Suggestion for freeze dried raw for overweight cat

[cindycrna]

I have a 6 month old lean hellion and we are adopting a 2 year old who is very active. He could stand to lose a pound and for as active as he is, this probably needs to be nipped now.  The younger one is on Stella and Chewys duck duck goose and free choice Blue Wilderness. The older one's coat is kinda crappy probably secondary to his poor diet prior. He also loves the Stella and Chewy's but it is 30% fat. I like the convenience of freeze dried raw and wondered if there was lower fat brand.  He is 11 pounds and could stand to be 10 pounds.  Do you think 200 calories a day would do it? I could go canned like Natures Variety or Wellness I just want him to feel like he is getting enough food and not feel like he is on a diet. I would like to nix the dry food.



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Ideally no fish as they are male.

 

[cindycrna]

I could do real raw it's just not my first choice.  But Primal Rabbit is low fat and frozen raw. I am just hoping on a super high quality, high protein no fillers he will lose naturally and not feel hungry.

 

[Alejandra Rico]

I am not really an expert in this issue, but surely someone will soon come and give you a good answer.

 

[sophie1]

Don't be afraid of high fat foods.  Cats need that much fat in their diet.  It's a fallacy that low fat diets are the way to lose or maintain weight.  The fat satisfies hunger better and helps limit consumption. There are nutrients in fats that will help with coat quality, also.

By "free choice Blue Wilderness" you mean you leave dry food out for grazing?  Instead of just leaving it out, try putting it in a treat ball.  It'll double as entertainment which is always a good thing for a kitten or adolescent cat, and also slow down access.   Meanwhile, use the rehydrated freeze dried raw food to replace some of the dry.   Primal and Nature Variety make freeze dried raw foods for cats as well as S&C, if you want to try something different.  

These measures alone might be enough to normalize the 2 year old's weight.  If not, just reduce meal size slightly.  If the problem continues, you may need to take away the dry food completely.

 

[orange&white]

I like Sophie's ideas. 

You asked whether 200 calories per day would do it.  I have a 12.5 year old cat on a diet (and an active 6 month old), both on raw.

When my senior cat's skinny brother died in September, I took the kibble away and moved him to all canned.  I started with 230 calories per day for a month and he wasn't losing.  So I went to 215 for a month, then to 200 for a  month.  He started losing at 200 calories.  In January, I transitioned him to raw and had to sort of start over, since I don't know how many calories are in my homemade mixes...instead of calories, it's ounces per day now.  "200" is not a magic number -- your cat may need 180 or 250 depending on his metabolism.

I'd recommend weighing the cat and figuring out exactly how much food he is eating now so that you have a number of calories to start as your baseline.  (If you're free-feeding the dry, that won't be possible.)  Cut back calories (or ounces) by around 10-15% every 2-4 weeks until you start seeing results.

As for brands of freeze-dried, I'm not familiar, so I'm no help there.

 

[lisahe]

I agree with @sophie1 about fats and dry food, too.

As for freeze-dried raw food brands, we use Northwest Naturals, Feline Natural, and Primal, though I'm cutting the Primal when the last bag of pork is gone: their food is inconsistent and the cats haven't been happy with it lately. Unless your cat is picky about mixing, @CindyCRNA, you could certainly feed more than one kind of food, even in the same bowl. We do that all the time and the cats love it.

 

[lisamarie12]

I agree with @sophie1
about fats and dry food, too.

As for freeze-dried raw food brands, we use Northwest Naturals, Feline Natural, and Primal, though I'm cutting the Primal when the last bag of pork is gone: their food is inconsistent and the cats haven't been happy with it lately. Unless your cat is picky about mixing, @CindyCRNA
, you could certainly feed more than one kind of food, even in the same bowl. We do that all the time and the cats love it.

Lol, guess what? I've resumed Primal again, I've been using the FD venison, both cats love it and the MC may possibly be helping my FHV cat. No issues with inconsistency thus far. Btw, Primal is coming out with two new FD proteins for cats: duck and rabbit (but I know you don't feed rabbit).

 

[lisahe]

Lol, guess what? I've resumed Primal again, I've been using the FD venison, both cats love it and the MC may possibly be helping my FHV cat. No issues with inconsistency thus far. Btw, Primal is coming out with two new FD proteins for cats: duck and rabbit (but I know you don't feed rabbit).

Primal is certainly decent food but there was one bag of pork that both cats (even Edwina!) refused to eat and the most recent bag wasn't met with great enthusiasm, either. It has a slightly different smell from the usual bags, a bit less like meat (you know, that distinctive pork smell) and makes me wonder yet again if there's a bit too much clay in the batch.

But I'm glad your cats are loving the venison and the clay may be helping, that's very good!

Do you know what the ingredients are for the duck? I hope they're not using carrots! (If not, I might give them another chance... I'd like to feed more duck... Ireland really tends to get bored and picky about her food!)

 

[lisamarie12]

Primal is certainly decent food but there was one bag of pork that both cats (even Edwina!) refused to eat and the most recent bag wasn't met with great enthusiasm, either. It has a slightly different smell from the usual bags, a bit less like meat (you know, that distinctive pork smell) and makes me wonder yet again if there's a bit too much clay in the batch.

But I'm glad your cats are loving the venison and the clay may be helping, that's very good!

Do you know what the ingredients are for the duck? I hope they're not using carrots! (If not, I might give them another chance... I'd like to feed more duck... Ireland really tends to get bored and picky about her food!)

I haven't seen the ingredients yet, I only saw the two new proteins in our April 2017 distributor book (for the store where we order inventory). I hope they don't use carrots either, Mikey can't have carrots or peas, both cross react with various pollens he tested high positive for. When I find out, I'll let you know, it's not on the Primal site yet.

 

[lisahe]

I haven't seen the ingredients yet, I only saw the two new proteins in our April 2017 distributor book (for the store where we order inventory). I hope they don't use carrots either, Mikey can't have carrots or peas, both cross react with various pollens he tested high positive for. When I find out, I'll let you know, it's not on the Primal site yet.

Yes, thank you, LisaMarie12, I would love it if you could let me know the ingredients when you hear! These two may not have Mikey's allergies but they really do seem to do better with the fewest carbs and non-meat ingredients possible. Do you happen to know if the duck food will be HPP? I see that the duck dog food is so figure the cat food will be, too, but of course crazier things have happened in the pet food world.