Why Such Little Taurine? And Question About Fat

stacydc83

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I've spent a lot of last night and this morning, researching dry cat food. My plan is to slowly start cutting back on dry, taking it away at night so Lily doesn't eat so much, and giving them wet food in the morning.
Anyway! I was looking through chewey last night, and thought I'd found a decent one, Diamond Cat weight management. The ingredients looked good, but when I was reading though the guaranteed analysis, there was only 0.1% taurine. Why would a CAT food have such little taurine? Looking at what they eat now, Crave & American Journey, Crave contains 0.16%. So that one is out, last thing I need to worry about now too is if they are getting enough taurine.
This morning, I found one on Petsmart.com, I think its new,is Authority Advanced Wellness weight loss. only has 7% fat. It has rice in it, before I knew Lily was so overweight, I tried to stay away from grains. It still looks a lot better than the Royal Canin Satiety support, which is byproducts, corn, corn gluten, yuck! Think I should give this a shot?
One last thing- I really worry if this is going to be detrimental to Zoe's weight. She does not need to lose an ounce. I wonder if its possible to leave out Crave/American Journey somewhere for her, that Lily won't get to, and she eats the lower fat one? Probably not.
 

LTS3

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I was looking through chewey last night, and thought I'd found a decent one, Diamond Cat weight management. The ingredients looked good, but when I was reading though the guaranteed analysis, there was only 0.1% taurine. Why would a CAT food have such little taurine? Looking at what they eat now, Crave & American Journey, Crave contains 0.16%.
No, it's a minimum of 0.1% taurine. The Chewy listing says " 0.1% min" Meaning the food has a minimum of 0.1% taurine but the actual amount may be more. You just don't know the exact amount unless you contact the manufacturer directly and ask for the "as fed values" and then calculate out the exact amount using one of the many calculators out there online.

Guaranteed analysis only tell you what the minimum or maximum amount of a particular vitamin or mineral there is in the food, not the exact amount.

As long as the food has an AAFCO statement indicating that the food is a complete balanced diet, you don't need to worry whether your cat isn't getting enough vitamins and minerals.

Weigh loss foods are useless to help cats lose weight or control appetites. They're so full of fillers and junks and carbs and are no more less in calories than regular foods.

Too many calories leads to weight gain. Just feed your cats the appropriate amount of calories for their body weight. The general rule is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily.
 

Willowy

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Any complete and balanced food will have enough taurine. And .1% is plenty anyway. Most companies add more taurine than necessary, because the excess is just excreted from the body, no problems with overdosing.

"Weight loss" kibbles usually don't work for cats. Cats need high protein and high fat, and those kibbles are usually high in carbs.

I'd recommend going to all wet food if possible. Often you don't even need to control their intake; wet food has so much moisture that a lot of cats self-regulate and reach a healthy weight with little effort. If that's not financially possible, choose a high protein, low carb kibble and feed a measured amount, in addition to wet food.
 

KarenKat

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I agree with the suggestions here: low fat foods are actually not great because cats do need a moderate amount of fat in their diet. I’ve heard people complain of very poor coat quality when feeding low fat foods.

We have had an overweight cat, and moving from a terrible kibble (Purina Indoor Cat Chow, mostly corn and very little meat) to a slightly better kibble did wonders. We even still free fed but he naturally lost weight and became more active even free-feeding. The % protein, fat and carbs was actually the same, but more of the protein in the other food came from meat and so he could get more energy from it.

Contrarily, Olive started free feeding this other kibble when we brought her in, and she chunked out to a lovely barrel shape. Even trying to limit the amount didn’t work, and we switched her to all wet food. This is what she needs to maintain her weight, even really low carb, low filler and high meat protein kibble like Dr Elsey’s made her get too fat. I also think the wet meals are more satisfying for them.
 

Beebster

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We have had an overweight cat, and moving from a terrible kibble (Purina Indoor Cat Chow, mostly corn and very little meat) to a slightly better kibble did wonders.
Which kibble did you switch to? I'm currently trying to look around for different ones that are mostly readily available and affordable once we get lower on our current bag of Purina Indoor Cat Chow. Although I've been trying to limit Fluffy's intake a little more on the kibble. It would be ideal to try getting her to eat 2 cans a day instead of the 1 split in half for breakfast and dinner, but cost definitely comes into play more for us as we have a kitten to feed as well.
 

KarenKat

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We ended up switching to Natural Balance Green Peas and Chicken - I’d call it an ok food. The carbs are still pretty high because of the peas, which are similar to corn in that cats have a harder time digesting it. But it definitely had more meat protein than the Cat Chow. And again, this worked for one cat but not the other cat to control weight. Wet food is still more effective, and there are better dry foods out there with less carbs - Tiki Cat, Young Again and Dr Elsey’s are a few.

Trin, our fat tabby, always was a bit of a binge eater - if something upset him he ran to the food bowl. After switching, he would still run to the bowl but he wouldn’t gorge himself. I think he was feeling more full and getting more energy.
 

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All cats are a little bit different. Many of the foods both canned and kibble simply do not have the taurine the cat needs, and the omega oils they need. Also you can investigate which cat foods have had many recalls. Recently my friend switched to Purina kibble (which is definitely less expensive than the one that he had been buying.) It really is not any easier to use kibble than canned, unless of course you have arthritis and have difficulty with a can opener. The time we spend caring for our lovely perfect creatures really is a privilege considering the love they give back to us every single moment. I never ever stop thinking about my cat and how lucky I am to have her!!! She is our baby, our friend, our companion, our family. The constant love and joy she readily shares is a precious gift!!! Long live all cats!!!
 
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