Good Diet Food - please HELP!

[kittylover77]

Even though I gave into the begging she is still not eating even the reduced amount of food that sharky recommended.

She might have eaten .2 cups overall today and purged half of that.

She is protesting against Lite version definitely. I am worried that she will be adverse to EVO too now.

I think I might go to the pet shoppe and see what else is easily available, just in case.

 

[whuckleberry]

i feel your pain, as i'm trying to reduce my kitty's weight, too. can you time things so the kibble runs out while you're not home? that's what i do, so he's hungry when i return from work, and more willing to eat the wet food. or does she always eat all the kibble at once? i agree with more exercise. wally does love to play, but he expects me to be fully involved- meaning, i have to get MY butt off the couch, and literally run around the apartment with the toy mouse. talk about high maintenance

. but hey, exercise is good for mommy too!

 

[kittylover77]

I could definitely time things, however I can feed in the morning and night and I am home for lunch, so I can feed that 3rd meal too if needed!

Being misinformed, I thought "light" foods are better and help with weight loss, but with many responses here, I've changed my mind.

EVO formula is wonderful, but it is very rich, and high in calories. It worries me a bit.
My kitty is gluttonous, and since I'll have to reduce her amount of food, I know she will feel hungry and whine.

I wish I knew of other foods that are comparable to raw diet in kibble but are just slightly less caloric and still have all the good ingredients.

Any suggestions?

 

[catsarebetter]

There are a number of "raw" kibbles out there. Unfortunately, the only one I can find near me is Innova Evo. If I ever want to put the girls on something else, I'm probably going to have to do more searching... fortunately, they like it well enough.

Here's a link to a pet store that lists several types, with links to the manufacturer so you can do an area code search as well. http://www.acreaturecomfort.com/cathealth.htm

 

[kittylover77]

Thank you for the linky!
I love of other "raw" kibbles, have garlic, grapefruit oil extract and alfalfa.
Which I was told by my vet are not good for kitties (deadly in the right amounts).

Not sure if its true or not.

Kitty food industry is very confusing.

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by kittylover77

Thank you for the linky!
I love of other "raw" kibbles, have garlic, grapefruit oil extract and alfalfa.
Which I was told by my vet are not good for kitties (deadly in the right amounts).

Not sure if its true or not.

Kitty food industry is very confusing.

According to my vet Garlic is a NO NO ... alfalfa is a allergen but only in some cats .... and grapefruit extract is GOOD for kitties GRAPESEED is Posionous

 

[kittylover77]

Err!
Yes, thank you for the correction. I was actually told grapefruit seed extract by my vet.
I have it written down.

I was just looking at the ingredients of Raw Instinct Grain-Free Nutrition formula, and it has grapefruit seed extract and alfalfa. I'm glad it doesn't have garlic though.

Before EVO, that is the food I was looking at. You learn something new every day.

 

[kalikat]

After reading all the posts I will put my 2 cents worth in. In changing her diet I would have done as with kittens - 3/4 old with 1/4 new for a week then 1/2 & 1/2 for a week etc. 6 - 7.5 cups seems a terrible lot of food. Even my 6 y/o 75lb dog only gets 3 - 4 cups per day. I also would not have been giving her 3 meals per day. My 6 m/o kitten has been on 3 meals p/d. Will now go onto 2 meals p/d at least until 1 yr. Have you tried her on raw lean chicken?
As for exercise you'll need to encourage her to move. I once saw an overweight bunny on TV & the owners had to get it to exercise. They had a 2 story house & put a piece of food on each step a few at a time to get it to go up & down the stairs until it went up/down further each day. Maybe start with down only or up which ever she prefers. They also encouraged it to come to them with food. You could try this with kitty a little bit each day, increasing it every few days until she gets fitter.
Good luck.

 

[kittylover77]

Thank you for your suggestions Kalikat!
I am trying to get her to exercise. I think it will take a while, but I know if she lost some of this extra weight, it would be easier for her to move. Maybe then she would think laser pointer is there for her to play with.

I am feeding her .6 of a cup, which is about 2/3 of a cup; which is not a large amount of food at all.

I fed her 3/4 to 1 cup before, but I have reduced the amount since.

She loves her kibble; she is against good canned food and I really don't want to switch her over to all raw diet.

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by kittylover77

Thank you for your suggestions Kalikat!
I am trying to get her to exercise. I think it will take a while, but I know if she lost some of this extra weight, it would be easier for her to move. Maybe then she would think laser pointer is there for her to play with.

I am feeding her .6 of a cup, which is about 2/3 of a cup; which is not a large amount of food at all.

I fed her 3/4 to 1 cup before, but I have reduced the amount since.

She loves her kibble; she is against good canned food and I really don't want to switch her over to all raw diet.

Why not all raw???

