My cats gotten a bit chubby. Help for putting her on a diet.

persephoneia

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I've always free fed my cats without issue, but i have a 8.5 month old that has gotten a bit chubby. Since I've never fed on a schedule i have no idea what to do. I also have an older cat that i would have to switch as well. Should i just switch to only wet food or what? Also how much and how often? My 8 year olds is a big probably 8-9lb cat where as my 8mo old is a pretty small cat. Here's two images of the fat butt.

 

Norachan

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Hi @persephoneia   As she's only 8 months old you don't need to worry about her weight too much. Cats keep growing for their first few years so you don't need to restrict her calorie intake unless she's very obese. (She doesn't look like she is from the pictures you've posted)

It is a good idea to get her eating healthily though. Dry food tends to be high in carbohydrate, which cats don't need. A wet food that is high in protein is much better for them. Cats tend to feel more satisfied on a high protein diet than they do on a diet that is high in carbs, so they eat a little less.

I feed wet food when I get up in the morning and then again about an hour before I go to bed at night. The cats soon learn that this is their feeding time, getting them to eat on schedule is pretty easy.

As for what brand you feed, that really depends on your budget and what your cats like. It's a good idea to feed a few different brands and flavours on rotation so they don't get too picky.

This will help you work out how many calories your cats need.

http://petsci.co.uk/feline-calorie-calculator/

These are some brands that other TCS members recommend.

 [article="31144"]Top 5 Brands Of Wet Cat Food Our Members Love The Most​[/article]  

 [article="33149"]Best Cat Food Of 2015 Tcs Member Choices​[/article]  

Let us know what works for you.
 

jetta1400

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I can't give much advice here, although can say I relate to your situation. I'm having the same issue with my one year old male ragdoll, who only prefers kibbles and runs away from wet food. To top it off, he is on strict protein diet due to potty issues, so it's not like I can offer him different types of wet food to intice him. I do know that when I had my dogs, they went through a funky body stage when they were "teen dogs" and eventually proportioned out and looked "normal". I'm wondering if cats do that too?? (although I didn't quite notice that with my other cat).
 

splasha1

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I switched to this dry food about 2 weeks ago. Kitty is about a pound less. I also bought a new scale

that reads out 10ths of a pound.

 

catpack

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splasha1 splasha1 While it is good that you are trying to get your cat healthier, losing an entire pound in just two weeks is too much too quick, even when the cat is intentionally on a diet. This would be the equivalent of a person losing 10 pounds a week.

On average, when a cat is on a diet, you want them to lose about 1% of their body weight per week, but no more than 2%. Any more than this can actually cause more harm than good.

So, for a 15 lb cat, you'd want them to lose about 0.15 lbs per week.
 

splasha1

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I think some of the 1 lb. may be due to the change in the scale. I started writing down daily readings

with the new scale 8 days ago. She was 15.2. jumped up to 15.6 around the 4th day, and now 14.8.

She is still getting a 50/50 mix of the old dry food which was really high in protein, and seemed to

be the culprit in weight gain (unless the old scale was bad). "Funny" thing is she has only been

getting fed 1/2 cup a day each morning and most mornings there is still some food still in her bowl. Before

she turned up at my back door 18 months old according to the Vet, and about 10 lbs. early pregnant; and adopted me, she used to eat everything from raw

chicken & fish, to canned food, to dry food, but now fixed, and nearly 2 years later unless it's dry food she

walks away so I only buy the best dry with no grains etc. Guess will see how it goes over the next couple weeks.

Now if only she would get the hang of walking or running in the exercise
 wheel like the cats in the sellers video's, but at least

she no longer avoids that part of the house like when it first appeared many months ago.
 
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persephoneia

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I'm not restricting her calorie intake. I've gotten them on a schedule where i give them two handfuls of dry food at night and then wet food at about 5pm. She's stopped eating a lot at night so the two handfuls last them pretty much all day. I think she was eating a lot because we were having work done and she was stressed. I was just concerned because she seemed to be eating a lot and fatter than her siblings.
 
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