Getting Fatter

immortalflower

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I posted some time back, maybe in June I'm not sure, that my cat had put on some weight. She had been spayed a couple months before that. She didn't eat too much and is a fairly active cat. Well, now just in the last couple months she has put on some more weight. She isn't any less active than before. I have also changed her diet a bit. I am giving her half the soft food she was getting before and more of the hard food. I never see her pigging out. She is perfectly active and healthy otherwise.

I've had a cat before who gained weight and altered the amount he ate and successfully had him lose weight and he became more active. Now, what I am worried about in the case of the cat I have now is I also have another cat who is skin and bones, hyperactive and eats a lot. I am worried if I leave a fixed amount of hard food out while I am at work the thin cat won't get what she needs.

What do you think I should do that would be good for both of them?
 

angelzoo

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Well have you consulted your vet about the one cats recent weight gain? Perhaps you should re-evaluate how much you are giving your cat, sense you changed it's food.
With higher quality food, aka solid gold, innova, bil-jack, pinnical, etc. I feed them about 1/3 of a cup 2x per day.
On say a store brand, or medium grade like purina, sofisticat, wiskas etc, I feed about 1/2 a cup 2x per day.

You can't always go by whats on the back of the packaging, or by what they were eating before.

As for your skinny cat. Feed 1/2 - 1 cup of dry food 2x per day, and 1-2 teaspoons of wet food once a day, or once every other day. You can adjust these as you see a change. More than likely your cat won't eat all of it, if you give it a full cup, which is fine, cause then it gets to eat it's fill.

Feed them seperatly, feed one cat in the kitchen, and one cat in the bathroom behind a closed door until they are both done eating. So neither of them can eat eachothers food, and have one loose out.
 
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immortalflower

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Its tough feeding them separately in the morning. But I shall try taking one in the bathroom to eat while I shower and all that.

Right now they get half of a small can of wet food each in the morning only. My thin cat actually eats more than the fat one. I have trouble monitoring who is eating how much of the hard food though. I don't actually see the fatter cat eating it that often, but the thin cat eats a little bit quite often.

For the hard food I am feeding her Acana Adult which is more expensive here and is more natural and fortified with nutrients. The soft food they get is Friskies.

Do you suppose its the soft food that is the problem?
 

angelzoo

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Well I'm glad to see that you are feeding them a dry food that is better than say friskys or purina!
As for the wet food, if it's not the main part of their diet, it shouldn't have too much impact. But it sounds like you are almost doing half and half.

I don't know the size of your cats, so I can't really say how much you should be feeding them. Your thinner cat just might have a higher motabolizm, just like in people. A lot of thin cats can look too skinny to some people when in real life they are at their ideal weight. If your vet isn't worried about it, and your cat doesn't look emacipated, I say just keep trying but don't stress too much.

With wet food, try to find one that begins with a MEAT instead of 'sufficant water for processing'.

Generally, which ever cat is the slowest at eating, is the one who should go in another room. But you may have to experiment, some cats get upset when being 'locked up' for dinner time, and wont eat all of the food.

It might be a good idea in the future to change the wet food to a better brand, BUT you should try these other things first instead of making major changes to your cats diet.
 

dragonlady

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If your kities have been exposed to outdoors or fleas they could have worms. This could cause a cat to become very thin or appear fat. Please take a stool sample to your vet to have them checked, just in case!
 
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immortalflower

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My cats are 100% indoor cats.

As for build, the thin one is her ideal weight. She has very long legs and tail and runs non stop all day long. I like to say she is a tigger with springs in her feet.

The other one has the same sized torso but has stubby legs and a shorter tail. She is stalky to begin with so I don't expect her to resemble the other one. If I feel her legs I can feel that she is quite muscular and despite her stalkiness she is a very good jumper. But I just notice her belly has rounded and I don't feel her ribs so well.

She is due to be going to the vet soon so I shall ask about her weight there too.

Here is what she looks like.



 

angelzoo

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Doesn't look to fat to me


I see it's winter outside, maybe she's just putting on a little winter/thanksgiving chub like we all do! haha.
 

dragonlady

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She is also spayed. She was lost for two weeks in the winter last year and hasn't stopped eating since we got her home again.
 
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immortalflower

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I guess she doesn't look too bad in that picture. But if you see her walking it shows.
 

angelzoo

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Man, I hear all these things about animals slowing down or getting fatter after they get fixed, but out of the oooohhh sooo many animals I have had, that has never happened!
 
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