How to supplement old cat feed.

May 28, 2024 6:40 PM

So my 14 year old cat is now rejecting her long time dry food. She will eat raw or cooked chicken. I can do this for her, but I know she needs more nutrients than just chicken can provide. What supplements can I try with her?
posted by Saucywench to Pets & Animals (16 answers total)

A couple of things that might make the dry food (or anything else) more appetizing: nutritional yeast or fortiflora.
posted by adamrice at 6:44 PM on May 28, 2024

Lots of cats like tuna fish, sardines, and meat-based baby foods. These are not exactly supplements (per your question), but they will provide a nutritional profile that's different from the chicken that your cat has been eating.
posted by alex1965 at 6:52 PM on May 28, 2024

Will she eat Temptations cat treats? They are fortified and I've definitely nursed my old, ill cat along on them and various fishy/meaty not-cat-foods for extended periods. Do you have the option of seeing a vet? Our old cat went off her dry food because her teeth were bad. She never went back on the same brand because, I think, she associated it with the pain, but she did get better about eating in general after an expensive tooth cleaning. Also, if teeth aren't the problem, mirataz appetite stimulant often really helps. They will try to tell you that you need a big dose and that the full tube will expire a month from opening so you need a new one, but I use a quarter dose every week or so and the same tube has been working for five months with plenty left.
posted by Frowner at 7:01 PM on May 28, 2024 [1 favorite]

You can get appetite cream that you put on the ears from the vet, works quite well until they are very ill or old. The highest calorie food you can get as they eat less and less due to illness or old age is wet or dry Oncology Care Prescription food (vet will give even without cancer), it's expensive though. Fancy Feast small tins with lots of juice are good to mix with the Onc food if they don't want to eat it.
posted by meepmeow at 7:05 PM on May 28, 2024 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Just as follow up to questions - I got her a full vet work-up on Friday-blood, urine, the works. Nothing obvious (teeth fine) but yet to hear about lab results. And I have tried Temptations and other treats and no interest. She's always been a super picky eater. She always only ate her Purina Cat Chow complete since kittenhood (rejecting other dry foods) but now she's not so interested in even that.
posted by Saucywench at 7:08 PM on May 28, 2024

How about trying out various chicken wet catfoods to see if there are any she likes?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 8:13 PM on May 28, 2024 [3 favorites]

1) a high quality feline vitamin on top of whatever she will eat
2) a high-quality complete canned food.
3) a complete commercial raw food, which comes frozen or freeze dried.

There are a ton of options for either.

Also, she doesn't have to eat all one food. If she's bored/low appetite/has a reduced sense of taste or smell, switching between different foods is fine, just try to get her to eat some of the complete food as often as possible.
posted by Archipelago at 8:18 PM on May 28, 2024 [1 favorite]

Also, also ... it is much harder to make nutritionally complete cat food from scratch as compared to dog food, so finding commercial foods she likes is going to be a lot easier.
posted by Archipelago at 8:26 PM on May 28, 2024 [1 favorite]

I think you are looking for something like Balance.it or https://tcfeline.com/tcfeline-premix/

Both offer additives/supplements for making your own food for cats.
posted by miscbuff at 9:23 PM on May 28, 2024

This may not work for your cat but I found that I can still include some dry food in my 16 year old cat 's diet by adding warm water and some of the moist food that he loves, making a sort of thick soup, but not too watery. I let it sit just long enough for the dry kibble to soften. He loves it and still gets the benefit of the specialty dry food.
Good luck!
posted by silence down below at 4:12 AM on May 29, 2024 [2 favorites]

Similar situation with our 16-year old cat. I read that chicken hearts have taurine, and they are available frozen at pet stores if your butcher’s counter doesn’t have them. Dark meat chicken has more taurine than white does.
posted by daisyace at 5:49 AM on May 29, 2024

In your situation I'd try and see if "Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau Succulent Chicken" would be eaten. It's pretty much shredded cooked chicken, but it'll be fortified with all the other fussy nutrient stuff to make it complete.
posted by foxfirefey at 7:55 AM on May 29, 2024 [1 favorite]

Mix canned food into the dry, see if that helps. If you get tuna in oil, try adding some oil to dry food. Cook up ground chicken and add it to dry food with any drippings. Or maybe she's old and it's time to give her wet food.
posted by theora55 at 8:06 AM on May 29, 2024

Raw chicken? That seems dicey. I certainly would not eat raw chicken. Salmonella risk, for one thing.
posted by citygirl at 8:23 AM on May 29, 2024 [1 favorite]

Ah yes--absolutely do NOT feed raw chicken at this time, the current bird flu going around is very unforgiving for cats. It's possible that bird flu contaminated meat was the cause of illness and death of some cats in Poland.
posted by foxfirefey at 9:11 AM on May 29, 2024 [2 favorites]

Here's what worked for our aging cat: when he went off his food a year ago we got him eating again on raw chicken. I tried different brands of kibble and supplements, and eventually found one he will eat: Royal Canin Digestive Care. Now he eats about 80% chicken and 20% kibble. Our vet said this is fine.

I noticed the Digestive Care kibble has no odor. He wouldn't eat the things he used to love which have a strong smell (and presumably taste) like his old cat treats or Fortiflora supplement. This makes me think that maybe what he wanted all along was bland food, not tasty food like I assumed.

A year on, he will now eat treats and Fortiflora occasionally, but seems very happy with his chicken and bland kible diet.
posted by riddley at 3:57 PM on May 29, 2024