Good News About Teazer!/Need Better Food Recommendation

Hey everyone! I have good news about my Teazer-cat!

I also need recommendations for a better dry cat food for her. The vet says she's too thin and needs to fatten up (boy I wish I had that problem!). So I'm wondering about foods for her. It can't have a lot of junk in it cause of her touchy tummy, and it needs to be ok for senior cats (she turned 12 just two days ago!). So if anyone has found a food that their senior does/did well on, please let me know! Right now she is eating the Puriena (sp?) Indoor Formula.

If you want the whole story, this is the original thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97055

So the good news! Her geriatric blood panel came back with really good results! No organ failiure! She would seem to have a mild bladder infection going, which he said is common in older cats in the summer. But her kidneys are functioning just fine!

He did say however that she was 6, almost 7, lbs when she went in for her surgery in July, and now she is 4, almost 5, lbs. So in two months she's lost almost two pounds. He expects to see older cats slim down but not this much! He also sees cats loose weight on the Indoor Formula (which is a food he loves to have cats on) because it's not full of fillers, but she can't afford to loose much more weight. Her test results show that she is not diabetic, or any other organ faliure that would cause her to loose weight, and she's not showing any evidence of worms. So he thinks it's her age and the food. So he ordered that she get more of the ground up chicken (oh she's gonna hate that!) and find another dry cat food to add to the indoor formula, and see if we can get her weight up. If, in a few months, she is still loosing weight, he will take some more drastic measures. But he doesn't want to stress her out right now.

So good with a tiny bit of not good, but hopefully fixable!

My Teazer-cat is ok!!


PS. Thank you everyone for all your happy thoughts and prayers for Teazer and me!

I don't like Purina at all! My Pearl was on Purina Cat Chow Indoor as well when I adopted her and she pooped like no tomorrow! Plus they stank like crazy. Probably from all the fillers and what not. No problems now that I've taken her of that stuff. I usually would recommend Innova EVO, since it's high in protein and fat, but since she is a senior, I don't. I recommend regular Innova Cat. It's fat content is 20%. Actually, I recommend switching her off Cat Chow all together. It's one of the lowest quality food out there, IMO. Worst of the worst. I never recommend feeding something with artifical colors long term. Anyway, I'm sure feeding any higher quality food would bulk her up, since they are usually more nutrient and calorie dense than grocery brands. So any high quality food would do. (Innova, California Natural, TimberWolf Organics, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, etc.) Good luck! And congrats to you that Teazer's tests came back good!

Senior cats actually need more protein to maintain their muscle mass. Purina's Indoor Cat food has a relatively low protein level compared to adult and kitten foods.

Articles (from Purina, oddly enough):
http://www.purina.com/company/press/...OfProtein.aspx
http://www.purina.com/company/press/...eniorCats.aspx

Also, Purina Indoor is very low fat; that may be why she's losing weight. Why not try a standard adult formula from a better brand? Maybe even a kitten food, to help her gain weight.

Good and easy to get brands if you have a big box pet store ... Nutro ... Natural Balence ,, Royal canin Solid gold

California Natural Chicken and Rice is a wholesome dry food that is available in Petco stores. It has a high caloric count, cats love the taste. My cat put on a pound eating it (but this was because she was allergic to chicken.)

Originally Posted by gizmocat

California Natural Chicken and Rice is a wholesome dry food that is available in Petco stores. It has a high caloric count, cats love the taste. My cat put on a pound eating it (but this was because she was allergic to chicken.)

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This is a good food also but I have yet to see it at Petco and I work in three different ones , must be a regional item... Cal Natural is NOT high cal for a dry food it is in the 300-400 range if memory serves..

If she needs to put weight on, I wouldnt recommend Senior food - Senior food has less calories in, as older cats slow down adn tend to put weight on, so if she needs to gain weight, I would stick with adult food for the time being. It wont do her any harm as a senior to have it - only one of the oldies here is on Senior.

Originally Posted by booktigger

If she needs to put weight on, I wouldnt recommend Senior food - Senior food has less calories in, as older cats slow down adn tend to put weight on, so if she needs to gain weight, I would stick with adult food for the time being. It wont do her any harm as a senior to have it - only one of the oldies here is on Senior.

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Royal canin makes a low PROTEIN which is what older kitties need if they eat dry and high fat food for seniors ... Most senoir foods have nearly identical calories as adult it is just where they come from that is different

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the suggestions all of you! They were all a big help when I went shopping.

Don't hold back Apric0t, tell us how you really feel about Purina! That was really good info you gave me and I appreciate that you told me why you dislike Purina instead of just saying, "I hate Purina!" My vet likes indoor formulas because they get vitamins that they miss by not being outside (it's like adding salad to their diet), but he's not attached to the Purina brand Indoor Formula. So perhaps I will find another brand with an indoor formula so she can get the vitamins and not the junk.

And momto3cats thanks for the articles. You know, it makes a lot of sense and it would explain why, nearly two months later, hardly any of the hair has grown back from where it was shaved for her surgery. Her body probably doesn't want to waste resorces it doesn't have by growing hair back during the summer months!

Well, finding a big pet store isn't hard. We live just down the hill from PetSmart and PetCo. And there's a big feed store nearby that carries lots of stuff too.

I wrote down all the brands and took it to PetCo, cause up here PetCo has a larger selection than PetSmart. Believe me I was glad I wrote down all the names you told me cause you get there and there's like 50 million different brands, each of which has 500 million different types! Oh brother!

Innova, Timer Wold Organics, and California Natural got ruled out right away cause they didn't have them.

Nutro and Solid Gold got ruled out for price (I have to eat too!).

So that left Natural Balance and Royal Canin, both of which had a pretty good price and mentioned having chicken fat in them (which I figure she needs!).

