What's the skinny on Blue Buffalo?

I have my fuzzy butt, Binx, on a strictly Blue Buffalo diet, but now it looks as though he's gained a little weight. He's about 12lbs now, supposedly a Russian Blue, and looking a little pudgy around the middle (plus the vet recommended slimming him down a bit). I've got him on a (5.5oz) can that he grazes in the am, and then a 1/4, to 1/3 cup dry wilderness indoor hairball chicken  and wilderness rabbit mix.

Has anyone else had this issue, or am I just inept at proper feeding? He's my first cat, so I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants :/

V/r,

Raksha

I'm not sure if it matters but certain recipes of Blue Buffalo canned does have a lot of fat in it.  Look at the guaranteed analysis.  I stopped feeding Blue Buffalo because the protein and fat percent are basically the same number, what's even worse is that those are the minimum numbers so there could be even more fat then protein.  Another reason why I stopped feeding it is because carrageenan is in the 1st or 2nd row on the ingredients list on the can.

Also dry food can cause cats to gain a lot of weight.

However, what's his age?  He could be just growing into an adult if he's a kitten/young right now.  If not, that does sound like a lot of food so you could cut down on the wet or dry (whatever you prefer and can afford).

A lot of adult cats do well on just a 5.5 oz can of food a day (depending on calories of course. But I think BB is about average in calorie content). So the dry food may all be excess calories. Try giving him just a tablespoon of dry food, see if that helps. If not, you could cut out the dry food entirely.

Fat usually isn't a problem for cats, it's carbs that tend to make them gain weight.

He's estimated to be just over a year, but if he's a RB like he was touted to be (He was adopted through an exotic cat rescue, though his origins were not well documented), he's already over the ideal weight limit for an adult male :/ I'm still trying to figure out if he's a real RB (pet grade), or possibly a Chartreux (pet grade). He's definitely not a run of the mill gray domestic.

Any close to raw diet food recommendations I could switch him to? He seems to genuinely like the BB food, so I'm reluctant to introduce something new... but if it's for the sake of his health, I'm all for it.

Willowy,

I think I'm going to see if I can cut down the dry stuff. I'm trying to keep him on a two feedings daily schedule, so I give him his wet food early-ish (7am) in the morning and he grazes on the dry kibble from about 3pm through the next morning. He's not a gobbler, he's a grazer (by habit, I suppose). Thanks for the advice! I'll give it a try.

If you want food recommendations:

Canned: Nutro Natural Choice minced chicken cuisine and sliced turkey entree

Wellness

Nature's Variety Prairie

I also feed dehydrated raw Honest Kitchen (http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/) Prowl (Chicken) and Grace (Turkey).  This is food you add water to.  If you want to try it, I'd suggest trying the 1oz sample packets.

Tiki Cat and Weruva are high grade low-calorie foods. I've heard a lot about Blue Buffalo being a sketchy product masquerading as high-quality food, so I avoid it.

@FelineEmpathy   I'm going to give the 1oz packets a try... man, it's so difficult to find good quality, HONEST, cat food!!! I don't want to be feeding my Binx junk food :/ if that doesn't stir his interest, I have a PetSmart down the way that sells Natures Variety. Suggestions on how to shift Binx's diet to either, if he decides he likes one or the other?

@wermy  I'm keeping my eye on the Tiki cat food, but the names and descriptions just weird me out... it sounds like stuff I would be eating, if I were back in Hawai'i!

Willowy said:

A lot of adult cats do well on just a 5.5 oz can of food a day (depending on calories of course. But I think BB is about average in calorie content). So the dry food may all be excess calories. Try giving him just a tablespoon of dry food, see if that helps. If not, you could cut out the dry food entirely.

Fat usually isn't a problem for cats, it's carbs that tend to make them gain weight.

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I agree with Willowy on this and think it's great, Raksha, that you're going to cut back on the dry food. Dry foods are generally pretty carby and the BB dry food has various forms of peas and potatoes that cats don't really need anyway.

