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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / April 2007Any good dry diet foods for cats?
Are there any good dry diet foods out there? We have 3 cats, two of which are normal weight, but our cat Simon is quite large. He's 18 pounds, probably should be about 14 according to the vet. We had him on prescription bland diet for a while, then back to Purina One healthy weight. The vet said that should be fine, but I notice he's still very slowly gaining weight, about .8 of a pound since January. The difficulty is our two older cats just don't acclimate to a scheduled feeing, they're too used to having kibble to graze on. I'd like to get a kibble I can leave out that will keep Simon from gaining more, and maybe have him lose some of the 4-5 pounds he needs to lose. So I'm looking at Hill's prescription diet kibble and it's got corn meal, and I wonder if that's healthy for cats? Do any of you use it, and if so, how has it worked? Stacia IMHO, there are *no* good dry diet foods for cats. Years ago, I tried several, including Nutro Max, Science Diet (Lite and two prescription formulas), and Purina. Even with carefully measured portions and no treats, my cat gained a lot of weight. I put my cat on a high-quality canned diet, and he slowly lost the weight. Today, about three years later, he's maintained his weight. If you have questions, email me or visit my cat's weight-loss page: http://community-2.webtv.net/getcathelp/tucker/ Rene > IMHO, there are *no* good dry diet foods for cats. Years ago, I tried > several, including Nutro Max, Science Diet (Lite and two prescription [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Rene Hi Rene, I feed all of my cats on a dry diet which I leave out for the cats to graze @ all day & night, then supplement it with whiskers wet food twice a day. Is this a bad diet for them? Mine don't have any weight issues & the reason I use dry is because they prefer it & it also has the added bonus of firm stools which to me is an very important factor.. Should I be cutting down on the dry foods and building on the wet food instead? S;o) > > IMHO, there are *no* good dry diet foods for cats. Years ago, I tried > > several, including Nutro Max, Science Diet (Lite and two prescription [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > I feed all of my cats on a dry diet which I leave out for the cats to > graze @ all day & night, I use to do that; But one of the new Kittens is a Vacuum Cleaner! He just keeps on eating, so I have to pick up the food! then supplement it with whiskers wet food > twice a day. > Is this a bad diet for them? [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > instead? > S;o) Another important factor is that an overweight cat is also a health risk--such as pre diabetes. Here are some read-articles on feline nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org/ http://www.catnutrition.org/diabetes.html My cats have lost weight on a diet of good quality canned food (now I'm using Pet Promise but I was using Fancy Feast) and dry Purina OM (Overweight management) from the veterinarian. Dry food is primarily carbohydrates which are high calorie and not part of the cats' natural diet. You want to limit that if you can. I had my cats on Iams Weight Control (dry) for years, and they were still overweight. You might want to think about providing a mostly canned food diet at least for Simon and your other cats too if they will eat it, and then leave out the dry stuff for them to graze so they won't feel deprived, but they hopefully won't eat as much of it because they will mostly be filling up on the canned food (which is what you want), and hopefully Simon will lose weight. Best regards, ---Cindy S. > Are there any good dry diet foods out there? We have 3 cats, two of > which are normal weight, but our cat Simon is quite large. He's 18 [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Stacia >My cats have lost weight on a diet of good quality canned food (now I'm >using Pet Promise but I was using Fancy Feast) and dry Purina OM (Overweight >management) from the veterinarian. Dry food is primarily carbohydrates which >are high calorie and not part of the cats' natural diet. You want to limit >that if you can. So even in the really good dry foods there's a lot of grains and fillers? That sucks. I suppose they need it to hold it all together into kibbly bits. The vet is supposed to call me back about some diet food, so I'll ask about the wet and the dry both. Stacia >>My cats have lost weight on a diet of good quality canned food (now I'm >>using Pet Promise but I was using Fancy Feast) and dry Purina OM [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > The vet is supposed to call me back about some diet food, so I'll ask > about the wet and the dry both. ------- After looking through the website PawsforThought provided, the cat food that sounds the best to me by description is Wellness (canned) because the main ingredients are muscle protein (not byproducts) and very little carbohydrate (only 3% to 5%). I don't know if I