Verified Review: Our Hands On Experience
We purchase and tested each of the wet and dry cat foods featured below. We wanted to see whether they were actually a hit with some real cats who needed to gain weight. Here are some further observations we made during this process:
- Wellness CORE Gain-Free Dry Cat Food: We really liked how the calorie count of this food compared with other options we looked at. Most of our kitties seemed to really enjoy the taste too. However, one of our senior cats wasnt very interested in this food and seemed to only want wet food.
- Blue Buffalo Wilderness Grain-Free Canned Food: This wet food was a big hit with our cats. They all seemed to love the way it tastes. However, we wish the food was a bit more reasonably priced.
- Instinct Original Grain-Free Paté: We found great success using this canned food with some of our pickier cats who needed to gain weight. However, as with most foods, there always seems to be one kitty who has different tastes than the others and didnt seem to enjoy this flavor.
A Little Home Cooking Can Be Helpful
One simple method to get Kitty to eat is to heat up her food just a little. This will intensify the smell, making it more appetizing to your cat. You may also want to try making her some eggs.
Scrambled eggs will be easier for her to eat. Just make sure the eggs are fully cooked. As said before, this is not a boxer, so no raw eggs.
Raw eggs contain avidin that makes it hard for her to absorb vitamin B plus there’s the possibility of salmonella. Skip the salt, pepper and butter as these are not very good for your cat.
Eggs are high in the fat and protein your cat needs to put on some healthy weight. A bit of thoroughly cooked tuna or liver might help things along, but keep this small and infrequent.
There are other methods depending on the situation. A sickly or highly reluctant to feed cat may need to be fed with a syringe. A cat that’s being bullied out of his share by other cats may need to be fed separately.
A nursing mother just needs more food to help her replenish. Intestinal parasites can be dealt with by administering a few pills. In any case, talk with and cooperate with your veterinarian to find out which solution is best for your cat.
Feeding Recommendations From Your Local Veterinarian
Canned food only is my first choice. For an adult cat, start with ½ of a 5.5 oz. can twice daily and no additional food. This is the starting point and likely will need to be adjusted downward.
For little cats, a half of a 3 oz. can twice daily may work better. This amount is also cat-specific and often needs adjusting up or down. Feeding canned food seems to create the best balance between calories and feeling full, and the meal seems to tide the cat over better than a dry food meal.
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Have More Than One Option
Just like us some cats just dont like certain recipes, choose more than one kind of high-quality cat food and by trial and error, land on one your cat likes and accepts the best. An easy way to know is by offering different kinds of food all at once and seeing if your cat has any particular preference.
Find The Reason Your Cat Is Getting Diabetic
Before increasing your diabetic cats weight, it is essential to determine why your cat is diabetic. It may be the diet, lifestyle, and other medication that leads to obesity in cats. The veterinarian can help diagnose the disease and find the reason for it.
Once you have found the reason for your cat getting diabetic, you can treat your cat accordingly to put weight on your diabetic cat. This is done by setting up the appropriate diet, insulin injection dose, and monitoring your cats health.
It helps understand your cats medical and physical needs to treat your cat efficiently.
Remember, whatever the reason is, all you need to do is stay consistent in taking care of your cat. You also need to make sure that your medical and diet needs are fulfilled.
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Changing Your Old Cats Food
Changing the food of your cat is usually considered as peopleâs last resort â but it does not have to be. In fact, your senior cat can be able to give you indicators whether they like certain cat food or not. If your cat turns his nose up at the regular cat food that youâre giving him, then this may be a sign that he wants to try new food. Your senior cat might respond well to a new flavor, like changing from beef flavor to a tuna or chicken flavoring. It is very important that you know well how to properly switch foods for your cat before you do it yourself. During the first few weeks, make sure you include a half portion of the new food and half portion of the old food so that your cat will get used to the ingredients youâre offering him.
What Foods Can I Give My Cat To Gain Weight
Cats that are less in weight should be fed with food that has a high protein content of about 30% or more and the fat content should be about 20%. The combination is applicable when the food being consumed by your cat is dry. On the other hand, when feeding it with wet food, the mix of the nutrients should be about 7% in protein and 5% in fat. Revival Animal Health Doc is a typical cat food that can make your cat gain weight. These contents can be varied a little.
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Ziwi Peak Venison Recipe Canned Food
Ziwi is one of the best-wet cat food available on the market and is best for your catâs weight loss. The food is available in many flavors and features 93% meat, organs and New Zealand green mussels, making it low in carbohydrates but very rich in proteins.
