Healthy weight and dry food problems

[jenniator]

Hey everyone, my cat Mew is a male himalayan/siamese mix and he is 9 years old. He weighs 9.9 pounds and I was wondering if that is a healthy weight for him or if he's heavy.

Another concern I have is about his dry food. I feed Mew wet food along with some dry food. Mew has always eaten his Applaws Pate and Bozita wet food with no problem. Before he had Applaws dry food and would eat it moderately and always eat the wet food I would feed him twice a day. But a month ago we bought Orijen Chicken since I heard it's the best dry cat food available and it's a lot better quality than other dry foods. Mew absolutely loves the Orijen dry food and he acts like it's cat treats. I never seen him love a dry food so much. When I fill a bowl up in the morning, it's almost gone in the middle of the day. A few weeks ago he developed a bad habbit. Mew rather eat less of his wet food so he has more room to eat more of the Orijen. He leaves half of his wet food each time. So I was wondering if it's bad that Mew is eating so much of the Orijen and not as much wet food as he use too. I'm a little worried since I heard that Orijen is high protein, so cats are suppose to eat less since they get fuller easier from it than other dry foods. But Mew ate less Applaws Dry food than he did Orijen.

 

[pinkdagger]

Weight is largely dependent on the size and build of the cat, so some smaller cats may be considered heavy at 9lbs whereas larger cats would be considered small or skinny at 9lbs. I have a big, skinny 11 year old 10lb cat and a small 2 year old healthy 5lb cat. All cats are different! If you're concerned, you can bring it up at his next vet visit. Depending on how furry Mew is, you may be able to get a visual gauge based on guides like this (and you can definitely feel for the ribs and waist under his fur anyway):

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With regard to food, dry kibble is more calorie dense, but Orijen is a pretty good food. It's not necessarily bad, but it depends on his individual needs. If he's very good with drinking water or you can water down his wet food so he stays sufficiently hydrated, I see no issue with him eating some more dry. If you do think he is getting heavy, you can scale it back.

If you would prefer that he eat more wet, you can use the kibble on a treat basis. Our cats get kibble on a treat basis at the end of the day, so they have to eat both their wet meals first. You can even make a game out of it to hide kibble around the home, throw them for him to chase, or put them in a treat ball and let him roll it around to get the food out. It's a nice way to keep him happy and busy, and relatively active.

 

[jenniator]

With regard to food, dry kibble is more calorie dense, but Orijen is a pretty good food. It's not necessarily bad, but it depends on his individual needs. If he's very good with drinking water or you can water down his wet food so he stays sufficiently hydrated, I see no issue with him eating some more dry. If you do think he is getting heavy, you can scale it back.

If you would prefer that he eat more wet, you can use the kibble on a treat basis. Our cats get kibble on a treat basis at the end of the day, so they have to eat both their wet meals first. You can even make a game out of it to hide kibble around the home, throw them for him to chase, or put them in a treat ball and let him roll it around to get the food out. It's a nice way to keep him happy and busy, and relatively active.

Wow thank you so much! Mew is a pretty big cat. I believe he has the build of a himalayan. Mew is very furry, so it's difficult to tell just by looking at him. Even trying to feel his ribs are challenging with all the fur. He looks really big because of all the fur. But if I feel his ribs, I push a tiny bit and I feel them easily. So hopefully that's a good sign. I'm happy to hear it's alright that he is eating more Orijen. He is drinking lots of water from his fountain, so he's keeping hydrated which is good. He has always been good with that. The problem with using kibble only as treats is that Mew is a bit older, so he is stuck in his ways. If he doesn't get any dry food, he will refuse to eat anything until he gets it. He is very stubborn and will not compromise. So using it only as treats doesn't work too well ha ha. Since he is a bit older, I want to make sure he is happy, comfortable, and in good health. It makes me really happy to see how much he loves the new dry food, so I wanted to make sure it's not bad that he does.  Mew is pretty active. He is always running around the house when he is hyper and playing with his toys.

 

[pinkdagger]

That's great to hear! Sounds like he's in good shape for being older too - though I tend to call it "middle aged". 

