UTI Certified Cat Food?

I've seen quite a few mentions on this forum of whether certain cat foods are UTI-certified. I was just wondering if there was a list of guidelines I could look at with maybe some things to look out for. Specific numbers and percentages of certain minerals would be great.

As a temporary substitute for our current dry food (Felidae), our vet has recommended a Urinary SO formula (Royal Canin Medi-Cal). Of course I'm not a big fan of the ingredients, but something in our girl's diet is going to have to change as she seems to be prone to these UTIs (3rd bout in the last 3 years). She and her brother currently get half of their food in various high quality wet varieties (which is very UTI-friendly, correct?), so the decision now is to look at some dry foods and choose one that will accommodate both. If it has to be one with lower-quality ingredients then so be it, but I'd like to make an informed decision.

Looking at the Urinary SO formula, it mentions that it "is moderately restricted in magnesium and phosphorus, with controlled levels of calcium and oxalate, and aids in the management of struvite and calcium oxalate crystals and stones". Is this common in UTI-friendly dry foods? Are there other things to look out for? Thanks.

There are, in my mind, 2 classes of Urinary Certified Foods. One is vet Rx diets - like Purina, Royal Canin, & Science Diet. Some cats simply *must* remain on these foods or they will have urinary issues.

The other is OTC Urinary Foods - like Purina ONE's urinary tract health formula or Purina Pro Plan' urinary tract health formula.

I have yet to find what I consider a high quality/premium food that is UTI certified/safe - Rx or otherwise.

UTI certified foods have lower/restricted levels of ash, magnesium, & phosphorus, I believe. There's more to it than that, but that's about the base of it.

Prescription foods may seem to be "low quality" but they are made the way they are for specific reasons. A cat with repeat UTIs should have a urine culture done to determine if crystals are forming and what kind.

Roayl Canin SO is a good food for FLUTD cats, though I prefer Hills Prescription c/d for my Mazy cat.

I have tried the non prescription foods that make claims about "healthy urinary tract formulas". Mazy's crystals always come back on anything but the Hills Prescription c/d. (I have not tried other prescription brands, because she is doing well on the c/d)

Cats who require prescription foods should not eat anything but the prescription food, as the food is designed to work best as the only source of food.

by the way, Mazy's prescription food is considerably LESS costly than the foods Tolly and Jennie eat.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

I have yet to find what I consider a high quality/premium food that is UTI certified/safe - Rx or otherwise.

Click to expand...

Are you just talking about dry food, or does that go for wet food too?

Originally Posted by white cat lover

UTI certified foods have lower/restricted levels of ash, magnesium, & phosphorus, I believe. There's more to it than that, but that's about the base of it.

Click to expand...

From what I can tell, the wet food I'm feeding right now has lower ash, magnesium, and phosphorus than the dry Urinary SO food.

Originally Posted by otto

Prescription foods may seem to be "low quality" but they are made the way they are for specific reasons. A cat with repeat UTIs should have a urine culture done to determine if crystals are forming and what kind.

Click to expand...

So far she has never been diagnosed with crystals, but she has only had her urine analyzed maybe twice in the past. Usually it's because when she's at the vet her bladder is empty

Originally Posted by otto

Cats who require prescription foods should not eat anything but the prescription food, as the food is designed to work best as the only source of food.

Click to expand...

So you wouldn't recommend an Rx dry food coupled with a high quality wet food? Keep in mind that we do have 2 cats, and only one has issues.

Discuss this with your vet...

OTC Uti foods are meant more for prevention than for fixing an issue... They are for healthy cats who may have MILD issues... Rxs are for the ones with REAL big issues ...

wet food OTC is relatively easy to find meeting basic uti friendly %s..

Remember wet to dry is hard to compare..

a wet food with mag of .025 yield a dry matter of 1% ... a dry food the is uti "friendly is under.085%

Personally if you are needing an Rx I would feed separately as I have researched too much and do not IMHO find an RX safe for a healthy cat..

Many Uti OTC foods NO longer claim it on the bag since too many owners tried to not feed RX foods to cats needing them

Originally Posted by wmarcello

So you wouldn't recommend an Rx dry food coupled with a high quality wet food? Keep in mind that we do have 2 cats, and only one has issues.

