Lard?

[syzygycat]

Anyone have luck with their cats eating lard?
I'm trying to find ways to boost the calories it my skinny CKD cats diet. She barely finishes a 3 ounce can of food a day. Is loosing weight too fast.
I tried the more traditional tricks, thought straight animal fat would work, nope.

None of my cats seem interested in it.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, consider hand feeding. It was how I kept weight on my cat when he was ill. My vet at the time recommended using a popsicle stick and pate style food, and putting him up on the kitchen counter to make things easier (ie; reaching his mouth) during feedings.

Also, there might be something in the variety of things listed in this that helps;
Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

 

[iPappy]

Have you tried all meat baby food? Some cats like goats milk, and it seems to be well tolerated. Churu treats are another good option as well.
Lard would make me hesitant, only because CKD cats can be at risk for pancreatitis.
Have you ask your vet about using Hills A/D? It's very high in calories compared to "regular" foods.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I am sure it is listed in the link above, and was also mentioned in the next post - try baby food meat - Gerber Stage 2 or Beechnut.

My CKD cat doesn't always get through an entire 3oz can of cat food in a day, but she will eat the baby food meat. She can actually manage to eat a 2.5 oz jar in an hour or less. They run anywhere from 50 - 80 calories per jar. Because I rely on them to the point that more than half of her daily calories are from the baby food meat, I use EZ Complete to make them nutritionally complete for a cat/ The only one I can't do that with is the chicken one due to too much calcium in the combination. But, she loves the beef and ham, and will even eat an occasional turkey one despite the fact she doesn't like turkey cat foods.

The EZ Complete is pre-mixed and all you have to do is mix in 1/2 tsp with each jar.
EZComplete Premix Information (foodfurlife.com)

 

[syzygycat]

Hi, consider hand feeding. It was how I kept weight on my cat when he was ill. My vet at the time recommended using a popsicle stick and pate style food, and putting him up on the kitchen counter to make things easier (ie; reaching his mouth) during feedings.

Also, there might be something in the variety of things listed in this that helps;
Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

Yeah I hand feed my other cat. This skinny cat won't get her to eat food she doesn't want.
I gotta add more calories to food she does eat. A teaspoon of lard would've added 40 calories. I'm very surprised cats didnt love lard, it's pure animal fat.

This cat's a little odd. She always ate a tiny bit (so gets fed 4x/day and she wants variety.
It made it easy to transition her to new food (had to do it in gradual increments with the other cats).
But if she gets the same food twice in 2 weeks, she won't touch it.

Had tons of options before her kidney issues, of could give a different flavor for each meal for 2weeks.
Now she should only eat RX kidney food. We have RX's for 4 different brands of kidney food.
Between the 5 RX flavors she liked, and lower phosphate non-rx food, human baby food. We only have 12 foods to rotate. Give the same one too soon and she won't eat it at all.
We did the freeze dried, lickable treats, tuna, chicken, butter as toppers but she's figured out the trick after a month.
if she cant easily lick off the topper off she won't touch it.

I now mash & squeeze out the liquid of her Rx food then stir in a soup of normal cat food & water, but it's taking more each time.
Most normal cat foods she likes has 5x more phosphates than she should have. Adding 20% fancyfeast she's double her phosphate intake. defeats the purpose of RX food.

Best we can do now is give her 1 flavor/brand for all 4 meals. Shell eat most of her breakfast but for the next 3 meals will stuff the plate then follow md around and howl for an hour.

 

[FeebysOwner]

But if she gets the same food twice in 2 weeks, she won't touch it.

My cat - the one who readily eats the baby food meat - is like that. I have to have about 10 different foods before I can repeat one. Actually, I rotate between two pet stores so I can get different foods, so it probably is more like the 2 weeks you are talking about. I buy no more than two cans of each food, because I never know when she might stop eating one of them.

 

[syzygycat]

Have you tried all meat baby food? Some cats like goats milk, and it seems to be well tolerated. Churu treats are another good option as well.
Lard would make me hesitant, only because CKD cats can be at risk for pancreatitis.
Have you ask your vet about using Hills A/D? It's very high in calories compared to "regular" foods.

Would small amounts of lard be any more problematic than the fat already in cat food? AFAIK 25% of her cal should be from fat. She's down to 9bs, she should eat 110-180+cal/day. I doubt she gets 60. Kinda thought adding 3g of fat could at least get her fat

I've tried the rest except goat milk. If she's not interested in regular milk (or any dairy products) is it worth bothering to buy goat milk?

PS I've seen churu recommended in lots of posts, I've tried most of the flavors, my cats like it but it doesn't get the enthusiastic reaction that hartz or temptations lickable treats get. They try to shove each other and all lick the tube of squeeze-up. Theyll walk away from churu if another cat tries to get at it.
Churu as well as the other lickable brands have crazy high phosphates (2-3% DM), bad on their own and I'd have to use a lot of it to change the flavor of the Rx food.

 

[syzygycat]

My cat - the one who readily eats the baby food meat - is like that. I have to have about 10 different foods before I can repeat one. Actually, I rotate between two pet stores so I can get different foods, so it probably is more like the 2 weeks you are talking about. I buy no more than two cans of each food, because I never know when she might stop eating one of them.

My cats act like it's the most delicious thing in the world if I bought 3 cans of a food from a petstore. As soon as I buy a case, the act like it's inedible.