How to fatten a cat?

[goldfish]

What are some high calorie foods I can feed my cat? He's 15 and has kidney disease (it's fairly mild right now). He's only 8.5lbs right now and the vet says to feed him as much as he wants.

I give him Weruva and Wellness wet food 4-5 times per day and he also has a bowl of dry TOTW to eat but he's still SO skinny. The vet said there is some food she could sell to me but I think it's Science Diet (?!). Not sure.

Any ideas? He loves milk but I don't know if that's good to give him.

Thanks!

[Heisenberg]

From my recent research in cat foods, I've found Blue Buffalo wilderness has the most calories per ounce as far as food goes. (3 oz can has 126 calories in it = 42 calories per oz) Wellness is also a relatively high calorie food at 34ish calories per oz. Be careful with weruva though, the website says that a 3 oz can has 50-60 calories per can, so he'd have to eat a LOT more food to get the same amount of calories.

Good Luck with your kitty!

[niemand88f]

I wouldn't give him milk, most cats can't tolerate it and it could cause diarrhea. I think certain Wellness canned foods have more calories than others- so I would try to pick those varieties.

[msmerymac]

Has the vet discusses a specific diet for kidney disease? I have 1 cat with kidney disease right now and another who will probably develop it based on her genetics and Samson (the one with kidney disease) is technically on a low-protein, low-phosphorus diet. It is a prescription food (although there's a type, called Hi-Tor Neo, which you can get without a prescription and which is supposed to be the best tasting). The main brands are made by Hills (SD), Purina, and Royal Canin. Yup, I know.

Anyway, in the cat "community" there's often a saying - the best food for your cat is the food he will eat. Cats who do not eat can develop hepadic lipodosis (fatty liver disease) VERY quickly - within a day or two. I had that happen to a cat once. We still don't know what caused it. He just didn't really eat for about 36-42 hours, and BOOM. It was a slog to get him well and involved about 5 weeks on a feeding tube. So just make sure you kitty IS eating.

Has he lost weight, or has he been skinny? Lots of senior cats do lose weight as they age. However, kidney-compromised cats do have trouble keeping weight on. With Samson, we feed him wet food all day, every day. We separate the cats during the day, and leave the food out for Sam. I measure it in the morning and again when we get home. To maintain 8.5 pounds, your cat should be eating about 250 calories a day (30 cals or so per pound). More if you want him to gain weight. Also? We have to "force feed" or "assist feed" Sam twice a day to make sure he gets enough calories. Basically, I take some smooth wet food, mix it with some warm water, suck it into a syringe, and inject it into the side of his mouth, little by little. I do 2, 20ml syringes full of food, twice a day, for a total of 100 supplemental calories. Sam's only .5 pounds off his weight before he got sick (he was 7.75 pounds, his weigh plummeted to 5.2 pounds at one point).

You can google "cat assisted feeding" or "syringe feeding" for more info. If you go this route, shoot a little (2-3mls) into the SIDE of his mouth so he won't accidentally breath any in (which can cause aspiration pneumonia). It takes 5-10 minutes a few times a day, but it's literally been a life saver for Sam.

There's also a product called CatSure, which is like ensure for cats. Samson didn't like it, but you can put it out in a bowl and it's a liquid (which is helpful for kidneys) that can get extra calories into your kitty. You can find it on amazon and other websites.

If he's maintaining weight and isn't losing any right now, you don't necessarily need him to GAIN weight, but keep an eye on it. Your vet should be able to tell you what his weight SHOULD be and what he needs to maintain. I will say that I read somewhere that many cats with kidney issues actually pass away from weight loss issues, though. If you have a food scale you can use it to weigh him once a week - they're about $20 on Amazon if you don't have one. I use a mixing bowl, put it on the scale, zero it out, and then put Sam in the bowl. It's actually pretty adorable. :-)

Samson has had kidney disease since November and is on a pretty strict regimen, so please contact me if you have questions! Hopefully I can point you towards some resources.

[goldfish]

May 12, 2012 23:23:22 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Has the vet discusses a specific diet for kidney disease? I have 1 cat with kidney disease right now and another who will probably develop it based on her genetics and Samson (the one with kidney disease) is technically on a low-protein, low-phosphorus diet. It is a prescription food (although there's a type, called Hi-Tor Neo, which you can get without a prescription and which is supposed to be the best tasting). The main brands are made by Hills (SD), Purina, and Royal Canin. Yup, I know.

Anyway, in the cat "community" there's often a saying - the best food for your cat is the food he will eat. Cats who do not eat can develop hepadic lipodosis (fatty liver disease) VERY quickly - within a day or two. I had that happen to a cat once. We still don't know what caused it. He just didn't really eat for about 36-42 hours, and BOOM. It was a slog to get him well and involved about 5 weeks on a feeding tube. So just make sure you kitty IS eating.

Has he lost weight, or has he been skinny? Lots of senior cats do lose weight as they age. However, kidney-compromised cats do have trouble keeping weight on. With Samson, we feed him wet food all day, every day. We separate the cats during the day, and leave the food out for Sam. I measure it in the morning and again when we get home. To maintain 8.5 pounds, your cat should be eating about 250 calories a day (30 cals or so per pound). More if you want him to gain weight. Also? We have to "force feed" or "assist feed" Sam twice a day to make sure he gets enough calories. Basically, I take some smooth wet food, mix it with some warm water, suck it into a syringe, and inject it into the side of his mouth, little by little. I do 2, 20ml syringes full of food, twice a day, for a total of 100 supplemental calories. Sam's only .5 pounds off his weight before he got sick (he was 7.75 pounds, his weigh plummeted to 5.2 pounds at one point).

You can google "cat assisted feeding" or "syringe feeding" for more info. If you go this route, shoot a little (2-3mls) into the SIDE of his mouth so he won't accidentally breath any in (which can cause aspiration pneumonia). It takes 5-10 minutes a few times a day, but it's literally been a life saver for Sam.

There's also a product called CatSure, which is like ensure for cats. Samson didn't like it, but you can put it out in a bowl and it's a liquid (which is helpful for kidneys) that can get extra calories into your kitty. You can find it on amazon and other websites.

If he's maintaining weight and isn't losing any right now, you don't necessarily need him to GAIN weight, but keep an eye on it. Your vet should be able to tell you what his weight SHOULD be and what he needs to maintain. I will say that I read somewhere that many cats with kidney issues actually pass away from weight loss issues, though. If you have a food scale you can use it to weigh him once a week - they're about $20 on Amazon if you don't have one. I use a mixing bowl, put it on the scale, zero it out, and then put Sam in the bowl. It's actually pretty adorable. :-)

Samson has had kidney disease since November and is on a pretty strict regimen, so please contact me if you have questions! Hopefully I can point you towards some resources.

Wow thank you so much for all the info! I think the prescription SD food is what my vet said she could sell me. Right now he's maintaining the weight he was when he was diagnosed. He normally weighed about 11 lbs before though and that's why I'd like him to gain weight if he can. He's super fluffy but when you brush him or flatten his fur he just feels like skin and bones

I'm going to look for that CatSure online. He goes back to the vet later this month to recheck his kidney levels to see if it's progressed. If it has then she'll recommend the prescription food. I'll talk to her more about it then.

Thank you so much for the info though!!

[mrs.jacinthe]

What I've found about wet food is that Cat - my super picky senior boy - will eat just about any wet food if it has been microwaved for about 10 seconds first. He LOVES warm food. I guess it smells better? Or tastes different? Who knows, but it works.