Just curious what those of you with Senior kitties are currently feeding your cats? Any particular reason(s) you chose the brand and style you did?
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What are you feeding your Senior cats?
- Thread starter starryeyedtiger
- Start Date
This won't be popular..but it works well so I'm going to continue. Lyra, now 18, has early crf (and has for over a year now). With calcitriol and this dry food, she's keeping her numbers low - Royal Canin Indoor Mature 27. I liked the phos/protein content, and she'll eat it (she's become miss picky with the various lower phos canned foods I try with her). For canned I vary it, using foods with under 1% phos content (using the food lists off of Tana's site).
Please ignore this part:
As my glorious cat of 11 years has a terminal disease (dialated heart disease), I decided to let her eat the stuff she wasnt allowed before, like Friskies, fancy feast, fish(weruva, tiki cat).
With her disease, eating is so important, after her heart attack she stopped eating, we had to force feed her. After third week we were ready to give up and she started eating!
The only other tip I can offer is reduce the calories a bit and maybe discontinue grain free dry (can't remember but I think the high protein is a risk).
My senior cat lives with another her age who only eats dry.
The food we changed to was Acana (Orijen with less protein), and Diamond/Costco/Chicken Soup for Cat lover soul. (best quality dry for lowest cost, those are made by Diamond food corp)
As my glorious cat of 11 years has a terminal disease (dialated heart disease), I decided to let her eat the stuff she wasnt allowed before, like Friskies, fancy feast, fish(weruva, tiki cat).
With her disease, eating is so important, after her heart attack she stopped eating, we had to force feed her. After third week we were ready to give up and she started eating!
The only other tip I can offer is reduce the calories a bit and maybe discontinue grain free dry (can't remember but I think the high protein is a risk).
My senior cat lives with another her age who only eats dry.
The food we changed to was Acana (Orijen with less protein), and Diamond/Costco/Chicken Soup for Cat lover soul. (best quality dry for lowest cost, those are made by Diamond food corp)
Aztec's diet consists of about 2/3 raw and 1/3 quality canned (not together in the same meal) of various brands and protein sources. He'll be turning 20 in May and has had diabetes for 10 yrs, CKD for 3. Because his serum phosphorus levels are normal, I don't tend to pay too much attention to the phosphorus levels in his food (within reason). To me, the most important factor is that he likes his food (thus the large variety), and that he eats wet food.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #5
Thank you for the replies everyone, they're really helpful! I forgot to mention in my post that my three seniors currently eat Authority Senior Cat Formula (dry) (Petsmart's store brand). I'm not happy with the ingredients (or the price for the ingredients they include), and was interested in switching mine to something better that won't break the bank. In the past I've tried them on a few higher-end formulas and they did not do well. Ideally, I'd like to feed from a company that has NEVER been associated with a recall (Authority had two canned foods recalled during the 2007 melamine fiasco, but not the dry formulas...still, I'd prefer a different brand.) Unfortunately, this seems to be the ONLY thing my three eat consistently. Should I just leave them be and give them what they want? I'm almost to that point, even though I know it's too grain heavy a formula and not the best ingredients. They last few times I've slowly transitioned them onto new foods, they have literally starved themselves and I've had to switch them back to Authority. My three just did not do well at all when I've tried them on grain-free diets in the past either. I'm just concerned because Authority is not the best nutritionally, and two of my three seniors are in CRF. I'd like them to be as happy and comfortable as possible, and diet plays a big role in that imo. I'd like to find a better dry formula that is affordable, and more nutritionally sound for them.
(My three dogs eat Fromm Four Star grain-free dry formulas, and I rotate through that line so they have a little variety. I've tried my cats on Fromm several times, and they just did not take to it as I would have liked. They also did not do well when I've rotated their food in the past either.)
