He laps but doesn't really eat

My cat Archie is a bit of a gawky beanpole, you can see the muscles in his shoulders when he moves. Tilly however is much more solid, even though she's a little more compact than he is, she weighs loads more than he does. Both cats have free access to dried food and are fed wet mushy food throughout the day, mostly tescos finest (we tried hi-life but they went off it).
I was watching him eat recently when i realised why he's skinnier than she is. He just laps up the goop, and doesn't try to eat the meat. If some gets into his mouth he swallows it fine, but he doesn't chow down like she does.
I'm not sure if this is related but he likes to lick the sink and the plughole, and I have no idea why.
He seems fine in himself, but he was a bit sickly as a kitten (allergic to the kitten jabs), and he had a cold for a while. A different vet to the usual saw him then and she said he was too thin/light, but I don't think much of that vet (she's abrupt almost to the point of rude) and our normal vet has never commented on his weight.
Both Tilly and Archie are moggies, but probably with bengal and aby in their recent ancestry.

Is this bad? Will he get thinner, or is he just a light feeder?

I would recommend a visit to the vet so that he can get a full blood panel done and also have his mouth examined, just to make sure he is healthy.

If the check-up and bloods show that he is well, you might want to try offering him some wet or dry kitten food to boost his weight. Also, you might want to try feeding a better quality food such as Nutro, Wellness, Innova or Chicken Soup.

Originally Posted by Kumbulu

I would recommend a visit to the vet so that he can get a full blood panel done and also have his mouth examined, just to make sure he is healthy.

If the check-up and bloods show that he is well, you might want to try offering him some wet or dry kitten food to boost his weight. Also, you might want to try feeding a better quality food such as Nutro, Wellness, Innova or Chicken Soup.

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There is a cat vitamin you can buy that comes in a tube. It's gel like, and you can just poke it in his mouth. It's supposed to increase appetite as well. I got some at Petco when humble refused to eat. I'll try to find the name for you.

In the meantime, I found this:

http://www.calvetsupply.com/browsepr...-oz.-Tube.HTML

Thanks for the ideas, we attempted to weigh him yesterday but failed miserably due to only having feeble kitchen scales.
I wondered- why is tescos finest cat food bad? It has a highish (min 45%) meat content and is bought for that reason.

Have you tried offering solid wet food (no gravy)? My Cindy will only lick at her food too. It doesn't matter what I give her, that's how she eats. If I give her something thats like gravy and meat, she'll lick the gravy and that's all. If I give her something solid, she'll lick at that too. If it's something she doesn't really like, she'll only lick a little then walk away. But if I open another can of something she likes, she'll eat more. I actually think she'd starve rather than eat something she doesn't like.