Cat food

[Bantiekeeper]

Well we have started a new feeding regime which is going well. Now feed boy Bozita in gravy. About 80gms twice a day at 8am and 4pm. Plus a few kibble when we retire to bed. He seems a lot more content and does not worry for more. So thanks for all your advice. The non grain non soya wet food seems to suit him. and no sign yet of putting on weight which I thought may happen.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Poor Boy 

[Bantiekeeper]

Thanks for the advice. After his trip to the allotment this afternoon Boy had a piece of fish about 40gms and a third of a pouch with about 12 kibble for his tea. He hung about round his food cupboard until he saw us sit down for our meal, gave up and went to bed! 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I certainly dont count how much kibble lol.

I don't actually count out the kibbles but I've learned that he really does only need a few sprinkled on top of the wet.  It doesn't look like much but it is enough for him.  A 400g bag lasts him a month so that's about 15g ish per day divided over 3 meals.  So really not a lot.  Mosi's a larger than average cat too.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

None of mine eat anything like that amount of wet food and dont eat that much dry either,,,,,,,,,,,,,will have to think about the later again lol,

I certainly dont count how much kibble lol.

A 3kg? bag lasts a month,,,,,ummmmmmm 1kg a cat devided by 30,,,ummmmmmmmmmm, think thats about 30 gram a day?

Trying to do sums with one eye on norty Lupin is hard LOL

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I would reduce or eliminate the dry food as that is what tends to make cats gain weight.  Grain free is good but it's still higher carb than a carnivore should ideally eat (not having a go - one of my cats eats half wet food and half dry) and it's eating carbs that causes fat to be stored.  It doesn't sound as though he's eating a whole lot of wet food so he is getting most of his calories from the dry.  My 15 yr old male eats 3 pouches of wet food a day - that's 240-300g wet food per day (depending on the size of the pouch/tin).  He's an inactive indoor cat and he maintains his weight on that (he's always been a slender cat).  My other cat who has a mix of wet and dry has half a tin/pouch 3 times a day (so about 120-150g wet food per day) with a bit of grain free dry (Applaws) sprinkled on top.  He has about 10 kibbles with each meal.  He is a good weight and doesn't fluctuate much, but I do notice that if I get a bit liberal with the dry food he can gain a little.

[Bantiekeeper]

Thanks Gill, the fish is soaked in water and no salt is added. This morning Boy had 1/2 tin Gourmet and about 20 pieces of dried sprinkled round the outside. Ate the lot and did not worry for more. Has spent the morning as usual asleep on the bed. Hope it lasts!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Presumably you dont add salt to the fish? If that is right then should be no problem.

Gourmet has good ingredients and my cats eat it, OK its not all meat but that is likely to be too rich for a cat who is older and not uswed to it.

The moral in the story is , you feed your cat what he will eat, cos that is way better than him not eating 

[Bantiekeeper]

Thank you so much for replying. "Boy" has always been very active. He comes down to the allotment with us to mooch around and spend time with the bantam hens. When younger he came with us most days but now he is older perhaps 2/3 times a week. Some days he will sprint full pelt for 50 yards or so. 
I think as suggested we will cut down on the dried Porta 21 which is about 40% protein and stick with the Gourmet and fish. Is there any reason we should not feed fish every day (salt?)

[Tiggy's Mum]

  to Purrs

Is he quite an active cat? If there's not much room for improvement on the diet (I'm not really up on the nutrition side of things so not sure what the Gourmet is like although I think Porta is a 'good' food ingredients wise) then you could look at increasing his exercise. Does he have a Da Bird? If not I wholeheartedly recommend that he gets one, along with a Da Mouse. It is such an amzing toy that even the most sedentary of cats are leaping through the air doing back flips!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

  to Purrs 

I dont blame you for being confused cos all the information out there plus what everyone decideds for their cats is different.

There is no hard and fast rule except that I think its more or less agreed that dry food tends to put on weight.

I have a 7.6 kg cat, he is huge and currently eats far too much dry food.......sigh

As your cats weight has gone down, I would tend to keep doing what you are currently doing.

Is Porta 21 a dry food, if so thats the bit to reduce, not the fish.

Vets are notoriously bad on cat nutrition and unless they have cats, dont have much clue what to feed unless its a specialist diet.

As you have a good regime that your cat is happy with, I think that a changed will not be appreciate by him and then you could have problems finding thgings that he will eat............if its not broke dont mend it!

[Bantiekeeper]

Hi everyone, newbie here. I am totally confused by all the different advice one gets as to what food one should be feeding to cats. We have a 14 year old tom who has always been on the heavy side. Last year at his checkup he weighed 6.95kg. This year he is down to 6.75kg. Our vet told us sometime ago to aim for 6kg but he doubted we would get much lower than 6kg.
He currently has two meals a day. In the morning 1/3-1/2 tin (about 40gms) Gourmet plus about 30gms of Porta 21 grain free dried sprinkled on top. His afternoon feed consists of about 50gms white steamed fish plus another sprinkling of Porta 21. Water is available upstairs and downstairs at all times.
I was told today at the vets to halve the amount of fish he has and use a light dried instead. But one is told to avoid grains as cats cannot digest them properly and I believe the light contains a lot of rice. So we went to grain free which is high in protein.  Again it appears that if the cat cannot use up the protein it goes to fat.
My wife and I are totally bewildered can anyone offer any advice? Our last cat lived to 19 yrs and never had dried food or any of the modern varieties. Is there a lesson here?