Higher calorie canned food or mix in suggestions?

Hi -

Does anyone have any higher calorie canned food recommendations, or ideas for mix ins to up meal calories? I have a super dainty girl who eats around 4.75 oz a day. She was really underweight when I got her last September. She's less boney now, but you can still easily feel her hip/rip bones. She is not terribly food motivated, so I don't know if she'd eat an entire extra meal. I was hoping to maybe mix in something with her regular food, or separate her a couple times a day to feed her a few small, high cal snacks. 

Currently eating 50% RadCat/ 50% Merrick LID canned. Prefer pate or mushy, minimal junky ingredients. Gels, KMR, mix ins?

Thanks in advance. 

Hi Paiger8! Our cat has the opposite problem - she wants to eat ALL the time! We had to stop feeding her Nature's Variety Instinct Canned Venison because it was too high in calories (228 kcal/can - 5.5 oz can) and fat for her. The Beef variety has even more at 232 kcal/can - 5.5 oz can. We had to switch to the rabbit variety which is much leaner and lower in calories. 

If you lived in SoCal, I'd hand you over all our leftover venison cans! I'm afraid to give them to anyone for fear of getting blamed for making someone else's cat fat. Also, if you look around, most kitten formulas have higher calorie and fat content. 

Our cat Ireland's also not an eager or motivated eater but it helps tremendously to feed about five meals per day, separating the cats: she's very slow and deliberate so we have to keep Edwina, the vulture, away from her. Ireland's best with a little bit of Pure Bite dust on her food and she also particularly loves the homemade I've been making with EZcomplete.

I like @cocobutterfly's idea of trying kitten food. Personally, I'd try high-calorie foods before mix-ins but you may have already done that!

What about lamb? Are you feeding the RC lamb? Ziwipeak also makes a rabbit/lamb (that my cats like) as well as just a lamb. I think the pure lamb is a little too fatty so when I buy it I just get the rabbit/lamb. 

cocobutterfly said:

 
Hi Paiger8! Our cat has the opposite problem - she wants to eat ALL the time! We had to stop feeding her Nature's Variety Instinct Canned Venison because it was too high in calories (228 kcal/can - 5.5 oz can) and fat for her. The Beef variety has even more at 232 kcal/can - 5.5 oz can. We had to switch to the rabbit variety which is much leaner and lower in calories. 

If you lived in SoCal, I'd hand you over all our leftover venison cans! I'm afraid to give them to anyone for fear of getting blamed for making someone else's cat fat. Also, if you look around, most kitten formulas have higher calorie and fat content. 

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I might try that kind. Thanks for the tip. And donate that food to a shelter! They would love it. My local rescue got a ton of food from me when my cat's were being picky. 

LisaHE said:

 
Our cat Ireland's also not an eager or motivated eater but it helps tremendously to feed about five meals per day, separating the cats: she's very slow and deliberate so we have to keep Edwina, the vulture, away from her. Ireland's best with a little bit of Pure Bite dust on her food and she also particularly loves the homemade I've been making with EZcomplete.

I like @cocobutterfly's idea of trying kitten food. Personally, I'd try high-calorie foods before mix-ins but you may have already done that!

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I will try that. It's just hard because I work all day, so I'm usually gone from 7:30-5:30. Plus she'd have to be separated because her brother will steal everything. I haven't tried the high cal food yet. I just weighed her this morning (in the super non-scientific way that I weighed myself with her/without her and she's only up to 8.6 from 8.0 when I adopted her.) They're bigger cats so she feels pretty boney. She may just always be petite. Her brother (littermate) weighs almost 2 lbs more than her. 

missmimz said:

 
What about lamb? Are you feeding the RC lamb? Ziwipeak also makes a rabbit/lamb (that my cats like) as well as just a lamb. I think the pure lamb is a little too fatty so when I buy it I just get the rabbit/lamb. 

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Yep, I actually just buy a container of every flavor Radcat when I go. They love the lamb. I just usually pay attention to ounces instead of calories. I should look and see which flavors are the highest calorie and feed her extra of those. She eats Radcat really consistently, so I bet I could sneak an extra ounce in at meal time. 

Paiger8 said:

Yep, I actually just buy a container of every flavor Radcat when I go. They love the lamb. I just usually pay attention to ounces instead of calories. I should look and see which flavors are the highest calorie and feed her extra of those. She eats Radcat really consistently, so I bet I could sneak an extra ounce in at meal time. 

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I'm pretty sure both the beef and the lamb are the highest. Both being a bit more of a fatty meat. 

Originally Posted by Paiger8
I will try that. It's just hard because I work all day, so I'm usually gone from 7:30-5:30. Plus she'd have to be separated because her brother will steal everything. I haven't tried the high cal food yet. I just weighed her this morning (in the super non-scientific way that I weighed myself with her/without her and she's only up to 8.6 from 8.0 when I adopted her.) They're bigger cats so she feels pretty boney. She may just always be petite. Her brother (littermate) weighs almost 2 lbs more than her. 

Your cat sounds more like Ireland all the time! Ireland's also rather bony--or maybe just petite--and Edwina is, ahm, consistently heavier. Ireland reminded me about another of her feeding quirks today: she didn't want to eat her Rad Cat at a regular feeding station, no, she had to eat on the doormat by the front door. Fine! She also seems to consistently eat best when she's getting at least one small meal of the homemade food a day: I don't know if it just makes her happy or if it's the digestive enzymes but something about it makes her want to eat more.

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missmimz said:

 
I'm pretty sure both the beef and the lamb are the highest. Both being a bit more of a fatty meat. 

missmimz is so right! Here's the chart (here). The lamb and beef are definitely more caloric!

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