Gaining Weight

My kitty, Zoe, 9y/o DSH was severely underweight when we got her two months ago.  She has gained some weight, but the vet wants her to gain more.  

In order to gain weight, the vet said she should be on a dry food that is at least 500cals/cup as well as starting her on a canned food (she never had canned food in her previous home and I just started introducing it when she came to us).  The vet suggested Science Diet and that is what we have her on right now.

The problem is that everywhere else I look, I hear that Science Diet is, well... crap.  The pet store suggested Blue Wilderness, but it doesn't have enough calories.  

I've been looking at Wellness Core (expensive!) as a dry food and the Wellness pouches as she only seems to like the chunks and gravy format for her wet food.  

Any feedback/ideas?  

I think the most caloric dry food around is Evo, and it's perhaps one of the best dry foods too!  (very high protein, pretty low in carbs)  A win-win situation.   (seems to me the Evo is over 600 cals per cup) 

I don't really have any suggestions on the wet food, because it seems none of them list calories, and it's also so frustrating because so often it's hard to tell what the texture is going to be!  For instance, I bought a bunch of cans of BG thinking it would be chunks of pure meat, and it was pate .  My cats are like yours, and do not like pate.

mrsgreenjeens said:

I don't really have any suggestions on the wet food, because it seems none of them list calories, and it's also so frustrating because so often it's hard to tell what the texture is going to be!  For instance, I bought a bunch of cans of BG thinking it would be chunks of pure meat, and it was pate

.  My cats are like yours, and do not like pate.

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This chart lists the calories per can of some common foods: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

More pet food companies are putting the nutritional info on their websites so you can often find calorie info there.

As for figuring out which canned foods are pate and which ones are chunky, try shaking the can. If it sounds sloshy, it's less likely to be a pate style. Pate usually "thunks", or else doesn't make any sound. It's not a foolproof technique, but it helps. Also, pouches are always chunky (or shredded or whatever).

Hi Zoemisha!  I don't know if this will help with the canned food issue but Nutro Max has a chunk and gravy wet food in their 3.5oz cans.  You can find them here http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-food/max-cat-food/adult-cat-food.aspx just click on the cans link.  The other links will give descriptions of the the food and calorie count as well.