The food is made from natural recipes that are 100% good for your catâs health. The best part about this meal is that it is formulated for cats of all ages.
PROS
·The food is very rich in proteins but low in carbohydrates which is excellent for cats losing weight·The food is made from premium completely natural ingredients·The food is formulated for cats of all stages
CONS·The food is pretty expensive to be bought as your catâs staple diet·The food doesnât contain probiotics
Healthy Tips To Help A Cat Gain Weight
If youre wondering how to make a skinny cat gain weight, the solution may not be as simple as just feeding him more. Simply increasing the amount of food you give your cat may help him increase his body weight, but he may end up putting on fat instead of muscle.
The goal in helping an underweight cat gain weight is to improve the quality of his diet while increasing his bodyweight in a balanced way. You want your cat to gain muscle before he gains fat.
Here are some simple tips to help your skinny cat gain weight:
Now that you have a better understanding of how to help a cat gain weight, you may be wondering more specifically what to feed an underweight cat. All cats require a healthy, balanced diet but the exact composition of nutrients in your cats diet is particularly important if your cat is underweight and/or malnourished. Keep reading to learn more about what to look for in high calorie cat food.
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Weight Gain Food Options For Cats
Good quality food for young cats is considered as a great choice to feed underweight adult cats. Fortunately, most adult cats like to eat kitten food. You can give your cat a calorie- and nutrient-dense kitten food as it is highly palatable to adult cats. Aside from that, your vet can also be able to prescribe cat foods with high calories to support your catâs weight-gain journey. You can also ask your vet about cat foods with formulations that are highly digestible as well as provide extra calories.
Our #1 Choice To Help Cats Gain Weight: Blue Buffalo Wilderness
Even though the 2 other options offer a slightly higher protein content, Blue Buffalo is our personal favorite. Its a brand we have been trusting for years with our Yoda and it worked wonders when we needed it most .
This brand was created by the Bishops family, inspired by their pet Blue who struggled with cancer. Their research for the healthiest solutions led them to create a super high-quality pet food that would only use the finest ingredients.
This is exactly what Blue Buffalo provides: Quality ingredients that will nourish your beast and provide your cat with healthy, wholesome nourishment.
What We Love About Blue Buffalos Cat Food
- Balanced calories from proteins and fats: 443 calories/cup, 40% protein and 18% crude fat!
- Grain-free + holistically created
- A magic combo of omegas, amino acid + an exclusive blend of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals
- Made in the USA by a company that gives back
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Our Experience: When Yoda Missed His Pawents
After spending a few months in sunny Mexico, we had to fly for the summer to visit family and friends back in France and the USA. A good friend of ours was taking care of our beast until the day we were coming back.
When we came back after roughly five weeks, our beast had lost 1.1 kg. It was clearly visible and we started worrying that he might have caught something while we were gone.
After a visit at the vet and a long week of feeding him a combo of dry and wet cat food, plus treats, our Yoda was already on his way back to his normal chubbiness, eating plenty and getting his little belly back.
To entice him back to his food bowl, we used both wet and dry food from Blue Buffalo and some watery tuna juice every now and then.
It appears our furry friend dearly missed us and our absence translated into a big loss of appetite. Nothing more, nothing less! This was a big lesson for us and highlighted once more that animals have a deep affection for us . If they perceive time in their own way, they certainly perceive the absence of their human friends!
Identifying Your Cats Ideal Weight
Knowing the ideal weight for your kitty is the major goal before you start a weight-can diet program since it can be easy to get her over-fed and for her to become overweight that results in a wide range of health problems. Make sure to speak to your veterinarian about what should be the ideal weight for her and what time frame works well for her to gain weight.
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There Are Many Factors To Consider When Choosing One Or The Other
Among the timeless questions debated endlessly from generation to generation, such as What is the meaning of life? and Does the refrigerator light go off when the door is closed?, is one veterinarians and cat owners are particularly familiar with: Is feeding canned or dry food better for cats? Cat loversand many veterinariansoften have strong and absolute opinions on this question, and disagreements on the subject tend to be about as amicable as those on politics and religion.