will be able to convince all my kitties to eat it, and for me, it's kind of hard to feed only canned, as we have issues with Bullwinkle eating everyone else's food and the other cats back off (even though Bullwinkle is easily the most gentle and easygoing of all my kitties). This morning, after Bullwinkle had eaten his serving of canned food, I put him out of the room, set Alex (my CRF kitty who had seemed to reject the canned food entirely this morning) on the kitchen table and put another serviing of canned food in front of him. He ate with a healthy appetite. So, apparently, I will need to do this every day. My kitties still graze on the Purina OM (overweight management prescription food from the vet), but I am hoping to be able to cut back on this (if I can feel confident that they are all eating a sufficient amount of canned food - hopefully they will like the Wellness). If you are set on going for a dry food (hopefully in addition to and not in place of the canned), I think the Purina OM would be a good choice. It is relatively low carbohydrate as dry food goes, my cats have lost weight on it, and Alex (my formerly diabetic cat) continues to have normal blood glucoses without supplemental insulin. Good luck to you. Best regards, ---Cindy S. >food (hopefully in addition to and not in place of the canned), I think the >Purina OM would be a good choice. Which one is this? I found canned Purina OM online but not dry. I'm really in a bind with the cats. Simon needs to lose weight badly, but on the same token our oldest, Reggie, has huge food issues. He gets stressed and eats his fur, vomits, and his feline herpesvirus issues flare up when we don't have kibble for him to graze on. He also can't handle scheduled wet feedings, even when kibble is left out. We've tried several times over the years, and the schedule isn't the problem as much as it's Reggie's health. We could possibly put the dry out for everyone and feed Simon separately in another room. It's stressful but not unmanageable - we did it for our old cat Spam when he needed a CRT diet. I'm just afraid Simon's food issues (gobbling everything up, even eating things that aren't food) will mean he'd eat too much dry even after being fed the wet. Stacia >>food (hopefully in addition to and not in place of the canned), I think >>the >>Purina OM would be a good choice. > > Which one is this? I found canned Purina OM online but not dry. The OM stands for "Overweight management." It's a prescription cat food that you usually buy from a veterinarian. It's available in both dry and canned. If you want to try it, you may as well buy it from a veterinarian. I did some price comparisons (vet versus online) and the price is the same (except when you buy it online, you have to pay shipping costs as well). > I'm really in a bind with the cats. Simon needs to lose weight badly, > but on the same token our oldest, Reggie, has huge food issues. He gets > stressed and eats his fur, vomits, and his feline herpesvirus issues > flare up when we don't have kibble for him to graze on. All five of my cats (three of whom are young and healthy and not overweight) were eating Purina OM dry. My vet said that was fine. It is sometimes a problem to feed cats a prescription diet for a health condition they don't have. For example, the vet would have liked me to put Alex (my CRF kitty) on a special kidney diet, but since all my cats graze, she said it would not be a good idea for the household as a whole because kidney diet (low protein content) would be really bad for my young, healthy cats. From what I've read, it doesn't seem like there is any conclusive evidence that low protein "kidney diets" are actually good for cats with renal disease either, but that's a different issue. Ask you vet about Purina OM and see what he/she says. > He also can't > handle scheduled wet feedings, even when kibble is left out. We've > tried several times over the years, and the schedule isn't the problem > as much as it's Reggie's health. His health has to be the priority. In October, I lost a cat to CRF. For the last year of Molly's life, she basically lived on human tuna, which I supplemented with feline vitamins. Of course, a diet of human tuna was not a good diet for a cat (even with the added vitamins), but it was the only thing she would eat, and the first priority was ensuring she didn't starve to death. > We could possibly put the dry out for everyone and feed Simon > separately in another room. It's stressful but not unmanageable - we > did it for our old cat Spam when he needed a CRT diet. I'm just afraid > Simon's food issues (gobbling everything up, even eating things that > aren't food) will mean he'd eat too much dry even after being fed the > wet. Can you feed him the wet and then put out the dry after he's already eaten (so he won't be quite so ravenous)? Best regards, ---Cindy S. > So even in the really good dry foods there's a lot of grains and > fillers? That sucks. I suppose they need it to hold it all together > into kibbly bits. I like the Innova Evo dry food. No grains whatsoever, and my cats really like it. My older cat is slowly losing weight on it, too. I had planned to use this only as a transitional food while I switched my wet-food resistant boy over to wet, but the pet food scare set us back a bit on that plan.  