FelineEmpathy said:

 
Canned: Nutro Natural Choice minced chicken cuisine and sliced turkey entree

Wellness

Nature's Variety Prairie

I also feed dehydrated raw Honest Kitchen (http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/) Prowl (Chicken) and Grace (Turkey).  This is food you add water to.  If you want to try it, I'd suggest trying the 1oz sample packets.

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wermy said:

 
Tiki Cat and Weruva are high grade low-calorie foods. I've heard a lot about Blue Buffalo being a sketchy product masquerading as high-quality food, so I avoid it.

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Our cats also recommend the Nutro Natural Choice, Tiki Cat, and Weruva (Cats in the Kitchen foods with chicken). They get a lot of different raw and canned foods and we've found that feeding them a variety is important because it keeps them from getting bored with their food and makes things easier to shift when there are supply issues. (Recalls and recipe changes can also be trouble!) Since you asked about almost-raw options, I'll add to FelineEmpathy's list of dehydrated and freeze-dried options: our cats eat a lot of Primal's freeze-dried food, which also has to be rehydrated. Those are all raw foods but they're relatively easy to find in stores and are pretty convenient to feed. Our cats didn't seem to need much time to adapt to various wet and raw foods, though other cats seem to need slower transitions. It did take about a month to get them totally off dry food because they had a strong preference for it when we adopted them.

I was just about to post and saw your comment about the Tiki Cat names, @Raksha! The "luau" names are more than a bit weird for me, too, even though I've never been to Hawaii! Our cats eat a few of those foods (chicken, chicken/egg, and chicken/salmon) but like Gourmet Carnivore even more. They're a bit expensive but our pickier cat loves them, partly, I think, because she seems to enjoy shaking and carrying the pieces around!

Good luck!

@LisaHE  Thank you for the additional info! I'm going to see how he reacts to Natures Instinct, too. I may buy few of the 'Gourmet Carnivore", to see what happens.

Ah, the joys of fuzzy parenthood.

Keep in mind, I'm a student as well.  Don't do anything that you can't afford or aren't comfortable with.  I had to create a strategic plan down to each day's meal that's adds up to a certain amount of calories each day and cost each month. 

It goes something like this:

Breakfast: 3oz can of Nutro Natural Choice or Fancy Feast or something else

Dinner: Honest Kitchen 1/4 cup (plus 1/4 cup water) of Honest Kitchen Prowl or Grace

Midnight: 1.83 oz of a 5.5oz can of Nature's Variety Prairie, Wellness, Nutro Max Cat, Nature's Variety Instinct, or anything else I feel like trying.

I feed Honest Kitchen everyday for dinner and switch off between the flavors.  Breakfast and midnight switch between different foods to keep a rotation going.  All of this adds up to about $70-$80 per month and 270-280 calories per day.  I don't know if the midnight meal is deemed as unnecessary but I find that's a really important meal because then she won't wake me up in the middle of the night because she's hungry, it keeps the calories around the desired area, and she maintains the same weight at 9-10 pounds.  That's something to remember as well, keep track of your cat's weight that's how you can tell if your meal plan is doing good (maintaining the same weight) or bad (losing or gaining weight).

I appreciate the candor, @FelineEmpathy! It's a bit rough as a college student, and I'm non-traditional with sleep disorders, so I can't get up at midnight To be feeding him, else I'll never get sleep what I'm trying to do is keep his routine of canned morning and graze dry feed afternoon-evening. He's a good grazer- I've watched him ration himself, it's quite interesting!!! I'm going to try out the honest kitchen with his morning food and see how that goes. I have a little financial leeway, so I think I can make it work. It's just a matter of getting kitty-butt on board with the idea

I've read a lot about how dry food is carbo loaded, can wet food be left out for extended periods of time during a day?

Oh yeah that's true.  My earliest class this quarter starts at 9:30 so a midnight meal is no problem.  That meal is basically when I go to bed.

