Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
Post Reply
User avatar
lilynmitz
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:41 pm
No. of cats in household: 2

Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by lilynmitz »

Oh woe is me, they're discontinuing Goumet Gold Senior! I really need a good palatable senior pate type food as that's how I get most of Lily's meds into her and I know she'll eat this stuff. Can anyone recommend a good alternative? (My eyesight's too rubbish to be able to read the finer points on the ingredient list on the tin). Lily needs at least senior food for her dodgy kidneys, as she won't eat renal food. I hear a rumour that Felix and Whiskas may be withdrawing senior pouch food too. :-(
User avatar
Kay
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1961
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:50 pm
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: West Wales

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Kay »

Gourmet senior pate is currently £8.99 for 24 tins on Zooplus, so perhaps you could stock up for the foreseeable future

if senior foods are being discontinued, could it be because they have been shown to offer no real benefits - I can't believe they don't sell, as there are a lot of older cats about these days
User avatar
lilynmitz
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:41 pm
No. of cats in household: 2

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by lilynmitz »

That's what I was wondering Kay, but my vet reckons they're a third of the way to renal food, so they must be doing some good. I just wonder whether the public just hasn't bought into it that much. I reckon they mis-marketed it by saying for cats 7 yes and over, as let's face it, 7 yrs is still quite young! I'll look into zoo plus, but I'm a bit stumped once supplies run out.
User avatar
Kay
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1961
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:50 pm
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: West Wales

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Kay »

Gourmet senior pate is the only wet food Tiffany will eat, and I dose her every day with Cystease using it - but I can also get powder into her using malt paste

as a main food source, you could be in trouble - I think the 'various sugars' which Gourmet contains are a bit addictive - Trigger used to eat three tins of the stuff until I found out he was intolerant to something in it - probably those sugars

when I was buying it from Zooplus I seem to remember it was in German, so it could be still available even if discontinued in UK stores
User avatar
SarahT1 [PLLE]
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1644
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 12:41 pm
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Putney, London

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Anna, Pepsi is a Gourmet addict, but I have managed to get her to eat Lily's Kitchen which is organic and totally healthy! Carol's Fluffy has gone from Gourmet to LK and Nature's Menu too. Both are senior girls with 'issues'. x
User avatar
MarkB
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1348
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:40 pm
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Whitstable, Kent

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by MarkB »

They aren't listed on there any more, but they used to list all the phos content of various Felix foods on Tanya's CRF site. Felix senior definitely had lower phosphorus than the adult version. I remember they used to do senior foil trays as well as 400g cans of senior food. Most senior wet foods are a con as there is no reall difference (ie Hi-life)

I know protein content is an issue but Sarah (Camdengirl) was quite happy with Sainsbury's own mousse domes - they were a favourite with Alice for a while.

I try to get mine to eat senior food, but Laz's favourite is AGAIL doubly delicious fish variety and it doesn't come in a senior version. Since he discovered it, he refuses to eat regular Felix senior.

Zooplus do quite a few reduced phos & protein foods. You might want to try Kattovit, which comes in 200g tins.

Another option is to add binders to regular food. I did it for years with Clapton.
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by booktigger »

Don't know if you have either, but PAH do senior mousse and pate, Asda do senior pate trays
Eliz+Cats
Experienced Cat Chatter
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:21 am
No. of cats in household: 6
Location: Cobham, Surrey
Contact:

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Eliz+Cats »

Another vote for Lily's Kitchen foil trays here.
The food is pate style, and the organic fish dinner and the version for kittens are pretty low in phosphorous too. (The fish dinner is lower than the kitten food, but my oldies slightly prefer the taste of the kitten version (Don't be put off by the fact that it's called 'kitten food'!)).
A friend of mine with CRF kitties feeds them Terra Felis (chicken and squash, and turkey and courgette) from Zooplus. These are even lower in phosphorous. (But even pricier than Lily's, I think.)

