? Not gaining weight -- higher calorie food?

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membeth

membeth

Member Since 2017
My kitty, Pants, is too skinny at 7.7 lbs and now that her BG is under control, she's not gaining back the weight. She's never been a big eater and now that she's on low carb wet food, I think eating the same volume she's always eaten isn't enough calories.

Are there more calorie dense low carb wet foods I should try?

She's eating about 3/4 of a can of Halo Spot's Pate Chicken per day, which comes out to 150ish calories. I feed her a full can per day, broken up into two meals, but she almost never finishes it. I tried giving more food in more meals, but it doesn't make a difference.
 
I can only suggest a raw food diet. It'll be low carb, calorie dense etc, but it comes down to whether you can and whether your kitty can transition. There's "rules" round raw in that it has to be balanced. 80:10:10. Muscle meat:bone: organ
Totally appropriate for most conditions. Very biologically available protein and very low residue :)
 
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Once Leo got regulated, he regained all his weight on Fancy Feast classic. he likes chicken the best. There are different varieties. I feed him as much as he wants and his weight is normal now.
 
I can't do raw food for her, unfortunately, so I'm looking for something canned. She likes Fancy Feast chicken OK, but it's about the same calories as the Spot's Stew.

Is there any reason an adult cat that's underweight shouldn't eat kitten food? There are two Blue kitten foods that are significantly more calorie dense than what she's on now, and I'm tempted to try them and see if she'll eat them.
 
membeth said:
I can't do raw food for her, unfortunately, so I'm looking for something canned. She likes Fancy Feast chicken OK, but it's about the same calories as the Spot's Stew.

Is there any reason an adult cat that's underweight shouldn't eat kitten food? There are two Blue kitten foods that are significantly more calorie dense than what she's on now, and I'm tempted to try them and see if she'll eat them.
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I've heard of the high calorie kitten food being used but you'd have to find out the carb level.
 
membeth said:
They're 5-6% carbs. The Spot's Pate she's on now is 4%. The kitten foods are higher fat, though, in order to have more calories.
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That's low enough in carbs I'd say. I don't think the fat content is an issue if your cat doesn't have pancreatitis but I'm no expert on that.
 
Have you tried a few different kinds throughout the day? Maybe she needs a variety of different tastes to stimulate her to eat more. Turkey or duck? I had some problems with my kitty when I eliminated all his dry food and went to all canned. He had lost weight when he was diabetic and later found that he just won't eat a lot of canned food. He was over weight before so I'm not too worried but I have to just keep filling up his food bowl throughout the day and sprinkling a little forti flora over it at times.
 
What's forti flora?

She is picky about canned food too, but she seems to like the Spot's pate. She begs for food at meal time, and then eats enthusiastically and likes to lick the can. She just doesn't eat enough to gain back the weight. She's eating about the same volume of wet food as she used to eat of dry food, it's just fewer calories for the same amount of food.

I haven't tried feeding her different kinds throughout the day, maybe that would help.
 
membeth said:
What's forti flora?

She is picky about canned food too, but she seems to like the Spot's pate. She begs for food at meal time, and then eats enthusiastically and likes to lick the can. She just doesn't eat enough to gain back the weight. She's eating about the same volume of wet food as she used to eat of dry food, it's just fewer calories for the same amount of food.

I haven't tried feeding her different kinds throughout the day, maybe that would help.
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Fortiflora is a powdered probiotic that you can sprinkle on top of food as a flavour enhancer. Most cats like it a lot.
 
My kitty Leo did the same thing. He didn't need to eat much of the dry food due to the high carbs to keep his weight up but he won't eat enough sometimes of the canned to get the calories he needs sometimes.
FortiFlora is a probiotic that has a pretty strong taste which a lot of cats seem to like. It's powdered so you can sprinkle it over food. I only use it as an appetite enhancer because Leo gets a different probiotic with his meals.
 
Interesting -- I will try fortiflora and see if it helps. I ordered one of the higher calorie Blue foods to see if she'll eat it.

My sister used to work at a shelter and says they used turkey baby food with underweight non-diabetic cats as a supplement to regular cat or kitten food. Looks like others on FDMB have had some success with this.
 
You also have the option of adding some Royal Canin Recovery food. I'm not sure what the carb count is though and I'm not sure if it is ok for a diabetic but it's given to cats in recovery from not eating. It's the only food my previous cat would eat when she came home from the hospital. They seem to really like it.
 
When I needed to keep his calories up, I took Young Again Zero / Young Again Mature Zero, put in small plastic zippered bag, smashed the pieces with a hammer, made a fine dust with small bits, added it to A/D and force fed.

I provided higher calories and didn't have huge carb count.

