Cat food with smaller pellets?

Hello all-
My girlfriend and I adopted two stray kittens about a year ago, a brother and a sister. The male has issues regarding food, and the vet advised us to put him on a diet with diet cat food (he's twice the size of his sister).

His sister is almost the opposite: she's a very small cat who is easily distracted from her meals.

However, one thing i've noticed is, sometimes the two of them will attempt to switch and eat out of one another's bowls.

I am suspecting that, for the female cat, she likes the diet cat food more because the kernels are very small. Whereas her regular cat food has larger pellets, she seems to have to work very hard to bite the chunks into smaller bits before she will eat them.

I would just put her on the diet food, but she's already so small that I fear giving her food without enough fat content.

Right now they're both on Eukanuba (he's on weight control, she's on normal cat food).

Is there a comparable quality cat food that has smaller pellets?

Thank you in advance.

I have a bag of Go! food that has really small pellets. I noticed the other day that they were really quite tiny balls.

Wellness is very small size pellets.

Aww, thanks for rescuing the kittens and giving them a good home!

When you free-feed dry food to cats, they can become overweight very easily. I don't think diet food is the solution, rather it should just be less caloric intake. The cats are way too young to be eating a diet food.

Are you measuring how much they eat? That would be the first step in helping them maintain a healthy weight. Give them each a measured amount (the feeding guidelines on the bag should help you out, as I can't find calorie information for Eukanuba) twice a day. Feed them in separate rooms if they are on different food to ensure they aren't eating the other's food. For reference, my cats each get 1/2 cup of dry food a day if they aren't eating any wet food, split into 2 feedings (1/4 cup each feeding) or they get 1/4 dry + 3oz wet each day. Their dry food (Natural Balance Ultra) is higher in calories than most other dry foods. I had them on a different dry food and fed 1/3 cup each feeding to each cat.

Can you feed them a little wet food in addition to the dry? Wet food is important for cats since they don't have huge natural thirst drive. Most of their water intake comes from food and dry food obviously has very little water. You don't have to be as picky about ingredients in wet food since any wet food is better than no wet food at all. Wet food is much lower in calories than dry.

Eukanuba's dry cat food has a ton of corn in it, which is something they use in cat food to make it cheaper. It has no nutritional value to cats. The ingredients in Eukanuba are not great. For the same amount of money (or even less, as Eukanuba is way overpriced) you could be feeding a higher quality dry food for sure. Grocery store brands generally are poor in quality. You will find better options at independent pet stores, feed stores, or even PetSmart and PetCo.

As for smaller kibbles....the smallest I can think of are Royal Canin's Baby Cat but I wouldn't feed a kitten food to adult cats. Unless there is a tooth issue, I wonder if it's really even an issue of kibble size. It could be just one wanting what the other one has. My younger cat does this all the time with my older cat (wanting what is on the other cat's plate even if it's the exact same thing).

I hope that helps! Check out Wellness cat food (they sell it at Petco).
http://www.omhpet.com

Originally Posted by Sakura

Eukanuba's dry cat food has a ton of corn in it, which is something they use in cat food to make it cheaper. It has no nutritional value to cats. The ingredients in Eukanuba are not great.

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I disagree the corn in Iams/Eukanuba is at minimum because the % of protein on the package is high. Corn isn't high in protein at around 9%. Compare this with other products that use corn or other grains and get the same or less taurine even with the taurine they add. Same for total protein. Look at the products getting the same or less protein with gluten listed in the ingredients. Gluten is 60-70% Protein.

Meat is high in all the Iams/Eukanuba products, because they do not add Taurine or gluten to any of them, and still get a respectable .16% taurine in the Iams/Eukanuba products and 34-36% protein.

Taste of The Wild is a small kibble. Grain-free and may be lower carb which will help with weight. Mine get wet during the day and measured dry during the night hours.

This article by a veterinarian is helpful in understanding health issues and diet.
Half way down the page it talks about obesity. http://www.catinfo.org/

All mine like to eat from each others food bowls. I had to find a food that would suit the needs of all as it is hard to separate all 7 of mine to eat.

I think it might not be the kibble, but rather "he's eating it & I want it". You can put down 2 foods, & a cat is likely to want what the other one has.

Try Kumpi Kat it is a cat food that has really really tiny pellets!you can get it at www.KumpiKat.com Good luck,I hope you find a food your little girl likes to eat better!My Princess also preffers smaller pieces of food??and she is also a very petite tortie

Solid Gold Indigo Moon has really small pellets too.

Originally Posted by Ms.Blackie

Wellness is very small size pellets.

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They remind me of rabbit food. I would also entertain the idea that it is more about stolen food tasting better than a preference for smaller kibble.

Thank you all for your advice. I will follow up. Are any of the particular brands mentioned higher in meat content than others?

Also, as a way of thanks, I set up a small gallery of pictures of our kittens - it's a non-pay site and you don't have to be a member to view the pics. Our little grey tabby is named Muoi and our orange tabby is named Savannah.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...der_id=2039490

Oh, also, to answer the other questions - yes, we do measure out the amount of cat food per feeding and we try to separate them during feeding. The added difficulty is the apparent difference in preference between the two - the larger male eats all of his food during one sitting and looks for more, whereas the smaller female likes to take a few bites, run off to play or explore, then return to eat more later. Sometimes it takes her up to 45 minutes and three return trips for her to eat what her brother eats in 3 minutes.

The upside is, both cats like to drink water, so we don't worry so much about their water intake.

Fromm, the Four-Star line, is also really small. I believe it's comparable to Go Natural's kibbles. Although I don't really feed kibbles anymore, when I did, I found my dog and cat really flourished with Fromm.