kibble question

blueandfrodo

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hi everyone,

i have a problem. my kittie chubby, well, to be completely truthful, he is fat. he is on a strict diet with me measuring his food every day but he still seems to be gaining weight! i am feeding him orijen kibble and wellness canned. i would LOVE to do raw but i have tried many times and they will just not eat it. my problem is that orijen is quite high in calories and i would like to switch to a lower calorie food. that way he can still eat the same amount but will be getting less calories.

i have found these foods that i am interested in:
now! senior formula (frodo is 7 and blue is 11)
nature's variety prairie - any flavour
fromm chicken a la veg

i would like any opinions or any experiences with these foods. i would like to feed my kitties the best that i can afford. i know that all canned would be the best but i really cannot afford that. it would be 2 cans or so a day for both kitties and a can of wellness here is 1.59 so that adds up really fast, especially when i have a puppy and 2 ferrets to feed too!


i was also thinking if i soaked the kibble in warm water, to make it more like canned, would that be good? (i would not stop the canned, just do both wet) i was thinking that since canned makes them feel full faster from all the water maybe the soaked kibble would do the same? then he would eat less that way?? what do you think?
 

sharky

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DO NOT add water to kibble unless you are blendering it into canned food and it is immediately comsumed

canned food is 75-85% water or broth ... dry is 8-12 % ... so it would take alot water to make it = and bacteria blooms can occur

all the foods your looking at are good ...
 

jack31

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First question, why is it a concern that he be able to eat the same amount of food?

Obviously he's still eating too much--even if you're measuring. I would cut back some more if you cannot add more canned--ideally more canned is the best "diet" for an overweight cat, for any cat.

Is it possible that you cut back on the quality of the canned thus making it more affordable to feed more? Any wet is better than no wet. Maybe try something like Nutro for wet. It's not fabulous but it has no by products.

My cats maintain a healthy weight and to a lot of people it doesn't look like they are consuming a whole lot--but what matters is that they are satisfied and maintaining a healthy weight.

Leslie
 

sharky

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Is your vet closely monitoring wt >>?? if so did he/she tell you how much and to go very slow???

ave dry food a cup is about 350-400 calories .... ave 5.5 oz can ( weighs the same) is about 200 calories
 
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blueandfrodo

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my vet has actually told me how many calories frodo should have per day to lose the weight. we are working together to get it down. i know how many calories he should get, i divide that by how many are in a can/cup and how much he gets each day. orijen has 540 (something close to that, i can't find it online the moment) calories/cup! that is 100 more than most of those foods that i was looking at.

it is not important that frodo eats the same amount of food. i just really can't feed him less because he is begging for food.

i don't think that i could feed lesser quality in order to feed all wet. i just don't know, i want him to be healthy, and lesser quality foods may not be good for that, but if they help him lose weight then he will be healthier in that respect...i just don't know!
 

optionken

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Hi
You should not soak dry food in water. Please scroll down to the dry food section of this

http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

Wellness has 12.5 ounce cans that I think run around 2-2.25 dollars. That makes it about the same price as fancy feast or cheaper (about 50 cents for a 3 ounce can) and cheaper then the 6 ounce cans you are quoting. You can also get coupons from them every month if you call them every month. Hopefully eating just quality canned, they may even eat less
. FWIW my personal choice would be to feed a lesser quality wet food then any dry foods.
Hard times are are hard times and I totally understand if you cannot afford to do this. If you do the best you can then you are doing great
 
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blueandfrodo

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oh, i forgot to add to the last post, i will not soak the kibble. it was just a passing thought. i would not have done it if i had done some research. it was just a kind of off the top of my head thing that i added to the end of my last post. thank you though!

i am also coming to realize that pet food costs MUCH more here in canada, or at least in dartmouth, nova scotia, than it does in the states. i will have to look into the larger cans. if i could get away with 50 cents a day per cat then that would be great! that would be about $30 a month for the kitties (plus the litter - swheat scoop so that is PRICEY!) that would be do-able for sure... right now i get the cans 24 at a time so when i buy 10 cases i get the 11th for free (or buy 9 and get 10th for free).
 
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blueandfrodo

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so i checked at my store last night how much the canned food would be if i got the larger cans. the 12.5 oz cans of wellness are 2.59. i thought that the cans that i was feeding my kitties now were 3 oz since i didn't look and just thought that you guys were saying 3 oz so it must be the same
but no, they are getting 1/2 a 5.5 oz can now. that would mean they would need about 1/2 a 12.5 oz can each if they were to both get 200 calories a day. my vet said frodo would need 200-250 cal a day to lose weight and blue would need 220 cal a day to maintain her weight. a 5.5 oz can of wellness chicken or turkey are both around 200 each so it would have to be a large can a day between them...that is too much! i also checked the prices of the other food there, the nutro was only about 10 cents cheaper. the cheapest small cans there were 1.39, 20 cents less then the wellness...

argh! what to do??? i wish that i wasn't limited like this!

i think that if we are going to do kibble and canned we will do nature's variety prairie food.
 
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