Click to expand...

No, but I am not a vet, I speak only from my own personal experience and, secondly, what my vet recommends

Rx foods are designed to work, and do work for most cases, and to work properly, need to be the only food. Adding in a non rx food decreases the effectiveness and benefits of the Prescription food. I know because I have tried.

Royal Canin SO comes in canned, too.

I have three cats, only one is on a Prescription Diet. Mazy gets a urine check annually (in house urinalysis AND lab culture, which is more expensive and takes a few days), and as long as I keep her on the c/d, all is well for her.

If I try to vary her diet, the crystals come back, and last time I tried, she presented not only with struvite, but phosphorous too. So that truly will be the LAST time I try messing with Mazy's prescription diet.

All three of my cats are on different diets. Mazy is the only one on prescription, but Jennie needs grain free, and Tolly needs grains. It is not a problem for me to feed three different diets. I do not free feed.

Originally Posted by sharky

Discuss this with your vet...

OTC Uti foods are meant more for prevention than for fixing an issue... They are for healthy cats who may have MILD issues... Rxs are for the ones with REAL big issues ...

Click to expand...

The thing is I'm not so sure this isn't just a mild issue at the moment. I don't think our vet is too convinced either as he only suggested the Urinary SO formula for the short term. Long term he actually mentioned a Weight Control formula which truthfully makes very little sense to me. The girl is only 7.9 lbs, and the brother is under 9 lbs... both healthy weights, and both are very healthy otherwise. If anything I figured he was going to recommend their staple Preventive formula.

Anyways, for dry food we've been feeding Felidae for a couple years now. I believe she's had one UTI while being fed this in the past, and after it passed, she went on to eat the same food for over a year without problems again. It's not like her symptoms immediately return after finishing her antibiotics.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if it's stress-related? We were just building a deck the past couple weekends... lots of power tools and unfamilar loud noises. I'll have to match the dates to the last time she had the issue, but for some reason I'm thinking it was around the time we had some foster kittens roaming the house. Hmm... something to look into I guess.

Originally Posted by sharky

wet food OTC is relatively easy to find meeting basic uti friendly %s..

Click to expand...

Are there specific %s I should be looking for? Magnesium? Ash? Calcium?

Originally Posted by sharky

Remember wet to dry is hard to compare..

a wet food with mag of .025 yield a dry matter of 1% ... a dry food the is uti "friendly is under.085%

Click to expand...

I've been trying to compare food ingredients (in both wet and dry) as a function of how many grams per 100 kCal. That should make the numbers comparable, correct?

For example, the dry Royal Canin Urinary SO formula lists Magnesium at 20 mg and Calcium at 230 mg per 100 kCal.

My common sense is telling me a comparable wet food would be the regular Felidae chicken + rice formula which lists Magnesium at 20 mg and Calcium at 250 mg per 100 kCal.

Since a cat's feeding guidelines are roughly based on a certain number of calories per day for his/her weight, the 2 foods above seem comparable to me (when only looking at the Magnesium and Calcium levels of course). Is my logic flawed?

I've got to say as well, one thing that concerns me about the Urinary SO formula is its elevated sodium content. The reasoning is that it makes the cat more thirsty and hence is encouraged to drink water. It just seems awfully high to me.

Some comparison (all values per 100 kCal):

RC Urinary SO: 350 mg
Felidae Chicken + Rice: 100 mg
Wellness Complete Health: 58 mg
Innova Cat + Kitten: 67 mg
Orijen Cat + Kitten: 92 mg

Originally Posted by otto

I have three cats, only one is on a Prescription Diet. Mazy gets a urine check annually (in house urinalysis AND lab culture, which is more expensive and takes a few days), and as long as I keep her on the c/d, all is well for her.

If I try to vary her diet, the crystals come back, and last time I tried, she presented not only with struvite, but phosphorous too. So that truly will be the LAST time I try messing with Mazy's prescription diet.

All three of my cats are on different diets. Mazy is the only one on prescription, but Jennie needs grain free, and Tolly needs grains. It is not a problem for me to feed three different diets. I do not free feed.

