[dogmelissa]

Well, yes and no.... Taz is on "diet" food, and I don't think it's a load of bull. I think a lot of vet food is a load of bull (other than the prescription ones for specific health problems, though I don't understand what's so special about them), but diet food serves a very specific purpose.

Taz, for example, weighs 21 lbs. He used to weigh 23 lbs, and was eating non-diet food. For his weight, I had to calculate how much to feed him, because the bag didn't list higher than 15 lbs. As it turned out, to prevent him from getting any fatter (he never lost weight on it), he was eating less food than a 6-8 lb cat would eat, which was like 1/3 cup per day. Try keeping a 23 lb cat feeling like he's NOT starving to death on that much food? Impossible. Study after study after study on humans has shown that regular fasting/skipping meals actually causes a person to *gain* weight when they eat, as the body thinks it's being starved and converts everything it then gets into fat for the eventuality of all food being cut off. I don't see why a cat would be any different, and saw it in Taz. Now, he's eating a "reduced" formula and eats 4 meals of just under 1/4 cup a day, totalling about 3/4 cup each day. He's a much happier cat, has lost 2 lbs (I'd like him to lose more but I'd rather he be a bit chubby and happy than skinny & miserable!), and has more energy, too.

As for diet prescription foods, here's an interesting article, though it's a little old now: http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/f...ood/index.html

(there are also some interesting links in the sidebar of this article)

As for Sierra, I'm switching her off the vet food onto the same Reduced food that Taz eats. I just started the transition today.

Melissa