Just adopted a really thin cat. What diet should I put her on to help her gain weight?

[leoandlexi]

We got an eight month old kitty from the shelter yesterday. She's really small and very thin. I assume she wasn't eating well before she ended up at the shelter. Any advice on what type of food I should be feeding her? She seems just ok with the kitten chow that our 6 month old is still eating. She finished off all the wet food we had this morning so I was going to head out and get some more for her but thought there might be a certain brand or perhaps I should mix dry/wet to help her bulk up a little.

Also side question- Once the two cats are introduced and ok with each other will she be ok to eat kitten chow a little longer than a year so our other kitty can eat it til he's 1 year old? Or would it be better to switch to an adult food when he hits 8 months and her 1 year?

 

[lisahe]

As our vet told us when we adopted two underfed ten-month-old kittens, "unlimited calories!" Preferably protein calories -- canned foods with lots of meat instead of carby fillers -- since she's growing and probably very hungry. It took our cats a month or two to really start to look like they weren't skinny; they continued filling out for much longer. They were incredibly active so they burned off calories really fast: they ate a ton.

If you need to feed dry food, I'd suggest looking for something other than Kitten Chow, which has chicken by-product meal -- instead of actual chicken -- as its first ingredient; corn, rice, and soy come after that. The more meat-based protein a cat a kitten can eat, the better for its development. And yes, it's fine to feed adult food to kittens; lots of foods are marked "for all life stages."

Did the shelter send you home with small amounts of the foods Lexi (I'm figuring the new kitten is Lexi?) had been eating there? If so, it's probably best to feed those first and slowly start transitioning her to other foods. It's great that she's already eating and finishing off food: it took a few days for ours to really come out of hiding and eat well.

If you're looking for easy-to-find grocery store canned food brands that are fairly caloric, lots of Cat Site members seem to feed and recommend Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates, and Sheba. Pet store brands might include Wellness Core (their kitten food seems popular--our cats ate a lot of Wellness Core in the beginning) and Merrick, particularly the limited ingredient foods, which are heavy on meat and light on fillers. But that's just a start!

Good luck!

 

[dbljj]

when I started Opie on dryfood vet told me to put baby food meat on top of it .I would use half jar of Gerber beef, chicken, turkey. we had to bottle feed  him for a few weeks, he had not had his eyed open but a day or three vet said..

 

[ellag]

the best food, imo is wet food. any wet is better than dry. grain free is best for cats. check out this site for cat nutrition info: www.catinfo.org

 

[ravenclaw]

My vet told me that cat food "for all life stages" is not good enough for kittens. I don't know how well informed she is about nutrition, though. I would recommend low-carb wet kitten food for your skinny kitten, all she wants to eat. I would think an adult cat, if not overweight, could eat kitten food. But ask your vet.

 

[leoandlexi]

Yup Lexi is our new girl. Thanks everyone for your help! I will definitely try these and find a diet she likes and hope she starts to put on a little weight

 

[ftmba]

 
My vet told me that cat food "for all life stages" is not good enough for kittens. I don't know how well informed she is about nutrition, though. I would recommend low-carb wet kitten food for your skinny kitten, all she wants to eat. I would think an adult cat, if not overweight, could eat kitten food. But ask your vet.

I would disagree with your vet here. Food that is labeled for all life stages includes the minimums for the kitten stage.

 
Yup Lexi is our new girl. Thanks everyone for your help! I will definitely try these and find a diet she likes and hope she starts to put on a little weight

In general:

raw/wet > dry

real meat should make up the majority of the food and the first few ingredients.

avoid grains (rice, corn, etc)

There is some research that carrageenan may be harmful to pets (it's a thickener used in a lot of canned foods), it may be worth it to avoid it or minimize it.

Many people feed a rotation of wet foods, but generally only feed 1 dry food.

There aren't any real "perfect" foods other than making it yourself, it's a series of tradeoffs/benefits, so I would suggest buying the best food you're comfortable with financially.

On the more affordable end, fancy feast classics and sheba pates, among others, seem to be real popular.

On the more expensive end, Nutro natural choice and nature's variety instinct, among others, are some good choices.

 

[lisahe]

I would disagree with your vet here. Food that is labeled for all life stages includes the minimums for the kitten stage.

Our vet (who's a cat specialist and big into nutrition) also said there's no need for kitten food. The biggest advantage to kitten foods is that they're pretty caloric, which can make them convenient. But plenty of adult foods, like Nutro, Nature's Variety, Tiki, Wellness, and many others are very caloric, too; not all cans show calories but company Web sites usually do. We fed our skinny kittens a lot of different foods when they were still getting caught up on their weight, leaning toward calorie-heavy foods but occasionally giving them lower-cal stuff, too, like Weruva, for variety. (It also really helped to get a sense of what they liked early on.)

Here's a good basic intro on foods, from a vet. I like her approach a lot, in general.

Originally Posted by ftmba
raw/wet > dry

real meat should make up the majority of the food and the first few ingredients.

avoid grains (rice, corn, etc)

There is some research that carrageenan may be harmful to pets (it's a thickener used in a lot of canned foods), it may be worth it to avoid it or minimize it.

Many people feed a rotation of wet foods, but generally only feed 1 dry food.

There aren't any real "perfect" foods other than making it yourself, it's a series of tradeoffs/benefits, so I would suggest buying the best food you're comfortable with financially.

And these are great general guidelines. In the end, it really is all a trade-off: there are no perfect foods, particularly because cats can be so picky and fickle, and cat food can get very expensive!

 

[cinqchats]

At the shelter we feed the kittens (generally under 6 months old, unless they're very skinny when they come in): 1/3 cup of kibbles and 4 oz of pate-style wet food each, AM and PM. Basically the plan is unlimited calories. If we have kitten food that's been donated, we'll give it to them. If not the adult food works just fine.