Fat cat!

[MadauntofA]

Our lovely boy is getting fat! He is usually quite active but less so when it is raining. We think the main problem is that he is being fed by someone else, or is eating mice. He gets 2 pouches a day and half a bowl of dry stuff. He won't wear a collar so we can't put a message for who ever is feeding him. Do we reduce the dry stuff or cut down to 1 pouch a day?

Personally I wouldn't cut down... if he is eating elsewhere he will just decamp to that house! You could try less dried stuff... depends how much he nags you for it!
How fat is he? I have a 20 pounder Maine Coon with a jelly belly but the vet just laughed and said he was a big lad. Cats really do vary in size! (And mine eats in several houses... short of locking him in, there is not much I can do!)

It's the dry stuff that puts weight on them. It would be better to replace the dry with a bit more wet. I know it can be hard, Zara is a crunch addict, but I found a wet she really likes (Thrive) and gradually replaced more and more of her dry with it.

Good point about him moving in with the neighbours! Might try reducing the dry then. We give wainwrights wet which is a higher protein one and Iams dry. He was seen by the vet in sept and was fine then, but currently looks like he has eaten a Xmas pudding!

I wouldn't worry about the possibility of mice. (Apart from ensuring regular worming and not putting down rodent poison etc.) The proportion of successful hunts is not that high and energy expenditure often balances out with the very limited calorie content in a mouse when eaten.

It's likely the high calories in the dried food together with the more sedentary winter lifestyle that are contributing to any podginess. Have you tried giving the dried food in eg a puzzle ball or something that makes him do a little work for his nosh? (And provides some fun as well. )

A puzzle ball? I have seen the dog ones but didn't know there was a cat version - will have to look at those, thanks! We do get a fair few discarded bits of mice - luckily he likes to put them in his dry food bowl so easy to dispose of.

Oh there certainly are cat versions - other posters could probably link you to some options although you can also make them yourself if your Blue Peter skills are up to scratch. You can (in theory) do it with any cat food although I would quail a little at the thought of small parcels of wet food behind the sofa etc.