Need good dry Diet food recommendation

I knew this would happen after our Vet visit...Darko has to lose weight. And since we feed only dry food ( know, I know, we need to feed wet, but no one here LIKES it!!), I need some recommendations. Our Vet said we need something similar to the Atkins diet in humans - high protein, low carbs, and that it would be fine for everyone to eat the same food (except Sven, who is CRF, but he doesn't eat with the others anyway). (I must state here that a few months ago we tried Wellness Core and it did not go over well with one of the other cats, so that's out)

Suggestions, please? Thank you!!!!!

My CJ had developed a serious food allergy, and thanks to recommendations from The Cat Site, Natural Balance did the trick! I do feed wet and dry, and my two other cats love it as well (the salmon dry formula). Natural Balance does have a reduced calorie line, so that may be an option for you. Here is the link.
Best of luck!
http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/cat...RedCalCat.html

Please avoid anything called weight control or lite...

What are you feeding currently?

A lot of times, you can just cut back on what you're feeding now and go to scheduled feedings. Also, adding canned will really help take the weight off.

Originally Posted by sharky

Please avoid anything called weight control or lite...

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Is the same also true for 'senior' food?

I am afraid that next (only) suggestion from vet is that as our tubbins is now 6 yo and we are failing on the diet - partially because we are unable to move onto 100% wet. I don't know what to do with him as he is not eating THAT much (by volume).

No seniors are usually lower protein and fat ( I do not agree as this = higher carbs but not to the extreme of WT control) but it is different and often the minerals and " extras" like jt help are in there..

Made up foods.. based on real ones

Adult
34 protein 18 fat

Adult indoor
34 protein 14 fat

light
30 protein 12 fat

senior
31 protein 15 fat

what is he eating ? how much ? what is current wt ? what is ideal wt?

currently eating a mix half and half of Kirkland Premium (dry) and Purina One Sensitive Stomach since one has a sensitive tummy and all 3 free feed but all total only get 1 1/2 cups per day. Darko is 16 lbs. Vet says he needs to lose almost 4 lbs!!! He's at least part Bombay, and I know they are prone to overeating, which he does. But he gets lots of exercise, 'cause he and Stinkpot chase each other all the time, running up and down the stairs, etc. And when I give treats (limit 3, twice a day), I toss them way down the hall so Darko has to run for them or Stinkpot beats him to the punch!!

I know we're doing everything wrong (dry food, free feeding), but the two older cats have never had any problems with weight, and to make them change now to a scheduled feeding seems cruel (but if Darko gets sick from being overweight that's even crueler). I wish we could liposuction some of Darko's fat and put it on our CRF cat. Plus, since we DO have a CRF cat, he has food round the clock, and if we pull up Darko's food, he's just get into Sven's kidney food. (sometimes he already does, even though I have it in a closet with the door only open a fraction. Honestly, I can't figure out how he manages to squeeze his fat self in there!!

Kirkland has 443 cal per cup

Purina sensitive 454 off the chart I found as I cant find it on their site

cats needing to lose wt need roughly 15-20 calories per lb of Proper wt

So for 12 lb cat this is 180 to 240 calories a day

1/2 a cup of the foods your feeding ( if they share the 1.5 cups equally) is 225 calories a cup... which is within the typical guidline so You likely need to go toward 15 calories a lb

Silly question as it is rare in cats but has the vet tested the thyroid to ensure it is working properly>?

what treats are you giving?

When my vet wanted Bugsy to lose weight, he proposed to put him on Purina DM, RX for diabetic cats -high protein, low carbs, but Bugsy is allergic to chicken so that was a no go. I don't like the ingredients very much either...
Apparently it is a diet that is very successfully used for weight loss though.
I set myself off to find something comparable that Bugsy could eat, and the closest one was EVO - Evo has even higher protein levels and lower carbs. The second one is Orijen.
Both of them are excellent in quality IMHO.
I mix 1/2 and 1/2 here. since Bugsy is allergic to chicken, in my house I use both foods in the fish version.
Yes, the food is caloric, BUT they eat much much less to get satisfied. Lucky for example eats about 1/3 cup a day and maintains her weight - it is very filling.

I have a CRF cat and she's not free fed, she just gets to eat more often. Fortunately, my DH is currently home during the day and I'm here in the evenings, so we can feed her when she's hungry. We feed all of them at 6:30AM (wet), 12:30PM (dry), 6:30PM (wet), and bedtime snack around 10:30PM (dry). For my CRF girl, she also gets dry food about every 2-3 hours. We have to watch her and pick it up when she's finished, but it works for us and she's maintained her weight, which is so very important.

