Help with food

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Justin & Sebastian

Justin & Sebastian

Member Since 2019
I have a couple questions and need some help with transitioning to wet food.

First question, I read over the "Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food" article and it says the average cat should eat about 6-8oz of wet food per day. Every single can of wet food I've ever seen says approx 1 5oz can per 7lbs. I've never met an adult cat that small, usually closer to 12ish lbs, which would equate to closer to two cans per day per the label. So where is the 6-8oz guideline coming from?

Second, and more to the point. Sebastian isn't resistant to eating wet food. I put out new wet food last night, the wellness core turkey & duck, and both cats ate it up like it was the best thing they've ever eaten. Then comes this morning's meal and they turn their nose up at it. They've done this with several of the wet foods I've tried now. They'll devour it first time I put it out but then get sick of it over subsequent feedings.
 
I'm not sure I can help, but maybe relate. I have 3 cats that I transitioned to wet. My betes buddy was 20 lbs, went down to 15 and now is climbing back. The other two are 15 and 8. They get a total of 18 oz a day, mixed with bone broth. I switch their food every week, but only between 3 or 4 flavors. I'm sure the competition helps keep them interested, so I don't have the experience of being picky. I think the numbers on the can are inflated, because my guys are getting approximately 6 oz of food per day and about 2 oz of bone broth.
 
Okay so I just found this article, which says a 10lb lean domestic cat needs about 280 cal per day, a 15lb needs 360 per day, so ~26cal/lb
The article on these forums says 15 cal/lb, almost half of what the first article says.
And then the can label says ~1 can (215cal) per 6-8 lbs, so ~30cal/lb.
And then your example, I'm gonna assume the food is also around 215 cal per 6oz, so ~15cal/lb

So I've got two sources saying 15 cal/lb, 2 saying double that.

In the past when I was feeding them dry food per the label guidelines, all the food would get eaten and they maintained a healthy weight, about 13 and 9lbs.

Sebastian isn't doing super great lately and I definitely don't want to underfeed him, but I also don't want to waste the food and want to make sure he's eating as much as he's supposed to, but at this point I have no idea how much that's supposed to be.
 
With diabetes, they are much better off eating more frequent, smaller meals. At 6 oz a day, I have 2 cats that are by vet standards, overweight. I would not consider feeding them more than what they currently get. Previously on Royal Canin SO dry, they now get FF Roasted and Pate options.
 
Replying to your previous post as well...

When in doubt, trust what Dr Lisa Pierson has to say. If you haven't already, read through her catinfo.org site. Full of great information about nutrition, including material specific to diabetic cats.

The required nutritional data printed on the label doesn't yield a lot of useful information, since much of it is just minimums and maximums. It doesn't provide an accurate basis for calculating level of carbohydrates. You should rely on Dr Pierson's list. She pesters the manufacturers to get more relevant numbers.

The nutritional values on wet food labels look low until you factor out the roughly 80% that is water.

Here on the board you will find many stories of people who despair of getting their cats to stick with a food. Cats are notorious for eating just enough of a given food to convince you it's OK to go out and buy a case, and then they'll never touch it again.
 
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Okay,that helps a bit. The nutritional numbers make a bit more sense once I factor out the moisture volume. Still don't fully make sense, since I would assume that a can that has less protein than fat listed on the chart would subsequently have a lower percentage listed on the can, but doesn't (38%prot/57%fat from chart vs 12%prot/8%fat from label). But maybe that's just part of the min/max thing.

The amount of food still has me concerned. Reading through Dr Lisa's article, she says every cat that she's transitioned to wet food has lost weight. Sebastian has already lost too much weight. He should be 13lbs but with all his issues recently he's down to under 11lbs. He is very bony, ribs are sticking out, and there's not much padding over his backbone. He also has a history of going DKA so under-consumption simply isn't an option. 6oz a day just seems really low. It's much lower than what he was consuming of dry food before he lost all the weight, which would have been about 300 kcal/day.

Although I will say the 6oz is probably close to the volume he actually wants to eat. I've haven't been able to get him to eat the full 1 3/4 can I've been trying to give him the past couple days and it's probably closer to a can that he actually eats. I just worry that the decreased volume is because he's not feeling well or the pancreatitis is coming back, which is one of the warning signs they told me to look out for.
 
Looking at your other thread as well...

If you haven't already, visit the "Lantus / Basaglar (glargine) and Levemir (detemir)" forum and read the information posted at the top. That forum will be the best place for future questions about insulin use. And you will get responses from people far, far more knowledgable than I.

I can, however, say that you really need to be administering the Lantus twice a day, twelve hours apart, same dose both shots. Or are you just not noting the evening shots on your spreadsheet? If so, you should also be testing before that shot.

There is no reason to continue spending money on the Purina DM, unless your cat won't eat anything else for now. Again read what Dr Pierson has to say.

I don't know enough to know when phosphorous levels should be a concern. I think there is something you can add to food to help with that (phosphorous binder?).

If your cat likes patés, Holistic Select is a step or two up from Fancy Feast or Friskies. It is the only brand aside from Fancy Feast that my cats will eat consistently. And it will get you some lower phosphorous levels.
 
I have been doing two shots a day, I just neglected to note it on the sheet except for the one instance where it was different than the morning shot. I'll go back and update that so it's clear.

At this point I'm going to go with the Dr's guidelines, one can of wellness turkey&duck a day, broken up into 4 meals. It seems to be about the volume he wants to eat anyways.
 
What I've read has said 20 kcal/pound for indoor cats, and up to 35 kcal/pound for outdoor cats, as an outdoor cat is going to be much more active than an indoor cat. If you have an indoor cat who spends the day bouncing around like a lunatic, nonstop, likely he would need more than just 20 kcal/pound.
You should feed your cat for the weight they are supposed to be--so if your cat should be 13 pounds but is only 11 pounds right now, feed him enough calories for 13 pounds, not 11. If he is losing weight, up the amount of food. If he starts gaining too quickly, cut back a little.
Breaking the food up into 4 meals a day makes it easier to adjust the total amount without stressing out the cat. You can add a little bit more to each meal to get him to eat more calories, if he'll eat 1/4 can per meal, making it 1/4 can plus a scant teaspoon is likely to work, and he'll learn to eat it all. If you tried to make one meal 1/2 can, and the others still 1/4, likely he'd leave the rest at the big meal. Also easier to cut back if he gains too quickly or too much--just take away a little of the portion at each meal, and he's not likely to notice it and end up hungry.

As for keeping them eating it, we are using FF classic pates, and I order all the different poultry and fish flavors. Since one cat gets 3/4 can per meal, and the other one 1/2 can per meal, four meals per day, we are constantly changing the flavors as we go through so many cans. At first, the diabetic cat liked only poultry, and the other cat liked only fish, then they started eating each other's food, so now we mix the two up and then serve out their portions. But the constant rotation of flavors seems to work for us. I really wish FF came in bigger cans, it offends my sense of ecological responsibility to be cracking open so many little cans per day, but it's working for us so we continue to do it. Maybe you can open two flavors at a time, and switch flavors each meal? You would be finishing the pair of cans over two days, so that's not too long, right?
 
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