They eat like birds - should I worry?

Hi all,

As some of you may know, I've switched my cats from an almost all dry diet to a 100% canned food diet over the last 3 months or so. One of my big reasons for switching was to try and get Tiny and Thufir to lose weight. Tiny weighed 18 pounds and Thufir weighed 17. The two of them are essentially vacuum cleaners and inhale whatever I put in front of them and then want more. I'm beginning to have some success with those two thanks to portion control, but I still have a long way to go.

My other two cats, Tre and Promise, were much thinner to begin with. They started at 10.5 and 8.5 pounds respectively. Since I've switched to an all-wet diet, these two have each lost about half a pound (~1% per week), despite the fact that I'm not limiting their portions at all other than the fact they get fed for about 15 minutes and the food gets taken up. Typically they spend about a minute nibbling at the food I put down and then wander off. They seem to like the food, but they just don't eat much. If I leave the food out long enough, they may wander back in for seconds, but I can't typically leave it out too long since I have to lock Tiny and Thufir up in order to control how much they eat.

So I want to know if I should be worried about Tre and Promise's eating habits and weight loss? My first bet would be that they're just losing the little bit of fat they had before switching, but I'd like to get other's thoughts. Will an otherwise healthy cat simply eat too little?

I have the same issue. I am still feeding dry and wet, but rather than free-feed dry where I kept the bowl full, I put out a certain amount of dry in the morning, then at night. And while everyone has lost maybe 6 ounces, so has my thinner cat too. I too am pondering if he has just lot a wee bit of extra fat and if he is now a perfect weight, or if his weight loss is an issue. I am trying to stuff him up with extra meals, but he too eats like a bird and wanders off telling me he has had enough - not sure what to make of it.

So no answers for you, but I am in a similar situation.

I would have a vet check the thinner ones and ensure they are just adjusting to less calories

Thanks. They're both due for an annual appointment in about a month, so one of the questions I'll be asking my vet is what is the ideal weight range for both of them. That's really the big question on my mind. Once I know the ideal range, I can take steps to give them more food if they start approaching the bottom of the range. They don't feel like they're losing muscle along their backbone or the back of the head, so I don't think they're in any danger between now and then.

Not my fav idea but nutri cal is a extra cal supplement given like hairball goop( actually does double duty if needed)... i added extra oil to homemade food and wet food at times

Originally Posted by sharky

Not my fav idea but nutri cal is a extra cal supplement given like hairball goop( actually does double duty if needed)... i added extra oil to homemade food and wet food at times

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Hmm, thanks I'll keep that in mind if I need it. I remembered that I have to take Thufir back in to the vet next week to have his urine rechecked (he had a bit of a UTI last week) so I may take Promise along just to have the vet take a quick look. Tre, unfortunately, is completely irrational at the vet, so without sedation they can't tell on him.

One thing that occurs to me is that when I fed dry food, Promise always liked to switch from one bowl to another and push the other cats out of the way . It was always entertaining to see an 18 pound cat pushed away from her bowl by an 8 pound cat. I almost wonder if she's not a bit bored now that it's only she and Tre eating together at meal times.