Tumbleweed, who is only about 15 wks old, pretty much eats on Callie's schedule, but again, when he's finished, we pick it up. Sometimes he doesn't want his dry food throughout the day, other times he does. He's not a huge fan of dry food, but he eats it. I think he just prefers the wet food, which is fine with me.

The hardest thing for us when we went to scheduled feedings was me telling them nicely, "I know you're hungry. It's not time yet." Now they beg for a few minutes, then go lay down and sleep.

Originally Posted by stephanietx

I have a CRF cat and she's not free fed, she just gets to eat more often. Fortunately, my DH is currently home during the day and I'm here in the evenings, so we can feed her when she's hungry. We feed all of them at 6:30AM (wet), 12:30PM (dry), 6:30PM (wet), and bedtime snack around 10:30PM (dry). For my CRF girl, she also gets dry food about every 2-3 hours. We have to watch her and pick it up when she's finished, but it works for us and she's maintained her weight, which is so very important.

Tumbleweed, who is only about 15 wks old, pretty much eats on Callie's schedule, but again, when he's finished, we pick it up. Sometimes he doesn't want his dry food throughout the day, other times he does. He's not a huge fan of dry food, but he eats it. I think he just prefers the wet food, which is fine with me.

The hardest thing for us when we went to scheduled feedings was me telling them nicely, "I know you're hungry. It's not time yet." Now they beg for a few minutes, then go lay down and sleep.

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Wow, which one is your CRF girl? Is it Callie? Just curious, because I've been looking at your pictures lately, and I haven't noticed any particularly thin cats, as CRF kitties usually are. If it's Callie, she looks WONDERFUL! What are you feeding HER? The reason I ask is because most CRF kitties don't eat much (I guess because the food isn't that tasty - not that I need to add one more thing for my little piggy Darko to go after!). Also, for her, what about between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.? Does she just not eat anything. My CRF guy needs to have something on his tummy more frequently than that or he spits up froth (I'm assuming it's due to an empty stomach).

Originally Posted by sharky

what treats are you giving?

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Temptations - they have 2 calories each, so since I feed him 3 twice a day, that's 12 calories. I have tried tossing their kibble instead of treats because they so love the "toss and chase" game, but they caught on pretty quickly that kibble was NOT the same

p.s. no thyroid check at this point because he has not been on any serious "diet" yet. If we don't get any results after implementing some changes, that will be the next step.

Originally Posted by mrsgreenjeens

Wow, which one is your CRF girl? Is it Callie? Just curious, because I've been looking at your pictures lately, and I haven't noticed any particularly thin cats, as CRF kitties usually are. If it's Callie, she looks WONDERFUL! What are you feeding HER? The reason I ask is because most CRF kitties don't eat much (I guess because the food isn't that tasty - not that I need to add one more thing for my little piggy Darko to go after!). Also, for her, what about between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.? Does she just not eat anything. My CRF guy needs to have something on his tummy more frequently than that or he spits up froth (I'm assuming it's due to an empty stomach).

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Yes, it is Callie. She is actually the one that started the whole diet thing several years ago prior to being diagnosed with CRF. She has slimmed down, but is at a good weight and has maintained it for 3 or 4 years. The key for her is to keep her pooping and not allowing her to scarf & barf. She eats K/d dry throughout and then she gets a wet food concoction of pumpkin, a bit of Wellness grain free, a bit of EVO venison, and some pureed boiled liver twoce a day, which she sometimes is very picky about not eating. I add Cosequin powder, Epakitin powder, and her Missing Link meds to it with several splashes of water, mix it all up and serve. As long as she eats her dry food, I don't push her to eat the other food.

She usually does fine overnight, but occasionally when one of us gets up in the middle of the night to potty, we'll feed her (usually around 3:00AM). I try to make sure to give her a good serving just before bedtime, though. In the morning, though, I only give her a few morsels (5-7 or so) for her initial feeding. This gets something in her tummy and then we go from there. About 15-20 mins later, I give her a second small serving (10-15 morsels) then she gets her wet food.

She's not to the point where she needs any type of Pepcid to settle her tummy which is common with CRF cats, though. She's also prone to constipation and hard stools so if she needs to have a good BM, that will affect her eating habits as well. One other thing that helps her is to run a Feliway diffuser all the time to keep the stress down. I've been impressed with how well she's eaten lately with Tumbleweed out and about all the time now. She even shares her food with him!

Also meant to mention, we cut out the treats entirely and now use food morsels as treats. I only give them treats after we trim nails or they've taken meds or something like that, though. That helped cut down Callie's weight A LOT!

Trout Eats Fromme, and I believe it is a natural brand.