Fat Cat Feeding Advice Needed

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a pet-feeding dilemma. Ever since I saw this poor guy, I’ve been very concerned about my kitties’ diets. It’s a tricky situation, too, because one’s a young fella (Jack – he’s 1 year old), and the other’s a toothless old codger (Tommy who’s around 15, give or take). Collectively they probably weigh in at around 25-30 lbs. Jack was 14.5 lbs the last time I weighed him. I know that seems a lot for a 1-year-old, but he’s actually quite a large cat (big boned, I guess). Tommy’s a little bit lighter, but he has a smaller frame, and he’s clearly much fatter. He has quite a gut on him - big and round and cuddly. They’re both strictly indoor cats.

My problem is that I’m not sure how to feed these two so that the young one gets all the food he needs, but the old guy doesn’t overeat (and maybe even loses a pound or two). I’ve been buying Nutro’s adult pouch food for the young one and the senior pouches for the old guy, but since they eat together and frequently eat each other’s food, I’ve taken to pureeing both kinds together (for the sake of the old guy’s lack of teeth), and then splitting the mixture between them. I don’t really know exactly what the cat food people do to the Senior food that’s different, besides having less fat. Is there anything wrong with feeding a 1-year-old cat food designed for 15-year-old cat? Or vice versa? Is there a better method I could use to feed these two?

Right now they share around 14 oz of food per day – 5 oz of dry food (1/3 cup twice a day, which Jack eats most of, having the most teeth) and 9 oz of pouch food (3 pouches total). This is about half what the recommendations on the bag say. And they don’t always eat it all, either.

Any SDMB Cat Lovers out there who have any advice for me?

2

That poor cat in the movie. That’s just about animal cruelty. Even if it’s a medical condition, then freakin’ treat it. Don’t put your (general “you”) cat through that. :frowning:

Anyway, as for your own kitties:
Feed them separately.
Don’t leave food in the bowls all day.

Give them about 1/2 or 3/4 hour each time to eat. Then take the food away. Pretty soon they’ll learn to eat when the food is down. If they are not eating everything you give them, cut back. It kind of seems like a lot to me but I am not used to pouches.

I don’t think there’s usually anything wrong with giving Senior food to a young cat - it’s just got less fat in it - but you should monitor carefully to make sure his fur stays glossy, he doesn’t become dull, etc. (Never give Senior to a kitten; I wouldn’t to a younger-than-1 cat either.)

If fatness seems to be a real problem, you can get ultra-low-fat food from the vet (it’s by prescription only). It is dangerous for a cat to lose weight too quickly so you don’t want to make him drop the pounds fast. Slow but steady is best.

3

I agree with all this. I got my cat a line of Eukanuba that helps maintain body weight. My little girl is around 6-8 lbs full grown, but she comes from a line of smaller females and MASSIVE males. Literally, all the boys from her litter are big-boned and weigh around 20 lbs. Her uncles (my mom has them) are even bigger and have really long fur. They’re all precious though!

4

We have several skinny cats and several fat ones (and a few normal-sized kitties). Everybody has constant access to dry food, but when we open cans of moist food (twice a day), we feed the skinny kitties extra portions, and isolate them in a room where the tubby tabbies can’t snatch the food away from them. Once they’ve finished their food, of course, we let them out to mingle with the other cats.

5

We used to have one, old, toothless, underweight cat. She lived with us for almost 18 years, and was over 20 when she died. The “toothless” part was a piecemeal development over the years as age and poor dietary hygiene took their toll, even with annual vet visits and tooth cleanings about every five years.

She did like canned food, but she ate dry food until the day she died, even with virtually no teeth at the end. We kept dry food in her bowl all the time, for her to eat as she wished, and canned food was limited to a quarter of a small can, twice a day. The canned food was the highlight of her day, even though she probably didn’t really need it nutritionally. However, she was underweight her entire life, so we never really worried too much about overfeeding her. We never did figure out how she was able to eat dry food with her gums so effectively, but she did eat it

We now own two, relatively young, fully-toothed cats. One was acquired as a very fat stray, and the other was adopted from the Humane Society with a good-sized “tummy”, although she wasn’t technically overweight.

Neither of them like canned/wet food at all. We tried offering them some when they first came to live with us, and we tried three or four different brands and flavors, without any great enthusiasm. Both of them drink well from their water bowls, and wet food is bad for teeth anyway, so we just don’t buy it.

On the vet’s recommendation, we feed them reduced calorie dry cat food (right now, we’re feeding them Eukanuba, but we also tried Hill’s, and we have another trial packet of something for later). However, we just put about 1/4 cup in two bowls in the morning and again in the evening. They inhale it pretty much on the spot, and seem okay with not having any food at all for the next 12 hours.

They are both very healthy now, and both of them have trimmed down to some extent. We suspect that the stray male is just prone to being overweight (how else can a stray cat be fat?), and he’s still a little on the heavy side, but the adopted female is pretty much her perfect weight now.

Aside from an occasional taste of tuna fish on weekends (and I really DO mean a taste), they don’t like Human food, and won’t eat it even if it is given to them.