# Vet tells me to drop wet food and switch to dry Purina Kitten Food



## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

I took Cali to the local clinic to get second set of vaccinations, rabies inoculation and spaying. My Calico is 4.5 months, long & very thin and is only 5.5 lbs. She had been getting wet canned for that most listed the first ingredients as red meat, chicken, turkey or fish before any meat by products are listed (Fancy Feast Classic). She doesn't seem to like most of the more expensive canned foods.

First thing the vet told me was to switch to Purina dry so she will gain much needed body weight. Right now she is 5.5 lbs & looks too thin. Even so I was shocked at the recommendation for dry food. Vets have told me to feed Purina dry food to my dogs & cats for the last 50 years!

My last cat died of diabetes that I fed quality dry foods to. I believe it was primarily due to the high level of carbs and plant protein which typically does not have the proper amino balance so that Cali could properly use the plant derived protein.

Right now I think I better give her dry until her weight is in the normal range then switch back to quality canned wet food.

Suggestions appreciated!!


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## DeafDogs&Cat (Mar 27, 2013)

Dry food will help your cat gain weight. But instead of dropping wet food, still give her her regular meals of wet, but also give her a meal of dry, as well. You're right that dry food isn't good for cats. Alot of vets just believe what the pet food companies tell them in vet school, without doing any research on their own.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Wouldn't it be better to simply feed her *more* wet food to get her weight up? Or some high quality dry in addition to the wet food?

At 4.5 months, my girls only weighed 4 lbs. Can you post a picture of her whole body?


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Great minds, Sara! :grin:


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Weight gained on dry food is not good weight...it's fat rather than lean muscle. Continue with the wet food, just offer her as much as she wants. 

And unless she's extremely large framed....5.5 lbs at 4.5 months seems perfect to me.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

> Vet tells me to drop wet food and switch to dry Purina Kitten Food


I'd say switch to a better vet.

If your cat needs to be heavier just increase the calorie intake. It works the same in humans.... calories in vs calories out. Crappy dry food isn't necessary to put weight on a cat.


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## zuma (Nov 5, 2009)

I agree with everyone. To me adding dry is like telling a human who needs to gain weight to eat fast food only. Sure they'll gain weight, but they won't be very healthy. Id rather feed a high calorie supplement or higher calorie kitten food if she truly needs to gain weight than add dry food as a meal.


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

I have to agree with switching to a different vet. Wet food is ALWAYS better than dry food for feline nutrition, first of all... second of all, Purina's kitten food is possibly one of the worst dry foods to feed. Pretty much any dry food at the grocery store is garbage, filled with empty carbohydrates and corn that leaves the cat feeling unsatisfied. Cats need REAL meat. Like everyone else has said... feeding this sort of dry food will only have her gain weight from all of the carbs. That's not the kind of weight you want her gaining... feeding her as much wet as she wants is the best you can do!

For an excellent resource from a VERY knowledgable vet on feline nutrition, take a look at www.catinfo.org. Lisa Pierson is an incredible vet... and she says feeding ANY wet food is leaps and bounds better than even the best quality, grain-free dry food.

If you want to feed dry as a supplement (not as the sole source of her diet since wet food truly is the best for cats), a high-quality, grain-free dry food is what you'd want to go with... not Purina. Some good brands are Acana, Orijen, Merrick, and some more common ones you may have heard of are Wellness and Blue Buffalo. But since your kitten enjoys her wet food... I wouldn't suggest adding dry. Many kitties get addicted to it. I feed Merrick as a supplement to my kitties wet food, they usually get about 1/4 cup to share in the middle of the day as a meal.


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## TabbCatt (Mar 26, 2014)

agotor said:


> First thing the vet told me was to switch to Purina dry so she will gain much needed body weight. Right now she is 5.5 lbs & looks too thin. Even so I was shocked at the recommendation for dry food. Vets have told me to feed Purina dry food to my dogs & cats for the last 50 years!
> 
> My last cat died of diabetes that I fed quality dry foods to.



Um...yeah, seek a new vet, one that actually has owned cats for MANY years, for starters. Use THAT as a prerequisite to be your personal vet in the future. If my previous cat died of diabetes, and the vets that treated her has been promoting Purina dry for the _last 50 years_, one would wonder where their TRUE motivations are vested in? Just a thought.

