Description
- STIMULATES APPETITE – When your cat isn’t getting proper nutrition due to reasons such as illness or medical procedures, this nutritional supplement gel will help restore your kitty’s appetite to keep them healthy and strong
- HELPS CAT GAIN WEIGHT – Filled with healthy ingredients to help your cat gain weight if they aren’t eating properly
- ENERGY BOOSTER – Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and omega fatty acids are essential nutrients to boost your cats weight, appetite and energy
- THE BEST FOR YOUR CAT – Ready Cal for Cats is veterinary-formulated with tasty flavor cats love to promote weight gain; Proudly manufactured in the USA without artificial flavors or dies
M kleiber –
Purchased for my geriatric dog who had recently been very ill. He had been refusing to eat. I force fed him this product. He started eating again on his own by the second day. He would not take this on his own. But he is a very picky eater who is blind and does not smell very well. My other dogs loved it. It’s very thick. I had to hold his mouth open and squirt it in. Then hold his mouth shut until he swallowed. I do believe it’s what got him eating again. It’s worth the effort to force feed it to them. My dog had been drinking but had completely stopped eating. I tried countless dog foods. I even cooked hamburger meat, bacon, and other people food to try and get him to eat. This was the only thing that got him to accept other food again.
Kelly Bain –
This product is absolutely amazing. One of my dogs was really sic not eating and lost a ton of weight. I started giving this to her and times a day and now she is back to eating like she’s never eaten before and actually likes taking this. She licks it right off my finger. It took about a week or two to get there but it finally happened!!!
Zoe Silva –
I don’t usually write reviews, but I just have to share how amazing this product is! It’s truly a lifesaver for my dog when they’re feeling under the weather or just not interested in eating. They absolutely love the taste, and it really helps restore their appetite. I’m so grateful for this product—thank you so much!
Zack A. –
I can’t speak of the weight gaining properties of this stuff, but I do know it’s mostly sugar. From what I can tell it looks like some sort of molasses, probably enriched with vitamins.
I personally didn’t think it had a lot of vitamin levels in it, but I also don’t know the dosage that animals need.
My dog has always been a picky eater, and has been just above underweight for some time. Now that my mom (his previous owner) died, he’s gotten skinnier. The few things he will eat, he doesn’t eat enough. I figured I’d try this as a trial run to see if he’d gain any weight.
I only got it yesterday so I don’t know yet if it will cause him to gain weight.
He does not like the flavor! I’m not surprised considering how picky he is, but I also don’t blame him. It looks unappealing to me. The fat dog of the family (they eat separately btw) seems to want to try and I’m sure she’d love it. So I imagine a less picky pet would enjoy this?
The servings of this stuff is pretty big for my Chihuahua, at one teaspoon. The instructions call for two teaspoons for dogs who don’t eat enough, but I wasn’t going to force my pup to eat that much.
In order to get it in him I had to hold him firmly (but gently) and scoop it into his mouth. It might be easier if I had a smaller syringe to use but the tube it comes in is far too big to stick in a little dog’s mouth; it also dispenses too much at a time for a little dog unless they love the stuff.
In addition, I’m not sure if it’s correlation or causation, but within an hour of eating the stuff for the first time my dog had diarrhea. He’s got a sensitive stomach, but I’m cautious about the product now. I gave him another dose today in the hopes of getting his stomach used to it, but I am worried it will continue to upset his stomach. He hasn’t eaten his regular dinner yet, so I hope this product isn’t doing more harm than good.
As for the packaging. It’s a good concept, but it ended up being messy for me.
I accidentally took the plunger from the tube, which seemed convenient at first since it allowed me to put product back into the tube as needed. Only when I put the plunger back in the product began oozing out of the top and wouldn’t stop! It made a big mess. I ended up squeezing the tube into a bowl and discarding the tube.
I really wanted to like the product but I’m not sure I’ll buy it again unless my dog learns to love it, doesn’t get an upset stomach, and gains weight.
a consumer –
Yeah, forget the directions to dab a little on a paw and let the cat lick it off. My cat was horrified at being smudged. She wouldn’t lick it off a plate either. I didn’t like taking a glob and shoving it into her mouth, and you should’ve seen her incredibly unhappy and disgusted face the one time I did.
I got this to increase the calories my cat took in during a time she was too sick to eat well or enough. On that count, it’s fine and does offer calories and some nutrients. The issue is getting it into your cat.
This stuff is thick- you can’t syringe it in, and it doesn’t mix into food easily. What I ended up doing was putting a teaspoon of this and a teaspoon and a half of baby food in a tiny container and microwaving it 8 seconds. Then I could stir it all together, let it cool and syringe feed it.
All the high calorie gels have questionable ingredients that you probably wouldn’t want to give your cat long term but this stuff *did* help keep weight on my cat til she recovered sufficiently to eat more on her own. At the same time I used this, I also tried the Tomlyn brand. I prefer that one – it’s far easier to get out of the tube and (after heating with some baby food) it mixed better. It’s also less expensive and not in a big inconvenient container like Under the Weather.
I also tried Richard’s Organics which was thicker than the Tomlyn or Under the Weather. It was the hardest to squeeze out of the tube and more difficult to mix in.
I’m definitely not a veterinarian but as a consumer I’d suggest that any high calorie gel is probably not enough to keep your cat going, even if you follow the directions. It certainly won’t fill an empty belly (which must be uncomfortable) or keep them eliminating regularly. Not eating can become habitual so stop it fast.
What we did for our 8 pound cat: Got some of the Gerber (meat only) “2nd foods” for “sitters” (on the label).
They have:
Turkey
Chicken
Ham
Beef
Read labels. In most other brands, the calories are lower per jar.
You can also easily heat, mix and syringe with Hill’s A/D diet as it’s liquidy and nutritious. You need a prescription for this food from your vet.
Even mixing a teaspoon of the gel with 1 1/2 teaspoons of food, you end up with a bunch of syringes of food. You look at it all and wonder how you can possibly get it into your pet, so many little syringes.
Hey, it’s your pet’s life. Get someone to help if you can. Wrap that baby up in a towel or blanket like a burrito. Put the burrito on a towel or sheet you don’t care about to catch any droppings. Gently lift the side of the lip and get the food in there 1 ml at a time. Chase with some water syringes at the end.
It’s not fun but it may keep your pet alive. We’ve done this twice a day now for 10 weeks. Our girl is just now starting to get back to more regular eating and moving around again. Worth it? Definitely.
This is NOT intended as veterinary advice. If you have a vet who’ll give you feeding guidelines, follow that advice. Our cat had 2 different vets (regular vet and internal medicine specialist) and neither one had any ideas. I’m just saying what we came up with and apparently worked. Best wishes to you with your pet.