Yet another cat food question - fat cats with urinary tract issues

January 28, 2012 11:43 AM

I took Damon to the vet yesterday and he's about 5 lbs over weight. Squeaky is similarly overweight. Damon has had crystals in his urinary tract (several years ago), so I'm looking for a diet food that will minimize crystal formation.

The vet suggested Hills Science Diet r/d, but it's insanely expensive and the first few ingredients are filler. I've been feeding them Purina One urinary tract health, which probably isn't any better, but if I'm going to pay more I want it to be meatier.

Both are neutered male DSHs. Damon is 10.5 years old and Squeaky is 6. Damon will eat almost anything, but Squeaky is really picky and will. not. eat. wet. food. I've tried different kinds, mixing it gradually with dry, etc, but he would rather go hungry. I don't have the patience or money to try this for months and months.

tl;dr: dry food for weight loss that's not filler and won't promote crystals in urine

gratuitous pic of them together, gratuitous kitten photo

posted by desjardins to Pets & Animals (15 answers total)

Sorry if this is an unhelpful non-answer, but have you tried just feeding them less? My cats were gaining weight on their prescription urinary formula food, so I cut back their portions. Now they're maintaining healthy weights. I can't remember the exact proportions, but I've ended up feeding them something like half or two thirds of the daily amount recommended on the cat food bag. I don't really understand "diet" food for pets—if you need to feed them fewer calories, the direct way to do that is to give them less food. They may protest the reduction at first, but they'll get used to it.
posted by Orinda at 12:08 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've had similar issues with my cats - one is overweight and was developing crystals, which I found out about when I had to take him to the vet for constipation issues. I put them on natural cat food and have mostly tried to go grain-free. I have several holistic pet food stores near me, but petsmart also carries more of these. For dry food I get Simply Nourish at petsmart and I've been feeding Wellness cans. The constipation issues have cleared up, and I haven't been back to the vet but I've heard that the natural/'holistic'/grain-free food has helped a lot of cats with issues from weight gain to urinary crystals to lack of energy, etc. I don't think the Simply Nourish is grain-free, but instead of things like corn gluten, which are bad, it has sweet potatoes and other things like that as filler. The Wellness is marked as grain-free.

Also want to note that a lot of the 'holistic' cat food is more expensive, but the cats really do eat less, and my guy with issues used to gobble everything in sight.

There have been some other good discussions about cat food on mefi. Very informative and helped me a lot because my vet only wanted to sell me their food, which has corn gluten and other bad things in it and I wanted to stay away from that.
posted by fromageball at 12:25 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I suggest giving them only filtered water. And to lose weight, exercise! Play with the boys. Make 'em chase the feather-on-a-fishing-pole or a laser pointer. Leave plastic milk tab circles and twist-ties peeking temptingly half under a door or furniture.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:37 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

First of all, please PLEASE read this. It's a very informative paper on cat nutrition written by a veterinary doctor.

Secondly, if you are concerned for your cats health I'd recommend dropping the kibble completely (cats need plenty water in their diet, dry food doesn't really cut it in that regard) though considering your second cat won't eat it... would you be okay with giving a raw diet a try? It's perfect for cats (considering they're obligate carnivores) and can be cheaper than just buying regular kibble/wet food. There's also pre-packaged raw diets, like Nature's Variety which I've been recommended before. (Myself? I get whole rodents for my cats and supplement with wet food).

If this is really not possible and the cats aren't receptive to it, then I'll second fromageball and recommend a holistic, grain-free food. As mentioned, Wellness is said to be very good.
posted by Trexsock at 12:38 PM on January 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wet food has been recommended here by vets and cat-knowledgeable people, too.

As for dry food, grain-free holistic ones such as fromageball mentions are indeed great. My cats eat that, plus a bit of wet food as a treat every evening. My older guy is turning 3 soon and is as fit as a fiddle. They do indeed eat less of it too, so it ends up costing about as much as stuff with not-so-good filler in it.

Some brand names for grain-free food are: Acana, Orijen, Applaws. Applaws makes wet food that is just wow. Every can of it I opened, actually looked like food, not nondescript pâté. Looks aren't everything, but still, being able to see actual fish and prawns tells you that yes indeed, they do use real fish and prawns.
posted by fraula at 12:45 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've fed my cat a grain-free diet ever since I had a talk with my vet about advice I'd read in a pet-food thread on AskMe several years back. I had to try a few different brands until we landed on one she loves (the trout variety), but it was totally worth it, plus I'd been given samples and cheap trial-size bags, so it didn't cost much at all. (Wigglyville in Chicago is an awesome little independent if you ever visit!)