If your 4.5 month old kitten is looking thin at 5.5 lbs, I'd say it's possible she's still growing into that currently "long and lean" body. Some will go through a growth spurt, so her body shape could still change as she continues to grow and mature. I hardly doubt 5.5 lbs is skinny, either. Perhaps your vet only often sees overweight cats and sees _that _as the new _norm_? Sorry, but that would signal a red flag for me.


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## Hannata (Jan 12, 2015)

All the kittens I've had experience with were at their skinniest at the 4/5 month age. If its a kitten in good health and its eating well don't be in a rush to panic


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## BigDaveyL (Jun 26, 2012)

I think there are better options, as others have stated.

You can feed her more wet food. Simple as that


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

I agree new Vet. 

At 4-6 months I feed my fosters all the food they can pack in. Wet mainly.. occasionally if they act like they are starving.. grain free dry as free fed. At around 5 months they tend to get lean as they hit a growth spurt.


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## Mochas Mommy (Dec 9, 2013)

New vet vote here too!

I just checked weight charts for my kittens...and all are very healthy....at 18 weeks the girls were 4.9 and 4.1 pounds. The male was 5.5 pounds (and his father is a BIG boy at 18 pounds). 

The things to check...can you feel any vertebra along the kitten's back? Does your kitten have the proper body shape when looking down (birdseye view)? 
http://thecatnook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/cat_bodycondition-248x300.gif

If she needs to add some weight, feed her more of the food you already feed her. You are her owner and you get to choose what to feed her.


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## meggie (Mar 13, 2014)

My cats were both around 5 lbs at 6 months old. Your kitten's weight seems fine.
Instead of switching to dry why not look for a higher calorie wet food if she really does need to gain weight.

I too would look for a new vet. While we're on the topic of weight, I find it interesting that so many people think cats should be plump. A lot of our long term shelter cats are very often overweight, however when we have lean, healthy cats people will comment that they are skinny.


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## Cheddar (Jul 11, 2014)

Would you be able to post a picture of her? It would be easier to give suggestions seeing what she looks like.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Here's one more chart!


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

Wow, fabulous reply's that help a bunch,
The chart 10cats2dogs would have my kitten as a number 2, needing to gain some weight but not dramatic. When you look at her from the rear though she is very thin! She's a short hair and I'm used to looking a long hair cats so I need to recalibrate myself.  This facility is a wellness clinic for dog and cat care at bargain prices. The shelter takes part of what you pay to adopt and provides free spaying/neutering, rabies shot & microchip at the wellness clinic. The full set of 2nd shots was all I had to pay for and it was $30, so I'm good for a year. I would have rather had my regular full service vet clinic do everything but I'm retired and am on an extremely tight budget. I'll probably wait a month or so and have my regular full service vet check her out. They have very experienced vets there >20 years and the new vet has 5 years of experience and the older vets oversee everything she does.

I am surprised that my kittens weight (5.2 lbs @ 4.5 months) on their better scale sounds on par from what you folks have told me. Since I think I was largely responsible for my previous cat developing serious diabetes by feeding her dry food I was floored when they recommended Purina dry. They wanted her to gain some body fat fairly quickly which the dry food would accomplish. I'm not sure what to do as the kitten is already fed 4 times a day and she can't quite finish a 3 oz can each meal. Her belly is stuffed but she flies around the house like Tarzan/Superman almost non-stop so she is just burning it off.

Since I am familiar with the glycemic index I have learned healthier ways to consume carbos. If I add a little quality dry food under the wet can food it will slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream and negate the unhealthy sugar peaks in the blood stream and would be much healthier to eat dry food in this manner. The weird thing about all this to me is that the cat loves dry food a lot more than the better wet canned foods. Maybe it's the pate paste, I'd have trouble getting that down too!

Opinions/Suggestions most welcome!!
Thanks everyone!!


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

I think most cats like dry better than wet. :grin: 

A 3 oz. meal is a lot for a kitten, I'm not surprised she can't finish it. I think she's probably going through a growth spurt.

Here's Cali at 4 months old and 4 pounds. She probably looks bigger than she was because her hair is longer than a short-haired cat (but not nearly as long as it is now).


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

I would not worry too much about her weight - certainly not to the point about switching to a low quality dry cat food. Almost ANY wet food is better than dry food. You may want to subsidize her food intake with a high quality dry food like Pure Vita and let her free feed on the dry between wet food meals until she pads her loins a bit, but honestly, some cats are just not big eaters and are skinny by nature. 5.5 pounds for an almost 5 month old kitten does not sound unreasonable. She is young, and playful and active and will gain weight when she settles down in a few months. Your clinic's advice sounds ridiculous.


