Is My Vet. Correct ???

My Vet. says my female cat is just overweight.

Told me to feed her HILLS W/D for weightloss.

Does anyone know if HILLS is a good brand of diet food for cats ??

I simply did not know what I was doing to my cat. Gave her way to many cat treats.

If cat treats are the problem then cut them out of the daily diet. My kitties get 3-5 small treats  a day max.  I don't like switching food since cats can be really sensitive but if you are questioning your vets opinion then find a second opinion from a different vet. 

I had a cat who was overweight. The vet put him on this food and he ate it the rest of his life. His weight was good and he didn't have any problems from eating the food.

I'm not a fan of Hills or dry food in general. "Weight Control" food is full of grains and other fillers. Hills is honestly worst than most dry foods IMO. Your vet is a rep for Hills and gets a cut of the selling price, that's why they're recommending it. Here are the ingredients in Hills W/D:

Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Meal, Wheat Gluten, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken, Whole Grain Corn, Whole Grain Wheat, Pork Flavor, Pork Fat, Lactic Acid, Chicken Liver Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Soybean Oil, L-Lysine, Iodized Salt, Calcium Sulfate, DL-Methionine, L-Threonine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), L-Carnitine, Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Natural Flavors, Beta-Carotene

Cats are obligate carnivores. They need meat to survive and thrive. The fist ingredients in this food are all carbs and fillers, not protein. There is so little actual meat in this food that they have to use "Pork Flavor" and "Chicken Flavor" to get cats to eat it... instead of actually using real pork or chicken. 

If I were you, I'd look for a high protein low carb wet food, and cut out the dry. Many cats are overweight on just dry food, not to mention they don't get near enough water from it. 

I hope that your vet gave you objective advice, but Paige8 does have a point about Hill's.  I won't say the food is useless, but you can buy food of similar content at much less cost than Hill's price.  Putting aside the debate over grain in cat food, it seems that the weight loss formula posted by Paige8 is nearly identical to various supermarket brands.

Paiger8 said:

 
If I were you, I'd look for a high protein low carb wet food, and cut out the dry. Many cats are overweight on just dry food, not to mention they don't get near enough water from it. 

Click to expand...

and you need to feed the appropriate number of calories daily. The typical recommendation is 20 to 25 caloires per pound of ideal body weight daily. Since your cat is overweight, you want to first figure out how many calories your cat is currently eating and what her ideal body weight is. If your cat needs to lose more than a few pounds, you have to slowly reduce the calories she gets daily to avoid fatty liver disease. Here is a good web site that explains this in more detail: http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity

What are you currently feeding your cat and how much daily?

You could feed the food the vet is recommending but commerical foods can work just as well with better quality ingredients and it'll cost much less.

To find calorie content in dry foods, you can look at this lis: www.petobesityprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cat_Dry_Food.pdf Few cats need more than 300 caloires daily as many dry food brands contain in a single measured cup.

For calorie content in canned foods, see

www.petobesityprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/.../Cat_Canned_Pouch_Foods.pdf

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Treats are ok but in moderation. A few treats daily is fine. Feed healthy treats such as freeze dried meat and fish treats. PureBites is one popular brand and there are others as recommended in these threads:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/315243/healthy-treats

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245903/best-and-worst-cat-treats

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/314398/what-treats-do-you-feed-your-cat

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/310827/vital-essentials-freeze-dried-treats

There are lots of good threads on the site about weight loss for cats and questions about prescription foods are a common theme.

To follow up on what @Paiger8 wrote, a lot of people find that their cats lose weight by eating wet foods that are high in meat protein and low in carbs--beyond that combination being more appropriate for a cat than the Hills dry food, the water helps them feel filled up. It's best to look for canned foods with lots of meat but no wheat, corn, soy, rice, potato, peas, or other fillers. There have been some cases where cats have lost weight on Fancy Feast Classics (there's one notable case here), the pates only -- they're a great choice for weight loss because they don't have any carby fillers at all, plus they're affordable and easy to find. Some stores have store brands, too, just be sure to avoid vegetable fillers that add calories.

On a personal note, our previous cat was overweight and we fed her vet-recommended dry diet food... and our cat only got fatter. We were totally clueless about feeding her (and her bad diet most likely affected her health, too) so were probably very lucky that we started supplementing her dry food with Fancy Feast somewhere along the way on a whim. At some point, she stopped gaining much more, probably because she was eating wet and dry foods, though she didn't lose weight until she was already a pretty elderly cat (she lived to be 17, maybe older) with a lot of health issues.

Also, about treats: freeze-dried meat treats, like Pure Bites are just meat so they're healthy. And cats love them.

Good luck!

You just have to keep in mind that your vet probably gets sponsored by Hills and gets money to sell/recommend you their food, but if your cat is overweight you should take some kind of action. Don't settle on that food just because your vet told you to get this specific one. 

Well, two things.

1. Samantha does look to me like she is losing some weight.

2. I was as Walmart this afternoon and checked out several foods that were supposed

    to be better for cats. Did not even know they sold them. Looks like some of you on TCS

    might just be forcing pet food companies to come around to your way of thinking.

    I made sure to check the calories count among other things and guess what ????

Hills calorie count is lower than any of those I saw at Walmart.

Samantha likes the Hills kibble and I make sure she has PLENTY of water during

the day and she does use her litterbox several times a day so maybe that silly Vet.

knows what he is talking about.

By the way. I bought two different treats for Samantha that contain real food and vitamins.

She turned her nose up at both

can you cut out the dry and only feed wet? 

Wish I could...

Tried a few different wet foods, Samantha sniffed them and walked away.

She has ALWAYS been extremely independent. Most times will not allow me to pick her up except if she 

wants a drink from the bathroom faucet where I cup my hands so she can have moving water.

I read a long time ago that cats like moving water in place of the other kind must be an instinct having

to do with stagnent water......damn, think I need to use my spellcheck more often