The most widely held belief seems to be that canned foods are healthier for cats than dry diets. This is predicated on two key arguments:
1) As obligate carnivores, cats cannot thrive on dietary carbohydrates, and canned diets are low-carb compared with kibble. Therefore, dry diets are more likely to lead to obesity and diabetes mellitus , two common and important feline health problems.15
2) Cats eating dry food dont drink enough water, and this increases the risk of chronic kidney disease and lower urinary tract diseases, such as feline interstitial cystitis and urolithiasis. Feeding canned foods maintains better hydration and promotes dilute urine, reducing the risk of these diseases.4,6,7
How To Put Weight On A Diabetic Cat Full Guide
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One of the pet parents concerns is that their cat does not gain weight because of being diabetic. The cats can also get diabetes, and the disease affects the pets life as it affects us.
Cats are not different from people when it comes to diabetes. Due to the disease, insulin of the body is affected, due to which the movement of sugar moving from the bloodstream into the cell is affected.
This leads to the symptoms of increased urination and thirst. Diabetes is more common in older cats that are obese.
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A Hungry Cat Often Looks For Mischief
Another factor to consider is that a hungry cat is a busy cat, often seeking out food, stalking or grumpy towards the other cats , bothering the people around the house, or engaging in other destructive behaviors.
Being busy is good in that it makes the cat more active, which helps burn calories, but the nature of the business is often not appreciated by the rest of the house. By feeding a cat in response to these behaviors, the cat is encouraged to act this way. One of the hardest things to do is to let a cat be hungry without rewarding the associated behaviors.
Blue Buffalo Wilderness Grain
Our Top Pick for the Most Popular Cat Food for Weight Gain: The Blue Buffalo brand offers a wide selection of products, but the entire Wilderness line is designed to be high in protein and entirely grain-free. This Blue Buffalo Wilderness Grain-Free Chicken Recipe Dry Food is an excellent option if your cat needs to gain weight because it contains 40% protein, 18% fat, and nearly 450 calories per cup. This recipe features fresh chicken as the primary ingredient with chicken meal as a concentrated source of supplemental protein. It is rich in omega-3 fatty acids to help your cat regain the healthy condition of his skin and coat with plenty of fiber for regular digestion. This recipe is entirely grain-free for easy digestibility and contains chelated minerals to ensure optimal nutrient absorption. Plus, like all of Blue Buffalos recipes, it is supplemented with LifeSource bits which contain an ideal blend of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants for balanced nutrition.
- Pros: High in protein and calories, grain-free for digestibility, real chicken as main ingredient, supports healthy digestion, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, chelated minerals, probiotics
- Cons: Some cats are sensitive to chicken ingredients, contains some plant protein
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How To Let Your Pet Gain Weight
Underweight pets should be eating foods that are around 30% protein and 20% fat if they’re eating dry kibble, or 7% protein and 5% fat, or higher, if you’re feeding a wet food. Intersperse your pet’s diet with small amounts of high-calorie supplemental canned food or canned products made of 100% meat sources.
Factors That Can Cause Your Cat To Lose Weight
If you notice your chubby cat suddenly losing weight, donât be happy about it because it can be a sign of a health problem and can be very dangerous The following are some of the factors that can cause your cat to lose weight:
When you notice your cat losing too much weight despite eating a normal amount of food then the best thing you can do is take it to the vet, the veterinarian will do some tests and eventually tell you the exact problem of your cat.
Once that is done, you can take further steps to help your cat gain weight.
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High Calorie Cat Food: Reviewed For 2021 Faqs
What can I feed my cat to make it gain weight?
Choosing a high calorie cat food that is formulated to help underweight or senior kitties gain weight can help. You should also check with your veterinarian to see if there are any specific nutrients that your kitty needs. They may prescribe a special diet or recommend supplementing the food you choose with other ingredients or special vitamins.
What is the highest calorie cat food?
Two of the highest calorie cat foods we found were the Wellness CORE Gain-Free Dry Cat Food and Blue Buffalo Wilderness Grain-Free Canned Food. Wellness CORE has 497 kcal per cup, and Blue Buffalo Wilderness has 155 calories per 100 ounces.
Next, combine the nutritional supplement with water in a bowl and stir them together. Then, mix in the ground chicken with the water/supplement mixture.
Portion out the chicken and supplement into individual servings of 2 to 3 ounces. Cover and refrigerate each serving until your kitty is ready to eat it. Each ounce of this recipe provides approximately 45 calories.
Is wet or dry cat food higher in calories?
How do I make high calorie cat food?
Then, you can grind a whole, cooked chicken in a food processor until it is very well puréed. Look for it to have the same consistency you would see when opening a can of kitty food.