I'm not actually "new" here, been lurking for a couple years, finally felt the need to register / post and get some feedback. I'll try to make this as short as I can but that's a bit of a challenge... this is a long post in order to give a good representation of background and environment.
We have two adult mackerel tabbies 10 years old, adopted them from rescue at 8 weeks in 2008. They're supposed to be "brothers" but look and at quite different from each other, and could have been born to feral mom for all we know.
100% indoor kitties, paws have never touched the ground outdoors. (We live in a wooded area with lots of predators and one main street, and have seen too many neighbors lose their furbabies to street crossing and preds). No kids in the house, no other animals, and a "no shoes" clean carpet environment. Basically we do everything we can to assure the best health environment we can afford. We do use tidy cats clumping litter, unscented though. Litter is meticulously maintained, scooped at least once daily, and they have a lot of roaming / running space along with their own "cat room" with kitty condo, several scratching posts in several rooms, plenty of toys and love them like they're the human babies we never had.
We were very naive about nutrition, brands, ingredients etc... for the first 7 years, so for the first 7 years we fed a combination of friskies wet and kibbles. They weren't exactly "free feeding" during those earlier years, but we did have an automated kibble dispenser that would dispense 1/4 cup every 12 hours, and they'd each get a 3oz can of wet in the morning and a 3oz can of wet in the evening.
A few years ago it became obvious that they were overweight. They were already big cats to begin with, but did not appear overweight until around age 7 approx. We knew we had to do / change something. One of the boys was up to almost 20lbs and the other up to almost 17lbs.
So a few years ago I began reading through the plethora of online info / forums like this one, and I noticed the pattern of "don't feed kibble, only wet, and only grain-free, and only high quality".
So based on all the reading, starting back in 2017 we slowly transitioned them away from the friskies wet / kibble mixed diet to the expensive (out of our budget, but for their sake) grain-free wets such as Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Fussie, Weruva, Soup for Soul, etc... of wet (3oz each, twice a day) all of which were very difficult gradual transitions, taking away the automated kibble dispenser and only providing a small amount (about 1/8 cup each at night as a treat) and a LOT of "refusal" on their part. A lot of money went down the drain as we stood there coaxing them through the transitions.
Within the first couple months of switching them to grain-free expensive primarily wet food (still 3oz can each, once in morning, once in evening) and even ditching the friskies kibbles in favor of Wellness kibbles only given as an evening "treat" (1/8 cup each) constipation problems began. One of the poor guys had to go to ER Vet at midnight for enema and clearing because he could not "go" and was going from room to room, struggling to "go" ... it was clearly painful and problematic. The only common connection we could make between the sudden constipation issues was the switch to grain-free expensive brands.
So in late 2017 after basically going bankrupt over high-end cat food experiments and seeing the ER vet, we decided to go with something "in between" the high / low end, and switched to Purina One Vibrant Maturity for the kibble and Purina One True Instinct / Ideal Weight wet food combos (still 3oz each in morning, 3oz each evening, and 1/8 cup kibble at night, despite the begging... oh the mewing and begging was so hard to endure) it seemed we'd found something that agreed with them. Didn't have to "coax" them so much on the wet, and of course the kibble was immediately accepted. That lasted over a year, but still no real weight loss. However, we didn't rock the boat because they seemed happy, the brand was affordable enough, no constipation. But then recently Purina One changed it's wet food formula and they flat-out would not eat any of the new formula wet food.
As a result of all that, we tried a few other brands / foods and settled on Sheba Perfect Portions Pates. Not perfect portions for our guys, since Sheba Pate is in little 1.3oz plastics, so they each get two in the morning (total 2.6oz wet each) and two in evening (2.6oz wet each) and then kibble treat at night (Purina One Vibrant Maturity, bit less than 1/8 cup each around 9pm).
So while they seem happier and the transition to Sheba Grain-Free Pate was much easier then all previous transitions, and things like hairballs / pukes are very rare now, there's still one big issue - they're not losing any weight.
