What HEALTHY food to feed cats 15 & 13 yrs old

[PixieChick1]

I have two older female cats. The 15 yr old is a bit over weight and just this morning I found blood in her stool. Luckily she had gotten accidentally shut in the bathroom and had gone on the rug or I may never have noticed it. There was a harder stool, then the stool with blood was looser with a bit of mucus. Anyhow I read a post here that it could be due to constipation and with the harder stool next to it, that sounds right. My vet is out of the office till after the New Year. My other female cat is 13 and she is under weight. I feed them Purina Indoor Formula, which I also read is not a good cat food. My question, after all this is, what brand of cat food, or what ingredients do I look for in a choosing high quality cat food? I also have a 3 yr old male cat who weighs 15 lbs. it seems like they are always hungry which probably suggests they aren't getting very nutritious food. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks :-)

[PixieChick1]

Ok. Thanks again! I'm so glad I found this site!

[opus88]

your welcome, yes we all want to do the best we can for our furbabies for sure.
I am not sure if dry food is such an issue for dogs? you can ask on the Dog community and see wht they say there.

IMO I don't think it is b/c dogs drink alot more water than cats...cats inherently don't drink nearly enough to compensate for the dehydrated food...in the wild they would get their fluid source from the  bodily fluids of the mice they consume.

Also dogs can digest grains much better than a cat......
but again if the dogs weight starts to become an issue than I would certainly try something with less carbs for them too...:))

[PixieChick1]

Thank you so much opus88. I'm going to start their gradual change ASAP. Now is dry food as bad for dogs? I love my fur babies and want to give them the best nutrition possible so I have them with me as long as possible. Thanks again :-)

[opus88]

good questions!!! first of all NO dry food is good for cats....too dehydrated, and cats typically never drink anywhere enough water to compensate for. so this is particularly a HUGE problem for the male cats, with their urinary tract being so much more narrow and very prone to crystals plugging off than becoming an emergency situation.

plus dry food is loaded with preservatives and additives(to taste good, like candy)....not to mention the grains(carbs). its the grains(carbs) that cause the weight issues and they do absolutely nothing as far as nutrition, they are just 'cheap' fillers so the pet food manufactures make a larger profit....less meat, more fillers like rice, potatoes, etc...

the best cat food is a canned food, with NO grains. there are quite a few available now, not in grocery stores tho, you need to buy from a good pet store such as Petsmart or similar.
some names that come to mind are Merrick, EVO, NATURAL INSTINSTS, GO, Tiki, many more...
I will just caution you to do the transition slowly so to avoid a gastric upset(diarrhea) also its like taking us from candy to broccoli taste wise so most cats need to learn to like the new food.
start with 3/4 of a bowl per feeding of the Purina to 1/4 of the new food, than slowly each day add a bit more of the new food and a bit less of the Purina. this alone will be the best thing you can do for your cats health,  hands down!!!!

I wouldn't worry too much yet abt the blood in the stool, this is likely a touch of IBD and should correct itself with a diet change, just keep an eye on....

I will send you a site by DR Pierson that deals with nutrution and why to change!!!  click on each of the lines highlighted in blue to read further.

http://www.catinfo.org/

and some tips on how to transition off dry food.....good luck:)

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf