ISO healthier diet for pussycat
August 9, 2020 12:01 PM Subscribe
Mademoiselle Zhou Li is five, roughly, and a pleasingly chonky 12.6 lb/5.7 kg. Please help improve her diet.
She currently free feeds on Purina Naturals kibble and has a tablespoon or two of Friskies Pate mixed with water for an appetizing gruel each morning. She laps up the liquid in the morning, and leaves the rest of it to draw ants. No texture besides pate will do. Any larger amount will result in all gruel being ignored. She goes through about a can and a half (5.5 oz/156g) a week plus dry kibble, is healthy, isn't food-obsessed and drinks plenty of water. I'd like to transition her to a healthier diet. Snowflakes: preferably not insanely expensive, must be able to get delivered. Ideally I'll be able to order a few samples to find something she likes. Thanks!
She currently free feeds on Purina Naturals kibble and has a tablespoon or two of Friskies Pate mixed with water for an appetizing gruel each morning. She laps up the liquid in the morning, and leaves the rest of it to draw ants. No texture besides pate will do. Any larger amount will result in all gruel being ignored. She goes through about a can and a half (5.5 oz/156g) a week plus dry kibble, is healthy, isn't food-obsessed and drinks plenty of water. I'd like to transition her to a healthier diet. Snowflakes: preferably not insanely expensive, must be able to get delivered. Ideally I'll be able to order a few samples to find something she likes. Thanks!
I forgot to say, what a cutie!
And also, my friend used to buy a cat food that is supposed to be specially for Siamese and related breeds, from Royal Canin. I know nothing about it, but who knows, maybe that's an option Madamoiselle might like.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:21 PM on August 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
And also, my friend used to buy a cat food that is supposed to be specially for Siamese and related breeds, from Royal Canin. I know nothing about it, but who knows, maybe that's an option Madamoiselle might like.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:21 PM on August 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
I don't know if this is the kind of suggestion you want -- not sure if this qualifies as "healthier" -- but: my cats who only want liquid happily devour Hartz Delectables Bisque flavors. It has to be "bisque." It's very, very liquidy.
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:43 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:43 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Siamese cats are weird about their food (I have 2) so would try either the regular Royal Canin adult or the Siamese diet. They have a range of "picky" foods as well if one of those don't work. My cats have migrated through a variety of diets and the Royal Canin has made them superfluff and soft unlike any other food I've tried in the past.
If your cat is a gravy fiend try a soup/stew style food. Everyone makes one now, I've only tried the Weruva and solid gold varieties.
posted by fiercekitten at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
If your cat is a gravy fiend try a soup/stew style food. Everyone makes one now, I've only tried the Weruva and solid gold varieties.
posted by fiercekitten at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I had a Tonkinese who did really well on the Royal Canin Siamese food.
posted by spinifex23 at 3:36 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by spinifex23 at 3:36 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
We had to transition our eldest cat to a zero kibble diet because, as the vet put it, kibble is essentially cake.
She hates pates but loves anything “in gravy”. We have switched her to all Castor and Pollux pouches of chicken and turkey and she loves it, though she still mourns her kibble cake.
posted by lydhre at 3:53 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
She hates pates but loves anything “in gravy”. We have switched her to all Castor and Pollux pouches of chicken and turkey and she loves it, though she still mourns her kibble cake.
posted by lydhre at 3:53 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you! How does this work in non-plague times? I’ve been able to leave her overnight or up to 2 days with plenty of kibble because, unreliable friends. She has 5 water bowls in a one-bedroom which I freshen at least daily when home.
posted by cyndigo at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2020
posted by cyndigo at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2020
You may be interested in this site by a veterinarian focused on cat nutrition: https://catinfo.org
All the homemade food diet stuff is too much stress/potential for error/malnutrition for my taste, but she has a lot of good info about what cats need in their diet, why wet food is healthier than dry food, how important water content is, etc.
I feed my cat an all canned food diet. I buy ZiwiPeak, but I think Ziwi would be hard to convince a cat who is used to dry food to eat. Also, it is excessively expensive.
(My cat had some GI issues which is why we ended up on Ziwi - it is what works for him.)
I think if you can at least increase the ratio of wet food to dry food in her diet, that would be a good start.
In non-plague times, for going out of town, hire a cat sitter to come check on your cat 2x per day. They do sell automatic feeders with ice packs, so I guess if you wanted to hire someone to come by only once a day, you could freeze one portion of wet food in the automatic feeder.
posted by litera scripta manet at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
All the homemade food diet stuff is too much stress/potential for error/malnutrition for my taste, but she has a lot of good info about what cats need in their diet, why wet food is healthier than dry food, how important water content is, etc.
I feed my cat an all canned food diet. I buy ZiwiPeak, but I think Ziwi would be hard to convince a cat who is used to dry food to eat. Also, it is excessively expensive.
(My cat had some GI issues which is why we ended up on Ziwi - it is what works for him.)
I think if you can at least increase the ratio of wet food to dry food in her diet, that would be a good start.
In non-plague times, for going out of town, hire a cat sitter to come check on your cat 2x per day. They do sell automatic feeders with ice packs, so I guess if you wanted to hire someone to come by only once a day, you could freeze one portion of wet food in the automatic feeder.
posted by litera scripta manet at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Cats are obligate carnivores. According to our vet, the right amount of carbohydrates for a cat to eat is “none.” Generally speaking, kibble is mostly carbohydrates. It’s also true that cats are supposed to get most if not all their water from their food and that cats fed on kibble tend to be chronically underhydrated because their drinking instinct is not strong enough to compensate. By way of comparison, our cat is fed low-to-no carb wet food and hardly ever drinks water yet produces plenty of urine.
I would recommend checking out the chart of commercial foods on the site linked by litera scripta manet above and looking for wet foods with zero carbs or practically zero carbs. Weruva and Tiki Cat both tend to be very good in this respect (with a few outliers). I mean, I guess these are “expensive” but, to put it in context, we ‘re talking about around a buck for a 3 ounce serving that has enough calories to be a meal. We feed our cat twice a day, so two dollars a day? Less than a cheap cup of coffee. We tend to feed one meal of meat and one of oily fish each day. A side-benefit of the oily food is that she has never horked up a single hair ball. If your cat has any interest in “people food” Tiki Cat in particular may be a good idea, as it has e.g., large recognizable chunks of sardines or big shreds of chicken. It looks like food, not like “cat food.”
As for food that makes it possible to leave your cat alone for two days, which is... not awesome, I don’t have any suggestions. For overnight, a healthy adult cat is able to go from a large late breakfast one day to a large early dinner the next day without biological difficulty.
posted by slkinsey at 6:15 AM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
I would recommend checking out the chart of commercial foods on the site linked by litera scripta manet above and looking for wet foods with zero carbs or practically zero carbs. Weruva and Tiki Cat both tend to be very good in this respect (with a few outliers). I mean, I guess these are “expensive” but, to put it in context, we ‘re talking about around a buck for a 3 ounce serving that has enough calories to be a meal. We feed our cat twice a day, so two dollars a day? Less than a cheap cup of coffee. We tend to feed one meal of meat and one of oily fish each day. A side-benefit of the oily food is that she has never horked up a single hair ball. If your cat has any interest in “people food” Tiki Cat in particular may be a good idea, as it has e.g., large recognizable chunks of sardines or big shreds of chicken. It looks like food, not like “cat food.”
As for food that makes it possible to leave your cat alone for two days, which is... not awesome, I don’t have any suggestions. For overnight, a healthy adult cat is able to go from a large late breakfast one day to a large early dinner the next day without biological difficulty.
posted by slkinsey at 6:15 AM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
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My girl also tended to eat like yours and left things to go bad, when she was in a mood. About the only thing you can do, really, because cats, is just to transition slowly if possible, until they start to realize they will starve if they don't eat the things. Maybe others have had more success at this than I have. My guy is the opposite of yours and dislikes pate, so I have to feed him things in gravy (his absolute favorite is Almo Naturals Mackeral and Sweet Potato--if I can't get him to eat anything, that will make him eat), and then he just licks the gravy off and leaves it to dry out or attract flies or ants, the little bastard.
Something that might help with the transition is a really strong-flavored dusting of stuff like bonito flakes, or those Instinct or Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried raw toppers. When I can't get him to eat, I will dump the 'nito flakes on top or the Instinct chicken freeze-dried toppers, and he'll usually pick around it but eventually eat.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:14 PM on August 9, 2020 [1 favorite]