Recommends for diet dry food

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jb12
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Recommends for diet dry food

Post by jb12 »

I have been using the Purina Pro Plan Obesity Management and wondered if anyone could recommend any alternatives.
Weight has not been lost, any thoughts
Thx
booktigger
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by booktigger »

Are you measuring the food using the guidelines? I personally think it's harder to lose weight with dry food
jb12
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by jb12 »

Yep weighing it religiously.....
Why harder with dry food?
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Mollycat
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by Mollycat »

Oooo kkkk
So ...
I present Molly, my FAT hypERthyroid cat

Adopted 6 years ago, very food anxious, multi-cat household
Therefore cutting down portions impossible
We struggled (I tore my hair out) for 4 years as she just kept getting fatter no matter what I did

My solution in the end was this:
Spend £200 on two microchip feeders
Put her on Hills diet food
BUT
there are two, the Metabolic and the r/d - DO NOT MIX THEM, they both come in dry and wet, and they work very differently, if you choose Metabolic, you need Metabolic dry and Metabolic pouch, if you choose r/d you need r/d dry and r/d canned. You don't have to feed both wet and dry, just don't give r/d dry and metabolic wet. I spoke to Hills a few days ago, they told me!!

The r/d is for weight loss short term.

The Metabolic is also for weight loss but is also safe for long-term weight maintenance.

Molly went from her peak of 5.6kg down to the nice 4.5 she should be pretty quickly, then stayed there for 18 months.

Until she was diagnosed hyperthyroid. Hyper, as in, should have been worryingly skinny. But in fact when I took her off the diet food and put her on the thyroid special diet, she went back up to 5.3 in just 4 months.

Hills definitely works, we never deprived her of treats, by which I mean fresh meat, I have never stuffed her full of Dreamies or anything, but her weight was just right on it. Also I didn't weigh, she got free dry all day and a pouch to last the night.
booktigger
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by booktigger »

Unfortunately the feeding guidelines are higher than needed, but you need to be careful how much you reduce it by. Normally you would feed for the weight you want them to be, rather than what they are, as long as it isn't too much of a reduction. Dry food is full of things that cats wouldn't naturally eat
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Mollycat
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by Mollycat »

booktigger wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:37 pm Dry food is full of things that cats wouldn't naturally eat
Very true, although there isn't much in the lives of our pets that is natural. Medication, parasite control, selective breeding, neutering, dentals, indoor life, euthanasia, cosy beds, friendly interaction with another species, grooming, living past the age of 12 ...
Catotum
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Re: Recommends for diet dry food

Post by Catotum »

If your cat is not losing weight & you are weighing or measuring the dried food correctly, then is the ingrate being fed elsewhere? The other thing is - don't make the mistake I did in my early cat days by looking at those food allowances & not realising they are per day & not per meal :shock:]

Divide the food up into at least 2, preferably 3, meals. In most cases this works out to about a rounded dessertspoonful per meal. It doesn't look like much but once rehydrated it is standard meal-sized.
Always have a big bowl of water available or, if you have room, a drinking fountain. In the latter case, expect it to be ignored, perhaps for weeks, until the cat decides it cannot, in fact, live without it.

Remember that milk is calorific (milk is not bad for all cats, just those that are lactose intolerant) - if your cat yearns for milk, then make it an occasional treat & then half fat with 50% added water. That will keep the poor deprived animal happy & they don't usually care much providing it is warmed slightly - test with your finger - baby warm only.

As for make, there are a huge number. Shop around the big mail order companies to see. Some are frankly not appealing to all cats, so try out small amounts. Buy the small-sized bags. As I mentioned once before, total rejects of the I'm not eating that kind, make excellent wild bird food if first soaked to softness in water.
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