# Cat food to help a dog gain weight???



## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Ok, now I would never feed this to my own dogs ok, lol so no worries, the girls & THEIR weight are doing very well, but somewhere I mentioned about the barn dog female here that has probs gaining weight (I have since convinced boss to change from the River Run crap she was feeding to Loyall, which is a slight improvement) but she is still skinny, someone mentioned (in passing conversation somewhere, think it was the flea market) that feeding a dog cat food (canned or dry) will help it gain weight, now I'm not the type to just go & do something like that, just wondered what ya'lls take on it was.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

When you get right down to it, the ingredients in, say, Cat Chow, aren't any different from a slightly higher-quality dog food. I don't think it's dangerous at all (although it's probably a bad idea to go with one of the super premium cat foods like EVO, with 50% protein), but I don't know if it'll do any good either. If she's skinny because she won't eat enough, she might like the cat food better and then it would help.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Well, its the loyall brand of cat food, just regular adult kitty chow. They are free fed at night, there's three so I make sure I put enough in their bowl for them all but not to much so there's some left over for Izze to eat & have an allergic reaction to in the morn when she goes out, that & the ants get it. They eat on it throughout the night, i contribute some of her skinniness to the heat Im sure. So could i actually try that with her? I just don't want to do something that will do more harm then good for the poor girl


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

The ingredients are nearly identical, only difference is the cat food has 30% protein, 15% fat, the dog food has 21% protein, 14% fat. I don't really know if that will make much difference in her weight (unless she likes it better and eats more). The minerals may be slightly different, but well, my dogs eat plenty of cat food and they're fine. I wouldn't recommend it as the sole diet, though.

But cat food is so much more expensive than dog food that if your boss is willing to feed the dog cat food, she might as well get a better quality dog food and feed her that. Cat food usually costs about twice as much per pound. She could get a pretty decent dog food for that price.


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## Angielove1628 (Mar 25, 2021)

xxxxdogdragoness said:


> Ok, now I would never feed this to my own dogs ok, lol so no worries, the girls & THEIR weight are doing very well, but somewhere I mentioned about the barn dog female here that has probs gaining weight (I have since convinced boss to change from the River Run crap she was feeding to Loyall, which is a slight improvement) but she is still skinny, someone mentioned (in passing conversation somewhere, think it was the flea market) that feeding a dog cat food (canned or dry) will help it gain weight, now I'm not the type to just go & do something like that, just wondered what ya'lls take on it was.


Someone abandoned their really old dog and she's about 4 lb and she's been abused and she's really skinny. She will only eat human food and cat food and I hear cat food is high and fat but I also hear that you can't feed a dog cat food but I don't know what to do.


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## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

This thread is a decade old and none of the participants have been here in some time. I strongly encourage you to start a new thread specifically about this poor pup - a lot more members will see it that way! Thank you for taking her in. I'm closing this thread to further replies to avoid confusion.


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