Which cat food for overweight cat

[boringlyboring]

I have been researching all day and there are far too many choices to decide

One cat is overweight, she has rapidly gained in the last 6 months. No health issues, the vets believe it could be a combination of her being pregnant (stray) in the past and genetics. She holds her fat inside the tummy (this is a poor explanation, I can’t remember the exact words but it’s to do with fat distribution)

We have 3 cats, all eat the same and only she is gaining weight - she goes out, relatively active (no more or less than the other 2).

We spoke to a cat diet ‘advisor’ at the vets, but tbh I wasn’t impressed as she was pushing one particular newish brand of dry food only, even though I said cat will not eat it and I’d like recommendations of wet instead. She wouldn’t budge on alternatives and said we can just continue to feed her less of what we already do if we wish, or we could try the dry food she was offering. I’ve decided to just do my own research, but I’m non the wiser after today.

They all currently eat Gourmet Pate, not the greatest, but also after lots of wasted food, it’s the only one the cats will eat regularly.

Do we go with ‘proper’ weight loss food, do we with high meat content?

I’m struggling to know what else to look for, when I asked the advisor at the vet she said she couldn’t tell me 😐 but that we could contact her with ingredients from different brands and she could advise that way (and push the dry food again I guess)

I know there’s always the possibility that she could be eating when she goes out which is why I’m looking at possibly changing her food to a ‘diet’ one. She is very skittish and unlikely to approach people, but could still be coming across food on her travels.

Any advice/recommendations?

Do you know how much she eats I.e is she finishing off food left in all the bowls? I know it's pricey but you could think of getting microchip feeders and then you'd know she could only eat her own food (assuming your cats are microchipped)

Dry food is often more calorific than wet food. Do you know which food they were trying to flog you? Do they eat any dry or just wet?

Can you feed her away from the others and pick up any left over food so she can't snack on it? She might not approach people but is she good at catching stuff? If she is then reducing her food intake won't help much!

Mine have Iams vitality low fat. As every other brand makes cheddar sick. Before that mine had Royal Canin Persian that was low calorie for indoor cats.

I suspect the problem is she's eating more than her fair share. Or getting fed at another house.

They are chipped. She never finishes the bowls during the day. I tend to put half a tin out at a time as they all have a bit at a time rather than a full ‘meal’.

It was a possibility at night I suppose, but I’m not 100% as (crazy cat lady alert) I know how the food looks after they’ve ate if that makes sense. She always pushes hers to the side of the bowl, the others don’t and only 1 bowl is like that in the morning. Though I know that might not be definitive proof..

We have however stopped eaving wet food overnight just in case anyway.

She kept offering Virbac, which apparently isn’t a new brand overall but has only recently started offering cat food. It seems ok, but I’m not comfortable feeding only dry food and it would be a struggle to get her on it.

We do leave dry out so they have the choice, one cat will have a crunch every now and again but it will be a long time before we have to top it up.

I’m doing a food diary for her this week, so I can track exactly what I’m putting out and how much of it she eats to get a clearer picture in the meantime.

I think it's very difficult to manag th weight of just one cat. I only managed to get onto of FatCat's weight when he was an only cat. He had Royal Canin Satiety (they do dry and pouches) and I religiously weighed out the dry so he only had the allotted amount.

I had great success with my cat eating Hill Metabolic food. She lost loads on it. Unfortunately we had to change her diet due to medical issues and shes piled it back on but I'd really recommend it.

Thanks toddler I will look at the Iams.

She has never brought birds etc home but she is surprisingly agile and quick, the most active out of the 3 (atm she looks like a quick moving Pumba)

We have bungalows with communal gardens behind us, and the back doors are sometimes open so it wouldn’t suprise me if she was sneaking in to steal other cats food whilst there’s no people about.

But in our house, it at least doesn’t look like she is having more than her fair share. Though I’ll be keeping a closer eye on things this week, and making sure there’s no food about between meal times.

Thanks Soup, I will check that one out as well.

Thanks Plump that sounds good!

I'm afraid we are only solo cat, but we had great success with Royal Canin Satiety, and weighed portions. This for a pedigree rescue BSH wot tends to chunky.

One of mine is heavier than the other. I'm considering getting microchip feeders as I think he might be eating more dry overnight than the other. I feed them encore dry (80% meat, no cereals) and whatever wet food they deign to eat - currently some gourmet and sheba sachets

Having had 2 fat cats, the biggest problem is grazing and nicking everyone else's food.

Fat cat 1 we did Royal Canin Satiety but probably more effective was weighing her portions and sticking to mealtimes - no snacks, no dry food available all the time and no hoovering up her sister's leftovers.

Fat cat 2 didn't get nearly as big as we were on to it - slow eating cat got a microchip cat feeder and it was obvious overnight quite how much fat cat 2 had been eating of her dinner!

My friends cats are slightly obese. He was told by a vet to make them work for their food. I almost fell over laughing, as they are Persians and wouldn't have a clue how to work for it. My two can't even work out those toys that dispense treats.

I was told to get my cat to play more using with something like a laser pointer. He barely looked at it before staring me with utter disdain.

I have cut down to one pouch a day of wet food and about 50g of Lily's kitchen dry with a max of 6 dreamies (I know these need to go but it's sometimes the only way she will come in at night) ours is a rescue who piled on the pounds in the six months we have had her and also has been pregnant before we got her and is barrel bellied