My cat got fat - help!

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Two cats, 11yo, male has always been big in size but lean, female has always been tiny and skinny. They've eaten exclusively dry kibble (with the odd treat every few weeks) since we got them as kittens.

Moved house a year ago and cats went from being outdoor/indoor to exclusively indoor. The plan was to start letting them out after a few weeks but they love being indoors. So theyve become indoor cats almost accidentally.

Skinny female is now utterly gorgeous and not scrawny anymore. She is thriving and a healthy weight.

Boy cat has become an absolute loaf. Weighed him today and he is 6.6kg. In fairness he is long and tall etc. But he is now getting flabby too.

They get one smallish bowl in the morning and one smallish bowl in the evening (shared) and obviously unlimited water.

I don't think I can reduce their meals any further!

How do I get the boy one lean again? It's a fair sized home he goes up the stairs/jumps up onto windowsill etc.

Help!!

Get him skinny cat kibble (hills do one) and feed them in separate rooms.

do cats get thyroid problems?? maybe check with vet if nothing else influencing weight

Cats do get thyroid problems but usually hyperthyroid - skinny cat - not hypothyroid - fat cat.

Still, fat cat should go to vet for a check up.

Fat cat and healthy cat probably need different food - he needs skinny cat food.

Feed healthy cat in a microchip feeder so fat cat can't steal all her food - our dustbin kitten's intake halved overnight when we did this, we hadn't realised quite how much she was grazing on everyone else's dinner.

Does boy cat play? As in, would he play with a toy with you for twenty mins or so? Could you make an effort to do that with him every evening to get him moving more?

Do you weigh their food? It might not look like they're getting much but perhaps it is far too much? I always feel a bit sorry for FatDog when I feed him two cups of kibble but that's right for him, just looks like so little food to me as a (greedy) human.

I'll definitely start weighing their food. They get "senior" cat food now, but I will look out for some designed to slim him down.

He will play a little, so I will encourage more of it and set aside proper time to have him run around. I'll dig out the old laser pen as K remember he used to love chasing the light.

Our cat has been on a diet, vet supervised as he is diabetic.

We have phased out dried food now, its higher in carbs and he's on lower fat ,higher protein pouches (its a question of reading the labels). Weighing the food is a good idea, its so easy to give too much. We used to weigh it out each day and keep his allowance in a container.

My friend has bought feeders that remain closed until the specific cats microchip opens it as her two cats are on different diets

I had to put mine on a diet, it was actually relatively easy- we had a few days of begging but then it eased up. Get advice from your vet on his ideal weight, calorie needs and how to ensure steady weight loss. For ours it was 250 cals until they reached about 5kg, and then put the food up to 300 cals.

another thing we did was to put some of his allowance in a treat ball to bat about so he got some excercise chasing the ball around.
Mind you my pals cats looked at the ball, looked at her then walked away.

I have indoor cats and exactly the same cat ration - slim petite female cat and a loaf of male cat (at least 6.6 kilos but likely 7).
Vet recommended the hills product which increases metablolism - I have had to buy two x £90 cat feeders that open linked to the chip in their neck so the skinny cat does not eat his food.
Worth noting - apparently according to the vet part of the issue is sharing one bowl - cat behaviour he is demonstrating he is the dominate one and eating more food (think lions in a pride, the king lion eats first and eats the most).

My boy is 11 and 7.8kg. He is BSH so they are big cats. He is tall, long and has huge paws. TBF he loves food but has been thus for at least 8 years He looks solid rather than fat.

I tried the putting the food in a play ball thing - fat cat just looked at me like I was crazed, sat down and refused to budge.

However I had more joy with just throwing bits of kibble across the room - as long as it was looking at me, she would go.

Laser pointer was a dismal failure though, I would have the cat that was scared of laser pointers.

My cat is now on a diet as the cat sitter has been overfeeding her. I'm now playing with a cat wand to give her some more exercise but the vet will still tell me off later this week.