Our cat is 14.5 years old, and in pretty good health for his age. The vet has pronounced his kidneys to be in very good shape considering his age. He was hyperthyroid, but we got the radiation treatment for him and he is doing well without meds now. He is still able and willing to kill feather toys on occasion, but he won’t play for as long as he did when he was younger. He has been a strictly indoor cat all his life, and is very good-natured and affectionate.
He has been eating a mix of two Royal Canin dry foods (Oral Care for Sensitive Stomachs and Indoor Mature), and one small can a day of Fancy Feast wet food. (We started giving him the Fancy Feast because it seems to have the highest protein content of any canned food we can find.) But in the last year or two, he has been struggling to keep weight on, rather than his previous issues with gaining too easily. There is almost always dry food left in his bowl, instead of him eating it all and begging for more. So I’m wondering if the lower-calorie Indoor Mature is still a good idea. He is a short-haired cat, but still needs to be brushed frequently and hacks up a lot of hairballs. When we had him on the Oral Care that was not for sensitive stomachs, he vomited up his food a lot (not just the hairballs, but big nasty piles of food). He generally refuses pate-style wet food.
I’m not averse to buying a more-expensive food if it’s better for him, but the variety at the pet store left me unable to choose anything. Can someone recommend a good food for a senior cat? He’s eating both dry and wet now, and my default would be to continue to feed him both unless someone has a reason why that’s not a good idea.
Thank you!
Instead of looking for protein content, maybe try looking for something with a slightly higher fat ratio? I know you have to watch out for fatty liver problems, but surely there’s a cat-equivalent of those high-calorie nutri-shakes they have for people?
Otherwise, perhaps he might enjoy “hunting” for his food and eat more that way? Get a small child-size plastic drink bottle, carefully cut or razor some holes in it that are just big enough for his favorite treats to fall out, and see if he’ll chase and tackle and “hunt” for the bottle if you hide it. Treats are usually pretty calorie dense too, right?
If he likes and is eating his food now, I’d be much more tempted to add something to that, rather than change things up.
Maybe check and see if he’s drinking enough water? Water weight is an impressively large percentage of weight when you’re that small.
Good luck!
I am getting old and have always lived with cats. My oldest is Paloma, a little 15 year old princess who tends to lose weight if I don’t keep putting cat food in front of her. She has lived on Fancy Feast wet food Purina Fancy Feast dry her whole life, no people food ever at all. But she also eats the other cat’s dry food, they all have their favorite. Temptations cat treats are also a good caloric supplement being higher in fat. Put different water containers in odd places, too, they can be very eccentric about where they drink. And the best thing you can ever do for a cat is limit your use of pesticides organic or otherwise, I was able to go pesticide free 15 years ago and my cats have never been sick since. Me neither…
Not really a cat expert, but if he’s losing weight perhaps you should see a vet? Cat losing weight= hyperthyroidism or cancer.
Most of the cat people I know strongly suggest never feeding dry food to a cat because cats don’t have a normal thirst urge and are intended to get most of their water from eating wet foods (aka mice and birds), so cats fed dry food are chronically dehydrated which causes bladder stones and kidney issues.
Fancy Feast classic canned is often touted as an affordable but good diet for cats; if you’re not worried about cost, a pre-made raw diet for cats is probably the healthiest way to feed them. There are lots of small specialty pet stores springing up (you may have some around you and not even know about them) that offer freezers full of pre-made raw diets for pets.
He’s not actually losing weight - he’s just no longer polishing off everything in his bowl and we’re not rationing his dry food any more. He used to get his half a cup of dry plus his wet and that would keep him stable at around 13-14 pounds. He has very gradually lost weight down to 12-12.5, and he seems pretty stable there for now. The vet says this is a healthy weight for him, but we should try to keep him from losing any more.
I suspect he would not eat a raw diet. He will not touch people food. I have dropped a small chunk of salmon on the floor and he will sniff it and then try to bury it.
Perhaps he has a hairball that is interfering with eating?
I’m not too fond of the Royal Canin brand, they seem to use a lot of gluten, corn, and soy in order to pretend their foods have meat in them.
Cat friends suggest Fromm, Earthborn Holistic, and Now are fairly widely-available high-quality brands that have more protein and calories in them than RC.
Like humans, cats that get older tend to do less exercising. So he’s just probably not as hungry as he was in his younger days. Probably sleeps more, too.
In general, older cats do better when nothing changes on them (including diet). As long as your vet doesn’t see any problems, keep on with the same feed.