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## Floridagal (Nov 2, 2014)

We keep Blue dry cat food as a back up they can go to if they need a snack between meals. Our 9 month old is a bottomless pit and would eat 24/7 if we kept openning cans all day lol! She snacks on the kibble between meals and during the night.


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

I buy litter at the nearby feed store. Which is Tractor Supply. While looking for foods to add to my seniors rotation, I looked at the food they have there. 4 Health. While it is not considered the BEST. The first three ingredients are meat, liver, and broth. The meat depends on the flavor. the carbs are potato, or peas. so no grains (I think one has rice). My kibble addict actually likes it. so it has been added to the rotation. It costs about 50c a can too. comparable to fancy feast, ect. The thing I think you might like. almost twice the calories then the same sized can! So they actually need less for the same nutrition, so would help a bit with adding a bit of weight. 

Good for me when I have to watch my budget and gives my cats a bit of variety.


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

Interesting! That sounds pretty good, I might have to check that out to add to my rotation. I've never thought about getting cat food at Tractor Supply!


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

Followup:
Now at 7 months and returning from the hospital. A friend feed my pets while I was in the hospital. Instead of the wet which I had been allowing the kitten to have access to several time a day the friend just feed her Purina One kitten food. I returned a few weeks later and my very thin kitten had very noticeably gained weight and was a happier cat. She now snubs wet food completely! I realize dry is not healthy for various reasons as my last cat died from diabetes.

I need help! Feeding her more wet in the past did not work and now that she has had dry for a couple weeks the situation is worse.

Thanks!!


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## Chris66 (Mar 26, 2015)

I agree with giving her a mix of wet and dry. Almost everything I read online indicate dry is too high on carbs......


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## TabbCatt (Mar 26, 2014)

No, cats that love dry food will refuse all wet foods until you give in. So I propose you don't really give kibbles at all, or do the transition slower, like feeding her less and less kibble and more wet food at set mealtimes. No free-feeding.

I'd try to implement any of these tricks below to get her to eat ONLY grain-free canned food if you want your kitty to avoid getting diabetes or UTIs.

Basic tricks are using toppers to get her to eat her wet food:

-Try a variety of brands with different textures, protein. Some cats don't care for pate but will go for shredded or chunky foods.

-Adding bits of kibble crumble (smashed or crushed up first) over the wet food as a topper or a few pieces mixed in her wet food.

-Using Fortiflora as a topper (it's a probiotic, but essentially contains the similar stuff to coat kibbles as flavoring)

-tuna juice on the wet food

-Bonito flakes (dried tuna flakes) as a topper

-Parmesan cheese as a topper

-Freeze dried treats (which are usually single protein meat, no other ingredient listed) crumbled on as topper

You can find very detailed tips on transitioning a kibble addict to wet food on catinfo.org which is instructed by a vet. Basically, you'll need an enormous amount of patience and just be much more stubborn than your kitty.

Wishing you lots of luck in the meantime and hoping for a great outcome.


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## kbear (May 12, 2013)

of all the dry kitten food purina kitten chow has to be one of the worst! it's full of corn and other grains. cats are carnivores, they need meat. I would seriously look for another vet if mine recommended that food. chewy.com has a lot of different quality grain free dry foods if you really want to use dry and their prices are usually the best. from what I've read dry food can cause diabetes and all kinds of health problems. I recently switched my cats to wet and they weren't happy for a few days but they are fine with it now. when they get hungry enough they will eat the wet..

5.5lbs for a 4 month old kitten sounds perfect to me.


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

TabbCatt said:


> No, [b/]cats[/B] that love dry food will refuse all wet foods until you give in.


Yes, ADULT cats who are kibble addicts will refuse other food...kittens not so much. You can have fussy kittens, but they are growing and their body will not allow them to starve themselves if food is present.

Don't mix too much into the food or she'll always wait for the toppings. Adding a bit of warm tap water and mixing it in, or a tiny sprinkle of crushed kibble is fine, but don't get too fancy or it'll make her worse.

The tips TabbCat suggested are great for stubborn adults, but part of the hoal with a kitten is to keep them on as varied of a diet as possible to help prevent life long pickiness. Now is what those habits are forming.

