Need catfood advice

saucy

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Hi all. I need some advice about catfood. My cats are currently on Solid Gold \tKatz-n-Flocken Cat Food. I used it initially to help them lose weight as both were definitely overweight. One of my cats has hyperthyroidism and is medicated. The issue is she is STILL losing weight. She started at about 12 lbs, was down to 8.4 lbs last year when she was diagnosed. Now she's down to 7.6 lbs. The other started around 13 lbs and is down to 8.4 lbs.

So now I'm worried about them losing TOO much weight. I need a food to help them keep the weight they're at (and possibly to help my kitty gain a little weight. I'd like her to get back up to around 8 lbs).

We aren't in a great area for good foods, but these are my best options. And to put it out there, they really won't regularly eat wet foods. They'll eat them every day for about a week then will stop. I think adding wet foods would be a good idea, but I'm not sure we can keep them eating those.

So here are the options:
Natural Balance
Wellness
Blue Buffalo
AvoDerm
Castor and Pollux
Wysong (as a lesser option, not as convenient for my mom)

I live in PA, and the cats live with my parents in WI... so I'm trying to do some research. I need something that's going to prevent them from losing weight anymore, but I'd prefer not to go to a lesser quality catfood and stuff them full of fillers.

Hope you guys and gals can help me out here! I'm definitely willing to try mixing wet and dry catfood again if we can find something they'll eat for more than a few days. Thanks!

Alison
 

kara_leigh

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Do you think they would eat the wet food better if you switched back and forth between a couple different brands every few days?
 
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saucy

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I tried getting every flavor of the Natural Balance because they had a bunch and they still only ate them for maybe 10 days. I know we can't go over completely to wet... the one cat is a completely weirdo about it. But I can definitely add it in. If it'll help them put on a little weight, I don't think my mom would be overly opposed to it.
 

greeneyes86

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I've had good luck so far with Wellness. It has the best ingredients & most protein compared to other foods. I just switched my very picky older cat from fancy feast (she'd been eating that her whole life, 13 years) to Wellness and she's done really well and seems to like it. It's also very smelly so it should attract even picky cats. I'm also concerned about her keeping weight on which is why we switched from FF (which is junk).
 
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saucy

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Jack, they're free fed... so no, we can't increase except to add wet food. Herein lies the issue.

I was thinking about the Wellness myself. I'll put that at the top of the list right now.
 

GoldyCat

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Originally Posted by Saucy

Jack, they're free fed... so no, we can't increase except to add wet food. Herein lies the issue.

I was thinking about the Wellness myself. I'll put that at the top of the list right now.
You might want to check out the difference between the regular Wellness and Wellness Core, which is grain-free.
 

sharky

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What did the vet say is the ideal wt for these two>>??

Have they checked to see if the meds need adjusting??

Solid Gold is VERY LOW in fat which cats need ... Off the top of my head I cant give you fat % of the others but SG is 12% ave cat food is 15-25%
 
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saucy

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The meds for the one are fine. Her thyroid was actually a little low at one point, so that shouldn't have had much to do with it. I'd like to do schedule meals, but people aren't home at normal times at that house. I'd really love to do that, but it just doesn't work for our situation and I don't understand how that would cause them to eat more.

I know my vet was worried that they had lost weight so fast, but I didn't ask her about their ideal weights. I can find that out though.

As for the Wellness, I don't know if the Core is available. I'll have my mom look when she goes, though. And I'll get them started on some extra wet food once a day to start.

Thanks for the advice thus far.
 
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