These are not tiny cats, never have been. They've always been big and by that I do not mean fat - they're long, tall, stocky naturally (I'm guessing some mixed breeding from feral parents). But still, I'd really like to see the 19lb guy get down to 16lb and the 17lb guy get down to 13lb, especially since they're approaching 11 years old and the bigger one clearly struggles a bit with his size.
I guess the thing I don't quite understand is this - it doesn't seem to me that we're over-feeding. A 3oz wet in the morning, a 3oz wet in the evening, and less then 1/8 cup kibble at night is all they get. No actual "treats" or "snacks". So aside from them being indoor-only and not getting the kind of exercise that outdoor cats do (we have playtime with some catnip and toys a few nights a week, all we can manage with our work schedules) , I don't understand why they remain heavy. I see people posting that they feed nearly twice the amount that we do, and some of their cats are the ideal approx 12lb holy grail of cat weight for mixed tabbies this size.
We just want to do right by them and help them lose weight in a healthy way, and while Sheba Grain-Free Pate might not be something some would consider here, it's not a bad food and they could certainly do worse. Likewise, Purina One Vibrant Maturity kibbles are not horrible, and we don't allow them much of the dry... it's more of a "treat" part of their routine.
So... 3oz wet twice a day, less than 1/8 dry twice a day, and still overweight cats.
When I took the bigger guy to the vet not long ago because he had some urinary irritation, the vet's comments regarding my weight inquiries were very off-putting. He literally said "ya don't get fat without eating" , to which I re-explained "6oz wet / 1/8 cup dry total per day" and his response was a shrug and another "well, like I said, can't get fat without eating". It seemed obnoxious and like getting mugged.
I'm open to any / all opinions, even if the truth hurts. Our boys are doing OK, I just want them to lose a couple pounds, literally. Finally have food they don't fuss over or puke over or get constipated over, but no weight loss.
Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all that. I really appreciate it, and any advice you'd like to give.
Cheers,
Dargo
We have two adult mackerel tabbies 10 years old, adopted them from rescue at 8 weeks in 2008. They're supposed to be "brothers" but look and at quite different from each other, and could have been born to feral mom for all we know.
100% indoor kitties, paws have never touched the ground outdoors. (We live in a wooded area with lots of predators and one main street, and have seen too many neighbors lose their furbabies to street crossing and preds). No kids in the house, no other animals, and a "no shoes" clean carpet environment. Basically we do everything we can to assure the best health environment we can afford. We do use tidy cats clumping litter, unscented though. Litter is meticulously maintained, scooped at least once daily, and they have a lot of roaming / running space along with their own "cat room" with kitty condo, several scratching posts in several rooms, plenty of toys and love them like they're the human babies we never had.
We were very naive about nutrition, brands, ingredients etc... for the first 7 years, so for the first 7 years we fed a combination of friskies wet and kibbles. They weren't exactly "free feeding" during those earlier years, but we did have an automated kibble dispenser that would dispense 1/4 cup every 12 hours, and they'd each get a 3oz can of wet in the morning and a 3oz can of wet in the evening.
A few years ago it became obvious that they were overweight. They were already big cats to begin with, but did not appear overweight until around age 7 approx. We knew we had to do / change something. One of the boys was up to almost 20lbs and the other up to almost 17lbs.
So a few years ago I began reading through the plethora of online info / forums like this one, and I noticed the pattern of "don't feed kibble, only wet, and only grain-free, and only high quality".
So based on all the reading, starting back in 2017 we slowly transitioned them away from the friskies wet / kibble mixed diet to the expensive (out of our budget, but for their sake) grain-free wets such as Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Fussie, Weruva, Soup for Soul, etc... of wet (3oz each, twice a day) all of which were very difficult gradual transitions, taking away the automated kibble dispenser and only providing a small amount (about 1/8 cup each at night as a treat) and a LOT of "refusal" on their part. A lot of money went down the drain as we stood there coaxing them through the transitions.