Not medical advice, just what I did for my cat.
 
To update, I tried switching Pants to the higher calorie Blue, which she will eat, but she doesn't seem to like it that much. So now I'm feeding both the Spot's Pate that she's been on for a while and the new Blue food and that seems to have increased her total intake.

I start with the Blue at room temp, and then an hour or so later put out some fridge temp Spot's Pate and some frozen Spot's Pate for her to eat later on. It's too soon to tell if this is enough to get her to gain weight, but fingers crossed. Between getting her total food intake up and getting her to eat some of the higher calorie food, I'm hopeful this will work.

She's doing very well otherwise -- her coat is silkier, she's got more energy, she seems to be having an easier time climbing/jumping, and she's playing more than she has in years. So the other signs are good, she's just too skinny.
 
Has your vet checked her body mass and condition? I kept thinking my kitty Leo was way too skinny but his specialist said his body mass is fine and is not showing any signs of malnutrition or muscle loss. His cardiologist said the same thing. I was so used to seeing him at a certain weight that when he lost some weight when he went off the dry food I thought he looked too skinny. Just a thought. It sounds like she is doing well. Maybe with the new food regime she will start gaining some. It seems to take a while to notice any weight gain.
 
Hi Membeth!
I have the same problem!!!
When Fabby has lower glucose numbers she just won't eat as much as she's supposed to. Same as Pants, she is excited for food time, then eats normally, but then just stops before she eats all she's supposed to. Grr it's so frustrating. I mean - yay glucose is lower, but I really don't need her losing any more weight!
There are a couple Fancy Feast kitten foods that are low cost. I have used them. It's not her main diet though.
So far, I'm still in the struggle with you.
Mostly I just let her eat what she wants, then I do things that seem to cause additional interest. With Fabby, if I swirl the food around and the spoon clinks the bowl it gets interest. I will add water and make a soup with what she's left, and that works sometimes. Lately I've been saving the juice from the can (which there isn't a lot of anyway) and when she stops I swirl the food clinking the side and pour the saved juice over the top. That hasn't failed me yet... but chasing a cat to get her to eat enough is tiring and time consuming! Lol.
 
Lillie said:
Has your vet checked her body mass and condition? I kept thinking my kitty Leo was way too skinny but his specialist said his body mass is fine and is not showing any signs of malnutrition or muscle loss. His cardiologist said the same thing. I was so used to seeing him at a certain weight that when he lost some weight when he went off the dry food I thought he looked too skinny. Just a thought. It sounds like she is doing well. Maybe with the new food regime she will start gaining some. It seems to take a while to notice any weight gain.
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I am definitely used to her being on the chubby side. I used to call her a fat little pumpkin because she is orange and was, well, round :)

But it's not just that she's lost weight and is back to normal weight, she's definitely underweight now. She's a long-haired kitty, so she doesn't look bad now that her coat is in good condition because her fluff hides it, but you can feel her spine, hips, and ribs sticking out. The vet thought she was a little too skinny when she was half a pound heavier :(
 
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AlphaCat said:
Hi Membeth!
I have the same problem!!!
When Fabby has lower glucose numbers she just won't eat as much as she's supposed to. Same as Pants, she is excited for food time, then eats normally, but then just stops before she eats all she's supposed to. Grr it's so frustrating. I mean - yay glucose is lower, but I really don't need her losing any more weight!
There are a couple Fancy Feast kitten foods that are low cost. I have used them. It's not her main diet though.
So far, I'm still in the struggle with you.
Mostly I just let her eat what she wants, then I do things that seem to cause additional interest. With Fabby, if I swirl the food around and the spoon clinks the bowl it gets interest. I will add water and make a soup with what she's left, and that works sometimes. Lately I've been saving the juice from the can (which there isn't a lot of anyway) and when she stops I swirl the food clinking the side and pour the saved juice over the top. That hasn't failed me yet... but chasing a cat to get her to eat enough is tiring and time consuming! Lol.
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Yup. As her BG went down, so did her appetite -- she went from insatiably ravenous to normal for her. And her energy is up, so she's playing more, which is great, but means she needs more calories. Ugh!

I am trying the soup trick -- she loses interest in wet food if it sits long enough that it dries out, so adding water helps. So does putting out food of varying temperature if I'm not going to be home -- the fridge temp and frozen ones are fresh for her later. And I've been just giving her the can itself after I dish out the food so she can eat remaining bits/juice out of the bottom. She also bats it around the kitchen floor like a hockey puck :rolleyes:

Which Fancy Feast kitten works for you? We tried a chicken one and she liked it OK, but prefers the Spot's Pate adult food, which is unfortunately lower calorie.
 
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