories a day before she started losing weight. Now she's at 11.5 pounds, and my vet doesn't want her to lose any more because she's FIV positive, although she still looks like she could lose a little more and be in good shape.
Thank you so much for all your help! I'm planning on going to Petsmart tomorrow on my lunch break to see what they have. They also have a return policy if the pet won't eat the food so that's a good thing. I just have one more question if you don't mind. Is it best to get the indoor version of the food, the regular version or the adult version? I notice that with the Wellness brand, the regular and the adult have around 497 calories while the indoor has 435 calories. Would it be best to go with the original since it has the highest protein value or the indoor since it has fewer calories but a lower protein value? (45% vs. 38%).

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond and try to assist me! I really appreciate it.
 
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