Hey folks,
My allergy/seizure/overweight cat Toby has lost some weight and hasn't had a seizure in months (woohoo), BUT he is still licking his hair off. At this point we are still unsure as to whether or not it is a food allergy...as we can't avoid him getting into the other cats' food (let's just say that not all parties living in the house think that cats should be fed in meals and as a result, there is a food bowl left out in a room w/ closed door which invariably gets left open at least once a day... plus he ocassionally outwits even me when I am feeding him seperate from my kittens)... We have tried the NB duck/pea and currently the Cal. Natural sweet potato/herring.
So, at this point, although I still want to avoid what I think *could* be the food allergy issues (corn, chicken, turkey, any poultry for that matter). I have decided that the serious food trials won't begin until said third party (and their cat) move out at the end of summer. so I will just try to feed a variety of canned foods that don't contain those ingredients.
I want to switch him to canned because of the weight still being an issue and hopefully being able to feed him more volume (less whining) and less calories. He still needs to loose about 1.5 lbs and then I think I'd consider him at a good weight. Also, he recently had a UTI (bacterial as it went away with a course of antibiotics) but I don't think that feeding him his all dry allergy diet helped that situation much... More moisture is good in terms of UTIs so hopefully the canned will help that out.
What I currently have available (canned) to feed him on hand: NB vennison/green pea, NB duck/green pea (maybe avoid, not sure), EVO 95% Beef, EVO 95% chicken (really thinking about avoiding), California Natural chicken & rice (same as the chicken EVO). I can get most of the NB cans locally, although expensive at PETCO. I can also get authority brand cans and nutro cans at petsmart.
I'd appreciate any suggestions for cans that don't contain poultry and are low/no fish (again with the UTI). He does not really eat anything except the loaf style either, so that narrows the field even more.
One of my major concerns is getting him to eat enough wet food to get the calories he needs... Although he likes wet food well enough, he doesn't go crazy for it like the dry food...
For a calorie example, the 95% Beef EVO cans: Guarenteed analysis
Crude Protein (min) 9 %
Crude Fat (min) 9 %
Crude Fiber (max) 1 %
Moisture (max) 78 %
Ash (max) 1.43 %
Carbohydrates NFE (max) 0.64 %
Vitamin E (min) 100 IU/kg
Magnesium (max) 0.01 %
Calorie Content:
1344.1 kcal/kg
38 kcal/oz
The NB venison/green pea cans don't give a calorie content (I have emailed their customer service and requested the as fed info including caloric content), but here are the percentages:
protein 9%, fat6%, fiber 1%, moisture 78%, magnesium 0.025%, taurine 0.05%
The can recs 1 can (6oz) per 8lbs of body weight...So I assume I would feed 1.5 cans a day if I want Toby to weigh 12lbs...BUT he is very inactive, so he might gain weight on that much and I probably won't be able to get him to eat more than 1 can per day.
Any suggestions on brands/specific types of cans to feed would be great and on amount to feed. Thanks guys for putting up with all of my crazy food questions!
Art
My allergy/seizure/overweight cat Toby has lost some weight and hasn't had a seizure in months (woohoo), BUT he is still licking his hair off. At this point we are still unsure as to whether or not it is a food allergy...as we can't avoid him getting into the other cats' food (let's just say that not all parties living in the house think that cats should be fed in meals and as a result, there is a food bowl left out in a room w/ closed door which invariably gets left open at least once a day... plus he ocassionally outwits even me when I am feeding him seperate from my kittens)... We have tried the NB duck/pea and currently the Cal. Natural sweet potato/herring.
So, at this point, although I still want to avoid what I think *could* be the food allergy issues (corn, chicken, turkey, any poultry for that matter). I have decided that the serious food trials won't begin until said third party (and their cat) move out at the end of summer. so I will just try to feed a variety of canned foods that don't contain those ingredients.
I want to switch him to canned because of the weight still being an issue and hopefully being able to feed him more volume (less whining) and less calories. He still needs to loose about 1.5 lbs and then I think I'd consider him at a good weight. Also, he recently had a UTI (bacterial as it went away with a course of antibiotics) but I don't think that feeding him his all dry allergy diet helped that situation much... More moisture is good in terms of UTIs so hopefully the canned will help that out.
What I currently have available (canned) to feed him on hand: NB vennison/green pea, NB duck/green pea (maybe avoid, not sure), EVO 95% Beef, EVO 95% chicken (really thinking about avoiding), California Natural chicken & rice (same as the chicken EVO). I can get most of the NB cans locally, although expensive at PETCO. I can also get authority brand cans and nutro cans at petsmart.
I'd appreciate any suggestions for cans that don't contain poultry and are low/no fish (again with the UTI). He does not really eat anything except the loaf style either, so that narrows the field even more.
One of my major concerns is getting him to eat enough wet food to get the calories he needs... Although he likes wet food well enough, he doesn't go crazy for it like the dry food...
For a calorie example, the 95% Beef EVO cans: Guarenteed analysis
Crude Protein (min) 9 %
Crude Fat (min) 9 %
Crude Fiber (max) 1 %
Moisture (max) 78 %
Ash (max) 1.43 %
Carbohydrates NFE (max) 0.64 %
Vitamin E (min) 100 IU/kg
Magnesium (max) 0.01 %
Calorie Content:
1344.1 kcal/kg
38 kcal/oz
The NB venison/green pea cans don't give a calorie content (I have emailed their customer service and requested the as fed info including caloric content), but here are the percentages:
protein 9%, fat6%, fiber 1%, moisture 78%, magnesium 0.025%, taurine 0.05%
The can recs 1 can (6oz) per 8lbs of body weight...So I assume I would feed 1.5 cans a day if I want Toby to weigh 12lbs...BUT he is very inactive, so he might gain weight on that much and I probably won't be able to get him to eat more than 1 can per day.
Any suggestions on brands/specific types of cans to feed would be great and on amount to feed. Thanks guys for putting up with all of my crazy food questions!
Art
