Cat Doesn't Eat Much, Still Gets Fat

[Linderin]

My 3.5 y/o rescue girl Babs was a tiny bit overweight when I got her, complete with floppy belly and juicy thighs... she got like this in the shelter, they said. She was feral when she came in, they spayed her and probably tried to tame her with food (but no luck). She's been with me for 3 months now and I notice she's getting fatter still, but she's also a very picky eater and that's the thing that puzzles me.

I free feed kibble and I offer her small portions of wet food at breakfast and dinner. She enjoys kibble and seems to handle it well. She takes the occasional bite throughout the day and night, nothing strange. She does tend to have a few extra bites at playtime to relieve built-up tension, but still, nothing in excess. I started out with Yarrah, then switched to Porta 21 Cats Heaven because it's grain free and have now settled on Applaws chicken and duck.
She refuses most of her wet food, or she'll lick the gravy and leave the chunks. I'm trying different brands and different types, to see what works. I started with Yarrah pate, then switched to Bozita chunks in jelly and chunks in sauce and have now ordered trial packs of Greenwoods, Lilys Kitchen, Almo Nature Legend and Herrmans Bio, to see if she likes any of those. We'll figure it out eventually, I'm just putting it here to demonstrate her eating habits.
She has no taste for snacks (tried several natural types) and I make sure she gets exercise every day (she's an indoor cat for now while she's still semi-feral). She drinks water regularly and her poop seems fine.

To my mind, she doesn't eat that much at all. My other cat eats way more and is still quite lean.
I'm not sure what to do next. She seems healthy and is very active at playtime, hunting and jumping through the living room.
Taking her to the vet would be a bit difficult, because she's still semi-feral and won't let me touch or approach her... and I can't lure her into a basket with food. because she doesn't really care about food. None of my tricks have ever worked on her. If at all possible, I'd rather avoid a visit to the vet until I've gained her trust a bit more. Unless something's obviously wrong with her of course.

Any thoughts on how to stop her from gaining more weight?

 

[orange&white]

Stop free feeding is the biggest tip, and put her on scheduled meal times.

Are you leaving kibble out overnight? A lot of cats eat more at night than during the day, particularly feral cats. She's eating enough food to gain weight some time of the day. You just may not be seeing it, or she's eating more than you think. That's easy to do between free feeding and owning multiple cats.

 

[MissMolly08]

Do you actually keep track of her calorie intake? Every cat is different, just like people... activity level, metabolism etc. play a role in how many calories they need. If your other cat is more active, bigger, has a higher metabolism, then that cat will be able to eat more without gaining so you really can't compare them.

I was free feeding my cat dry food before I found this site too and she is a bit overweight which we are working on now that I got her on some wet food. I really didn't think I was feeding her that much either. I was offering less than the bag suggested for her weight (I didn't know until I found this site that the serving sizes on the bags are usually WAY too much food ). The dry food she was on was like 360 calories/cup! I learned here that cats only need about 20 calories per pound. She is a 10 year old female DSH and should be around 10lbs ideally so she would only need 200 calories/day. That is like 3/5 of a cup of food, which when put into a bowl, looks like so little!

 

[Linderin]

Do you actually keep track of her calorie intake? Every cat is different, just like people... activity level, metabolism etc. play a role in how many calories they need. If your other cat is more active, bigger, has a higher metabolism, then that cat will be able to eat more without gaining so you really can't compare them.

I was free feeding my cat dry food before I found this site too and she is a bit overweight which we are working on now that I got her on some wet food. I really didn't think I was feeding her that much either. I was offering less than the bag suggested for her weight (I didn't know until I found this site that the serving sizes on the bags are usually WAY too much food ). The dry food she was on was like 360 calories/cup! I learned here that cats only need about 20 calories per pound. She is a 10 year old female DSH and should be around 10lbs ideally so she would only need 200 calories/day. That is like 3/5 of a cup of food, which when put into a bowl, looks like so little!

Actually my other cat is smaller and less active, playtime for her is mostly watching and occasionally jumping in, even when Babs is not around.
I'm going to ration the dry food for now and look into calories. She is rather small (well, used to be) so she'll probably need a little less than the average DSH.

 

[Linderin]

Stop free feeding is the biggest tip, and put her on scheduled meal times.

Are you leaving kibble out overnight? A lot of cats eat more at night than during the day, particularly feral cats. She's eating enough food to gain weight some time of the day. You just may not be seeing it, or she's eating more than you think. That's easy to do between free feeding and owning multiple cats.

Yes I leave kibble out all day and night... you're right, maybe she's a night eater and I just don't know :-) How would you suggest I handle the kibble? Leaving smaller portions out during the day? Putting it away at night?

 

[orange&white]

Yes I leave kibble out all day and night... you're right, maybe she's a night eater and I just don't know How would you suggest I handle the kibble? Leaving smaller portions out during the day? Putting it away at night?

I would start scheduling 3-4 measured meals per day, so you can tell who is eating what and how much. Nothing at night...you can't control the food then. If that is too large a change, then start by not leaving food out at night, while you devise a plan on how to move forward.

 

[Topherius]

I agree wtih the portion control like others have said. Keep in mind a spayed cats metabolism slightly changes and you can reduce the portions for a spayed cat by about 10-15% than an un-spayed one to keep them healthy and from slowly gaining weight.

 

[Linderin]

Thank you all! I'm slowly reducing the amount of kibble now, while figuring out a good feeding plan. I work all day so it might still be best to leave some kibble for them when I leave the house, give wet food when I return and then feed kibble later at night, and take away the bowls when I go to sleep. I only hope this doesn't inspire them to start meowing in the middle of the night all of a sudden :-) They've been completely silent so far, the youngest squeaked for food once and Babs growled at another cat last week, but other than that... not a peep.