Click to expand...

So does Mazy get c/d dry, canned, or both? What was her diet before that kept causing the crystals to come back?

A cat can still have FLUTD on these prescription foods - they just may be prone to crystals. However, Rx foods are made for a particular reason - I know the dilemma as I'm going through the same thing but my cat has CRF. Out of all the Rx foods, I think Hill's is probably the best. I just bought a bunch of different foods for my CRF cat as he gets sick of foods quickly. I even bought IAMS Multi-stage Renal formula which I really didn't want to buy because of the ingredients. But it's a matter of whether your cat will suffer or whether he'll live comfortably.

I also think it's important to feed wet food. I know there are cats who refuse to eat wet food but you can try to transition them by mixing it with kibble and then gradually reducing the amount of kibble.

Ash, magnesium and phosphorus are the main culprits in FLUTD. If your cat has struvite crystals, then it was probably brought on by a UTI. A UTI causes the crystals to get sticky and stick to the bladder wall, thereby causing inflammation of the bladder wall. The crystals also stick together which may create stones. Once the infection is taken care of, usually the struvite crystals are not an issue. If the crystals are calcium oxylate, these are more difficult to treat and surgery may be required. These are treated iniially by foods that make the urine more alkaline.

Get a fountain for your cat to encourage him to drink. There is also a product that you can put on your cat's paw or have him lick it off of your finger to encourage urinary tract health. I think it's by Nutrivet - called Uri-Ease Paw Gel. They also carry soft chews called Uri-Ease Tuna flavour. Just google Nutri-vet and click on Condition Specific for cats. I use this with my cats as I'm paranoid about them getting blocked.

Originally Posted by wmarcello

So does Mazy get c/d dry, canned, or both? What was her diet before that kept causing the crystals to come back?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately Mazy doesn't care for the canned c/d, after it has been opened. I would LOVE to have her on the canned and if they sold 3 oz cans I would be happy to feed her with it. But once the can has been opened and refrigerated, even warmed up, she will not touch it. It's strange, because Mazy is not normally a finicky cat.

When her first UTI presented it was shortly after I adopted her from the shelter. She was being transitioned from the food the shelter sent home to an Eagle Pack kibble, and once I got her on that, the plan was to transition her to canned food.

After the first UTI, she was all the way on to the Eagle Pack, and then she got another. Both times, her symptoms presented on a weekend, and so she saw an on call vet, not my regular vet. The on call vet simply put her on antibiotics both times. She was on the Eagle Pack then. I made an appointment to see her regular vet and asked for a culture to be done which showed struvite crystals. That's when we started the c/d. She was about 2 years old then.

After several years on the c/d kibble, I still really really wanted to get her on a wet diet.

Wellness was making BIG claims (since removed from their website I notice) that THEIR food promoted healthy urine pH (6-6.5) and prevented crystal formation.

Last summer, against my vet's better judgment I put her on the Wellness. Mazy loved the Wellness and I was thrilled to have her on wet food, and her coat was so nice, but after two months I had her urine checked. Her pH had gone up to 7.5 and her urine was full of both struvite and phosphorous.

So now she eats the c/d kibble and her cosequin every day, and every other day she gets a fish oil supplement which keeps her coat nice.

Incidentally my Tolly was eating Wellness then too, and even though he doesn't have urinary tract or bladder problems, at his six month check up since he had a full bladder anyway, I asked the vet to do a urine check. HIS pH was also 7.5. He is no longer eating Wellness either. He's done much better on the Innova flex stew canned chicken and brown rice, any way.

Jennie is the only cat eating Wellness now. And that is only because, Wellness grain free canned chicken is the only food that keeps her from having constipation problems. Any time I try to vary her diet at ALL the constipation comes back.

I've been typing for so long I have forgotten to point of this post.

Originally Posted by otto

Wellness was making BIG claims (since removed from their website I notice) that THEIR food promoted healthy urine pH (6-6.5) and prevented crystal formation.

Last summer, against my vet's better judgment I put her on the Wellness. Mazy loved the Wellness and I was thrilled to have her on wet food, and her coat was so nice, but after two months I had her urine checked. Her pH had gone up to 7.5 and her urine was full of both struvite and phosphorous.

