Nutrition Consult Guide
Food is medicine. We treat it that way.
Weight concerns, picky eating, life-stage transitions, hydration, or a new diagnosis that calls for a different diet. Nutrition at CatsOnly starts with your Cat as an obligate carnivore and an individual.
What to Bring to Your Consult
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A photo of the front and back label of every food you feed, wet and dry
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The exact brand and product name of all treats, dental chews, and table foods, plus any outdoor hunting prizes or presents (that you know about)
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How much you feed at each meal and how many meals per day
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How food is offered: free-fed, measured meals, puzzle feeder, automatic feeder
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A list of all supplements and medications, including anything given in food
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A brief outline of an average day of feeding, if a written log isn’t realistic
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Your Cat’s approximate current and past weights if known, and if you’re new to us or don’t have previous records, any estimates of weight history can still be very helpful
Philosophy
Cats are not small dogs. They are obligate carnivores.
Nutrition Is the Fifth Vital Sign
Following the WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines, every CatsOnly visit includes a nutritional check-in alongside the usual things we check, like temperature, heart rate, breathing, and comfort. We take a full diet history and score both their level of body fat and the condition of their muscles at every visit, because what your Cat eats shapes nearly every aspect of their long-term health.
What a Nutrition Consult Covers
Weight & Body Condition
Weight management built on body condition and muscle condition scoring, not a number on a scale alone.
Life-Stage Feeding
Kitten, adult, and senior needs differ. We personalize our diet recommendation to your Cat’s current life stage and activity level.
Picky Eaters & Food Aversion
New pickiness or a longstanding picky streak can both be medical, not just stubbornness. We help you tell the difference and respond appropriately.
Hydration
Cats have a low thirst drive, so they often do not drink enough on their own to stay well hydrated, which can affect kidney and urinary health over time. We build moisture into the feeding plan.
Therapeutic Diets
For conditions like kidney disease, diabetes, and hyperthyroidism, the right diet is part of the treatment.
A Cat’s metabolism is built for a high-protein, moderate-fat, minimal-carbohydrate diet. Cats need to eat several important nutrients from meat every single day to stay healthy, ingredients that other animals can get from non-meat sources or make in their own bodies. Feline nutrition is never a scaled-down version of canine feeding, and our recommendations are built entirely around feline physiology.
How to Read a Label
What actually matters on the bag or can.
Pet food labels are dense and easy to misread. Bring photos of the labels and we will walk through them together. Here is what we look at first:
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The AAFCO statement: it tells you the life stage the food is complete and balanced for, and whether that was confirmed by a feeding trial
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The named life stage: “growth,” “adult maintenance,” or “all life stages” — this tells us whether the recipe has been designed to provide the proper calories and nutrients for your Cat at that stage
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The first several ingredients, where the first ingredient or ingredients need to be a recognizable protein
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The guaranteed analysis for protein, fat, and moisture, where we will do some math to understand true protein and fat levels and help you compare wet and dry foods
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Calorie content per cup or per can, which is how we calculate the right amount to feed
Complete and Balanced Is the Baseline
A food meeting AAFCO or WSAVA standards is a starting point, not a finish line. The best diet is complete, balanced, digestible, palatable, and right for your individual Cat’s age, condition, and health.
What to Observe at Home
Tell us what the bowl is telling you.
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Appetite changes: eating more, less, or hesitating at the bowl
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Signs of nausea: lip-licking, drooling, turning away from food, hunching, or eating then walking away
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Signs of food aversion: approaching the bowl interested but refusing to eat, or eating only treats
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How they eat: comfortably, or with head tilting, dropping food, or chewing on one side, which can signal mouth or tooth pain
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Whether they prefer wet, dry, warmed, or a particular texture or shape
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Litter box and stool changes that often accompany diet issues
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Any vomiting or regurgitation and what it looks like
“When a Cat suddenly stops eating a food they used to love, the first question is almost never about the food. It is about how the Cat is feeling. Nausea, mouth or tooth pain, and stress all show up in your Cat’s daily relationship with their food.”
CatsOnly Nutrition & Wellness Team
Body & Muscle Condition
Two scores, not one. Both tell part of the story.
A Cat can carry extra fat and still be losing muscle, which is why we score them separately, in line with WSAVA and AAHA guidance.
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Chart courtesy of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention · tap to enlarge
Body Condition Score (BCS)
A nine-point assessment of fat stores. A score of 4 to 5 out of 9 is ideal: ribs easily felt with a light fat cover, a visible waist from above, and a slight tuck at the belly. We use this to guide weight goals over time.
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Chart courtesy of WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee · tap to enlarge
Muscle Condition Score (MCS)
A separate assessment of muscle mass over the spine, shoulders, hips, and skull. Because muscle can be lost even in an overweight Cat, MCS catches changes that weight alone hides — especially in senior Cats and those with chronic disease.
Small, Frequent Meals and Enrichment
Cats are designed to hunt and eat many small meals a day. We often recommend measured meals, puzzle feeders, and feeding toys to support a healthy weight, slow fast eaters, and give your Cat the mental stimulation of working for food.
A Word on Diet Trends
Evidence first, trends second.
Grain-free, raw, boutique, and home-cooked diets are everywhere, and the marketing is persuasive. Our role is to help you separate what is genuinely good for your Cat from what is well-marketed. We follow the evidence and the guidance of bodies like WSAVA and the FelineVMA.
For many feline conditions, the right diet does real clinical work: slowing disease progression, managing symptoms, and protecting lean body mass. When we recommend a therapeutic diet, we will explain why it matters, what to expect, and what it costs, and we will work with you on transitions and palatability.
Home-Cooked Diets
If you want to home-prepare your Cat’s food, we support that only when the recipe is formulated and supervised by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. Feeding a homemade diet that is not properly balanced can create nutrient deficiencies in as little as a day, which can lead to severe health complications or premature death. We say this directly because the consequences are real, and we want you to have the full picture before deciding.
Therapeutic Nutrition
When diet becomes part of the treatment.
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Chronic kidney disease: renal-support diets that ease the kidneys’ workload
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Diabetes: controlled-carbohydrate diets that support glucose regulation
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Hyperthyroidism: targeted nutritional management where appropriate
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Urinary conditions: diets that support bladder and urinary tract health
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Recovery and inappetence: early, aggressive nutritional support for sick Cats
Questions before your visit?
Our Feline Experience Specialists are available to take your calls during clinic hours.
