Our cat just hit age 12. She been on a 7+ cat food, and she is doing great. She doesn’t have the “old cat” look yet, and she’s very agile. She can jump from the ground to the windowsill, which is about a 4.5’ jump, and can outrun the dog, who is 4. The vet says that if she had to age her by her teeth, she’d only put her around 8, but we know for sure how old she is. She’s just been well-cared for.
Her weight is spot-on.
Here’s my problem.
I have been browsing the senior, which is to say, 12+, cat foods online, and nearly all of them are “weight control,” or “healthy weight.” I don’t want that, because I want something she’ll eat plenty of. That’s another dilemma-- for some reason, more than 1/2 of the senior cat foods seem to be chicken-based, and she isn’t crazy about chicken. She likes turkey best, then any fish, then beef. She actually even prefers the dog’s venison food over chicken. I have not found venison cat food. She will eat canned food with chicken, but she just gets a little bit of canned a day. She free-feeds on dry, and the vet says that it’s good for her teeth, and as long as her weight is OK, she should free-feed.
Basically, I’m looking for a good senior dry food that is NOT chicken based, and NOT labeled “weight control,” or something similar. I’m looking for 12+. If I can’t find 12+, I will just go ahead and keep her on the 7+ she’s been eating for the last several years. But supposedly the 12+ foods are much easier on the kidneys. Most of my cats have lived past the age of 17, but with a couple of outliers, one with a congenital heart defect, my cats who have not made it to 17 have had kidney problems. This is why I want to switch to a 12+ food if I can find one she will eat.
If the food has chicken and something else, like “chicken & tuna,” she will probably eat it just fine, so go ahead and recommend those.
Pretty much, if you have had success with a senior food, in the sense first, that your cat ate it, and second, that your cat lived pretty long and healthy on it, let me know. I’ll take “stay away from this” notes too.
My will-be-14-in-2-weeks son is very attached to this cat. I would love to get her to 17, so she lives until he goes to college. Aside from other considerations that we are all pretty attached to her, and would love to have her live a long, healthy life.