Here are two links about what mine currently eat. I know it's not the best and would like some suggestions if you guys have any:
http://petfoodtalk.com/catfoodreviews/authority/
http://catfoodreviews.com/authority-senior-formula-dry-cat-food/
Any ideas or suggestions? (I've tried: Blue Buffalo, Acana, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, Diamond, TikiCat, Innova, Newman's Own, and a few others. (They used to eat Purina Indoor Formula before I knew how bad it was nutritionally for them.)
(My three dogs eat Fromm Four Star grain-free dry formulas, and I rotate through that line so they have a little variety. I've tried my cats on Fromm several times, and they just did not take to it as I would have liked. They also did not do well when I've rotated their food in the past either.)
Here are two links about what mine currently eat. I know it's not the best and would like some suggestions if you guys have any:
http://petfoodtalk.com/catfoodreviews/authority/
http://catfoodreviews.com/authority-senior-formula-dry-cat-food/
Any ideas or suggestions? (I've tried: Blue Buffalo, Acana, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, Diamond, TikiCat, Innova, Newman's Own, and a few others. (They used to eat Purina Indoor Formula before I knew how bad it was nutritionally for them.)
What about wet food? That would really be the best option health wise.
As to your fear of recalls, let it go.
If it wasn't for melamine, I wouldnt be here, so thank god for recalls, it made me a much better pet parent then I already was.
Here's how I see it, dry food seems to get the salmonela problem, this is something that cant be avoided and manfuctures do voluentary recalls because the FDA does not like humans getting sick.
As to wet food, well I finally admitted it this year, there is NO transparancy to the wet food business, none, zilch.
Almost no companies, aside from Evangers produces wet food in their own factory (I dont think even Diamond does).
So when you walk down that wet food aisle, you can be sure that probably 80% of canned is from Menu foods, the other 20% is from 5 other manufacturing groups.
And like I said for very senior or terminal cats, just give them what makes them smile
Lucky for dry feeders you guys have a huge selection!
If it wasn't for melamine, I wouldnt be here, so thank god for recalls, it made me a much better pet parent then I already was.
Here's how I see it, dry food seems to get the salmonela problem, this is something that cant be avoided and manfuctures do voluentary recalls because the FDA does not like humans getting sick.
As to wet food, well I finally admitted it this year, there is NO transparancy to the wet food business, none, zilch.
Almost no companies, aside from Evangers produces wet food in their own factory (I dont think even Diamond does).
So when you walk down that wet food aisle, you can be sure that probably 80% of canned is from Menu foods, the other 20% is from 5 other manufacturing groups.
And like I said for very senior or terminal cats, just give them what makes them smile
Lucky for dry feeders you guys have a huge selection!
i recently started to feed my 2 senior cats nature variety instinct wet and nature variety instinct chicken dry solid gold indigo moon dry and before grain dry <all 3 drys mixed together and both have been doing good on it
before the no grain diet witch i was feeding Blanket 15yrs old pro plan 11+ and iams+ and brandon 8yrs pro plan 7+ and iams 7+ the reason for the switch brandon and blanket was showing signs of allergys and i found out iams is no good so i looked for a better cat food started feeding before grain dry and innova wet with there old food they started to get better so i slowly got ride of the old and added the new they got bored with innova wet so i tried 15 brands of wet on them 2 and they liked the nature variety the most and still likes it then i started to mix nature variety instinct and solid gold indigo moon in ther before grain and they have not had a picky moment yet and they seem allot happier no more allergys as for as i can tell
before the no grain diet witch i was feeding Blanket 15yrs old pro plan 11+ and iams+ and brandon 8yrs pro plan 7+ and iams 7+ the reason for the switch brandon and blanket was showing signs of allergys and i found out iams is no good so i looked for a better cat food started feeding before grain dry and innova wet with there old food they started to get better so i slowly got ride of the old and added the new they got bored with innova wet so i tried 15 brands of wet on them 2 and they liked the nature variety the most and still likes it then i started to mix nature variety instinct and solid gold indigo moon in ther before grain and they have not had a picky moment yet and they seem allot happier no more allergys as for as i can tell
