help me figure this cat food stuff out

[MunchingonHay]

Wendy, MVP, Simkie, I need some help.

I have been reviewing the cat food I am feeding my tubby boys and I need some help.

The boys:
Tristan is a DSH who is 13 and has spurts of sprints around the house, but pretty inactive. He weights about 12 lbs give or take and has always been big boned. He has been with me since he was a kitten.

GusGus is a siamese mix who is 6 and has no desire to play. He is a whopping 23ish pounds. He has lost some weight since I adopted him in May.

I was feeding Taste of the Wild dry and they each got the small 3oz can once a day.

I then dropped the dry completely and upped their wet to 5 oz of wet in the morning and 2.5oz in the evening.

I am currently feeding them Nutro Max only chicken formulas http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-food/max-cat-food/canned/adult-cat-chicken-and-liver-entree.aspx

Its 169 calories per 5oz can, if I am reading it correctly. So 7.5 oz a day totals 253.5 calories per day, If I am reading it correctly.

According to this chart that Simkie linked to me a few weeks ago I am grossly underfeeding the boys.

Cat Diet Calorie Requirements For Cats

Here is the other part of the problem. I just bought two cases of 5oz cans. Cost me $50.00! I need to find a cheaper way to feed them, but I want to feed them right.

Here is the other part of the problem. They are not finishing their food.

Are they eating enough?

Is raw the way to go? I have to check www.catinfo.org to get the information on how to do raw.

what do you say cat Cothers!

[Simkie]

Can you WEIGH them regularly? Twice a week? Daily might be a little frequent, but not a bad idea while you’re screwing around with their food. If you’re changing things up, keeping track of their weight is an AWESOME idea. It’s so much easier to see trending up or down if you’re weighing them–if you’re just going by feel, it’s tough to notice until something drastic has happened.

Two cases = 24 cans? For $50? About a buck a can? That’s about what you’re going to pay for something like Hound & Gatos, if you can get it in your area, and that will not have the oat and rice. If you can find their DOG cans, you can use those–they’re the big 13 oz cans–and that would be less $$. You DO need to add taurine there, but it’s cheap. EVO (sigh…P&G) also comes in BIG cans, and so does Before Grain (although check taurine on the BG–heard that the big dog cans are no longer complete for cats. They used to be.) Doesn’t Evangers also make a cat chicken in the big cans? Big cans really makes more sense for you, since you’ve got big kitties.

Something you can try if they’re not finishing is crating them in small dog crates. Even though I never saw any scuffles with my kitties, once I started crating them for meals, they started eating MUCH more consistently. Made me wonder if one or two of them was feeling a bit bullied. It’s just been really effective for me to use crates.

I don’t have very big kitties, so I don’t have any real advice on amounts. My average sized kitties all get one 5.5 oz can per day.

I’ve not gone the raw route, so no advice there, either, other than weighing and crating would probably not be a bad idea if you go down that path.

[MunchingonHay]

I separate them when I feed them. I only have 2 rooms; one gets the living room and the other gets the bedroom. I take the dog with me in the morning so they can each eat in peace.

They have 2+ hours to eat.

I will make Wii avatars for each of them and weigh them.

But should they be getting more food?

[Larksmom]

I will try to help if I can. I have two newish to me male cats. Gatsby is a melancholy Tuxedo, Bosco a playful tabby. I even started a thread way back when about feeding them, because I am unsure how much they need as opposed to want.
I was told here, or I read it in a link, that even canned Friskies was better than any dry.
I believe they both weigh around 11 pounds. I have been reluctantly been feeding canned Friskies during the day, one can each a day. And a small can of Fancy Feast at night. I am putting 4 Health dry food in a feeder for the walking stomach that is Bosco. Yesterday, I noticed that TC now has the 5 oz flat cans of 4 health, at 49 cents a can! I was thrilled. It is still in the trunk.
These two do a tag team on me about food though.
As I need to walk through the cat/laundry to go to the bathroom, whenever I pass thru, they follow, and sit silently in their room. Ever hopeful they are. They always want more, even if there is still food in their dish.
I wish you the best.

