You say Macros Macros Macros. I hear Marsha Marsha Marsha.

I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).

My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!

I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/

Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/

Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.

I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).

My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!

I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/

Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/

Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.

Thanks so much for sharing this. Baby food jars of meat is a brilliant idea! I pitched the dry food and have just been cooking meat for him, but I'm also looking at canned foods so thanks for the link.

The baby food tip is the best tip I've read. My cat was hungry -- he would go over to his food but whatever was wrong with him, he just wouldn't eat. He had been throwing up for two days prior to not eating. I couldn't even get him to eat people tuna, turkey, chicken ... nothing. I was doubtful the baby food would work, but it did. Def worth a try if your cat gets ill like mine did.

At first I was in sticker shock because the price of the better food is twice (or more) the price of the canned food they sell in the grocery store. Read the labels ...it costs more but the ingredients are so much better. Pet food stores weren't always around like they are now and the cats I had growing up, we always fed them Purina. I feel dumb not reading the labels until recently as I've had pets all my life. The better food is worth the money, imo. They other thing is that my older cat was always, always scratching. He had scabs under his chin and behind his ears forever, a good amount of dander, and he shed all the time. After switching his food his scratching completely stopped, his scabs healed, dander almost non-existent, much less shedding. I give them a supplement called The Missing Link added into their food http://www.petco.com/product/10201/The-Missing-Link-Ultimate-Feline-Formula-Food-Supplement.aspx. Although my younger cat seems to have developed a mild asthma condition and I'm experimenting to see if it's the supplement, as he seems to show symptoms on days he gets the supplement. I give the younger cat vitamins too (older cat refuses to eat them). I also have two dogs and have them on a good dry plus some good canned mixed in with one of their meals and they also get The Missing Link for dogs plus vitamins.

That is the first thing I thought of when seeing the title of this thread.

Sad coincidence. Alice passed away today.

It was yesterday.

I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).

My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!

I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/

Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/

Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.

Thanks so much for sharing this. Baby food jars of meat is a brilliant idea! I pitched the dry food and have just been cooking meat for him, but I'm also looking at canned foods so thanks for the link.

The baby food tip is the best tip I've read. My cat was hungry -- he would go over to his food but whatever was wrong with him, he just wouldn't eat. He had been throwing up for two days prior to not eating. I couldn't even get him to eat people tuna, turkey, chicken ... nothing. I was doubtful the baby food would work, but it did. Def worth a try if your cat gets ill like mine did.

At first I was in sticker shock because the price of the better food is twice (or more) the price of the canned food they sell in the grocery store. Read the labels ...it costs more but the ingredients are so much better. Pet food stores weren't always around like they are now and the cats I had growing up, we always fed them Purina. I feel dumb not reading the labels until recently as I've had pets all my life. The better food is worth the money, imo. They other thing is that my older cat was always, always scratching. He had scabs under his chin and behind his ears forever, a good amount of dander, and he shed all the time. After switching his food his scratching completely stopped, his scabs healed, dander almost non-existent, much less shedding. I give them a supplement called The Missing Link added into their food http://www.petco.com/product/10201/The-Missing-Link-Ultimate-Feline-Formula-Food-Supplement.aspx. Although my younger cat seems to have developed a mild asthma condition and I'm experimenting to see if it's the supplement, as he seems to show symptoms on days he gets the supplement. I give the younger cat vitamins too (older cat refuses to eat them). I also have two dogs and have them on a good dry plus some good canned mixed in with one of their meals and they also get The Missing Link for dogs plus vitamins.

Be careful with the baby food - make sure it doesn't have onion powder in it. It's toxic to cats.

You can always try raw food, too. It's expensive, but it's great for them and more convenient than making it myself. It's helped my older girl who's borderline kidney problems farther on the correct side of the line. Her bloodwork is better than with regular dry food, canned kidney diet, or grain-free canned.

Yes! excellent point---Cats CAN NOT eat onions or chives. onion powder is toxic to cats so check the labels very carefully if you are going to do that.

Even if it is a variety with no onion powder in it, human baby food is not a good idea for long term feeding because cats need Taurine in their diets. So anyone who wants to feed their cat human baby food or buy meat to make their own home-made cat food needs to buy some powdered Taurine to add to it. I found some on Amazon last year when i tried making my own kitty food, but my guys didn't seem to care for my cooking So it was back to commercial cat foods...



Cat foods with less than 10% carbs are said to be good for diabetic cats, but really all felines should be eating low carb...for anyone interested, here is a link with a list of cat foods that are low carb:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=88162


Last year my kitty Marvin was diagnosed with diabetes. My cats are very picky eaters, but thankfully they will eat fancy feast. The classic pate, chunky feast & flaked feast varieties were all on the list of low carb cat foods that are safe for diabetic kitties so that is what i have been buying. I also switched their dry food to "nature's recipe" and "simply nourish" brands (each has a variety that is minimum of 40% protein, the highest i was able to find for a dry cat food) After only one week of being on his new diet and taking insulin shots Marvy went into remission. We stopped the insulin & continued to feed him the low carb foods and he has remained in remission for over a year now.


If anyone is interested in learning more on this topic, here are two very informative links about feline diabetes:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/index.php
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes

Sad coincidence. Alice passed away today.

It was yesterday.

She's still dead.

Learning about macros and focusing on them in addition to a calorie count has been SO HELPFUL for me. It helps 100% to really understand what your food is made up of, what your body needs, and what you're actually eating. The diet I'm on now has resulted in the most success of anything I've ever done. I was given a calorie range, protein minimum, and carb maximum and let fats fall where they will. Averaging onto MFP I put myself at a 40/30/30 protein/carb/fat ratio and it's been working out lovely. The high protein diet keeps me full longer and I'm not hungry, and I don't have to necessarily avoid anything, just plan for it ^_^ I know if I need to adjust my carbs up, it will naturally adjust my fat down(if I'm staying within that calorie range) and I have more wiggle room for if I have a carby day. I eat veggies with every meal, and honestly hitting my macros almost feels like completing a puzzle, so its fun! And I'm always stoked when I have room leftover for a treat.
IMO at this point, understanding macronutrients is critical to success on any diet.

Lol!