I like raw insticts unfortunately Zoey was less enthused

 

[kittylover77]

Mmm.. because I think if I was eating veggies all my life and then someone would take them away and give me all meat. I'd be upset.

If I ever get a kitten, I'll do everything right from the start, like a good mommy.

 

[catsarebetter]

There are a lot of reasons why I'm switching to raw, after the research and information I've seen, but... I can understand why switching to raw is a less than perfect option for a lot of people. I've now got two on raw, and two on dry.. and the two on raw have to be accounted for when we go anywhere or are running late getting home from work.. and it's a lot of preparation over and above their feeding.

I think there is a difference between grapeseed extract and grapefruit seed extract, but don't quote me on that.. you'd probably have to look it up. I think it's a completely different seed/extract.

 

[beandip]

Originally Posted by kittylover77

Mmm.. because I think if I was eating veggies all my life and then someone would take them away and give me all meat. I'd be upset.

If I ever get a kitten, I'll do everything right from the start, like a good mommy.

I can see your point, but on the same token, if someone offered me 1/4 lb of meat next to a 1/2 cup of dehydrated astronaut snacks, I'd take the meat.

We just dropped kibble all together here. We've been working towards this for awhile. It feels like "tough love" a little but they are quick to forgive and forget. There's a temporary disappointment on thier part, but it's for their health, in the long run.

If there's no other option, I agree w/the previous posters re. using the same food but smaller portions.

 

[kittylover77]

Am using smaller portions. Lots of whining and begging going on here.

I think kitties want quantity over quality.

 

[cloud_shade]

That's normal at first. Sometimes it gets better if you ignore them. Other times, they get creative. When I first started ignoring Odo's begging for food (which usually came at least an hour before I wanted to get up) he began biting my head and hitting me in the face. He now knows that this isn't very effective, so instead he lays on my hair, kneads it really fast and purrs at the top of his voice. I either get up or shove him off the bed when he does that, but I never feed him right away--I don't want him to think that he was able to get me up to feed him.

 

[kittylover77]

Hehe, my kitty tries to wake me up in the morning by loudly purring and crawling all over me.
I promptly lock her out of the room and proceed to sleep.

 

[artgecko]

I've had my 15lb cat for about 1 month now (not long, I know) and he was about 2lbs overweight when I got him from the shelter... So, I decided to feed him nutro weight management (they also make an "indoor" version of it). From what I've read, nutro is a pretty good food, although not as "high end" as evo (and not as pricey). It's available at our local petsmart and at petcos, so should be easy to find. I was told by the nutro rep at our petco that they have a good return policy, if you cat hates it, bring the reciept and the bag (with at least a cup of it left in the bottom) to the place of purchase and you'll get a refund.

So far, the cat likes it and he's losing some weight.
Although this might not be universally applicable, I took him to the vet and told her what and how much I was feeding (the bag rec'd feeding 1,1/3c for weight loss) and she said that the bags usually overestimate the amount of food that a cat needs and she rec'd that I only feed 1/2c. a day for weight loss (this is the normal amount she feeds to her 13lb cat for maintenence).

I don't know if the "bag overesitimates the amount of food needed" is just a trait common to the "lower end" foods or not, but it's something to think about.

Also, you might want to try using food-dispensing toys to get your cat to be more active and eat slower...which should (in theory) keep them from scarfing all of their food down at once (and the problems that go along with it). My friend has been using OurPet's "play-n-treat" balls to exclusively feed her cat and it usually takes her about 30 - 45 mins to get the food out of them.

I recently (3 days ago) started using the treat balls with my cat and he seems to eat less when using them (I was feeding 1/2 can wet in morning and then 1/2c at night dry) now, he seems to only go through about 3/8c dry...he'll play with the ball for a while get several pieces out, loose interest, come back a couple hours later, play some more, etc. Instead of the ~5min. it used to take him to consume an entire 1/2c kibble before.

Art

 

[kittylover77]

I didn't even realize you could return opened bags of food.
Since Innova Lite didn't go over well, I called the store to inquire if they would take it back and they said they do that without a question!
I am happy I didn't waste the money.
I was also told that that formula is getting discontinued, it would be nice to know that when I bought it, I wouldn't even get it then.

The lady advised me to get Senior food, instead of Lite kinds too. Although I was not trying to purchase anything.

Kitty weight loss takes time, so I am not seeing much of a difference so far.
What I noticed though is that EVO is much more popular with my cat than any other food I try.
The store gave me a sample of Natural Balance food, and my kitty ate it gladly but she left a bunch of it in the bowl.

Whenever I give her some EVO, its cleared right off the plate, no matter how much I give.
Its like its encouraging her to eat more.

I suppose its like caviar for humans.

I want to find less tasty good food, so she leaves some of it in the bowl and is not so excited about food as she is about EVO.