If it was my kitten (and it was), I'd cut out the dry entirely and feed a different wet food flavour three times per day. Offer the plate for 15-20 minutes then pick it up (dont take it if she's currently eating, but if she's iignoring it) if she hasn't eaten then she can wait for the next meal. I know it feels like wasting food to throw it out, but if she was eating it you'd be going through a new flavor every meal anyways. Don't hover either, call her over, set the food down, and walk away. Pretend you don't care. Picky eaters hate supervision, IME.


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

Excellent suggestions everybody. I will ignore my fear of starving my cat and incorporate some of the suggestions. At this point she seems glad to ignore a canned meal of great looking and smelling chicken chunks for the next meal. I even gave her cooked chopped chicken breast a couple of days ago, tuna fish another time and she actually preferred dry. It's like they have some magical addictive ingredient in dry like nicotine in cigarettes!

Thanks, I will take deep breath and follow directions!


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

They sort of do have a 'magical ingredient'. 

This is the ingredient list with the important bit bolded:

Ingredients: chicken, brewer's rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour, *animal fat* preserved with mixed tocopherols (form of vitamin E), whole grain corn, fish meal, soy protein isolate, animal liver flavour, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, salt, caramel colour, choline chloride, L-lysine monohydrochloride, calcium carbonate, taurine, vitamin E supplement, zinc sulphate, ferrous sulphate, manganese sulphate, niacin, vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulphate, riboflavin supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulphite complex (source of vitamin K activity) and sodium selenite

They literally spray fat over the kibble. Some companies add something called 'animal digest' which is meat that's been pre-digested using chemicals to make their kibble more appetizing. It's part of what makes many poor quality kibbles a bit like kitty McDonalds. Tastes great - BAD for you.


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

Wow!!
Purina One dry kitten food is 18% while some canned food I looked at had only a small fraction of this. No wonder I could see a difference in the weight of my kitten in only a couple of weeks! I really don't want to be responsible for a fat cat.
Thanks


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

You can't compared dry food nutritional analysis directly to canned because of the difference in moisture. You have to compare them on a dry matter basis. 

Dry Matter Basis - A Better Way to Compare Dog Foods


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## Floridagal (Nov 2, 2014)

How about keeping the kibble as a back up? We feed our two girls canned for their regular meals, but keep some kibble next to their water dish in case they are looking for a knosh. I notice the kibble gets eaten mainly overnight.


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

Got my hands full! Cali a little canned late yesterday but today she was literally destroying everything in sight to try to get me to give her dry food. In a split second she bit through the cable on my phone charger, bit the laptop charger cables and was ripping everything in sight. I put her in my dogs cage to stop the carnage and get some relief. She was totally refusing canned today even after adding some dry but when I put her in the cage with the food she started to eat. Oh joy finally! Guess Cali will go into the cage at meal time till this gets under control. You just wouldn't believe the amount of stuff she destroyed in a very short time!


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

She's 8 months old right? Her destruction might not be just about hunger. At 8 months she may be teething again - back molars. Also, teenager hormones are hitting. There are still some 'crazy' hormones in there, even for s/n cats.

Break out the toys, give her some things she CAN chew on (personal fav: [ame]http://www.amazon.ca/Petstages-Cat-Orka-Wiggle-Worm/dp/B002U5PGLQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428605931&sr=8-1&keywords=cat+wiggle+worm[/ame]), and consider adding some clicker training to keep her little brain busy


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## agotor (Dec 2, 2014)

She calmed down finally after she ate. Fortunately this kitten has toys all over the house and normally she directs her energy on the toys. Cali even carries big ones to the top of her cat tower. Earlier today there was my stuff only up there! I am so glad things are back to normal.


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## meggie (Mar 13, 2014)

Librarychick- I had the same chew toy for my girl who LOVES to chew, unfortunately she chewed off large pieces and swallowed them. Threw up chunks almost a week later. It happened so fast. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and gave her the chew toy, within minutes she had it destroyed. 

I would just recommend keeping all eyes on the cat when they are playing with the chew toy. And put it away when you're not around to supervise.

Agotor- my girls love to play in cardboard boxes with tissue paper or packing paper ( I get a lot of stuff from Chewy.com and it always comes in a nice sturdy box with lots of packing paper) They love to jump in the box and rip the paper to shreds, one will even start ripping the box apart with her teeth. Another thing I do is crinkle the packing paper up into a large mound and throw a few toys in for them to hunt. They burn off a lot of energy running through the paper playground.


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