[Simkie]

@MunchingonHay;7055694

I separate them when I feed them. I only have 2 rooms; one gets the living room and the other gets the bedroom. I take the dog with me in the morning so they can each eat in peace.

They have 2+ hours to eat.

When I first transitioned my cats to MEALS instead of “here’s your food, you have until the next meal to eat it” it did take some time before they got that concept. If one just wasn’t getting enough, I’d offer lunch. Maybe that would help?

I will make Wii avatars for each of them and weigh them.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

But should they be getting more food?

Are they losing weight?

FWIW, my 7-9 lb cats get about 150 kcal/day, it looks like. They’re all in good flesh and one is a bit heavy. That calorie chart might be a good starting place, but as with all things like that, you gotta look at the animal in front of you.

[csaper58]

Jackson Galaxy had a big exercise wheel for a cat on his show that needed to loose weight. Do cats need a vitamin/mineral suppliment to balance the nutrition if they are not eating the recomended amounts of their food?

[MunchingonHay]

Csaper, I was reading Dr Peirson (who is a god when it comes to cat nutrition www.catinfo.org) and was reading on raw meals for the cats. It seems to come out at the same price once you add in the additional suppliments, ie. the taurine, calcium, etc.

You are right Simkie, I need to look at the cat in front of me. I just worry because when you are ‘in’ the situation you dont see things and need an ‘outside’ perspective. I guess if they wont getting enough food they would let me know.

I just wonder if their bodies go into starvation mode like ours do?

[DMK]

[QUOTE=Larksmom;7055900]
I will try to help if I can. I have two newish to me male cats. Gatsby is a melancholy Tuxedo, Bosco a playful tabby. I even started a thread way back when about feeding them, because I am unsure how much they need as opposed to want.
I was told here, or I read it in a link, that even canned Friskies was better than any dry.
I believe they both weigh around 11 pounds. I have been reluctantly been feeding canned Friskies during the day, one can each a day. And a small can of Fancy Feast at night. I am putting 4 Health dry food in a feeder for the walking stomach that is Bosco. Yesterday, I noticed that TC now has the 5 oz flat cans of 4 health, at 49 cents a can! I was thrilled. It is still in the trunk.
These two do a tag team on me about food though.
As I need to walk through the cat/laundry to go to the bathroom, whenever I pass thru, they follow, and sit silently in their room. Ever hopeful they are. They always want more, even if there is still food in their dish.
I wish you the best.[/QUOTE]

I think the caveat on friskies, etc. is to stick with the classic pate. All the shreds, chunks, fancy feast, etc. versions have more fillers, glutens, etc. Classic pate may be byproducts but its grain free except for rice which is at least farther down on the list.

I fed mine canned wellness core and dry TOTW for a long time, but just recently switched to mostly raw rabbit/chicken (decided to get my gold plated CCL card) when Maine coon #2 was added to the house a few months ago (3 cats). However, I am still mixing with a bit of dry and canned with the raw because I do want them to eat should I ever have to kennel them, just keeping my options open! Oh yes, and with 2 MCCs, we go through a fair amount of $6lb rabbit. And on that note, I figured if they were eating a half pound of raw a day, my pocketbook could take a break from $1.40/day wellness. Hello 1 month of friskies pate for $14 (we won’t talk about the Hare Today bill).

But geez, 1/2lb raw, 1 cup of dry and 5oz canned a day. They eat better than me. Nothing like ginormous cat and future ginormous cat to eat you out of house and home. Add to this, ginormous cat is definitely getting chunky, but Vivi, originally known as SBC (small black cat) and more recently known as BBC (bowling ball cat - black round and heavy), has slimmed back down to almost SBC again. And teeny tiny (hah!) Maine coon kitten is still in the rapid growing skelator picky eater phase, so I guess serious diets are on hold until he is older. There’s something to be said for locking a horse in the stall to eat!