And you made a good choice in food, as it is among the better brands. Our older cat had been free fed dry his entire life, but he's also been a big eater so fortunately we had no problem switching him to kibble as just a treat. As it is, he's been without kibble for a couple weeks now for some tummy problems since he is a terrible drinker and NEEDS the wet food, but I catch him watching the other cat and her kibble forlornly, and he still comes to beg at kibble time. I'm just grateful he'll bend to any food.

 

 

[stewball]

Hey everyone, my cat Mew is a male himalayan/siamese mix and he is 9 years old. He weighs 9.9 pounds and I was wondering if that is a healthy weight for him or if he's heavy.

Another concern I have is about his dry food. I feed Mew wet food along with some dry food. Mew has always eaten his Applaws Pate and Bozita wet food with no problem. Before he had Applaws dry food and would eat it moderately and always eat the wet food I would feed him twice a day. But a month ago we bought Orijen Chicken since I heard it's the best dry cat food available and it's a lot better quality than other dry foods. Mew absolutely loves the Orijen dry food and he acts like it's cat treats. I never seen him love a dry food so much. When I fill a bowl up in the morning, it's almost gone in the middle of the day. A few weeks ago he developed a bad habbit. Mew rather eat less of his wet food so he has more room to eat more of the Orijen. He leaves half of his wet food each time. So I was wondering if it's bad that Mew is eating so much of the Orijen and not as much wet food as he use too. I'm a little worried since I heard that Orijen is high protein, so cats are suppose to eat less since they get fuller easier from it than other dry foods. But Mew ate less Applaws Dry food than he did Orijen.

Take the dry food away and don't give it back until he's finished his wet food.

 

[stewball]

That's great to hear! Sounds like he's in good shape for being older too - though I tend to call it "middle aged". :bigwink: And you made a good choice in food, as it is among the better brands. Our older cat had been free fed dry his entire life, but he's also been a big eater so fortunately we had no problem switching him to kibble as just a treat. As it is, he's been without kibble for a couple weeks now for some tummy problems since he is a terrible drinker and NEEDS the wet food, but I catch him watching the other cat and her kibble forlornly, and he still comes to beg at kibble time. I'm just grateful he'll bend to any food. :lol3:  

I free fed all my cats.

 

[jenniator]

 
That's great to hear! Sounds like he's in good shape for being older too - though I tend to call it "middle aged". 

And you made a good choice in food, as it is among the better brands. Our older cat had been free fed dry his entire life, but he's also been a big eater so fortunately we had no problem switching him to kibble as just a treat. As it is, he's been without kibble for a couple weeks now for some tummy problems since he is a terrible drinker and NEEDS the wet food, but I catch him watching the other cat and her kibble forlornly, and he still comes to beg at kibble time. I'm just grateful he'll bend to any food.

 

Yeah Mew is in wonderful shape for being older. The vet even said he was muscular under all that fur ha ha! But I'm really happy he does have so much energy and is always running around. It makes me so happy to see him act like a kitten still. Thank you Unfortunately I didn't always have the best quality of food for Mew, so I've been trying to make it up to him. For 8 years of his life, he only ate Meow Mix since I knew absolutely nothing about cat nutrition or how horrible that food really was for him. It took me 8 years to find out, but at least I decided to make a change asap. I was actually shocked to learn how bad some brands are. Even Royal Canin which advertises their food as the best quality isn't so good! So hopefully the change does help Mew even though he ate bad food for 8 years. I noticed he did get so much more energetic and happy when I switched him to better quality food. That's wonderful you were able to switch your older cat over to wet food completely and use kibble as treats! Your lucky he isn't so picky!  But yes it is important for cats, especially older ones to drink plenty of water.

 

[jenniator]

Take the dry food away and don't give it back until he's finished his wet food.

I have tried that before in the past and he went a whole day without eating more than a few bites. It was horrible since he was crying the whole day for his kibble. I wasn't going to risk going any longer since I heard it's dangerous for a cat to go more than a day without any food and it worried me a lot since Mew is a little older. So I really had no choice but to give him back the kibble. He is just so set in his ways and picky.

 

[stewball]

My two get mainly kibble and a small tin each of wet food when I get up and when I go to bed.
As long as he drinking that's the main thing. I've had quite a few cats and they only ate kibble. My last cat went to rainbow bridge age 20.
Let him keep his kibble.
Good luck.