The price for grain-free food is a little higher, but it goes quite a lot farther than a bag of the alternative, so I end up breaking even, but the cat clearly benefits. There's very little waste, litterboxwise, indicating more food and less unnecessary filler in those bags I'm buying.

It is highly unlikely that your cats would gain weight on grain-free food. In fact, you should notice a spike in their energy levels leading to weight loss; I've heard that from others who've switched over.
posted by heyho at 1:19 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

My cats (one with a sensitive stomach, one prone to urinary crystals) have both been on a grain-free diet for a year or so with no problems. I've recently started adding wet food because the elderly one is a bit thin - but they both love it and neither are overweight. I feed them the Before Grain stuff, because Dottie doesn't puke it back up and I don't want to experiment further, but any high-quality grain-free food would be worth a shot.
posted by restless_nomad at 1:26 PM on January 28, 2012

w/d is fine for cats with crystals.

That said, after feeding our cats a succession of Prescription Diet for various reasons (first the crystals, then the weight, then k/d for the one whose kidneys were failing), we've been feeding them Iams for a couple of years now with no crystal recurrence in the one who had crystal problems.
posted by wierdo at 1:57 PM on January 28, 2012

Total cutiepies! Some great answers in this ask from a while ago.
posted by Cocodrillo at 2:30 PM on January 28, 2012

Yes, canned food, high protein, grain free, low carb. No kibble unless it's high protein and low carb, and even then, canned is better.
posted by biscotti at 5:39 PM on January 28, 2012

Echoing biscotti and others above, and seconding a close reading of the information at catinfo.org; for the longterm health of your cats as well as weight loss, canned high protein, low carb food is the way to go. There should be a canned food that meets those guidelines and appeals to both of your cats. Dry food is nearly always higher carb than is optimal and causes insulin spikes and in turn weight gain.

Cats are obligate carnivores and additionally habitually do not drink enough water. Canned food (if raw is out of the question) is the best solution. If you do decide to go with grain-free, high protein dry food, a good investment would be a ceramic or stainless steel pet fountain with fresh filtered water.

Feeding an appropriate food can save hundreds/thousands in vet bills over the lifetime of the pet in addition to helping your pet live a longer, healthier life.
posted by vers at 6:52 PM on January 28, 2012

For weight loss, yes, they'll have to eat less. If you're free feeding, switch to feeding a set amount twice a day. We've cured kittyboat-syndrome before just by doing that.
posted by azpenguin at 6:55 PM on January 28, 2012

Response by poster: Yeah, we don't free feed, we feed them about a cup each per day (1/2 about 8 am, 1/2 cup about 6 pm). That's on the low end of what the manufacturer recommends for a 15 lb cat (remember, they're 20 lbs). We also have a Drinkwell Platinum water fountain (with filters).

They wrestle and run around every day, but aren't interested in the laser pointer for more than 5 minutes at a time. Feathers are similarly "meh" after a short time. If I throw a toy, it's like "are you going to go get that? because I'm not." I'm hoping they'll be more active once they lose weight.
posted by desjardins at 10:53 AM on January 29, 2012

As I mentioned above (and is spoken about to a much more detail degree in the catinfo link I posted), the only way you're realistically going to get them to lose weight is to either go raw or wet food ONLY. Even grain-free kibble might not help them too much.

You definitely should try a slow switch from the kibble you're currently feeding, though, and perhaps try a couple different brands to see if there's anything the picky cat enjoys?
posted by Trexsock at 12:08 PM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

1/2 cup twice a day is a LOT of food! My 19-20 pound high-energy/high-activity agility dogs eat 1/4 cup twice a day! Ignore what the bag says, you should feed pets according to activity and body condition, not what the bag says.

Exercise will help with health, but (just like us) it will not cause much, if any, weight loss. You really do need to switch to high-protein/low-carb (AKA "Catkins Diet"). Canned is best, but at least something like Innova Evo, which is the lowest-carb and highest-protein dry cat food available.
posted by biscotti at 4:05 PM on January 31, 2012 [1 favorite]