Cat on a diet, having trouble feeding

I finally took my fat cat (Tulip) to the vet to get her checked out. The vet said she is overweight but otherwise seems healthy. We put her on a diet plan. I have another cat at home (Pansy) that is not overweight but I decided it would be easier if I transition them both to the new diet to make life easier. Life is not easier. I am having trouble getting them to eat much of the dry food. Pansy is suddenly being very picky and will only eat the wet food I used to give them and even then, only when I've opened a new can. And she doesn't eat it all so it goes in the fridge for next time but then she won't eat it if it's been in the fridge. It's frustrating and I'm wasting a lot of food.

Neither of them finish their dry food, they hardly eat any at all. I'm not sure if it's because they don't like it or not, but they whine that they're hungry. This diet isn't going to work if Tulip doesn't eat the entire amount that she's supposed to each day. Any suggestions?

Also, I've notice they've been pooping less. Especially Tulip. Could this be because the food I got from the vet has less fillers? Is it abnormal that she's only pooped a very small amount since Saturday (it's now Tuesday morning).

Thanks,
Kristi

Wet food is actually the way to go for weight loss.

What food did your vet reccomend?

Originally Posted by Arlyn

Wet food is actually the way to go for weight loss.

What food did your vet reccomend?

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Ditto ...

what were you feeding and what did the vet give

I was feeding them a can of Iams wet a day and 1/4 cup of Royal Canin light dry food a day (each). I found out from the vet that Tulip was being *under*fed. I guess she wasn't getting enough calories. The vet said I wasn't starving her or anything but her calorie intake was low enough that her body was just storing it all so that's why she wasn't losing any weight.

The vet put Tulip on a Medi-Cal low calorie diet. 0.85 of a cup (try measuring that out!) of the dry food and 1 pouch of wet stuff per day. I spoke to her this afternoon and she gave me some free samples of some Medi-Cal Reducer dry food and some canned wet food to see if they like it better. She said if I want to switch to all wet food, she'd need 4 pouches a day! That's a big hit to my wallet so I'd like to give this another try, if I can.

If you decide to try canned, it wouldn't necessarily have to be the food from the vet. You could look for other canned or pouched foods and compare the number of calories.

Okay, it's a no-go on the reducer food the vet gave me. Tulip gobbles up the wet stuff but won't touch the dry and Pansy won't eat either. It's getting frustrating.

To top it off, I think Tulip is constipated or something. She'll go into her litter box and I can hear her make little whining sounds and then she comes out with out doing anything. She still goes pee in there though. I guess I'll have to take her back the vet...

... for the constipation ask the vet about : pumpkin or squash, slippery elm and apple pectin

Thank you, I'll do that

The technician at the vet's office said I can give her a teaspoon of pumpkin...is that pumpkin pie filling? Or something different?

Not the pie filling. Just get the canned pumpkin in the canned vegetable section of the grocery which contains only pureed pumpkin and nothing else.

pie filling that the only ingrediant is PUMPKIN