I recently transitioned my three cats to a wellness core canned food diet. I do supplement a little bit with their dry food but they primarily eat the wet food. I did quite a bit of research on food and was most satisfied with this brand for the cost. My oldest cat is almost 6 (all Indoor cats), And weighs 18 pounds . he is a large breed, but he’s definitely overweight. I’m wondering if anyone has ever noticed a difference in weight while using wellness core? I’m hoping this may help him
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Wellness Core & Weight
- Thread starter Katzzally
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A lot of people feed wellness, i personally do not. I feel its a bit low in protein and high in fat. I dont like to restrict my cats access to food, they get cranky 
and i get stressed. so i feed a lot of foods that are fairly low in calories and fat, and let them eat
I feed two wet meals per day, and also feed Dr. Elseys dry, it is the lowest carb dry i can find. I think cats often gain weight if the food is high in carbs, and then fat. we want high protein, moderate fat, and low carbs.
For wet food i feed a lot of weruva, tiki cat mainly after dark, nutro minced chicken and sliced turkey, some fancy feast, trying some of the almo nature complete foods now, you have to watch their foods, they are not all balanced. the complete is, and the new la cucina foods are. I try to follow Dr. Piersons recommendations on high protein, moderate fat, and low carb. this is sometimes hard to do, but i try to get close. i put a link to her chart of foods below.
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
you can check more dry foods, as well as wet here.
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat
and i get stressed. so i feed a lot of foods that are fairly low in calories and fat, and let them eat I feed two wet meals per day, and also feed Dr. Elseys dry, it is the lowest carb dry i can find. I think cats often gain weight if the food is high in carbs, and then fat. we want high protein, moderate fat, and low carbs.
For wet food i feed a lot of weruva, tiki cat mainly after dark, nutro minced chicken and sliced turkey, some fancy feast, trying some of the almo nature complete foods now, you have to watch their foods, they are not all balanced. the complete is, and the new la cucina foods are. I try to follow Dr. Piersons recommendations on high protein, moderate fat, and low carb. this is sometimes hard to do, but i try to get close. i put a link to her chart of foods below.
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
you can check more dry foods, as well as wet here.
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat
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I'm not sure brand really has anything to do with managing weight. Higher quality protein may help a bit if you are free feeding as perhaps he won't be prone to overeating if it keeps him full longer. Personally, I find timed meals and calorie counting to be the best way to manage weight. My cat is a medium framed female tuxedo and she got up to about 17lbs. We have been working on weight loss since last July-ish and she is down to 13lbs on a diet of mostly canned Friskies. Aiming for 11lbs.
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I have 3 cats who eat just about exactly the same amount each day for years. one is 11.8 pounds constant, the other fluctuates 13-14 and the huge one is 21 pounds. They eat 75% wet and 25% dry. just switching now from purina beyond and friskies to nulo and wellness and a few others. Sometimes cats just get fat, honestly I don't know how to get this big guy to lose weight. he's eating less than 250 calories a day, more like 200 many days and still huge.
Wellness CORE is much higher in protein than regular wellness. I really like most of their recipes, specifically the CORE pates.
Actually, the type of food can help A LOT with weight loss, but you do have to be mindful of portion size with any food.
Figure out how many calories the cats were eating on Friskies, and then calculate how much that would be of the wellness core canned. I assume the wellness has more calories, so you probably need to feed less of it. And then slowly cut back from there until you start to see weight loss.
The reason the food type makes a difference is because calories from protein are much more filling than calories from starch and carbohydrates, especially for cats, who are designed so specifically to get their nutrients from meat. My cat was on a food with potato starch, and I would cut back her food to less than 200 calories a day and she would be meowing like she was starving-and still gaining weight! Then I switched to high protein foods and I was able to cut back to about 180 calories a day and she was not nearly as hungry, and she lost weight! Of course she still loves her food so I have to be careful to not let her eat as much as she wants, but she's not nearly as hungry and it's a lot easier for both of us on the high protein foods.
Actually, the type of food can help A LOT with weight loss, but you do have to be mindful of portion size with any food.
Figure out how many calories the cats were eating on Friskies, and then calculate how much that would be of the wellness core canned. I assume the wellness has more calories, so you probably need to feed less of it. And then slowly cut back from there until you start to see weight loss.
The reason the food type makes a difference is because calories from protein are much more filling than calories from starch and carbohydrates, especially for cats, who are designed so specifically to get their nutrients from meat. My cat was on a food with potato starch, and I would cut back her food to less than 200 calories a day and she would be meowing like she was starving-and still gaining weight! Then I switched to high protein foods and I was able to cut back to about 180 calories a day and she was not nearly as hungry, and she lost weight! Of course she still loves her food so I have to be careful to not let her eat as much as she wants, but she's not nearly as hungry and it's a lot easier for both of us on the high protein foods.
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180? that seems so low to me?unless you have a teeny 8 pound cat?
according to this chart anyway at https://petsci.co.uk/feline-calorie-calculator/
my cats should be eating 240cals to the 300's
according to this chart anyway at https://petsci.co.uk/feline-calorie-calculator/
my cats should be eating 240cals to the 300's
Oh yeah, it does seem low, but I didn't start out at 180. I weighed her every week and slowly cut back on her food. 180 is when she started maintaining, 170 is closer to where she actually started losing weight. I should say it's very important to cut back gradually! If a cat loses more than 2 percent of their weight in a week, they are in danger of developing fatty liver disease. I followed Dr. Pierson's instructions on cat info.org pretty closely. It definitely does take time and patience.
That said, I think it would have been difficult for Delilah to lose too much weight even if I'd tried. The weight came off very slowly. She's not an active cat, so that may have had something to do with it. She was over 14 pounds and came down to 12.5. Still, Dr. Pierson even says that in her experience she's rarely sees weight loss start to happen until calories are down to 180, so those weight calculators might be more generous than reality.
Here's the link to Dr. Pierson's method if you're interested: Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats
