Help Me Choose A Healthier Diet For My Cats Please!

[GreyLady]

Hi, everybody.

My cat Grey Cat needs to lose a little weight. He weighed almost 18 pounds at his last vet visit. The vet was a little on the fence about it since he really is a big, big boned cat, but she did think he could lose a few pounds and I do too.

He used to be an indoor/outdoor cat when he lived with my parents until he came to live with me. Then he started gaining some weight. I do play with him as much as he will (less now that we adopted a second cat, Noodle, and he gets his energy spent playing with) But he really mostly wants to sleep or look out the window. He's 9.

So what Im looking for is a diet that suits him more and is more healthy for him now. Preferably something I can feed Noodle, too. Noodle is a 14 months old with tons of energy.

Except for the first 1-2 years of his life as a stray, Grey Cat has always eaten free fed dry Meow Mix with a can of wet meow mix in the morning he shares with Noodle. (before he shared it with my Mom's cat Kitty) He is mostly into the dry food but of course gets exited for the wet food too.

I have been considering switching to feeding them just wet food. A meal in the morning and a meal at night. Would this be enough food though? Also, would Meow Mix wet be enough nutritionally? I feel like I could choose a better brand. Is Fancy Feast better? I would like something I can still pick up in a box somewhere, but I think I can afford to spend more money on food.

I also like the idea of more wet food, and reducing the dry intake. But I don't know how much to put out. I am wondering if a can of wet in the morning they split, a half a cup of dry they split throughout the day, and a can of wet split in the evening would be enough?

As the cats really like their food, I am also open to keeping the brand but adjusting how I feed it to be more healthy. It seems like more wet food is the way to go, though with their fountain they get a lot of water intake.

Any advice would be appreciated. I would like to nip this in the bud before he continues gaining weight. I really wish he could still go outside to lose weight that way but is not possible where I live. I am harness training Noodle right now, but I dont think it suits Grey Cat's personality. He only likes being outside when it's dark and he can hide in bushes anyway.

Thanks ahead of time to any posters! I hope I didnt ramble too much.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
More wet food is a great thought, many members have had their cats lose weight switching to canned.

Try fancy feast, Merrick Backcountry, Sheba, Luvsome, Open Farm

Can you put his food up on the shelf of a cat tree, or up/or down a few stair steps, that sort of thing, so he has to work for it?

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[GreyLady]

Hi Furballsmom, thanks for replying to my thread. Good to know more wet food is a good direction to head in. I know I have seen Fancy Feast and I think I have seen Sheba in stores, too. Thanks for the suggestions!

Do you think if I am limiting dry food, half a can in the morning and half at night would be a good schedule? Im thinking of still providing a little dry food since he likes it so much, but only a little to snack on while Im at work. It really has to be a littlle though, both the cats eat it but Grey cat eats a lot more dry than Noodle does. He will eat 2/3 of it probably.

I think putting cat food in the tree would be possible if I gave them separate bowls. I could put one up higher where he cant really fit for Noodle and put one in the middle (One jump and a little step up) for him. It might be more excersize if I put it on my kitchen table, then he would need to jump from the ground to the chair and the chair to the table.

I will experiment with this tomorrow morning and see what he's willing to do. ....

 

[Furballsmom]

For the kibble, would an automatic feeder help to limit grey kitty? I'm thinking of the style where you could fill several trays with a certain amount, and then the lid of each tray pops open at a chosen time - something like that.

You could also try food puzzles Food Puzzles for Cats

I will experiment with this tomorrow morning and see what he's willing to do

Let us know how things go

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Go by calories, not amount. Indoor cats need approximately 20-25 calories per day per pound of body weight. Since you want Grey Cat (side note: my mom also has a Grey!) to lose weight, aim for 20 calories per lb, so 360 calories total per day. I would aim for either a 50/50 split or 75% wet/25% dry.

All foods have calorie content somewhere on the can- a good rule of thumb (but there are exceptions) is that a 3oz can is roughly 100 calories. Dry food varies greatly but again it will be on the bag somewhere.

A really good brand (in my opinion) is the Chewy brand Tiny Tiger. It's very cheap compared to Fancy Feast and is basically a FF knockoff. Chewy is offering a BOGO free for it now so this would be a good time to try some new foods within your budget!

If you are looking to switch dry foods, the Chewy brand American Journey looks pretty decent. I promise I am not a Chewy rep...lol!

Good luck with your boy! They key to cat weight loss is slow and steady. I believe members have stated that a cat losing 2lbs in a year is normal?

 

[daftcat75]

I would definitely transition him to more wet food but you’ll be under-feeding him at a can a day. Unless we’re talking about an 11 oz can.

You have both a math problem here and a physiology problem. Let’s talk about the second first.

Your boy has been free-feeding for his calories. To get him on a schedule, you’ll need to understand a few things about him like how big is his stomach and how quickly can he be hungry again? This may be some frustrating and messy trial and error. The other problem is that wet food is quite a bit different than dry in digestibility and macronutrient ratios. You will likely have to ramp him up slowly to new portions because wet food will likely be too rich for him to begin with.

And now the math.

Your boy is significantly larger than my girl (8 lbs) but let’s just start with her stomach size of 2 oz. Let’s also assume a goal weight of 15 lbs and a target of 20 calories per lb just to make all the math easy. You can adjust all of these as you need to with knowledge of your boy and advice from the vet.

To sustain 15 lbs at 20 cal/lbs, he’ll need 300 calories a day. A typical pate is about 30 calories per ounce (about 1.07 calories per gram.). So to meet his daily calories needs for his ideal weight, he would need 10 ounces of pate per day. If he has a two ounce stomach, that means you’ll need to feed him five times a day. An easy way to guesstimate the calories per ounce of a given wet food: Look at that big ME number, the Kcal/Kg. Anything over 1000 is going to be at least 1 calorie per gram. Anything over 1100 (1070ish) will be 30 calories an ounce or more.

So, to review:

Variables:
Target weight
Calories per lbs
Ideal meal size

The first two you can ask the vet for guidance. The third may be trial and error. Keep a journal if you need to (how much did you feed and was it too much?)

Equations:

Total calories per day = target weight * calories per lbs

Number of ounces per day = total calories / calories per ounce

Calories per ounce = cal/gram * 28

Calories per gram = that big ME number / 1000 or calories per can / grams per can

And finally,

Number of meals per day = number of ounces per day / ideal meal size in ounces

So depending on how much he can eat in one sitting without giving it back or causing too much distress and how often you can feed him, you may have to feed him some amount of dry food in the stretches between meals. But you’ll have to measure this amount so he doesn’t exceed it and you’ll have to figure out when to give it to not mess with his appetite for the wet meals above.

 

[daftcat75]

But you also don’t want to restrict calories too quickly. If he’s 18 and you’re aiming for 15, start feeding him for 17 until he reaches 17 and then start feeding him for 16. Weigh him no more than weekly and track the trend more than getting too hung up on the number itself. Cats like people can fluctuate weight daily but the trend should be going down. This will take time. Best not to rush things with cats.