what shold i feed my cats???

i have 2 cats. both male and neutered. mika is 2 years old or so and is 19 pounds!!!!. my other cat MAX is 2 years to i think. we got him from a freind. he is normal wieght.

i took them both to the vet and they said mika is way overwieght and i should switch my food to the vets dry food. i said no because i heard some bad stories about vet food.

i feed my cats purina naturals dry food. i try to do it twice a day but ussally they will scratch the doors and meow all day intill i put more food in so i feed them prob about 4 times a day or so.

i read up on wet food and heard it is way better for cats. i am home every morning and night so i could feed them it so being away is not a problem.

is this correct or should i just stick with dry food? and if so what dry food should i buy that will be good for them? also how should i feed them? twice a day or what

If it was me I would slowly switch them over to wet food.

WET food is likely the best but in some cases the most difficult to get kitty to eat

PLEASE donT use DIET drys

If you do a search on site you will find numerous helpful threads

Dry food is not the answer. Canned foods no gravy (gravy=carbs) would be best. If you can afford it then grain free canned foods would be the ultimate best not just for losing weight but for a variety of reasons.
You can feed all your cats the same food and eventually they should regulate how much food they need themselves. Best of luck

I was finally successful in getting Bijou to eat Merricks Thanksgiving Day Dinner and Granny's Pot Pie wet food (no grain) to help him control his weight (he's an 18 lb. Siamese ). Those two flavours also have lots of "gravy/juice" which he loves.

I also switched over to Orijen dry and give 1/3 cup per day which he and Mika share (Mika gets extra in our daughter's bedroom overnight where Bijou doesn't have access to). The Orijen is grain-free, I notice they don't need as much quality food as the food with all the fillers, and the litter is not nearly as smelly.

All wet is best. I still feed a little dry so I have some when I go away for the weekend, plus it's less expensive. My cats eat 50% wet and 50% dry. If you want to still feed some dry, there are some dry foods that are much better than others. It really depends on how much you want to spend, what you have available near you, etc. You could do better than Purina Naturals, I think that has a lot of corn in it. It's better than most grocery store cat foods I think though. Sharky knows a lot about nutrition and could help you find the right food for you. As far as foods that are available at places like PetSmart and PetCo...check out Nutro Natural, Nutro Max, Natural Balance, Authority, Royal Canin, and Wellness. The ones I listed are pretty varied in price and ingredients, but are the ones I would look at. Wellness CORE is my favorite as far as dry food that's easier to find, it's at PetCo.

Have to be careful with a cat losing weight too quickly. See this website for tips:
http://www.petobesityprevention.com/tools.htm

Also:
http://www.petobesityprevention.com/...t_Dry_Food.pdf
http://www.petobesityprevention.com/...ouch_Foods.pdf

How much of the Purina Naturals are you feeding each time you feed them?

Originally Posted by optionken

Dry food is not the answer. Canned foods no gravy (gravy=carbs) would be best. If you can afford it then grain free canned foods would be the ultimate best not just for losing weight but for a variety of reasons.
You can feed all your cats the same food and eventually they should regulate how much food they need themselves. Best of luck

Click to expand...

that would make sense .. about the gravy BUT it IS just the OPPOSITE.. gravy pouches are often LOWER in carb s mostly because gluten or bran gives shape to the gravey not a grain"_ .. the wellness line is all 2-3% carbs in the pouches while some of the reg and even NO grains have up to 10% carbs

just switched my 2 guys from Chicken Soup to Wellness about 2 weeks ago, wet food twice a day & 1 cup (total for both) of dry the rest of the time

trying to lighten up my 2 guys as well

I just switched to Wellness grain free canned a month or so ago to get my biggest guy to lose some weight and he's doing it! Also all 3 of my guys love it and they seem healthier now. Amadeus had a swollen/irritated rear end and that went away, and I swear I have not smelled their cat poop in over a month! It's pretty great, although sometimes I do smell a poot here and there!!!! LOL

Just to be contrary, it is possible for a cat to lose weight on dry food, just in case you have a cat that just doesn't like wet food.

My boy was overweight - vet helped me figure out a measured amount to leave out - in our case, 1/2 cup dry. My boy went down from 16 pounds to a healthy 13. He does get some wet, but since I work out of the home, I like to leave dry down as well for nibbling during the day. For what it's worth, I feed Nutro Natural Choice Adult Indoor and it's been working for me so far. But good luck - it can be a hassle finding a food you and the cats like, that you can obtain fairly easily, and that's in the budget!

I have a fat cat as well. Unfortunately he's a die hard "kibblehead." I just switched him to a grain free dry diet in an attempt to slim him down---he needs to lose 7-8 pounds!!! Of course I'll continue to try the wet food as well, even though he HATES it.