MD food equiv?

Hi!

Small intro: I am seriously considering adopting a cat from the shelter where I work, but I want to do some research first. She is a fatty mc fatterton (hence the SN) and is on MD food as like "pre-diabetic, weight loss" type of thing.

I loathe science diet and hills and would like to do anything I can to avoid feeding it! I was thinking that maybe Innova Evo would be a good choice because it's a high protein, low carb food. But I'm really not too sure!

Any advice? Any advice about wet v. dry would be nice too and maybe a pre-made raw option? I don't know. She's a middle age kitty, about 10 years old, so I really want her to loose weight so she doesn't die in a couple of years from being so freaking fat!

Thanks!

P.

Evo would not be appropriate due to age... What you need to do is consult a vet about other options.. a senior food with some wt loss aid may help but I AM NOT A VET

I hesitate to bring it up to the vet b/c all they'll tell me to do is feed her MD SD. They tell me Science Diet is the best I could feed my dogs and NO WAY! So, I'm assuming it's equally bad for cats.

Now, re: her age being a factor w/Evo: Is it the ash content or something that would difficult for her?

Does she like canned food? That's good for weight loss and carb control, especially if you go with the wet foods that don't have rice added to them. Then you would have so many options to feed and don't have to feed Hill's. Hill's canned food is actually high in carbs anyway compared to other brands, even the canned m/d surprisingly. I once saw this on a table on the internet on a website dedicated to feline diabetis and the table contains information regarding how much carbohydrate is in certain foods, both wet and dry. I don't have the link but I've posted it in the past and if you want I can post the link to the website when I get home from work, because I would have to find it first. Or maybe someone can find the thead and pull it up.

Merrick Turducken and some other flavors have a low glycemic label on them.

Thanks for the reply. I'm sure she'd like wet food, she's such an oinker! I know all these dog nutrition sites but not a single kitty one!

EVO is grain free, but it does contain potatoes.

hmmm... Merrick, eh? Could work!

We feed Merrick - Thanksgiving Day Dinner and Granny's Pot Pie (chicken and beef respectively). Our cats don't like anything with fish and these are the only 2 Merrick flavours they will eat. Bijou has slimmed down a fair bit since I started feeding wet. Before, I only ever fed all dry until I learned how much better it was for them to eat wet.

Ash is one reason I dont recommend EVO for older cats... The other is the HIGH HIGH protein ... I only worry about that since it is dried the wet EVO no trouble other than high ash and Mag

Merrick is a good choice as would wysongs au jus as a treat

Here is the link to the website I was refering to.

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html

I am sure someone will come along to help you more. I just wanted to say that vets are rarely trained in nutrition. Don't even bother asking a vet for what to feed. He will recommend what he sells. I am trying to get my little sister to understand that. She knows her vet personally as a relative of her husband and she recommends Iams as the best food out there. I can't get my sis to understand that vets don't know about nutrition and good foods. You can already see that since your vet is recommending the wrong food which he just so happens to sell.

I would recommend wet food and leave out the dry altogether, too fattening. A high quality wet for senior cats. That is all I can say to help, I know it's not much help. Maybe look for a feline nutritionist if ther eis such a thing.

Thanks Jen! I know about the vets and no nutrion thing. They keep trying to sell me science diet for my dogs. BLECH! No thanks. Best thing I ever did was stop feeding them that!

So, wet vs dry? Why is wet better?

Originally Posted by Fats McGee

Thanks Jen! I know about the vets and no nutrion thing. They keep trying to sell me science diet for my dogs. BLECH! No thanks. Best thing I ever did was stop feeding them that!

So, wet vs dry? Why is wet better?

Click to expand...

less fattening, less carbs for one. As long as you get a good quiality wet. Not junky ones full of by-products and fillers or rice, but I think you know all about that already Dry is just more fattening.

Vets due know what is what when it comes to RX diets thus YES talk to them but get the info together and discuss it ... I had to do that when my Kandie wouldnt eat the kidney RX ... Wet food is easier to control as many have little to no grains

Wet food has helped a lot with my overweight foster - yet not my overweight permanent cat, and I Would see if she will eat a senior food. But exercise is just as important to getting her to lose weight, you cant just expect to put a food down and it will magically work.

Hehe, yah, she's really lazy too, so I'm thinking about getting her a harness and making her walk or go outside with it and let her explore. (On a leash)

She's a fat, lazy, cranky old lady. And that's why she's awesome!

Don't forget the other important benefit of canned food, water. Cats are related to the desert dwelling African Wild Cat that obtains moisture from natural prey and very rarely drinks. To the cat it's not really natural to drink from a bowl of water although it's important to provide it as a supplement anyway. Canned food is 78% water but has more protein on a dry matter basis than dry food. So a cat that eats wet food is getting lots of moisture, plenty of protein and an adequate level of fat without eating an excessive amount of calories plus wet food doesn't have all those unnecessary carbohydrates.

Although cats on dry food drink more water than cats on canned(because they don't need to drink as much) they often don't drink enough to compensate for the lack of moisture in dry food so they live in a constant state of dehydration which can increase the risk of kidney and/or urinary tract disease although not every cat on dry food will get it, it just increases the risk and you have no way of knowing how susceptible your cat is.

So there you have the advantages of canned food. It's more similar to the natural diet of cats and is superior to the dry Hills m/d diet. Hill's m/d dry food is also very high in calories.