Kitty with sensitive stomach needs to gain weight

Hello! I'm back again and hopefully you lovely folks can assist me!

Recently, I lost a cat to some very serious medical problems so I've been watching his niece and brother with a very careful eye.

My oldest, his brother Snickers has always seemed to have a very sensitive stomach. For years, we assumed because he was a medium-long hair cat, he just had a lot of hairballs from grooming.

Anything we fed Snickers, he seemed to often vomit hairballs. We tried Hairball control variety cat food, we tried feeding him the hairball paste, we brushed him regularly and even tried to bathe him at least once a month with a dander-control cat shampoo.

Nothing seemed to work and we resigned to cleaning up vomit for the rest of his natural life.

Then, I got a job at Petsmart and got educated on how his diet might be the problem.

After some changing around with food, we found Wellness seems to work with him. No vomiting since the switch. He doesn't seem to have allergy to grain, but we chose to keep it out of his diet just to be safe. He seems to have chronic UTI's as well, and the food seems to be significantly reducing his discomfort in that department too.

Up until recently, all of our cats were eating Wellness Indoor Core Dry and Wet combo.

Our kitten, Noodle (she's about a 11 months now) however is getting chunky. Our vet says she is not quiet overweight... yet. But is very close to being there, and it clearly shows with her floppy tummy. We switched her to Wellness Healthy Weight, giving her 3/4's of dry with just 1 tsp of Wellness Indoor Core wet. She seems to be losing some weight, although it has only been a month since the diet switch and we can't really tell. The high fiber has kept her from constantly mewling for more food, though.

Snickers is currently getting a 1/3 of dry Wellness Original Core with 1 tbsp of Wellness Whitefish wet. He also gets 2 Urinary Tract Health GNC treats mixed in. Even this small amount he seems to have trouble eating all of. I have been trying to feed him twice a day, letting him finish off the rest of his breakfast with another added tbsp of wet food.

He seems to be gaining just a little weight on this, although oddly enough seems to prefer munching on whatever Noodle leaves over of her Healthy Weight dry.  I would feed him just wet food but it doesn't seem like enough, not to mention he seems to enjoy the 'crunch' of the dry.

I have also noticed some blood in his urine recently (although this is hardly new). I have been giving him 4 GNC Urinary Tract Health treats a day - 2 in the morning, 2 at night to try and help with any pain he may be experiencing (which seems to be none, but you all know how cats are about showing pain). I will be taking him to a vet as soon as I possibly can, but in the meanwhile, I am still trying to adjust his diet.

I read somewhere that Fish in a cat's diet can cause urinary discomfort. Should I just not feed him Whitefish anymore? It's his favorite flavor of wet, but he'll also happily eat any other wet food I give him (save for Beef, he seems to dislike that). 

I have heard tricks about baby food and milk replacements giving cats some extra weight, but I am not sure this is necessary. I don't want to play around outside of his brand, either, because he seems to be finally in a place where he's not hurling hairballs all over the place.

Please help! Suggestions are welcomed!

Wow, sounds like you have a lot going on.

Blood in urine:  glad you're taking Snickers to the vet SOON.

Decreased urine output:  trip to the vet NOW. 

Why are you giving Snickers Urinary Tract Health treats?  Does he have UTIs?  

If UTI, kibble should be avoided because of it's drying effect; wet is the way to go (raw food, even better, especially for a sensitive stomach).  And yes, fish can worsen a UTI/crystal situation.  Wellness is an okay food.  Evo is calorically dense and might be an option for Snickers.  I would talk with your vet about supplementing Snicker's diet with KMR.  I have also read that Egg Yolk Lecithin helps hairball situation.

And Noodle and weight issues:  again, wet food is the way to go because it is calorically less dense; kibble is loaded with calories and carbohydrates.  As you probably know, cats don't need any carbs.  None. Nada.  Zilch.

Hope this helps!

I would veer away from the kibble. Kibble is connected with UTIs, hairballs, and weight gain. Switch to wet food and consider raw. Consider that although Petsmart has lots of exposure to different kinds of cat food, they are also a business that wants to sell cat food. So they're not going to necessarily tell you that you can make your own food or good things about the brands that they don't carry.

I don't believe in weight management formulations. All the weight management foods do is add more carbs and fiber. Figure out how much regular calorie food they need to maintain weight and then cut back slowly.

I second the vet trip, especially since Snickers is male. Blood and decreased urine = something's wrong, time for lab tests.

Actually, his urination has increased and he seems to be drinking more water.  He has frequent UTI's, and this is pretty typical of his normal symptoms which is why I'm not rushing him to a vet immediately. He gets urinary treats at the vet's suggestion, to help stave off UTI's in the future. They usually just prescribe me an antibiotic. I already spoke to my vet and she said she suspects possible hyperthyroidism or diabetes.

Also, my work didn't teach me diddly about cat food. I did my own research once I began working there, mostly from suggestions from this very website.

Once again, will not be feeding them raw. Snickers won't touch it, he's been taught since he was very young not to eat 'human food' and will only eat things out of the garbage if he does (knowing it's not good behavior, he'll run away if we catch him doing it). 

Economically, I can't really afford to feed them just wet which is why they're on a mix. The other reason I feed dry is because of dental health, and the last reason being I'm afraid if I cut dry out of their diet, it could give them loose stool.

Here's my next question -

If I cut out dry, how much should I be feeding them of the wet? Snickers seems to just have a naturally small stomach and has never really eaten a lot in the first place. That's why I space out his feedings between Morning and Night.  Should I be feeding half a can a day, or half a can in the morning, half a can at night?

And for Noodle, how much should she be getting a day to help her reduce weight? 1/4 of the can morning, 1/4 night?

Thank you, I will cut the fish out of his diet if it will help prevent him getting another UTI in the future.

You'd have to weigh your cat to determine how much food they need. Even then, I suppose it depends a the cat's metabolism. Most cats, though, get around 4 ounces of canned food/day. You also have to take into account how many calories are in the food. Most 5.5 oz. cans are around 200 kcal, but some go as low as 90 kcal for the same 5.5 oz can.

Dry food doesn't really help with dental issues and there are other ways to help with loose stool (pumpkin for instance), so I wouldn't eliminate feeding wet food based on those reasons. Wet food could improve some of the medical issues you've mentioned, so in the long run it is possibly cheaper.