[Larksmom]

Oh how I LOVE Maine Coons! That is what Muff and Malarkey, aka Lark were! ok I wish I hadn’t posted because they HATE the pate! They really really like the shreds and such as that. I want to feed them good stuff, but I am gonna, AT THIS TIME say no to raw.
I am barely cooking/fixing proper meals for myself, not going to cater to the gruesome twosome. Gatsby threw up daily for awhile, now he doesn’t. I think he has a bit of a delicate palate.
When I get myself in line with the planets and such, [major eye roll,] I will worry about all that. I am going to try them on the 4 health, since the dog food gets such high ratings.

[MunchingonHay]

Well, Gusgus jumped off the bed and strained himself and since he is a whooping 23lbs I took him in, just in case he popped or pulled something. Vet tech put him the scales and he is down to 18.3! He has lost 5 pounds in 2 months!

So I will keep doing what I am doing. I will check into 4Health, see what the calories are and compare ingredients.

ETA
Nevermind 4Health does not do a cat can food and their dog canned food is not complete enough for a cat.

[Larksmom]

They DO have cat food cans, cause I have them!

[MunchingonHay]

I will recheck the website all I saw was the dry.

[Wraper2]

I don’t see the wet food cat on the website, but it may be a new thing and just not in there yet.

I have a couple of 10% off coupons so I am going to stock up on it.

[DMK]

[QUOTE=Larksmom;7056827]
Oh how I LOVE Maine Coons! [/QUOTE]

Here’s a Maine Coon fix, Zifu and Zazu, aka “Me and Mini Me” = no way was it a plan to have them be so identically marked, I had been on the waiting list for a brown classic male for over a year and as luck would have it, “Mini Me”!

there was bonding early on…

Caution - desk operating software updates are critical. Current systems using DOS exceed capacity requirements!

On the pate (or other less gluten-y/grain type alternative), you can always try the slooooooow transition - just mix in a tsp for a week to 10 days and slowly add more. There’s always the truly stubborn cat, but most eventually come over (says the person who had to transition from dry to wet to raw, and dry to wet took almost a year before they didn’t look at the wet stuff like it was an insult to their very existence).

[Larksmom]

ok, ok, I am including a photo of the food!

This is a picture of the cat food! It was 49 cents a can! There is a poster here, I think hunter kid 90 who works at TC Maybe she knows something about it.
And DMK, your babies are sooooo cute! I will post piccies of Lark and Muff from the other computer. None on this one.

[wendy]

The real problem with indoor cats is they don’t get any exercise. Have you tried training the cat to walk on a leash?
put the food somewhere the cat has to work to get at it? letting the cat have food access for 2 hours is too much- 15 minutes is more reasonable and will encourage the cat to eat proper meals. I wouldn’t worry too much about “how much” you should feed- most pet food manufacturers recommend feeding at least double of the amount that most pets need. They want to sell more food, after all. I suggest reading the recommended amount and starting out by feeding half of that, and weigh/check the pet’s body condition weekly and adjust the food amount as needed to maintain a healthy body weight.
Fancy feast classic is the “cheap” acceptable cat food option. Read the labels and don’t feed anything with rice, glutens, etc.

[Feliz]

Oh wow DMK! Matching maine coons! I can’t wait to show my hubby that. We just got our first MCC 4wks ago. He’s gone through a skinny phase but is feeling good at the moment, though is on mostly dry food – will be transitioning more to wet over time.

[DMK]

yes, Zazu is 5 months old and in the full blown gangly teenager phase. All skinny body, long legs, huge ears and long tail. And 'tude. Definitely 'tude.

I don’t think he is going to be as large as Zifu (he’s about a pound less at the same age), but Zifu is pretty large even for a male MCC - not record breaking, but kind of like an 18 hand TB - he gets your attention.

And there is judgment. And the judgment is HARSH

What are the main ingredients in the 4health canned (since it isn’t on TSC’s website)?

[wendy]

4health dry cat food was recalled in March due to concerns about low thiamine. It’s made by Diamond.

The canned cat food is loaded with carbs- rice, potatoes, barley, peas. I wouldn’t feed it to a cat. Especially a cat that needs to lose weight.

[Larksmom]

ok, thanks Wendy.