Do you know the list of UK foods from the Feline CRF site? The link is here:
http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_uk.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While you still have a stock of your kitty's favourite food maybe it could be worth adding a little bit of the new food to that and gradually switching over...?
Or does your kitty like Fortiflora? My cats would eat pretty much anything if it was sprinkled with a pinch of that...
User avatar
KittyWitty
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 415
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2014 6:31 pm
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by KittyWitty »

How about not feeding "senior" food at all?

Have a read of this: http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/l ... -cat-food/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Kay
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1961
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:50 pm
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: West Wales

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Kay »

3 years old and with a donate button

not a site I would trust that much, to be honest
User avatar
HRHFluffy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:37 am
Location: UK

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by HRHFluffy »

As Sarah said, Fluffy is now on Lily's Kitchen which I occasionally alternate with Nature's Menu when she gets bored. She was previously addicted to Gourmet Perle which has added sugars and is quite high in salt.

Because of her CKD and heart disease I was desperate to get her off the gourmet. Took a couple of weeks or so. Before I changed over to LK, I checked on felinecrf.org to see how the phosphorous/salt/protein levels compared with the gourmet, and LK Organic Fish is considerably lower in all three. Fluffy has needed a couple of dentals over the last few years. The sugars of the Gourmet won't have helped that and I want to do all I can to avoid her having any more. The fact that they are cereal free is a huge bonus. Fluffy no longer has gingivitis when the vet checked last week. I have also taken her off the cystease as there is no sign of there being any further problems with cystitis. Her coat looks better and she has hardly any mats in her fur! Wish I'd found out about it years ago as the quality of the ingredients have made a considerable difference.
Eliz+Cats wrote:The food is pate style, and the organic fish dinner and the version for kittens are pretty low in phosphorous too. (The fish dinner is lower than the kitten food, but my oldies slightly prefer the taste of the kitten version (Don't be put off by the fact that it's called 'kitten food'!)).
I hadn't thought about the kitten version. Will look it up. It's always good to have a variety.
User avatar
Crewella
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 3605
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:59 pm
No. of cats in household: 6
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Crewella »

Interesting thread - I feed the Felix senior pouch foods, mainly for old Minnie, so it's good to have an alternative if they do discontinue them.
User avatar
Camdengirl
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 147
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:52 pm

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Camdengirl »

Someone mentioned this thread to me so I popped in to have a look. It is important to remember that cats with dodgy kidneys need to have their protein as well as their phosphorus restricted. Lily's Kitchen foods are all quite high in protein (the 'chicken' dinner is lowest at 50%, the rest are at least 55%). Some 'senior' foods are also surprisingly high in protein (Felix AGAIL senior is 60%!). Renal foods tend to have a protein content of 30-40%, but a lot of cats (including my Pip) won't eat those. The only mainstream foods I've found with a protein content below 40% are some of those in gravy (such as Felix in gravy and Kitekat meaty feast in gravy), most senior foods are around the 45-47% mark, including Felix senior chunks in jelly and the Gourmet gold senior pates.
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by booktigger »

Buster his Aldi senior food, that's 7.5%, bought him Morrison's senior for a change, that's 8%. Aldi is jelly/gravy, Morrison's is just gravy
User avatar
Camdengirl
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 147
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:52 pm

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Camdengirl »

It needs to be worked out in terms of % dry weight as the more more moisture there is, the higher the relative protein content.
User avatar
PeanutsFriend
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 992
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:33 pm
No. of cats in household: 8
Location: USA

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by PeanutsFriend »

I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. But with my Meuzette she lived a long time on Purinas ONE Kitten food. But she had a jaw problem too so chewing was difficult.
Some times for a treat baby food.
jill
User avatar
cathyday
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 88
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:57 am
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Congleton, Cheshire

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by cathyday »

I've just started Boris on Royal Canin 12+. He has mouth & kidney issues & has been fussy about eating renal food for a while. He loves the new food which comes in pouches in a rich gravy. I'm also giving him 12+ dry food too. His weight had recently dropped from 5 to 4.5kg. On the new food he's put a little back on.
Being Royal Canin it is quite expensive though....
pandorawarlord
Experienced Cat Chatter
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:41 am
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Kent

