Is my cat overweight?

[FlowersAndShit]

He is 4.5kg. Vet says he should be close to 4kg. To me, he looks fine but I might be biased. He gets two pouches of good quality wet food a day, plus dry is available all the day which he munches on. He also gets a few dreamies during the week and maybe a lick of the yogurt carton!

He's a 2 year old neutured male, not very active. Sorry about the awful photos, I'm in the middle of decorating.

Thanks all!

Should I stop feeding him dry? Or could I just put it out for him overnight? Otherwise he will harass me throughout the night for food. He also has really thick fur, so i'm wondering if it's making him look fatter than he is.

The vet weighed him though and commented on his weight.

I'd work out what amount he needs to be fed according to the packets and spread that out through the day. If you want to leave him dry out over night, that needs to be taken from the daily allowance.

It's a PITA I'll admit. FatCat is always after more food but I remind myself it's better that trying to get him to lose weight again.

If you can just stop him getting any heavier, that's probably fine. FatCat's weight just slowly crept up and I didn't really take control of it soon enough.

he's been this exact weight since I got him 2 months ago.

We stopped the dry food snacking to get our fattie down from 5.8kg to 5. We're working towards 4.5kg now. She has half a tin of Butcher's a day, split into two meals. It's been a gradual process over 7 months or so and she still mithers us constantly for food!! We have had to shut her in the utility room over night to stop her waking us up. Cruel to be kind I reckon.

Dry food can be good for keeping their teeth healthy, so probably not a good idea to cut it out altogether. How about feeding one wet meal and one dry per day?
Vets seem to vary quite a lot in their attitude to weight (and lots of other things). One of ours mutters darkly about diabetes when the boys and girls weigh in at over 4.5 kg. The others seem more laid back about it. It's easy for the amount of food to creep up without you noticing it very much. We feed ours almost exclusively dry food (due to dental issues) and when I started weighing out the recommended amount for the day (after everyone got a bit too chubby), I was quite shocked at how little was recommended. We had overfed them a lot, but it was just what you describe - leaving dry food down during the day, and replenishing it whenever they fussed. Also multiple members of the family putting down food - we had to limit it to one pre-weighed bag a day.

Thanks all. Have stopped leaving food down during the day, and just putting a handful down at night. Hopefully his weight will come down a bit.

Serious question. Has he got something to occupy himself with when he would normally be eating?

Yes but he's not interested in toys, the only toy he likes is the flying frenzy which I use with him and it really gets him moving, jumping etc.

I was quite shocked at how little was recommended

Me too!

Has the vet pointed you in the direction of one of the expensive diet programmes that happens to be advertised in the surgery?

A lot of vets have attended the Whiskas School of Wallet Lightening ;-)