I finally settled for the regular Natural Balance cat food. It was mentioned twice in this thread as a good food, it's all natural, right off the bat it mentioned three or four different sources of protein, has veggies in it for vitamins, and, what seemed like a great benefit, had dried cranberries in it, which is good for urinary tract health.

So I brought it home and T just about took my hand off getting to the dish. She didn't eat everything I gave her, but I expect that she fills up faster on this cause it's not full of junk. And the antibiotics tend to make them a little off for a while.

Thanks so much everyone! I'm so glad I asked cause I would have been totally lost had I gone to the store alone! I'll let you know how she deals with this food!

PS. I also found some of the cat litter that has crystals that respond to blood in the urine and change color. The other stuff measured ph, which someone pointed out in my other thread, isn't always off if they have a really low grade infection. So hopefully this stuff will work better!

Haha. I CANNOT stand it when vets recommend low quality foods. It drives me up the wall. Anyway, Natural Balance is an awesome food and I'm glad to hear you picked it! I'm also glad to hear Teazer likes it. She should gain weight on it. Cat Chow Indoor only has 9.5% fat! I was shocked to see that. I guess Purina thinks that Indoor cats are more prone to obesity, but 9.5%!?!?! Wow. That's VERY low. Most "light" or "reduced fat" formulas I've seen don't even have that low of fat. Natural Balance Ultra Premium (which is what I assume you mean by "original") has a fat percentage of 18%, which is MUCH better. Almost double. Well, good luck!

Sharky - it was my vet who told me that senior cats who need to put weight on shouldn't have senior food, as I wanted PEbbles on Senior food as she was 10, but as she has a weight prob, it wasn't advised for her.

Both my cats eat "W/D Feline" which I buy at the Vet's office.

I had Chynna on a low calorie one, and Abby on the W/D, but I found that Chynna was eating Abby's food and Abby was eating Chynna's. So I talked to the Vet and he suggested W/D for both of them.

They've been on it for several years already and both like it. It's small and each food piece is "round" which is important to my Abby who won't eat any food that isn't round in shape.

Abby has been putting on some weight so I'm going to go back to the calorie control one next time. I will talk to the vet before doing so though. It shouldn't be a problem because Chynna was prescribed it in the past, but I'll just make sure.

Well, so far so good. I haven't um...gotten anything back! She's perkier too. She's been on the antibiotic for 48+ hours now, she's got a better food, and she's getting more chicken twice a day. So I think it's helping!!

Originally Posted by Apric0t

I CANNOT stand it when vets recommend low quality foods. It drives me up the wall.

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I didn't say he recommended Purina, just an indoor formula. Royal Canin and Nutro have them, and he's ok with those too, as long as they get the vitamins, cause it's like adding salad to their meals. Outdoor cats get to eat grasses and stuff and it's good for their digestive tract, but most indoor cats don't have access to plants, or aren't allowed to eat the ones they do have access to. The indoor formula was originally my idea cause I had a little fern growing up through the boards on my enclosed porch that T kept chewing on, and when she did, she was perkier, didn't throw up the Science Diet she was on, and I thought, hmmmm... I thought I was helping her!! Anyway, my vet likes indoor formulas (any brand), he just thinks that in T's case that it's not sufficient as her only source of food. I didn't realize the fat content was so low though!! Where do you find that info?! Btw, what do you think of Science Diet? We won't even go into Friskies!


So here's funny story. I used to give her the Science Diet Hairball Formula (SD), but it had dyes in it and her stomach wouldn't tolerate it, but she was having hairballs. So, to get her extra vitamins I got the Purina Indoor and mixed the two. Suddenly, I kept finding cat food on the floor. I'd pick it up, put it back in the dish, and the next morning, there it was again! I suddenly realized that all I was finding on the floor was the SD. That little scamp was pawing food out of her dish and eating around the SD and eating only the Purina pieces! She would NOT eat the SD! Now that I have the new food, she's suddenly turning up her nose at the Purina as if it was compost. CATS!!

You could grow some cat grass for her, it grows really quickly, I just have a habit of killing it.

You too?! Plants cry when left in my care! I kill plants even when I'm trying to not kill them!

i have killed so much cat grass - teh prob is I foster, and have a cat room, so I keep it in there, and i forget to water it. I haven't managed to kill the catnip plant yet, it has been here 16 months now - did nearly kill it, but fortunately repotting it worked!! Only prob was it then had a growth spurt, and the cats didn't wnat it in such large quantities!! Maybe catnip plants are just a lot hardier than cat grass is - they are the only things I ever have in my house plant wise. Only have cat grass outside too!!

here is a link to compare wet and dry cat foods

http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canned.htm

Well, so far, mostly so good. She hasn't thrown up any of the food, but, well, her stomach is growling and rumbling more than usual, she's really gassy, and her litterbox just REAKS!! I mean, it was bad before, but it's impossible to sleep if the litterbox is in my bedroom. I had to move it into the hall. So I may need to try a different food.

But she's putting on weight and she's stopped walking into another room and yowling really loud. My mom's cat used to do that but she was old, blind, and senile. Teazer isn't. I think she was trying to tell me that she was hungry.

The only thing she's done that kinda irritated me is that she puddled on a pile of dirty clothes. But an article in the behavior section leads me to believe that she did it because, a) it had my scent on it very strongly, and b) one shirt had gotten bleach on it and they are drawn to that. On the plus side, there was no blood on the clothes! I don't think it's a bladder infection this time (but I will keep an eye on it) because her little heat reflection pad was on my bed and she had a bed full of clean clothes right next to her. She didn't touch the clean clothes or the bed, she went right for the dirty clothes. So I think she was stressed and went for the stuff with my scent on it. The article said that it makes her feel safe. Gee...thanks T!!

see list .... What stores are easy access to you??