The Best Wet Cat Food for Older Cats
So many cat food brands, like Blue Buffalo, Purina, etc., are available today, but if you're a concerned cat owner, you shouldn't be picking one at random, especially if you have a senor cat to feed. Not everything available in the market is going to sit well with your older cat. You need special senior cat food, may be with limited ingredients, to ensure your older cats stay healthy. Here are some of the best cat foods designed with needs of your older cats in mind.
Wet Cat Food for Older Cats: Our Top Picks
Hartz Lickable Wet Cat Treats for Senior Cats
BEST treats
Rated by: Amber
Purina Pro Plan Senior 7+ Canned Wet Cat Food
BEST OVERALL
Rated by: Amber
Royal Canin Aging 12+ Food
Best slices
Rated by: Amber
1. Hartz Lickable Wet Cat Treats for Senior Cats
Quick Summary
Rated by: Amber
If you're searching for the best cat food, you can't go wrong with what you get from this canned cat food. These cat food best treats will soon become your older cat's ultimate favorite. Instead of relying on fruits and vegetables, it gets its nutritional punch from real chicken and juicy seafood. Its tuna and chicken blend adds protein to the formula and make this canned cat food a real treat for your furry companion.
Not only is it healthy, but it tastes quite well and is appetizing for your senior cat. This nutritionally complete meal is packed with vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E and B. Moreover, you'll love its impress pouch design, which really helps make serving and storing as simple as possible. The only thing you need to consider is that it may be a bit expensive as compared to other canned cat food options.
PROS
CONS
Quick Summary
Rated by: Amber
If wet is your choice of food for your senior cats, you should look no further than Purina Pro. This canned food is not only delicious but is rich in vitamins and minerals and offers a medium dose of protein at the same time.
It uses a combination of tuna and salmon in its formula, and maintains a good consistency to make it easier to chew for your senior cats. It contains about 25 vitamins and minerals, which is why it works great for your cat's digestive and immune systems, and supports their joints and bones as well.
Overall, if you're after a cat food with soft pate texture, this canned food is just perfect. But, keep in mind that the protein content is a bit on the lower side, so it may not be suitable for skinny senior cats.
PROS
CONS
3. Royal Canin Aging 12+ Food
Quick Summary
Rated by: Amber
If you're worried about your cat's diet because your senior cats are quite fussy, Royal Canin may have the right solution. It contains all necessary nutrients, including protein, fat, and carbs in the right percentage and is never hard on your senior cat's digestive system.
The good thing is that it comes with lower levels of phosphorus, which helps protect kidneys of your senior cats. It's available in thin slices, which is also a good thing because most senior cats tend to lose their teeth with age and need food that's easy to chew.
Overall, it's a suitable canned food for your senior cats, as it's nutritious and contains delicious gravy to keep your cats coming back for more. Though it's great for your senior cat, it may be a bit messy for you to manage everything.
PROS
CONS
FAQ - A Buyer's Guide
Finding the best cat foods can be a bit tricky unless you know exactly what types of nutrients your cat needs in his older days. Older cats won't be as active as they once were, so they're likely to develop digestive issues. That's why you might need to stop giving them their old Blue Buffalo and look for something even better and more suitable for senior cats. Here are few important things to remember when looking for the best senior cat food on the market.
What is the Healthiest Cat Food for Older Cats?
Older cats can do well with both dry food and wet food, but it sometimes depends on their own preferences and their current health condition. Let us start by discussing the evident eating needs of older cats, before going into details about the available cat food options in the market.
According to a scientific study, the cat family has specific needs for nourishment when it comes to food. Hence, it is no wonder that older cats are very fussy about what they eat. Interestingly, most of the other mammals do not have this nutrient requirement.
Cats of all ages require a certain level of some vitamins and amino acids in particular, and fats, fiber, carbs, proteins, minerals, and water in general. Here's what you should check in the best senior cat food to ensure it's healthy for your furry companion:
- Fatty Acids and Fats:
Nutritional fats in older cat foods are extracted from oils, seeds or fats of other animals. Fats are essential for cats, as they carry the vitamins soluble in fats throughout the body, to help maintain the appropriate cell function and structure. They also let your senior cat have a healthy skin and fur, while making the food flavorsome. Since cats cannot make fats on their own, fatty acids and fats must be included in the cat's food. On average, an adult cat’s food should include around five and a half grams of fat.
- Fiber and Carbs:
While carbohydrate may not be the most important component of a senior cat food, it is still important. It is a rich energy source enabling your cat to resume its activities throughout the day. Mueslis, pulses, and other foods based on plants are good sources of carbs.
- Proteins and Amino Acids:
It is relatively easier for older cats to manage their protein requirement since they are flesh-eating animals. Their usual intake of fish, meat, or other products derived from animals may contribute to fulfill their protein needs. Dietetic proteins have ten different types of amino acids, containing taurine and arginine, which are vital for a nutritious cat meal. The average meal of an adult cat should include around twelve and a half grams of basic protein.
- Minerals:
To arrive at the best nutritious food for older cats, the cat food producers generally blend a combination of minerals and vitamins in their formulation. This is important because cats need twelve different types of minerals, including phosphorus, calcium, selenium, iodine, and sodium, to name a few, in their food.
- Vitamins:
Getting the correct type and dosage of vitamins is important for a healthy senior cat diet. Vitamins contribute to the build-up and breakdown of materials in cats. Some important ones are Vitamin A, riboflavin, folic, and pantothenic acid, but they should be administered as an appropriate dose in the cat food, since intake of higher levels can be noxious.
- Water:
Cats are known to have a lesser than most determination for thirstiness. However, for a healthy cat, it is important to have clean and healthy water within reach. It is usual for a senior cat to drink two ml of water per one gram of cat food.