Incidentally my Tolly was eating Wellness then too, and even though he doesn't have urinary tract or bladder problems, at his six month check up since he had a full bladder anyway, I asked the vet to do a urine check. HIS pH was also 7.5.

Click to expand...

Wow... so on a wet-only diet of Wellness (grain-free?), 2 of your cats had a urine pH of 7.5?

Originally Posted by wmarcello

Wow... so on a wet-only diet of Wellness (grain-free?), 2 of your cats had a urine pH of 7.5?

Click to expand...

Yes.

And yes, they were the grain free pouches, because Tolly would not eat the canned (he likes chunks and gravy styles)

So..no more Wellness pouches for anyone. Ever.

Probably I will have Jennie's urine checked, just a urinalysis at her six month check up in October, if she happens to have a full bladder that day, just to see how she is doing on the canned grain free chicken.

She's had one UTI (bacterial) shortly after I rescued her, and that was when she was eating the Eagle Pack kibble. Has never had a repeat, and Tolly has never had a UTI of any sort.

Originally Posted by otto

Yes.

And yes, they were the grain free pouches, because Tolly would not eat the canned (he likes chunks and gravy styles)

So..no more Wellness pouches for anyone. Ever.

Click to expand...

Hmm... well maybe next time the cats get their check-up I'll inquire about a urinalysis. Right now they get Wellness wet pâtÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] (various flavors), but they also get various flavors of Evolve, Merrick, Natural Balance, Felidae, Chicken Soup, Go!, Innova, and Eagle Pack pâtÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] (and perhaps others... they're not picky!). I'd be interested to know their pH.

I guess right now I'm just concerned with overreacting. The cats right now are a good weight, active, have nice coats, love their food, and are overall very healthy. The vets usually comment on how healthy they seem. I don't want to completely change their diet because of the odd UTI that may not even be diet related. Ideally I may cut fish out of their wet food rotation and switch their dry from Felidae to another high-quality dry like Innova. Looking at the numbers, Felidae does seem to have a fairly high % of Magnesium, Phosphorus, Calcium, and Ash. Innova's %'s seem to be closer to the Urinary SO formula. Measuring out their dry food a bit better may help too. The girl prefers the dry food, so if I'm putting too much kibble in it probably means she's getting less wet food.

Lots to consider. Like I said though, my main fear is overreacting at this point.

Oh, and as for the numbers, this is what I've found/calculated, if it matters at all. All numbers are per 100 kCal of kibble.

RC Urinary SO
Magnesium: 20 mg
Phosphorus: 210 mg
Calcium: 230 mg
Ash: ???

Felidae Chicken + Rice
Magnesium: 29 mg
Phosphorus: 450 mg
Calcium: 580 mg
Ash: 2.11 g

Innova Cat + Kitten
Magnesium: 22 mg
Phosphorus: 212 mg
Calcium: 254 mg
Ash: 1.47 g

How did you calculate the mg? I only see percentages on labels?

You have to watch for high phosphorous and calcium too.

Here is the c/d in dry matter percentages

Protein\t34.6
Fat\t16.2
Carbohydrate (NFE)\t43.3
Crude Fiber\t0.5
\t
Calcium\t0.76
Phosphorus\t0.65
Sodium\t 0.33
Potassium\t0.80
Magnesium\t0.061
Taurine\t0.26

I do not know how to convert that to grams or mgs, but I'm pretty sure the numbers are a bit lower than RC, only because I looked into RC a few years ago for Mazy and decided against it because of the higher numbers, and higher fat and caloric content

Food seems to be an ever fascinating subject isn't it? I would love to be able to feed my cats a variety of foods and flavors, and in the past, with other cats, did so. But this current gang all have special needs, and so I cater.

You should most definitely cut out all fish flavors, if you have a cat prone to UTIs, or any male cats. But again, you have to read the labels because many foods not labeled fish do contain fish.

For instance the California Natural Venison and Brown rice that I give Tolly once every blue moon (when he wants a break from his Innova flex stew chicken and brown rice) smells strongly of fish, and in fact contains quite a lot of fish, even though it is not in the "name" of the food. He only eats it about one meal a month though.

