The training center where I work recently got a "facility cat" - a cat who basically just lives at the center, whose main purpose is to desensitize dogs to being around cats. He's extremely good at his job.
The problem we're having with him, though, is that he eats EVERYTHING. Seriously, the cat acts like he's starving all the time. He is - in my opinion - a pound or two overweight, but when we put him on a diet his behavior is even worse: he raids garbage cans, gets into our cabinets of training treats, he even eats (swallows, and then vomits) phone cords and other bits of plastic.
So we're wondering if changing his diet would help him feel fuller. Our vet suggested wet food just because it has a higher protein and lower carb level than dry food, but my boss would prefer finding a comparable dry food instead as dry is cheaper and easier to deal with. So I have been tasked with finding a high protein, low carb dry cat food.
So my questions are:
What are the protein and carb levels that cats should have in their diet?
What is a good canned food - not super-incredibly-premium, but very decent - that I can use to compare nutrient levels with dry food?
Any dry food suggestions? I think we're willing to feed a super-incredibly-premium dry food, especially as it will most likely be very much cheaper than any decent canned food we could use as an alternative, but we are a nonprofit and price will have to be a consideration.
THANKS!!
The problem we're having with him, though, is that he eats EVERYTHING. Seriously, the cat acts like he's starving all the time. He is - in my opinion - a pound or two overweight, but when we put him on a diet his behavior is even worse: he raids garbage cans, gets into our cabinets of training treats, he even eats (swallows, and then vomits) phone cords and other bits of plastic.
So we're wondering if changing his diet would help him feel fuller. Our vet suggested wet food just because it has a higher protein and lower carb level than dry food, but my boss would prefer finding a comparable dry food instead as dry is cheaper and easier to deal with. So I have been tasked with finding a high protein, low carb dry cat food.
So my questions are:
What are the protein and carb levels that cats should have in their diet?
What is a good canned food - not super-incredibly-premium, but very decent - that I can use to compare nutrient levels with dry food?
Any dry food suggestions? I think we're willing to feed a super-incredibly-premium dry food, especially as it will most likely be very much cheaper than any decent canned food we could use as an alternative, but we are a nonprofit and price will have to be a consideration.
THANKS!!