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by pandorawarlord »

try going to fetch.co.uk or PAH both carry the gourmet senior pate
User avatar
lilynmitz
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:41 pm
No. of cats in household: 2

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by lilynmitz »

Wow, so much information, thanks everyone! I'm going to have to print this off to read it through properly. I can see a bit of "trial and error" feeding coming up until I find something she'll eat. Luckily she's ok with the Felix senior AGAIL, but I have much more confidence putting her meds in the pate as I can tell when she's eaten the "spiked" bit, which isn't as easy in chunky food like Felix. I do add binders to her food already, and her renal values are fairly stable on this regime, so I'm trying to keep it going as long as I can.

Thanks again all. Keep the suggestions coming - a lot of us seem to have had to work through this one with our mogs.
Eliz+Cats
Experienced Cat Chatter
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:21 am
No. of cats in household: 6
Location: Cobham, Surrey
Contact:

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Eliz+Cats »

Regarding protein in the diets of CRF cats, my understanding is that it depends a lot on which level of CRF the cat has. Some folks choose not to restrict protein (and some choose not to restrict protein in the early stages of CRF) so as to retain as much body mass as possible. Also the whole issue of whether to restrict protein or not seems to be a matter of some controversy.
You may wish to read this page from the feline CRF site:
http://www.felinecrf.org/nutritional_requirements.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
HRHFluffy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:37 am
Location: UK

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by HRHFluffy »

That's the understanding I had about the protein issue. I've found that website to be invaluable and I've learnt so much from it. It's a wealth of information. Don't know what I would have done without it.

LK advised me to get my vet to check their ingredients etc. I took a tray in with me (he already had heard about their food) and he was happy for Fluffy to have it due to the lower salt and sugar content. He stressed that high salt can be bad for the kidneys and the sugars bad for gums and teeth.
User avatar
Camdengirl
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 147
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:52 pm

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by Camdengirl »

I agree it is not wise to keep a cat on a very low protein diet for an extended period, but 'low' protein where cats with CKD are concerned is somewhere between 20% and 30% overall protein in a day. Rather than not being 'low', I think anything over 50% can probably be considered 'high' protein. Many senior foods come in at around 45% protein (by dry weight) and I suspect that's a good level to aim for in all cats with mild/moderate CKD. I feed Pip a mix each day to keep things interesting for her and aim to keep the average % protein around the mid 40s.
User avatar
bobbys girl
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 3095
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 8:58 pm
No. of cats in household: 5
Location: Co. Fermanagh

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by bobbys girl »

Just wondered if you had a 'Jolleys' near you? I am sure I have seen Gourmet Gold Senior there quite recently.
User avatar
MarkB
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1348
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:40 pm
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Whitstable, Kent

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by MarkB »

I think Gourmet Gold senior pate is still on sale in Tesco & Sainsbury's. Maybe they are just selling existing stock. My local Sainsbury's hasn't had the ~Felix supermeat pouches (meaty mix) for a few weeks. I wonder if they are discontinuing certain things.

I still don't understand the protein thing. I remember reading about 6 years ago that renal food was developed after testing was done on rats, which have a different physiology to cats. They said the latest research showed that there was no need to reduce protein, but the quality of the protein was important - in that it must have a high bioavailabilty. The protein in cereals etc not being very good, and eggs having high bioavailability with fish & white meat being a close second.

I understand that the new (came out October time last year) CRD drug, called Semintra, prevents loss of protein through urine,
User avatar
HRHFluffy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:37 am
Location: UK

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by HRHFluffy »

Mark I had forgotten that about the testing on rats. Just doesn't make sense to me.

It's good news about Semintra then :)

I also saw some Gourmet Gold Senior in Jollys recently.
User avatar
lilynmitz
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1090
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:41 pm
No. of cats in household: 2

Re: Alternative senior food - any suggestions?

Post by lilynmitz »

Hmm, we don't have a Jollys round here, but will look into some of the other suggestions, thanks everyone. Cathy, did you get the RC 12+ from the vet, online, or PAH?
Post Reply