Do you bother with senior foods for old cats?

[ShotsFired]

ShotsCat is 14 and appears pretty sprightly (easily up fences and over sheds, but I know you can never tell with cats).

She currently has 1-2 wet pouches a day + go cat - both normal, not senior, recipes, with the odd bit of tuna or pilchard.

She came to us on the go-cat only, but am considering whether to try weaning her onto a mix more suitable for more elderly joints? Or just try some cod liver oil capsules over her food. Or nothing. She was fussy on the choice of wet food fussy but cheap as she settled on Tesco own label so am reluctant to change that now.

I would be very interested in any replies to this too - we are owned by a 13 or 14 ish cat (rescue so exact age not known but we have had her for 11 years) who seems healthy enough but I worry about looking after her properly so that she lives for ever because I love her

Harry has normal adult pouches as he doesn’t like the one senior flavour available from Natures Menu. I do get him senior biscuits though as both flavours come in senior and adult and he doesn’t seem to mind.

What is the difference in senior food? Is it the texture or Is there a nutritional aspect?

It's lower calorie generally as older cats tend to be less mobile, with a bit of a vitamin / mineral boost.

Portia won't touch it...and would scrape it over like it was a poo, if offered!

ShotsCat is either haring straight up 6' fences or fast asleep under the radiator - I suspect one causes the other! There's no middle ground with her.

The reason I posted was that although she's always been a miserable old boot bitey, my gut feel is that her bones are starting to ache, as she is tending to react more, on places like her shoulders, when stroked now.

Last time I chatted to the vet, we vaguely discussed the future possibility of a course of metacam just to see, but if there is an easier diet-based option, I'd prefer that (blood was spilt on both sides when I took her last time, and that was just for a general checkup).

Yes I do, calories content is less and the nutritional content is tweaked a bit for older cats and their tendency towards kidney problems. My cat won't eat the renal version of his food so the senior version is the next best.

I do.

DCat has 1 pouch of senior Felix, as its mostly water anyway (half in the morning, half at night)

Then 60 grams roughly of high protein senior biscuits. Either Iams, Purina One or Applaws.

It seems to suit her.

Hmmm. I might investigate starting to wean her onto senior biscuits first then. As I say, she went through about 5 different wet foods before settling on the current one. She has admirable stubbornness, I'll give her that...

Yes I would focus on the dry senior as a priority, I was told the pouches dont offer a great deal of nutrition as such, but good for fluid intake. Not sure how right that it though.

Thats why I tend to go for the cheaper wet food, Felix Senior.

I could put her on pouches like Applaws & I feel a bit guilty not doing it actually

PicklePig is about 12, he’s in Senior Iams biscuits and he also has wet food, the tiny little Gourmet tins or Whiskas Creamy Soups - these look vile but he loves them. I do try to buy the Senior versions but if I can’t get them he just gets Adult.
He seems fine with it all so far, I will ask the vet about joint supplements etc when I next see him, hadn’t really thought about it but I suppose he’s getting on a bit now.

My cat had normal biscuits and pouches up until she died last year of cancer. She was 21, walked a bit slower than she used to but still managed to catch a rabbit 6 months before she died. She was a feisty cat with everyone but me - don't half miss her x

We have six cats, two of them are 13 and one is 12. The others are 6, 4 and 1.

The older three, the two 13 year olds are very active boys, always out and about and very active. The 12 year old doesn't eat a huge amount but she is incredibly lazy anyway. None of them are overweight.

Their dry food is Purina and they all eat different wet food. The cat food cupboard looks like the pet food aisle in a shop!

Even if I bought senior food for the older ones, the others would still eat it and the older ones would still eat the younger ones food. They all have their own feeding spaces dotted around downstairs but once they have finished they tend to treat it all as a sort of buffet and wander about eating other bits.