Cat treats - Healthy options?

[Dr Murdoch]

My cat is a bit of a brute, scared of his own shadow and is certainly a lover not a fighter, but he is a big cat (as in long/tall). At the vets yesterday he weighed in at 6.8kg, and we have been advised that this should really be nearer 6kg.

On that basis, are there any healthy treats available? I assume the ones in supermarkets (Dreamies etc are full of junk?), what about the Weblox meat sticks?

Any other suggestions, or am I going to have to tell him that he's not allowed any until he trims up a bit?

[brake fader]

i often just cook a chicken breast for for mine, just wrap in foil to keep moist place in oven , chop it up when it's cooled she loves it, keep in fridge.

[8bit]

Unless you're feeding him way more treats per day than recommended I'd have thought it was his main diet that was of concern?

How old is he? Indoor only or outdoor? Active or fairly sedentary? What does he eat now and how much per day (including any wet food, dry food, raw, other treats e.g. odd bits of ham or tuna etc.)? Any health concerns e.g. kidney, thyroid etc.?

[Dr Murdoch]

8bit said:

Unless you're feeding him way more treats per day than recommended I'd have thought it was his main diet that was of concern?

How old is he? Indoor only or outdoor? Active or fairly sedentary? What does he eat now and how much per day (including any wet food, dry food, raw, other treats e.g. odd bits of ham or tuna etc.)? Any health concerns e.g. kidney, thyroid etc.?

Good questions, in order....

7 years old
Outdoor
Sedentary, when he does go outside he never leaves the garden i.e. he doesn't roam (at the moment the lazy git goes outside for a crap and then comes straight back in and goes to sleep!)
Two packets of wet food. Dry left out for him to graze on, but doesn't eat much of it.
No health concerns apart from a lesion in his mouth which was flagged yesterday

[8bit]

Dr Murdoch said:

8bit said:

Unless you're feeding him way more treats per day than recommended I'd have thought it was his main diet that was of concern?

How old is he? Indoor only or outdoor? Active or fairly sedentary? What does he eat now and how much per day (including any wet food, dry food, raw, other treats e.g. odd bits of ham or tuna etc.)? Any health concerns e.g. kidney, thyroid etc.?

Good questions, in order....

7 years old
Outdoor
Sedentary, when he does go outside he never leaves the garden i.e. he doesn't roam (at the moment the lazy git goes outside for a crap and then comes straight back in and goes to sleep!)
Two packets of wet food. Dry left out for him to graze on, but doesn't eat much of it.
No health concerns apart from a lesion in his mouth which was flagged yesterday

OK thanks - only occurred to me after I posted that you'd maybe gone through all of that with the vet already

Cats generally self-regulate their food intake pretty well so if they become over or under-weight then it tends to be due to a health issue or because they're eating extra stuff, e.g. excessive quantities of treats, human food like ham etc. Could he be visiting a neighbouring house and getting extra food there?

What brand of wet and dry does he get? That doesn't sound like an excessive quantity of food; that's what our previous cats had the 13 years we had them, they were indoor only but never got overweight. At age 7 it might be worth thinking about switching to a senior wet food though, or something much more natural like Katkin or Untamed (we use Untamed for ours, they love it).

Did the vet suggest or carry out blood tests for stuff like kidney or thyroid function? These things can develop very slowly and affect cat's bodyweight before they're really showing much in tests but it's worth keeping an eye on these and catching them early if you can.

[Simpo Two]

8bit said:

At age 7 it might be worth thinking about switching to a senior wet food though

I compared the ingredients of normal and 'senior' cat food and they were identical... so not sure what the difference is.

[cliffords]

We give our dogs chopped up raw carrots as treats.
It turns out our cat likes them too.

[danb79]

Get your cat on to Katkins and use their freeze dried chicken bites

Both Finley (2 years old) and Lily (20 weeks old) love Katkins and there's no crap in it whatsoever

If you're interested, send me a message and I can refer you and you'll get 50% off your first order etc

[8bit]

Simpo Two said:

8bit said:

At age 7 it might be worth thinking about switching to a senior wet food though

I compared the ingredients of normal and 'senior' cat food and they were identical... so not sure what the difference is.

You don't say which brand but it's far from unheard of for some of them to be fairly misleading on the packaging. Even leaving that aside, the ingredients lists tend not to give quantities so it's hard to tell unless they also print nutritional composition tables. I don't think pet foods are required to carry as detailed information on nutritional values as human foods are, which does make it difficult to work this out.

As I was given to understand when our last cats got old, in theory a senior food will have reduced protein content, be easier to chew and to digest.

[jmn]

Applaws cat food is high protein/low carbohydrate.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

For snacks lidls freeze-dried chicken and duck pieces 99p a packdt