Originally Posted by otto

How did you calculate the mg? I only see percentages on labels?

Click to expand...

Well the math is a little tricky. I don't think my logic is flawed, but I've been known to be wrong from time to time. At best these are all just estimates anyways as it's hard when the numbers can vary from batch to batch. I'll give an example of what I did though.

For the Innova Cat + Kitten dry formula, the Guaranteed Analysis lists the Calorie content as 4008 kCal/kg.

Using a bit of math (I can provide specifics if you want), we can figure out that 24.95 grams of kibble contains 100 kCal.

So, if the "Typical Nutrient Analysis" says that the food contains 5.88% Ash, we just need to figure out what 5.88% of 24.95 grams is (which works out to 1.47 grams). Therefore, the food contains 1.47 grams of Ash per 100 kCal.

The same method can be used for the C/D formula, but it's not foolproof. First of all, it works a lot better with a "Typical Nutrient Analysis" as opposed to a "Guaranteed Analysis" which is a lot of max and min values.

Second, it can be hard to figure out for sure what foods are being measured and listed "as fed" versus "dry matter". For example, with the Innova, I went with the 4008 kCal/kg figure. Now, does that kg include the water/moisture (aka "as fed"), or is that kg only made up of "dry matter" (all moisture is already removed)? I'm assuming most of those figures are "as fed". In similar fashion, are the percentages being listed "as fed" or as a percent of "dry matter". As long as both figures are presented the same way (both "as fed" or both "dry matter") I think my method is ok. If not (like in the C/D values on their site I believe), the numbers are probably being thrown off a bit.

For what it's worth though, here is what I come up with for the C/D formula.

Hill's C/D
Calorie content = 3885 kCal/kg = 25.74 g per 100 kCal
Magnesium: 0.06% = 15 mg
Phosphorus: 0.65% = 167 mg
Calcium: 0.74% = 193 mg
Sodium: 0.35% = 90 mg
Ash: ???

If the numbers are a bit off (since their values are listed as percentage of "dry matter") I think common sense dictates that the calculations are actually a bit on the high side. For example, if the dry matter is made up of 0.74% calcium, by adding in water/moisture we would dilute everything, thereby lowering all the percentages a bit.

Hopefully that makes sense, and I apologize in advance if my logic is flawed.

It does make sense, and confirms my original reasons from a few years ago why I chose to stay with the Hills Prescrption c/d over trying the RC. Hill's numbers are lower.

A lot depends on if a cat will eat it of course. All my cats love the c/d kibble, but Mazy is the only one who gets it.

thanks for taking the time to convert the c/d, I appreciate it.

My male cat was just diagnosed with crystals and an enlarged bladder lining. He will not eat chicken and the only other option in Hill's science diet c/d is fish flavor. I've read where you should feed your cats fish flavored foods. Can anyone suggest a food with more flavored?

Melissa5751 said:

My male cat was just diagnosed with crystals and an enlarged bladder lining. He will not eat chicken and the only other option in Hill's science diet c/d is fish flavor. I've read where you should feed your cats fish flavored foods. Can anyone suggest a food with more flavored?

Click to expand...

FYI you replied to a thread that's nearly 6 years old. It's better to start your own new thread to ask a question than to reply to an old thread

Fish / seafood foods should not be fed very often. They can actually contribute to urinary issues in some cats. Other cats get addicted to eating fish / seafood. The occasional meal or treat is ok.

For most urinary issues, you can feed any commerical canned food (Fancy Feast, Friskies, Blue Buffalo, Nutro, etc). Getting more water into the cat is key to keeping the urinary system healthy and the urine diulted to prevent crystals and other things from forming. You don't need prescription food except for maybe struvite cystrals.

Dry food also contributes to urinary issues (lack of water means a dehdyrated cat and concentrated urine in a urinary system that isn't working at optimal levels) so try not to feed much of that if possible.

Would you suggest to start adding a little water to the Purina Pro Plan Grain free wet food I'm already feeding my cats? I read somewhere that you should just be feeding your cat wet food and no hard food do you agree?