Cocoa Needs To Fatten Up!

Our recent adoptee, Cocoa, who is approximately 3-5 years old, was brought into our vet today to establish her with our practice.  She had already been taken care of with the foster family and overall, is in excellent condition.  The only issue is she could stand to gain about a pound or so, which I was pretty sure of already but the vet confirmed it for me.  

He suggested we add an egg or two to her diet once or twice a week.  I'm not so sure about this.  My understanding of eggs is that the yolk is ok, but not the white for cats.  Plus, in what form would I even give it to her if I did?

I'd prefer to just giver her more food in general.  Currently, for breakfast, she is eating a rotation of Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul Hairball Formula (she's a domestic longhair), Before the Grain Chicken, Turkey or Chicken with Quail, and Natural Balance Indoor Cat Formula.  She gets 1/2 a can for breakfast and usually eats the entire 2.75 or 3 oz (one of those cans is a 6 oz can, can't remember which).   

Dinner is a mixture of Before the Grain and PureVita Grain Free, both chicken kibble, around 1/4 cup.  I give her a snack mid-day of about the same amount of kibble, maybe a little less.  For treats, she gets freeze dried chicken or shrimp - but not every day and only a few pieces when she does.

She usually doesn't eat the entire dinner in one sitting - grazing as the evening wears on - same with the snack.  We'd give only wet, except that we prefer to keep her and my resident cat on a schedule with their food and can't always guarantee that we'll be home in the evening at the same time every night.  Currently, my BF is out of work, so Cocoa is able to get her snack regularly but eventually that "meal" might have to be left out if he is lucky enough to find work soon.  And since Casper is on an auto feeder for his dinner (breakfast gets servee on lovely little Fiestaware fruit bowls which are the perfect size for wet cat food - whoever knew they would come in handy for that use lol!), we are putting Cocoa on the same dinner schedule as his.  Eventually, once she isn't so skittish and more settled in we'll purchase an auto feeder for her as well for her dinner meal.

Anyway.  I'd like some help figuring out how to get some more calories into her.  Should I just add more wet food and if so, how much and how often?  Or increase the kibble?  Would giving her some other type of food be beneficial?  Is the egg idea ok?  What about something like sardines?  I've read a lot of people here feed their kitties a couple of those a week.  

Again, I'm only looking to put about a pound on her, no more.  So we're talking a limited amount of time here, increasing her intake for about 3-6 months at most.  

Laurie

Two of my four cats love raw egg yolk.  ( I also have read that the yolk is better than the white when fed raw, but cooked they can have both.)  All four would probably eat the raw egg yolk but the two that love it get to it first (I put some down in little bowls on the floor when I make eggs for my family in the morning.)  Raw egg yolk is also reported to help with hairball prevention.  I see folks recommend 2 or 3 per week.  The sardines are also a nice treat because they add omega 3's.  Mine all enjoyed them at first but all but one got tired of them.  I was offering them once a week for a while.  Anyways, both are nice ways to sneak in some extra calories since they add some variety to their diet.  Of course just feeding more kibble or canned would work too. 

Well, that explains why Casper scarfs down the remains of my BF's sunnyside up eggs when he's done with them! Sometimes he'll put down the plate and let him lick up whatever is left, which is usually just the runny yolk stuck to the plate. Who knew?

I always buy organic eggs so I'm assuming they will be ok for her since there's no pesticides to worry about.  I'll try that out and see if she goes for it.  I think I'll pick up a can of sardines also (I know they have to be plain ones) and try those out on both of them.  If worse comes to worse and they aren't interested (which I highly doubt) I'll eat them. NOM 

FYI, the issue with raw egg white is that it has an enzyme that inhibits biotin update (vitamin B1). When fed with the yolk (which is rich in biotin), it's fine if the whole thing is fed raw. But you can also separate the egg white and yolk, cook the white, and feed the yolk raw. The egg white provides a protein boost - the yolk is fatty, and provides all kinds of vitamins and healthy omega 3s - and calories. It is also high in choline, which is great for kitties.

And yeah, the raw egg yolk has lecithin in it, which is what helps with the hairballs. I feed my cats yolks twice a week, and I give them a supplement, egg yolk lecithin ( 1/2 of a 600mg capsule) every day, actually. Since we started this, no hairballs! Of course, we have short hair kitties. Another member with long hair cats gives hers the egg yolk lecithin, and twice a week gives slippery elm bark powder (not in the capsule, but empties the capsule and adds a small amount of boiling water so it gels up) and that has resolved her long hair kitty hairball problem. Just an idea if you want to use a better food than a hairball formula, because Chicken Soup for the Soul foods tend to be high in carbohydrates.

You can also consider using digestive enzymes. These help the cats digest more of the food they ingest, so boosts the nutrition they're getting from the food. Some members use the Prozyme original formula; for my one kitty that needs them, I use Mercola pet digestive enzymes.

The vet's suggestion is a good one! You can also feed kitten food. LDG's supplement advice is also sound. Another poster suggested more wet and kibble. Kibble is calorie and carb dense and has the potential of putting on some extra weight but if the cat does not eat a lot of kibble, I would not encourage it. That's just me though. I would prefer putting on some weight with wet food if possible. Kitten food tends to be higher in calories, protein and fat than adult wet foods. This article is from 2010 but offers some easy to read insight into feeding an adult cat kitten food.

http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-feed-kitten-food-to-an-adult-cat

Great advice from both of you, thanks for that too.

I think I'll look into the kitten formula wet foods and, start her on some eggs also.  The eggs are cheap enough, so I like that idea.  Plus, since she's longhaired it would be a plus for hairball prevention.

Also, I appreciate the FYI on the carb count for the Chicken Soup.  I do read nearly all the threads about the canned foods but may not have remembered that info.  I don't mind ditching that one if need be.  As I mentioned, I was trying to keep her diet the same as it was in foster care so that she didn't suffer any more stress than necessary when she came to live with us, especially as she's quite timid and acclimating slowly.  Thankfully, the past few days she seems to have turned a corner and has been coming out of her shell so I'd feel more comfortable making changes.