Fat, dandruffy cat. Help me with diet!

[longdiling]

Recently my big lump of a cat seemed to develop clumps of matted fur on her back. I assumed she'd rolled around in something but I finally managed to cut them off today and it's actually like loads of dandruff all clumped together.

I mentioned it to the vet when I popped in for flea treatment and they said to give her oily fish like sardines or tuna. Does anyone else feed their cats this and if so how much can they have? At the moment she only has dry food; Iams Chicken flavour. We tried various wet foods but she won't eat them. She has eaten some of the tuna we've given her today though. Obviously she has access to plenty of clean water - which she shuns in favour of dirty puddles, naturally.

From what I've read on the internet, this problem can also occur in overweight cats who can't reach to groom themselves properly. She is certainly overweight - in my defence, she was when we got her from the rescue centre. Thing is, we don't actually feed her that much - honest! She has a small bowl of Iams in the morning and one in the evening. I wondered if she was a 'six suppers sid' but we moved recently and she's still a fattie! Should we change her food?

Any other suggestions much appreciated. I'm going to groom her every day from now on too - she enjoyed it today.

I was going to say also it sounds as though she can't groom that bit. In fact the dandruff generally occurs because of the matted bits rather than because of anything to do with diet. If there is only dandruff in the matted bits, and not all over, then I really don't think that oily fish or anything like that would make the slightest bit of difference.

Have you seen if she can groom properly?

As for reducing weight I'm not an expert on that. But many vets recommend giving a wet food diet rather than dried, as dried food tends to promote overeating and cats seem better able to self-regulate with wet.

However I see you say she won't eat them. Well she will if she's hungry enough, but you are likely to cave in before she does I suspect.

Her coat looks generally dandruffy I'd say. There was loads concentrated in the clumps but you can see it in the rest of the fur too.

She does groom herself but I'll have to try and keep a closer eye to see if she can reach her back.

She's funny with wet food, she seemingly eats enthusiastically when we put a pouch in her bowl but actually only half is gone. And then that's it. She will not come back to it - presumably because it isn't fresh anymore. Tried just dishing out teeny bits but even kept in the pouch or in the fridge it is still not fresh enough. We were chucking out loads. You're right, she'd totally win in a battle of wills. She has perfected the early morning standing on our heads and purring loudly til we feed her routine.

I believe that Iam's uses carbs and grain in their food to bulk it out which can be a risk of weight gain and diabetes as cats just don't need them. Grain can also cause allergic reactions causing scabbing, flaking skin similar to what you described.

I suggest swapping to a grain free feed such as applaws could help (this isn't carb free though as it uses potato as filler). The higher the protein and lower the carbs the better. If this doesn't improve after a few weeks and you are on top of treatments I would take her in for a skin scrape and biopsy.

You want to nip it in the bud before she picks up adverse behaviour (barbering, over scratching etc).

Oh dear. I thought Iams was supposed to be a good brand. Ok, I'll see what else is out there. I might have a crack at wet food in the day and let her have some good quality dry at night to prevent her keeping us up all night protesting!

Thanks both

Do you weigh out the dried food? I think it looks like a tiny amount if you feed what is recommended.
Does your cat play? Could you entice some exercise?!
My old cat was 19 and couldn't groom herself at all. We got a furminator and it really helped.

She does play a little bit in short bursts! But she's generally a loafing around in the sun type of cat.

I did weigh it out a while back but just do it by sight now as weighed out it was about the same as we were giving her.

Does anyone have any wet food recommendations? Ideally pouches or those really small little pots as otherwise we end up chucking loads out!

If you look online there are lots of great brands with much better stats than the highstreet names. I use zooplus and can recommend

Bozita
smila
Animonda carny
Grau

Personally I feed raw from natural instincts which is fantastic and gives fantastic skin, coat and muscle quality.

I should add make sure whatever you but is "complete", applaws do tons but they are complimentary meals so need to be served with complete food as the taurine content is not high enough.

Thanks again. I'll take a look at those

One of my cats had fa problem with white flakes in his fur. Changed from Iams to Arden Grange. The purple one is diet. It is not grain based. It had made a difference but have been using it 6 months plus now and I no longer get it at the vets. Amazon do cat foods and much cheaper...

Ok, I've popped down to my little local pet food shop and they had Forthglade Natural wet food which is 85% meat and no cereals at all. They let me buy just a couple of trays to try so we'll give it a whirl. They also gave me a free sample of Harringtons dry food which is slightly higher meat content than Iams and no gluten.

I'll give the wet a try...it was 75p a tray though so flipping expensive although she said she'd do me deal if I come back for a box full.