Senior Pet Food

[mccfluff]

the vet recommended that murph have senior pet food, which i'm giving to her but i'm wondering if its all just a big con. shes a fussy eater anyway & i find it hard to find enough variety, i'm getting fed up of throwing bowls of food away.

what do you feed your older pets on? (murphs 13 or 14 btw)

[kvalidir]

We never found any benefit on feeding our elderly dogs on anything other than they had always been fed on and we've had dogs live to 18 and 16 recently without speciality diets, but each to their own, there are those that swear by senior foods.

[Baldric]

All 3 of our animals are on Senior Diets, Bakers for the Dogs, the Cat gets a variety of makes to keep him happy, no waste.

[mccfluff]

i think i may go back to a mix and match type of approach. funnily enough she's never fussy when it comes to my dinner...

[Prudie]

Have to admit I did give my older cat Senior varieties (and a young one kitten variety). I have wondered if it was a con but as I expect, if analysed, they both contain ingredients and supplements deemed more appropriate for those age groups. I don't think they could have got it away with it for this long without being exposed as a con.

[pips1]

My cat was exactly the same, I threw loads of food away. Now, however, I feed him Gourmet Gold, not the pate but the wet food in little tins and have absolutely no waste. He is 19 yrs old and thriving on it. Hope this helps.

[naomi24]

No point giving her food she won't eat. My dogs, two 17 and one 13, eat what they've always eaten.

[mccfluff]

she likes gourmet gold, she has the pate for seniors and she will eat the lot, but if i give her just that, she then decides its poison and won't eat it.

[wolf63]

I give much of the poisonous food to the local branch of the cats protection.

Frankie will be on steroids until he dies (IE until I throttle him) and this will impact on his little fat body. The senior stuff cuts down the risk of liver or kidney (or something) problems.

At present he is rejecting most foods that are for cats. I rarely see his sister eat but, given her curves, I don't think that she starves.

I have Felix and Whiskas sachets in jelly in the cupboard. I am sure that there used to be a Purina One sachet with jelly (which they both loved) but they don't do that anymore.

I asked Purina years ago why they didn't sell boxes of one flavour as the mixed boxes just create waste.

We have the V - E - T in half an hour - I am preparing to go and catch him before he manages to suss it all out and go hide upstairs.

[woofgang]

I would be wanting to know why the vet suggests senior food. If there is a serious reason then it may be possible to get the same effect by a home prepared diet.

[mccfluff]

just because shes old & to help protect against liver & kidney problems, she has had a blood test fairly recently and nothing nasty. i just gave her some gourmet gold pate - rabbit flavour and she was happily scoffing it when i decided to have a choc biccie. Now the pate is not good enough and shes wailing at me trying to get to my biccie

bloody cats

[woofgang]

so why does it protect against liver and kidney problems, what is it low or high in?
and if murph is old, how much do you want to spoil her in her declining years?

[mccfluff]

well according to the packing its got the right amount of nutrients & vits to cater to my senior cats dietary needs

im not sure what you mean, by how much do i want to spoil her?

[wolf63]

I think that it is meant to be low in protein - for felines anyway.

I caught Frankie munching a spider the other day - wonder how much protein is in that.

[woofgang]

well if she wants chocolate biscuit and non senior catfood at her age would you think it was a better choice to let her have it?

[lankeela]

My dogs are fed on a complete dry dog food with a smidgeon of tinned food, or sometimes raw meat. I never change when they are old, and my last one was almost eighteen. However its better to feed them what they want at that age unless there is a confirmed medical condition.