Cat over-eating

[CanadianJohn]

We've had cats all our lives, always indoor cats, and we've always had food available, all the time.

This "free-feeding" has worked fine till the current cat, who ate her way up to obesity. Then, she got diabetes, and lost a lot of weight.

Now she is stable, on a vet-approved diet, and the appropriate weight. Unfortunately, now she is no longer sick, she seems determined to eat her way back to obesity. Today, for example, she had finished her entire days allowance of food by lunchtime.

So, do we just have to be hard-hearted and ignore her pathetic begging? Will she ever get used to eating less? She's 12, btw, and woefully inactive. She even lies down to eat.

I understand the free feeding but wondered whether you could split her allowance up to say 2 or 3 meals a day would that work? Obviously you don't want her putting on weight again as it affects diabetes control. You could ignore her meows but that is tough to do.

Give smaller meals, one in the morning, one in the evening. If you have stairs put food upstairs so she has to climb stairs, if that's too much for her get a raised feeding bowl. Don't give her any treats and encourage her to play when she starts begging.

I have a fat cat too - I'd previously been giving her one pouch in the morning and one in the evening plus a bowl full of biscuits that she could snack on whenever she wanted, plus dreamies every now and then.

My vet told me to put her on a diet. He said only some biscuits in the morning, left down for 20 mins, then half a pouch in the evening mixed with some biscuits. But we're cutting down more gradually - we now do half a pouch in the morning, half a pouch in the evening and only a few biscuits at lunch. She still miaows at us like mad but it was worse at first and now she gets bored and goes off to do something else.