Canned chicken?

[VoidIndigo]

This may be a dumb question... but what are the pluses and minuses of feeding your can canned chicken? You know the stuff, comes from the supermarket right next to the canned tuna. Very few ingredients, decent quality meat (at least it tastes good to me) and low carbs / low calories. On the surface it seems like a decent "snack food" between meals... He's on Royan Canin SO now, so it's hard to find anything else that seems like it won't counter the effects of the specialized food he's getting.

I mean he likes it and I've only been giving him about 1/4 can a day with 1 can of the SO (total throughout the day)... just curious

 

[daftcat75]

I can't comment on the SO. But there's two risks I see here:

1. Canned chicken is not nutritionally complete. Meat alone is not complete. A cat also needs calcium, taurine, and several other vitamins and minerals in the right proportions.
2. He could end up liking this incomplete snack food more than the specialized food he's on. Now you're stuck feeding him an incomplete food that doesn't help with the condition his specialized food is intended to fix and he's not getting all the vitamins and nutrients he needs.

If he's not complaining, if he eats his special food without complaint, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

 

[Willowy]

And it has too much salt, usually.

 

[LTS3]

You're better off buying canned cat food that is just chicken. Since you only need the chicken as a topper, it's ok to feed food that isn't a complete balanced diet. Some to try are Weruva's Paw Lickin Chicken and the lesser expensive but nearly identical and made by the same company Soulistic Good Karma are two foods you can try. There's also Fancy Feast Purely in chicken, Tiki Cat chicken in broth, Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau Succulent Chicken, Applaws Tender Chicken Breast, Applaws Chicken Breast, among others.

Or just poach a skinless chicken breast in water and shred the meat to use as toppers. Freeze the extras for later use.

The SO food may not be necessarily long term. Here's a thread:

Alternatives to expensive Urinary SO food

Hi folks, I have had my kitties (all boys) on Urinary SO food as two of them have had crystals. However, at 100$ a bag it's not practical for me to feed three cats this food. I am continuing to feed it - but in all honesty 100$ is a steep price for a bag of cat food that doesn't even have that...

thecatsite.com

 

[daftcat75]

I took care of a senior cat whose appetite went up and down and I frequently resorted to these "intermittent feeding" or "supplementary feeding" only foods. I'll repeat what I said before. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Keep these supplemental foods in reserve for when you really do need them to supplement his feeding (e.g. he's not eating enough of his regular food.)

Now if you want to give him something special, you might look at EZ Complete, a powder supplement you can add to raw or cooked meat to make it nutritionally complete. Since this is a balanced and complete food, you can feed as much as you want of this. They'll send you samples which I highly recommend before buying a full bag.

EZComplete Fur Cats 225g - Makes 12.1 lbs of food

 

[VoidIndigo]

And it has too much salt, usually.

That's the one thing I was afraid of, salt isn't high on the ingredient list, but it's definitely there.

Thanks everyone, I'll put some thought into it all. He eats the one can that the vet allows him, with no problem. He's 17 lbs and I've been told he needs to lose at least 2 maybe 3 ... So I'm looking for something really low calorie in-between breakfast & supper portions of the SO food.

Oh I'm planning to switch to Dave's version of the SO meal, eventually. Once we get stabilized on this and I'm confident that he's happy & healthy on this new meal plan.

He's a big boy, he eats a can easily. I really feel like I'm under feeding him, but I'm probably overreacting