Yeah it's good to do with what you know Binx can handle and what you can do.  It's interesting that he's learned to ration meals.  My brother's cat, Watson, does that as well with dry food (he'll only eat dry and hates wet).  My cat, Shanoah,  just smashes her face in the food and eats it all in one go  .  

Honest Kitchen is a good food.  Hopefully Binx will like it.  Sometimes some cats won't eat it or will shun it over time, probably because of the texture.  The food is powdered in the dehydrated state and when you add water it turns into a thick gravy, so it's not a normal texture for a food.  I only feed it one meal a day because I tried feeding it more a day but Shanoah flat out refused to eat it.  Rotations are always important.

Dry food is carb loaded, which does lead to weight gain.  A pro is that it's convenient and can be left out...basically forever.  Wet food can't be left out as long.  I'm not entirely sure on the exact time frame.  I think maybe at least 4 hours left out.  You can always refrigerate any unused portion though, that's what I do when splitting up the 5.5oz cans and any food left in the bowl.

Edit: Also if you still want to feed Blue Buffalo, then the Rocky Mountain recipes appear to be okay.  They're more expensive but don't compare to the regular Wilderness recipes in terms of protein and fat % as well as the amount of carrageenan.  However, Wermy has a point.  Blue Buffalo bombards everybody with advertising making their food appear to be the best and really kicks all other brands in the groin.  I usually avoid brands that advertise all the time because they're trying to make you think something about their food when it's most likely not true.

@FelineEmpathy  his dry BB for is a blend I made of the Rocky Mountain Rabbit recipe and the regular Indoor Hairball/Weight Control (isn't that a mouthful!). Typically, I try to stick to Rocky Mountain for his wet food, as well (he loves both the red meat and trout recipes).

I agree, I find it so odd that he rations himself (even his wet food, which is why I asked about the timing). My sister's cat (Bear), is a gobbler, but I think he had to fight for his share of the meal, so that could be where that tendency comes from. That makes me really wonder about Binx's past, before I adopted him from his foster home!

I hear you on the brand advertising. I think I was sucked in because their walnut based litter is the best I've come across, when it comes to odor control and clumping. Doesn't track too much, either, but it is a little dusty :/ anyway, not trying to be a litter brand pusher here!

Binx doesn't seem to be a picky eater with anything that is put in front of him, as long as it isn't salmon. I can't figure out why this cat hates salmon... weirdo 

Raksha said:

 
@FelineEmpathy  his dry BB for is a blend I made of the Rocky Mountain Rabbit recipe and the regular Indoor Hairball/Weight Control (isn't that a mouthful!). Typically, I try to stick to Rocky Mountain for his wet food, as well (he loves both the red meat and trout recipes).

I agree, I find it so odd that he rations himself (even his wet food, which is why I asked about the timing). My sister's cat (Bear), is a gobbler, but I think he had to fight for his share of the meal, so that could be where that tendency comes from. That makes me really wonder about Binx's past, before I adopted him from his foster home!

I hear you on the brand advertising. I think I was sucked in because their walnut based litter is the best I've come across, when it comes to odor control and clumping. Doesn't track too much, either, but it is a little dusty :/ anyway, not trying to be a litter brand pusher here!

Binx doesn't seem to be a picky eater with anything that is put in front of him, as long as it isn't salmon. I can't figure out why this cat hates salmon... weirdo 

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One of our cats rations herself with her food but the other is a piglet so we have to separate them for the meals that the piglet likes more than rationer does. And yes, I'm convinced their pasts have something to do with it, too: they were severely underfed when we adopted them. They came from a too-many-cats-in-the-apartment situation. You're very lucky, Raksha, that Binx doesn't overeat!

I can leave some wet food out through the day but the climate in Maine is a little different from the climate in Texas!

Haha, yes the climate is much different- BUT I keep the A/C on a lot of the day. I won't leave his wet food out more than 4-5hrs, but that may have to change when it REALLY gets into summer!

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