A large variety of senior cat foods is commonly available at pet stores, grocery stores, or even at your vet's place. Depending on their brand identity, they come in all types of packaging, price range, and quality. You should have no trouble finding the best senior cat food for your cat if you understand their nutritional requirements.
However, for best guidance, it is always good to consult the specialists, which in this case, are your vets. Being familiar with the physiology and unique requirements of your cat, they will suggest the ideal senior cat food.
Is Wet Cat Food Good for Older Cats?
It comes as no surprise that cats like to eat moist food; in fact, wet food is usually considered the best for older cats. Being carnivores, this species of mammals are used to taking their prey while it is fresh and moist. Cat food with low carbs, high protein, combined with high wetness content might taste similar to their usual catch in the open, and hence, more desirable.
Other than being flavorsome, moist senior cat food helps set the urinary tract of cats straight. Especially, if your cat is suffering from feline urologic syndrome, increasing the liquid intake, both in the form of food or water, is likely to give good results.
With a large variety to pick from, your vet's advice about the best senior cat food for your older cat would help you in buying the one with the best moistness, feel, flavor, and vitamins. However, if your cat makes it a routine to get fussy over food, then it might be the time to visit your vet for a complete check-up.
The next step would be a thorough analysis by the vet to suggest lab assessment, if necessary. This is important because cats become more disposed to illnesses as they age. Care should be taken for early detection and treatment of any complications, and many times canned food is much better than dry food for cats, as it comes with more protein and nutrients.
The cat food you buy for your older cats should necessarily reduce the indications of any diseases your cat already has, stop or slack lingering diseases, and on top of this, should help in keeping the ideal body weight with sound health.
While you might be considering the dietary appropriateness when buying cat food for your cat, your senior cat may tend to be fussy about the food based on the moistness, flavor, or feel of the chosen senior cat food. Hence, these features are always to be kept in mind while buying senior cat food.
- Flavor: Cats come with an amusing nature. Many of them hone their taste buds early on. It is good to start giving them a taste of different types of canned food, dry food, and moist in the early years so that they don’t stick to one food type only. They can be hard to change, like if they have their taste buds set on dry, then they will not like canned food.
- Feel: Some older cats might like moist or wet food as it is eatable even with a few teeth missing. Then, there are also those who can successfully gum their food away, be it moist, wet, or crunchy dry. It just depends on your cat's likeness and prowess.
What is the Healthiest Wet Cat Food?
By now, you have an idea of what a good senior cat food should entail, it's time to look into what makes cat food effective and safe. Finding out the healthiest cat food for your older cats would require you to understand cat food labels.
Every authentic cat food producer should add information about materials, names, and locations on their labels. It varies from state to state, like some of them require advanced information like the exact feed at one time, on the cat food label. It means that whether you opt for wet food or you choose to go with dry cat food, you can find the healthiest option by paying more attention to the label. Both dry and canned cat food will offer detailed info on the label, and reading it would put you in a better position to make a choice. Here is some helpful information:
Guidelines on Feeding: Feeding guidelines give you plans on meal timings and portions against the weight of the cat. It will also guide you about the number of cat meals in a day.
Ingredients: Cat food manufacturers usually list the ingredients starting from protein, and lards, seasonings and additives coming later. These are arranged by weight in descending order.
- Guaranteed Study: The levels of basic protein, fatty acids, fiber, vitamins, preservatives, and moistness and very important for a balanced cat food. This detail is provided by the guaranteed analysis, as it provides information on what percent of all these ingredients is present in a specific cat food.
- Adequacy Statement of Nutrition: This statement establishes if a certain cat food is up to the mark for giving a complete and balanced nutrition-filled diet to a cat. The nutritional adequacy statement specifies the life stage a certain cat food is suitable for.A typical cat life can be divided into two stages, the growing and lactation stage, and the full-grown phase. Some cat foods cater to one of the two stages, while there are others, which are suitable for all life phases of a cat. Such cat foods are specially formulated to meet the healthy developmental and nutritional requirement of a growing cat, as well as that of an older cat. Choosing the right food for your cat according to its stage is, therefore, important.
- d) Communication Info of the Manufacturer: Each manufacturer should provide their full name, location, distribution channel, should you have a query and want to contact them. Some manufacturers also provide a website link or toll-free number for further convenience.
How Much Wet Food Should I Feed My Elderly Cat?
When it comes to the calories of your cat's meal, several factors should be taken into consideration. The factors that play a role in the required calories for your cat are:
- Age
- Stage
- Weight
- Activity level
- Nursing or not
- Body condition
The above factors contribute largely to how much nutrition you should be giving your cat through cat food. It is apparent that the calorie requirement of a growing kitten is larger than that of a senior cat. Similarly, an active one would like to eat more food so it has no trouble running around all day, as compared to a lethargic one. Naturally, a mother cat that has young ones to feed needs to be fed a nutritious diet for maintaining a healthy body herself.
You need to consider these factors when determining the right portion for canned cat food. You should keep track of the ideal weight of your cat according to its age, so as to adjust the calorie intake. If your cat is over-weight, has normal weight, or is falling behind in weight according to its age, adjusting the calories through cat food can give good results.
For your cat to be in the best shape, you should determine the suitable calorie intake, which can easily be administered via the cat food. Some official guidelines can also help you in determining the right calorie intake.
The Best Wet Cat Food for Senior Cats
It all boils down to the fact that both dry food and wet canned cat food may work well for your older cats, so long as they contain the right amount of protein, as well as vitamins and minerals. If you're confused, you may want to put your money on Purina Pro, as it's rich in protein and high in vitamins and minerals as well. Give it a shot!
About the Author Steven
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