My cat is a Pig!

When Ceci's foster mom brought her to my home, she told me that I must always keep fresh water out, and that I should always have dry available to her. That if I wanted I could feed her a bit of canned twice a day. This is what I have been doing but Ceci is getting so fat!

If I leave dry out at all times she will eat until she bursts. If I leave out her recommended portions for the day, when I come home at midday it will be gone. Shes not a big fanatic of canned, and if I give her canned in the morning she will always have some left at midday.

With her being such a big eater, should I start limiting her portions? I feel bad about having her go without food all day, as sometimes (and its rare) im not able to make it home at midday, and I wouldnt like her to be without food all day. Or maybe I should put out canned during the day and a bit of dry at night? Should I get her started on an indoor formula?

Ceci just lays around during the day, and late at night when everything is nice and calm she will jump on the bed for some loving and a bit of playtime.

Any help?

Thanks,
Julitza & Ceci

The best advise I can give you is.... get another cat!
Another cat will help keep Ceci exercised and entertained. That way, if you leave her alone for long periods of time, she won't just eat out of boredom.
If you don't want to get another cat, just give her the recommended portion split into two feedings, one in the morning, one at night.
She will NOT starve during the day. Many people don't leave out food for their cats to eat all day, they just feed meals.
Good luck!

I feed Radar 2 meals of wet a day, and leave out dry food - he is 5 months old and still growing and very energetic.

I figure he needs the calories at the moment, but lord is he eating. Usually when I get home he has polished off his wet breakfast and an entire bowl of dry, and is wanting his wet dinner. He is not at all fat, in fact he's very slender. I think he must be about to have a growth spurt, although I shall ask the vet about worming again next week, just in case.

My Pippin is a pig too! He's always had a sachet of wet in the morning before I leave for work and that gets polished off pretty much then and there. I leave out his dry all day but he just picks alittle at a time and I rarely have to refill the bowl until the following day's dinner time. At dinner he gets another sachet of wet food and then again 1/2 a sachet at about 10 after we've played and I'm pooped enough for bed!

He's not a fat cat (although my partner calls him that) and he is still beautiful and slender and his excercise has dropped considerably due to the move from outdoor cat to soley indoor cat. He also sleeps pretty much all day while I'm at work but is as active as a cat on speed at night/early hours of the morning.

I have 4 cats a 5 year old moggie 11 month old taby kitten and 2 norwegian forest cats.10 months old

the taby kitten will eat so much food so fast that he instantly throes it all up again, but is constantly crying for food.... he's wormed btw. were trying to ignore him and just put a little dry food down in the morning for all 4 (or 3 as the older cat is usually out all day) and then feed them when we get home, were usually out around 12 hours a day!

we have given in a few times at 4am in the morning to get up and feed them as they go crackers scratching the door scratching the carpet and meowing....... just to get that 2 hours extra sleep before work (get up around 6.30am) pair of suckers eh!!!

My friends have had their three very overweight cats on dry food with the occasional wet 'treat'.

They cut out all Pounce treats and the fattest one has lost nearly three pounds.

Your girl might be eating a low quality dry food that contains nothing but carbs, that will pack on the pounds.
Get a good brand (California Natural is good for the price, though the rice content might also be bad.)

I'm using Nature's Logic and found that Gizmo is doing really well on it, and lost the extra pound she gained from the Cal Natural. Her food doses are exactly the same--1/3 cup a day since it is a high quality protein food.

There is nothing wrong with feeding cats dry food as long as it is a good one. My girl drinks lots of water, she's healthy, and she absolutely won't eat the wet--so we have compromised.

Definitely feed in portions. Some cats simply can not be free-fed. My Lily is one. She'll eat 3x or more the amount she should be eating, and she was getting really fat especially for a kitten. She had some food aggression issues when I first got her and I think that some bad experiences taught her to eat as much as possible because it might not always be there. I hoped she'd grow out of it but she didn't. Free-feeding her is out unless I want a furry basketball for a kitty.

Wet food is great for making cats feel full with less calories. It usually has less grains= less carbs than dry food too. I'd feed only wet if I could afford it. Instead, I'm trying to feed dry with fewer grains in it along with one wet meal a day.

She'll probably eat all of her wet food meal if she eats in portioned meals, too.

You could start by feeding as recommended by the package, although I think they tell you to feed too much. I had my vet determine how much calories she should be getting, and then the vet called my food company and figured out how much wet and dry food that means.

When I found my two kittens, they were extremely under weight . Since I wanted to make sure they get fed regular time, I decided to buy an automatic food dispenser that will dispense the right portion of food for both of them three times a day (for dry food only). I made the portion small so they can be feed more times per day. Both of them are all plump up compared to the time I first found them. One of my kitten is a bit on the chubby side so I exercise him a lot by having him chase stringy toys.

I hear having two cats is better since they can keep each other company and is a good exercise for both of them. My two kittens often tackle one another down or chase each other.