Terrific Tuesday!

It has been a while since I last posted (though I have updated the food review page with some new foods and will be adding/updating more today as well). Smokey and Sunny are both doing well though Sunny still needs to lose weight (she has not gained any though, so that's good). To be honest though, I've not been sticking with her diet as much as I should because I've been gone a lot this summer. However, I'm going to get back on track with her diet and here's the plan. All the "weight loss" foods just seriously limit calories (they are less calorie dense) and often add fiber instead of protein, carbs or fat to "fill" the cat up with fewer calories. My plan (and one many vets recommend) is to limit calories to about 180-190 a day and get her to SLOWLY lose the weight. If she doesn't lose weight, I'll lower the daily calories to 170 and so on. This will allow her to stay on the same food (and will be easier for Smokey too).

Lilly is also doing well though she has probably lost most/all of the vision in her right eye (the cataract has gotten worse since she saw the vet). It doesn't seem to bother her though and she has NO problems finding food, water or anything else. There is nothing a vet can do for her (I talked to a specialist) to help the cataract, unfortunately.

The cats have never had any type of canned food except for the pate style (smooth ground) canned foods. However, I decided to let them try the Taste of the Wild canned cat foods since they are picky about canned foods and only like the Whitefish flavor of the Sheba food I feed them (they used to like others and I would prefer more variety in their diet). I've tried the Blue Buffalo Wilderness canned foods (they eat the dry food of this brand as their main food and love it) but they HATE them (I've tried duck, chicken, and salmon). They seem to like fish flavors best. I don't like feeding them fish flavors because of the risks associated with feeding fish frequently (some types are more acceptable to me though). I wanted to try trout because it's freshwater and is lower in iodine than many marine fish. There are few foods that have trout as the main ingredient though. This is why I let them try the Taste of the Wild food. The Canyon River Feline is trout based. The cats don't like it though (they took a couple bites and then went away from their dishes). I think the TOTW canned foods are great for cats because they have great ingredients, and are grain-free, but so far, my cats don't like them. However, if you're looking for a good canned food, try them (your cats might be different). I think that I have kibble addicts on my hands though so I will likely be trying to find more canned foods that they WILL eat (I want to get more water in their diets). I'll probably be doing another food review soon (on a newer brand), so keep an eye out for another post!