Nead help finding a higher fiber cat food

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For  the last few months i have been having trouble with my cat Tigger who is over 10 years old, I'm not sure the exact age but he has been having problems getting plugged up and cant poop. We have been to the vet like once a month to get him cleaned out. I was told to put him on a higher fiber cat food and higher fiber cat snacks since he loves his snacks. So i had previously switched him to Purina Cat Chow Indoor Formula with is crude fiber 5.0% His vet told me today to try to find one higher in fiber and everything I look at on the internet is less fiber than that. would you happen to have any ideas? Also they are putting him on some medication but it wont be delivered till tomorrow and I've forgotten the name.


Tigger

Are you feeding him dry food? Wet food would be much better. Is there a medical reason he needs high fiber? Or is he healthy except for the constipation?

My cat used to get a little constipated, and switching him to a high quality canned made all the difference. (I feed him Whole Earth Farms). As for fiber, have you tried plain pumpkin? Like in the can? (Must be plain.) A lot of forum regulars really recommend it for kitty constipation.

i would recommend canned food--it'll move through the system more easily.  I mix DRIED pumpkin (bought at the pet food store) with my cat's wet food.  she would turn her nose up at the wet pumpkin/food mix but doesnt seem to notice the dried .  She's reliably regular now.

Hello, I have tried pumpkin, but have found that for one of my cats he needs more to resolve rocky poops and straining. I have discussed this with my vet and now add a small amount of plain psyllium husks (from the organic food store, in bulk) into his wet food. Don't use Metamucil because they mix other things with it.

Psyllium will absorb about ten times the water for its volume so it's important to ensure you mix it with enough water and mix the slurry into the food. If you don't add enough water, you could make the problem worse because psyllium will try to take water from the gut.

I experimented with the psyllium amount my cat needs and it is a pinch just once a day, at breakfast. It has given him a lot of relief in the litter box. Just for info, when I gave it to him twice a day, he would eventually move toward getting diarrhea.

Nah, you don't want to feed high fiber food. His constipation is probably from the quality of food you're feeding. Purina cat chow is not good food at all. Agree with everyone else, feed wet food. Slippery elm is a really good supplement that can help with both digestion and constipation. 

http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/

Try adding 1/4 tsp of miralaxx powder, mixed with water, twice a day to his food.

You can add some extra water to his food also. It helps gets things softer....

He is use to dry food, with wet food he will only lick the juice out of it, besise the other cats would eat it. no it has to be dry food but thanks ill ask his vet.

Ah I hate it when vets say this! The problem with fiber is that it will bulk up the stool, which will make it harder to pass and can lead to the development of megacolon. Soluble fiber will absorb water and make stool softer, but most fibrous foods (plants) are mix of soluble and insoluble fibers, and the insoluble fiber is what adds bulk without benefit. Sometimes the bulk does help push stool through, but long term it causes damage to the colon. Canned pumpkin is a mostly soluble fiber, so that is a good choice, as is acacia fiber powder, which has the benefit of being tasteless. Miralax also does a good job at softening stool by drawing water into the stool. Lactulose works very similarly, which may have been what the vet prescribed. 

But all of these will only work if he is hydrated enough, and dehydration is likely the culprit of the constipation in the first place. Any vet who recommends dry food for constipation does not know what they're talking about when it comes to cat nutrition. That seems harsh, but it's really what I've come to learn after seeing multiple vets for my cat's constipation and finally finding one who specializes in nutrition. Cats' ancestors are desert animals and are built to get most of their water intake from their food. Therefore, they do not have a high enough thirst drive to drink enough water on their own, and after years of eating dry food that can catch up with them and cause issues like constipation. Unfortunately kibble is very addicting (cat food companies do not do that on accident!), but usually with enough convincing through adding things to make wet food enticing, cats will learn to accept the texture of wet food and enjoy it! Trying different styles of wet food, for example pate versus chunks of meat, is helpful because many cats have a preference. You can also crumble up some kibble and sprinkle it on the wet food to get them to eat it, as well as adding treats, tuna fish flakes, parmesan cheese, tuna water, or chicken broth. You can also heat up canned food in the microwave briefly so it smells stronger and more appetizing.

(The other common constipation medicine is Cisapride, which stimulates bowel movement. That usually is prescribed when colon motility is low, which the vet should have been able to get a sense for when they physically examined him. This usually is not the first medication to try when having trouble with constipation, so I'm thinking it was probably lactulose.)

Wet food all the way! This happens to one of my dogs because she doesn't drink much water. I'm surprised your vet just suggested the more fiber.

jessisme said:

Wet food all the way! This happens to one of my dogs because she doesn't drink much water. I'm surprised your vet just suggested the more fiber.

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separate the cats when feeding!

seriously - any quality dried food is not doing any cats much good. whereas any quality wet food is best.

the cats constipated cos the body hasnt got sufficient hydration to poop!

I sent you a link via Private Message on how to transition him to wet food.  Until you can get him over to it, you can start by adding water to his dry food.  That worked for mine.  You just cant leave it down long when it is wet because it will spoil.  If he likes goats milk, you can add that in small amounts.  You can get it canned at most supermarkets and in quarts in many health food sections of supermarkets.