SignatureLynne >> So even in the really good dry foods there's a lot of grains and >> fillers? That sucks. I suppose they need it to hold it all together [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > that > plan. -------- Just as a caveat, not as a criticism at all, I think it should be noted that Innova Evo is only for cats with normal kidney function. The website mentions that it has a high phosphorous content, so it's not a good choice for cats who are showing signs of CRF (chronic renal insufficiency). For anyone who doesn't know, a common sign of CRF is excessive thirst and urination (also signs of diabetes). Best regards, ---Cindy S. on Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:27:11 GMT, "cindys" <cstein1@rochester.rr.com> wrote: > Just as a caveat, not as a criticism at all, I think it should be > noted that Innova Evo is only for cats with normal kidney function. > The website mentions that it has a high phosphorous content, so it's > not a good choice for cats who are showing signs of CRF (chronic renal > insufficiency). For anyone who doesn't know, a common sign of CRF is > excessive thirst and urination (also signs of diabetes). I'm glad you pointed that out, because it hadn't even occured to me since both of mine are so young. My old guy, Calvin, was on a special kidney diet for a great many years before he left this earth. No way could he have eaten Evo and lived as long as he did and in such good health after he was diagosed with kidney disease. SignatureLynne > Are there any good dry diet foods out there? You've probably read about how canned food helped my cat lose weight. And, I have another cat that is so skinny, I leave her dry food out 24 hours. She hardly touches it, and neither does my formerly fat cat. Because they both love canned food so much better. It is meatier and satisfying. I think one reason cats get fat on dry is because they are like people who want a steak, but only have popcorn, so they eat wayyy too much popcorn trying to get satisfied. And popcorn may be lower in fat than steak, but it is starchy and enough of that will cause fat. They lower calories by lowering fat in the dry foods. Your cat gets less nutrition. I think you will get nowhere by free-feeding dry, diet or otherwise. Your cat will just eat more to make up for what she is missing. You *can* get all your cats used to schedule feedings of canned food only, it will just take some effort on your part. It is a lot less convenient for humans than dry. But this way, everyone will get better nutrition, and the cats can still be together during the day, instead of separated because some get dry and one cannot. One of the problems with a dry food diet is that it does not satisfy a cat, who is an obligate carnivore. The cat has to eat more of the food to satisfy its nutritional requirements. Many cats will gain on dry food, even the prescription ones (which just add more fiber). Cats need animal protein, not plant protein. Here's a great website for information on feeding a cat: http://www.catinfo.org/ > One of the problems with a dry food diet is that it does not satisfy a > cat, who is an obligate carnivore. The cat has to eat more of the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > http://www.catinfo.org/ This is a great web site! I refer to it often. > One of the problems with a dry food diet is that it does not satisfy a > cat, who is an obligate carnivore. The cat has to eat more of the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > http://www.catinfo.org/ -------- After reading this website, I am going to try to convert my cats completely over to Wellness (canned) food and minimize the OM dry food as much as possible. I am sick at the thought that I could have hastened/caused Molly (and now Alex) to develop CRF because I spent so many years feeding them Iams dry food. And then, there's Bullwinkle, my other senior kitty, who could be heading in the same direction. On the subject of diabetes, it's amazing how Alex's blood glucose levels have never been over 90 since I eliminated Iams and switched to canned food (even the crappy stuff) and OM (even the dry stuff). Thank you so much for providing this weblink. I just wish I had could have read it 15 years ago. FTR, I still think the Pet Promise canned food (which I am currently feeding) them is huge improvement over the Friskies, but I still think the Wellness is a lot better (no brown rice). BTW, does anyone know how much it costs (for a 5.5 can?) Best regards, ---Cindy S. > Thank you so much for providing this weblink. I just wish I had could have > read it 15 years ago. FTR, I still think the Pet Promise canned food (which [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Best regards, > ---Cindy S. Prices for Wellness vary, from $.95 to $1.24 per can. I found it best to go to the manufacturer's web site, use the store locator, and then