Need some ideas on how to fix a fat, greedy cat.

[ClothEaredBint]

So bit of a convoluted situation. Recently left my H and had to move in with my mom and her dog.

Both my cats are currently in the care of my brother and SIL who have 3 cats of their own, one of whom is an elderly lady(15yrs+) with gastric issues who has to be fed little/often rather than once a day.

My two are used to me filling their bowl once a day, so once its gone, its gone, they get no more except the odd treat.

My female cat who is 3.5 is a greedy madam who when any of the other 4 cats have food down, will get her nose in whatever is available and hoover the lot up.

Took my two to the vets this morning, they've both put on over .5kg in the 3 months my brother/sil have had them in their care. which means greedymiss is now very much overweight at 5.6kg. And my boy is now 4.1 which is fine/healthy but he CANT put any more on, he has a heart murmur and needs to keep his weight down.

Been told she needs to loose weight.

How do I do it? Brother/SIL are doing me a huge favour and I can't exactly tell them they need to change everyones eating habits for my greedymiss.

Any ideas/advice?

[Want2beme]

The only thing I can think of is to explain to your DB & SIL that the vet is very displeased that greedy girl has gained weight and has asked for her to be monitored at feeding time and would it be possible for her to be kept out of the feeding room? I know it's easier said than done and you can't expect them to change the feeding routine, but if you approach the subject with a bit of humour, maybe they'll be more receptive?

Hope you're ok with your new life

[ClothEaredBint]

I'm ok, I miss my babies, moms dog isn't the same! Brother and SIL are good about letting me go see them whenever I want, but I don't like intruding so much, you know?

[9GreenBottles]

Microchip cat feeder for each cat. Expensive (about £70 each on Amazon), but controls who gets to eat what.

[ClothEaredBint]

I don't have £350 to spend on one each for all 5 cats!

[esk1mo]

im sort of in the same boat, my cat is just over 5kg and she should be around 4.2-4.5kg

we try to feed her 3 times a day (half pack each time) but she always manages to steal food, she will chew through bins/food packets etc!

are they wormed regularly? i need to worm my cat, hopefully this helps. but i suspect she is just greedy.

either that or she needs a change in food

[Nimueh]

One of my cats was over weight. I tried feeding biscuits in one of those puzzle balls so she has to work to get the food out. She wasn't really interested, but some cats are.

I also stopped feeding her wet food and just feed the Royal Canin dry food. I get the one specifically for British Shorthairs as the biscuits are bigger, but you can get biscuits for sterilised/overweight cats. I feed the amount suggested on the pack, I weighed it out a few time to get the idea. The amount looked tiny compared what I was feeding! I split into two portions morning and night.

At first she meowed like crazy all day long, I stuck to the plan and now she has accepted and not so greedy.

[dinksandbinks]

I had a thread on this a few weeks ago with a girl cat who gained around 1.5kg over a year. Can you buy some lower calorie food, and ask your Bro and SIL to switch it over gradually? We use Hills Metabolic + Urinary and the cats love it, so hasn’t been a hard sell!

Hope you are reunited with the fluffsters soon!!