Within the first couple months of switching them to grain-free expensive primarily wet food (still 3oz can each, once in morning, once in evening) and even ditching the friskies kibbles in favor of Wellness kibbles only given as an evening "treat" (1/8 cup each) constipation problems began. One of the poor guys had to go to ER Vet at midnight for enema and clearing because he could not "go" and was going from room to room, struggling to "go" ... it was clearly painful and problematic. The only common connection we could make between the sudden constipation issues was the switch to grain-free expensive brands.
So in late 2017 after basically going bankrupt over high-end cat food experiments and seeing the ER vet, we decided to go with something "in between" the high / low end, and switched to Purina One Vibrant Maturity for the kibble and Purina One True Instinct / Ideal Weight wet food combos (still 3oz each in morning, 3oz each evening, and 1/8 cup kibble at night, despite the begging... oh the mewing and begging was so hard to endure) it seemed we'd found something that agreed with them. Didn't have to "coax" them so much on the wet, and of course the kibble was immediately accepted. That lasted over a year, but still no real weight loss. However, we didn't rock the boat because they seemed happy, the brand was affordable enough, no constipation. But then recently Purina One changed it's wet food formula and they flat-out would not eat any of the new formula wet food.
As a result of all that, we tried a few other brands / foods and settled on Sheba Perfect Portions Pates. Not perfect portions for our guys, since Sheba Pate is in little 1.3oz plastics, so they each get two in the morning (total 2.6oz wet each) and two in evening (2.6oz wet each) and then kibble treat at night (Purina One Vibrant Maturity, bit less than 1/8 cup each around 9pm).
So while they seem happier and the transition to Sheba Grain-Free Pate was much easier then all previous transitions, and things like hairballs / pukes are very rare now, there's still one big issue - they're not losing any weight.
These are not tiny cats, never have been. They've always been big and by that I do not mean fat - they're long, tall, stocky naturally (I'm guessing some mixed breeding from feral parents). But still, I'd really like to see the 19lb guy get down to 16lb and the 17lb guy get down to 13lb, especially since they're approaching 11 years old and the bigger one clearly struggles a bit with his size.
I guess the thing I don't quite understand is this - it doesn't seem to me that we're over-feeding. A 3oz wet in the morning, a 3oz wet in the evening, and less then 1/8 cup kibble at night is all they get. No actual "treats" or "snacks". So aside from them being indoor-only and not getting the kind of exercise that outdoor cats do (we have playtime with some catnip and toys a few nights a week, all we can manage with our work schedules) , I don't understand why they remain heavy. I see people posting that they feed nearly twice the amount that we do, and some of their cats are the ideal approx 12lb holy grail of cat weight for mixed tabbies this size.
We just want to do right by them and help them lose weight in a healthy way, and while Sheba Grain-Free Pate might not be something some would consider here, it's not a bad food and they could certainly do worse. Likewise, Purina One Vibrant Maturity kibbles are not horrible, and we don't allow them much of the dry... it's more of a "treat" part of their routine.
So... 3oz wet twice a day, less than 1/8 dry twice a day, and still overweight cats.
When I took the bigger guy to the vet not long ago because he had some urinary irritation, the vet's comments regarding my weight inquiries were very off-putting. He literally said "ya don't get fat without eating" , to which I re-explained "6oz wet / 1/8 cup dry total per day" and his response was a shrug and another "well, like I said, can't get fat without eating". It seemed obnoxious and like getting mugged.
I'm open to any / all opinions, even if the truth hurts. Our boys are doing OK, I just want them to lose a couple pounds, literally. Finally have food they don't fuss over or puke over or get constipated over, but no weight loss.
Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all that. I really appreciate it, and any advice you'd like to give.
Cheers,
Dargo
I'm surprised your cats aren't losing weight drastically and screaming for more food or have fatty liver disease.
Maybe see another vet? Are there cat only vets in your area?
I think we finally landed on 1.75 cans Fancy Feast daily, plus a few Temptations treats. It took about a year for her to lose 2 lbs.