call around. When you call, ask if a) they have a per-case discount (lots of places do, but they might not have it marked that way on the shelf) and b) if they have a punch-card or other discount card. I found a place that had *both*, and I saved quite a bit of money this way. The web site is: www.ohmpet.com >> Thank you so much for providing this weblink. I just wish I had could >> have [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > found a place that had *both*, and I saved quite a bit of money this > way. The web site is: www.ohmpet.com ---------- Thank you. I went to the site and was able to locate a couple of places in my city that sell Wellness. One of the places is a natural foods store. I would buy only a few cans at first to see if my cats will eat it. If they will, there are some places not too far from me that advertise "free shipping," but it's not really "free" if they're charging a higher price for the food itself in order to compensate. The Pet Promise pet food that I have been using actually seems to be a very good quality food. It contains muscle meat, no byproducts, no wheat gluten, no rendered meats or fats, no ingredients from animals that were factory farmed or fed antibiotics, no artificial colors or flavors. For the fish varieties, muscle proteins comprise three out of the first four ingredients (the fourth ingredient is broth). For the chicken variety, muscle meat compromise two of the first three ingredients (again, the third ingredient is broth). The other ingredients (besides the added vitamins) are carrots, potatoes, and brown rice (not necessarily in that order). My sole misgiving about Pet Promise is the brown rice ingredient. But it must not contain a whole lot of brown rice because it's relatively far down on the list (at least for the fish varieties). For the chicken variety, it's the fourth ingredient. What would be your opinion of this cat food? (compared to Wellness) http://www.petpromiseinc.com/products.htm Best regards, ---Cindy S. > The Pet Promise pet food that I have been using actually seems to be a very > good quality food. It contains muscle meat, no byproducts, no wheat gluten, [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > http://www.petpromiseinc.com/products.htm Hi Cindy, I tried to post earlier, but my message isn't appearing. Apologies if it appears twice. I hadn't heard of this brand before, but after reviewing the web site, it appears to be a good food. The only things that bother me are the brown rice and potato protein (what is it? A carbohydrate?). My other concern is that there is only one non-fish flavor of canned. I know some cats have allergies/problems with fish food. However, this food is far better than many brands and the company obviously is trying to make a healthy product. Personally, I feel Wellness is still a better-quality food, but if you're having troubles finding it or your cats don't like it, Pet Promise is a good option. > One of the problems with a dry food diet is that it does not satisfy a > cat, who is an obligate carnivore. The cat has to eat more of the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > http://www.catinfo.org/ I can offer anecdotal evidence that this is true. Years ago, I fed dry food -- we just didn't know better back then -- and I had trouble with cats being too fat. I still feed *some* dry--but the majority is wet food. All mine are an ideal weight, and really don't beg for food after they've been fed. Sherry My cats have lost weight on a diet of good quality canned food (now I'm using Pet Promise but I was using Fancy Feast) and dry Purina OM (Overweight management) from the veterinarian. Dry food is primarily carbohydrates which are high calorie and not part of the cats' natural diet. You want to limit that if you can. I had my cats on Iams Weight Control (dry) for years, and they were still overweight. You might want to think about providing a mostly canned food diet at least for Simon and your other cats too if they will eat it, and then leave out the dry stuff for them to graze so they won't feel deprived, but they hopefully won't eat as much of it because they will mostly be filling up on the canned food (which is what you want), and hopefully Simon will lose weight. Best regards, ---Cindy S. > Are there any good dry diet foods out there? We have 3 cats, two of > which are normal weight, but our cat Simon is quite large. He's 18 [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Stacia > Are there any good dry diet foods out there? We have 3 cats, two of >which are normal weight, but our cat Simon is quite large. He's 18 [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >meal, and I wonder if that's healthy for cats? Do any of you use it, >and if so, how has it worked? I had better luck with weight loss when I switched to a regular food with larger kibbles. Jay Jay wasinhaling the smaller kibbles, even the diet food. But the larger kibbles took longer to eat, so he slowed down and was satisfied better. He lost weight and then settled at a good weight. |
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