7 Month Old Cat Overweight?

[Frankophile Feline Fan]

Is my 7 month old cat overweight? I can barely feel her ribs. She weighs 8.4 lbs. I’ve been feeding her about 3x/day as much as she wants in one sitting 1/2 frozen raw Primal & 1/2 Nature’s Variety Raw Instinct cups. I thought one of the benefits of a b.a.r.f. diet was maintaining a healthy weight.

 

[tabbytom]

A seven month old is still very much a kitten. Feed her as much as she can eat at one sitting and feed her 4-5 times a day.

If you are feeding her wet food and raw, you need not worry that she put on weight. If you can’t feel her ribs, that means she’s not underweight but just make sure she isn’t overweight too.

Her amount of food and number of feeds will slowly taper off as she grows older and at this age, she is going through her growth spurt.

Don’t worry about it. Only worry if she’s not eating at all.

 

[Frankophile Feline Fan]

Thanks. I would feed her more but I work crazy hours. I'm trying to work something out with an automatic feeder or a small refrigerator if she can manage to open it.

 

[Margret]

I wouldn't bet on the refrigerator; I think I'd go for the automatic feeder. I have it on good authority that Hekitty (@Mamanyt1953's cat) can open the refrigerator, but this isn't really a skill you want your kitten to develop.

In general, it seems to be safe to leave wet food out for a day or so; I'm less certain about raw. You may want to post in this forum: Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food and you may find some useful articles here: Cat Food & Feeding | TheCatSite

Margret

 

[Frankophile Feline Fan]

Thanks for the reply. I do work with food and have been trained on basic food safety. I bought a food thermometer and the Catmate C500 with ice packs, froze them, and put a couple frozen bricks of Primal in the partitions. After only 6 hours, the food was at 70 degrees, far above what's safe: 41 degrees or lower. This is unacceptable, so I'm ordering one of those tiny 6-pack refrigerators (not my full-size one lol) from Amazon next week. If she can't manage that, I'm going to try to harvest the parts and build a styrofoam "refrigerator" around the Catamite C500. I'll let you know what works

 

[Summercats]

Gorgeous cat you have!