Friday, July 31, 2009

Whats the best thing to feed a cat if you are trying to fatten him up?

My cat was recently diagnosed with F.I.V he has had an operation to remove a tumure and has also been castrated to stop him biting and infecting other cats (we have 6)The thing is he has lost so much weight i dont want to feed him foods that are full of fat and end up doing him more bad than good.
Answers:
Just feed normally, if he's hungry then he'll eat more of his regular food rather than any new food, then you can top up his bowl more often than usual. Try to feed him away from the other cats too, it's likely that because he's weak he'll find it harder to get to the food, and won't be in the mood to fight for it.
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If you feed him healthy, he will fatten up
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat鈥檚 health
Contrary to what you may have heard, dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i鈥檚 and a host of other problems. The problems with it are that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Most of the moisture a cat needs is gotten
out of the food and 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Also, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...
Ask the vet, and you can feed your cat canned more often with dry along the side. Feed it a half can 3 or 4 times daily and have plenty of fresh water available and some dry as well. Good Luck.
Go back to the vet they should give u a food suplement for your pet, its a powder that goes into the meal also u can feed him small meals thruoghout the day, hope he gets well soon
a good way to fatten up your cat and keep it healthy is occationaly feed it 1egg mixed with a bit of milk, they love it and soon they will but on weight but as soon as you think they are getting to fat or alone the way to being to fat stop doing it, but keep feeding him normal cat food twice a day and at lunch time give him egg mixed with water. I have 6 cats and we sometimes have to give the runt of the litter some egg and milk.
just make sure he has access to fresh cat food ( a good one he'll like, Whiskas or Dine or something - not cheapo cat spam crap from Spar) and he'll eat loads I expect. Mine does!
Kitten food has been advised not to feed to adults because It causes normal adult cats to gain weight, so if your cat is under weight, I would feed him kitten food mixed in with is normal food. Do not switch completely over to the kitten food, but you can feed as much as 50/50. Kitten chow has more protein, which causes the weight gain, it is not full of fat.
I am afraid the weight loss is unlikely to be food related and will not be corrected with a change of diet. Treatment of the FIV infection and its consequences (cancer) may improve your cat's general condition and he may then gain some weight.
FIV is a dreadful infection. I recommend:
- Isolation of the affected individuals (blood screen your 6 cats + neutering)
- Treatment of affected individuals with interferon (no cure possible and expensive but usually quite effective in improving general condition) + antibiotics.
- Euthanasia when the cat has not got any quality of life and going down hill (trust me, you do not want to see a terminally hill FIVcat ...)
Good luck
If you are feeding regular cat food, take a look at the back of the pack for recommended portion sizes. Feed your cat the portion of food according to the weight you want your cat to be.
I suggest including raw human grade beef with a little bit of fat in it. (Look for cheap cuts of casserole beef with marbling). Cats are carnivores and most really love fresh beef - it's good for their digestion and will make their poos less smelly. It's also fantastic for their teeth.
Dry food is a completely ok choice of food - it is high in calories so do be sure to measure portions out carefully. A quality dry food like Hills Science Diet or Iams will not cause issues with crystals/kidney problems.
If you're concerned, call your vet or speak to the vet nurse - who will most likely be very knowledgeable about diet and can advise you further. It could probably be done via a phone call.
My best recommendation would be "Royal Canin Exigent" it's designed for fussy cats so it is higher in fat and protein, just be sure to switch him over to it graually (over a period of about 10 days) and keep a close eye on his weight because cats get very obese very quickly! Don't be put off by the "higher fat" statement either, its full of only the best quality ingredients for cats needing to gain weight!

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