Torn about what to feed my cats, especially the overweight cat

My gorgeous 11 year old orange cat had always weighed more than the vet said he should be unitl I switched him to Purine One Metabolism type (forget the exact name) years ago. He was able to maintain a reasonable weight with that. No real issues although he wanted to be fed more...but it worked.

Added an older kitten towards the end of the summer. She had been eating Science diet at the shelter we adopted her from. To make a long story short, I tried to transition her to a kitten Purina One food (followed directions about gradually transitioning) and it did not work with her stomach. I swithed her back to Science Diet. While in the store considering options, a woman came up to me and urged me to only give my cats wet food (which I currently do not use) as dry food is known to cause kidney issues in cats. I feel like she may be right when she told me she spends $100 on each cat/month but it is worth it to her. I cannot afford that. However, I did decide to try the Science Diet perfect weight for my 11 year old cat and transitioned him from the Purina one food; he has gained almost 2 pounds (although occasionally he has gotten into the kitten/pretty much younger cat at this point's food)..I am thinking the Science Diet Perfect Weight is not perfect for him.

Trying to decide if I should just go back to Purina One Metabolism for him...and if I need to either switch to or at least add some wet food for both cats. Thoughts?

My childhood cat died of diabetes, which I attribute to her mostly dry food diet. I vowed not to allow that to happen if I ever got another cat.

My current cat is now 10 and we got her when she was 3. I have fed her wet food exclusively since we got her even though she came to us on a dry food diet. We started out with canned food (Nature's Variety Instinct Grain-Free and Tiki Cat chicken), but now she eats frozen raw medallions. We have had our cat sitter give her dry food once a day when we're on vacation and her raw food for dinner, but she always ends up with diarrhea. With the raw food diet her poops are small and don't smell at all (I'm assuming because there's no fillers so her body absorbs almost all of it).

ETA: regarding the overweight cat, do you leave food out all day for him to nibble on? If so, that may be part of the problem. I feed my cat twice a day around 7:30am and 4pm. She get's 1.5 medallions each meal and whatever she doesn't eat within an hour gets thrown out.

This is my favorite website for figuring out the best wet food: https://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2...-foods-so-far/

Thanks for the excellent website.

I do not leave out food all day for him to nibble on. He gets fed twice a day like yours. Works fine with Purina One Metabolism and we only had this 2 lbs weight gain when I tried to switch in to Science Diet Perfect Weight...so deciding if that is what I should stick with or if I want to move towards wet food...and with less fillers. Purina One makes wet food too..but lots of fillers.

A vet years ago told us to always add water to dry food (for our dog) and cited the kidney issues, especially in older dogs. It made complete sense so we have added a good amount of water to our our dog's dry food, at every meal, for many many years. She is between 16-17 years old. We currently make her food in the Instant Pot and mix a little bit of dry kibble and a lot of water into it.

Dry food is certainly cheaper and if you need to use dry for budget reasons, then I don't see why you couldn't add water to it - if you let it soak a bit it will make the meal more filling too. To make it more palatable, you can mix a little broth into the water, or even a small amount of canned food, whatever your kitty likes the taste of.

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Originally Posted by twowhat?

A vet years ago told us to always add water to dry food (for our dog) and cited the kidney issues, especially in older dogs. It made complete sense so we have added a good amount of water to our our dog's dry food, at every meal, for many many years. She is between 16-17 years old. We currently make her food in the Instant Pot and mix a little bit of dry kibble and a lot of water into it.

Dry food is certainly cheaper and if you need to use dry for budget reasons, then I don't see why you couldn't add water to it - if you let it soak a bit it will make the meal more filling too. To make it more palatable, you can mix a little broth into the water, or even a small amount of canned food, whatever your kitty likes the taste of.

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Thank you, twowhat?! Hmmn, It would be interesting to see if the cats would eat the food with added water and/or broth...I certainly think adding some canned food is a good idea, so will start working towards that.

It's always a good idea to add water to any type of food. I add 2 TBSP of water to my cat's raw medallions at each meal. She doesn't drink water like a normal cat/dog-- she dips her paw into her water and then licks it! So I'm always worried about her getting enough water since most of it ends up dripping off her paw and leaving a puddle on the floor!

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Originally Posted by essnce629

It's always a good idea to add water to any type of food. I add 2 TBSP of water to my cat's raw medallions at each meal. She doesn't drink water like a normal cat/dog-- she dips her paw into her water and then licks it! So I'm always worried about her getting enough water since most of it ends up dripping off her paw and leaving a puddle on the floor!

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Thanks! LOL, that is so cute to visualze your cat using her pay to drink water! My two seem to drink plenty, but I do want to add some to their food as well as add wet food. I looked at the great website you provided, but its all too overwhelming now with all that I have going on, so maybe at a later date I can move toward food changes.