Still gaining weight / Increased appetite

Long time no see

Reeses had her last vet visit last month and we were told that she gained a pound from last year and is up around 12lbs or so. We're very surprised at this given that we only fed her 1/2 a cup per day of Purina Indoor Cat Dry, and she is fairly active. The feeding amount was even based on last year's vet visit in which we were told she was slightly overweight and to cut back her food a bit.

So the vet told us to cut down the amount of food we give her again and feed her 3/4 of what she's been getting. Since then we have been giving her about 1/8.5 of a cup twice a day but the problem is she eats it all within an hour where previously she would sometimes have a little left over by the second meal.

We're concerned at her weight gain of course, and don't really understand it considering that she already was getting a fairly small amount of food per day. That combined with her wolfing down her food makes us feel like we're not feeding her enough because she's more hungry than normal, and perhaps that while she's slightly overweight, maybe that is just how she is. Everything else checks out fine for her health wise.

1/2 cup of food is actually quite a lot of food. To cut back slightly, I would advise feeding multiple meals, after measuring out her daily quota each morning, feed from that, one tablespoon at a time. Five tablespoons is slightly under 1/2 cup of food. A tablespoon in the morning, a half hour later another tablespoon, a half hour later an half tablespoon. then repeat in the evening saving the last half tablespoon for bedtime snack.

In addition to food reduction, she will need more exercise. I recently posted on ways to get an overweight cat more exercise, I will hunt down the link for you.

But really the first thing you need to do is get her on a better quality food.

the Purina formula you are feeding is full of carbs and that is what is making her fat, and what is making her hungry.

She needs a food with meat proteins, less grains. A canned diet is actually better than any kibble, for weight control. Plus you can add water to canned to help her feel full.

Thanks for the tip and for the link when you have time.

She has a sensitive stomach and hasn't favored well to wet food, so do I have any other options?

Originally Posted by ReesesPBC

Thanks for the tip and for the link when you have time.

She has a sensitive stomach and hasn't favored well to wet food, so do I have any other options?

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What problem does she have with wet food? Adding as much wet as possible to her diet would be my first choice in trying to control her weight.

Originally Posted by mschauer

What problem does she have with wet food? Adding as much wet as possible to her diet would be my first choice in trying to control her weight.

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She just gets sick really easily and when we did try wet food she couldn't keep it down. She has a very picky digestive system. I can't give her any treats at all because she'll get sick.

What wet food have you given her? It could be one of the ingrediants.

Otto is right ... likely the wt gain is from the HIGH carbs in her food...

What wt should she be per the vet?

Since wet is not a first choice for you , look into a lower carb formula of dry. IMHO stay away from light, indoor and wt management formulas...I too would ask what wets you have tried... How old is she?

Do you have access to a pet store?

Originally Posted by ReesesPBC

She just gets sick really easily and when we did try wet food she couldn't keep it down. She has a very picky digestive system. I can't give her any treats at all because she'll get sick.

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How odd. When given wet does she tend to eat a lot and to eat fast? How long after eating does she throw up?

Originally Posted by mschauer

How odd. When given wet does she tend to eat a lot and to eat fast? How long after eating does she throw up?

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it is not odd , actually in a five yr tally I noted about 3 in 10 cats I came across having it ... Most were feed food with dyes or heavy fish ... I have one who pukes up cans that are not all one meat( ie chicken , chicken liver)... now to me that is a wee bit strange

Originally Posted by sharky

it is not odd , actually in a five yr tally I noted about 3 in 10 cats I came across having it ... Most were feed food with dyes or heavy fish

... I have one who pukes up cans that are not all one meat( ie chicken , chicken liver)...

now to me that is a wee bit strange

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By "odd" I didn't mean it is something that never happens. I meant to imply there is likely a cause that can be discovered and avoided short of banning wet food entirely.

When I was researching how to effectively get my cat to lose weight I ran across an article that said the best thing for weight loss in cats is also the best way for humans to lose weight: cut the carbs and increase the exercise. (I wish I could find that article now!) Anyway, I decreased the dry, increased the wet & added some raw, and went to scheduled feedings.

If your girl has a sensitive stomach, I bet there's something wet out there that her tummy could handle. You just have to work at finding the right food.

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

What wet food have you given her? It could be one of the ingrediants.

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I honestly don't remember, it was a while ago.

Originally Posted by sharky

What wt should she be per the vet?

How old is she?

Do you have access to a pet store?

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Again, my memory is terrible, I believe they want her to be about 10lbs, so she is about 1.5 to 2lbs overweight.

Originally Posted by mschauer

How odd. When given wet does she tend to eat a lot and to eat fast? How long after eating does she throw up?

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I can't answer that one either. There is no guarantee as to how soon after she will throw up after eating anything different. Sometimes it has been immediately, sometimes it has been a few hours.

Originally Posted by stephanietx

When I was researching how to effectively get my cat to lose weight I ran across an article that said the best thing for weight loss in cats is also the best way for humans to lose weight: cut the carbs and increase the exercise. (I wish I could find that article now!) Anyway, I decreased the dry, increased the wet & added some raw, and went to scheduled feedings.

If your girl has a sensitive stomach, I bet there's something wet out there that her tummy could handle. You just have to work at finding the right food.

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How much wet should be given to her? Would it be normal to maybe do partly dry, partly wet? I think that may be more tolerable for her and I thought I've read that it is sometimes recommended over one vs. the other.

Strange at the advice of cutting the carbs because I honestly don't know anyone personally (in real life) who has a cat and doesn't give only dry food.

I would think if you did a single protien wet food like sharky said you wouldn't have much of a problem.

How active is your cat? Not all cats are the same. It is best to figure out how many calories your cat needs and how many calories in the given wet food.

Cats have very little need for carbs, I think they only need about 2% carbs. The best dry foods are still above 10%! Wet food you can get good low carb stuff.

Maybe you can get your friends to start giving their cats wet food! It would be so much better

I don't feed the farm cats any dry food and do all raw. Housecats get all wet as they really hate the concept of chewing

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

I would think if you did a single protien wet food like sharky said you wouldn't have much of a problem.

How active is your cat? Not all cats are the same. It is best to figure out how many calories your cat needs and how many calories in the given wet food.

Cats have very little need for carbs, I think they only need about 2% carbs. The best dry foods are still above 10%! Wet food you can get good low carb stuff.

Maybe you can get your friends to start giving their cats wet food! It would be so much better

I don't feed the farm cats any dry food and do all raw. Housecats get all wet as they really hate the concept of chewing

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Any recommendation on brands to look for and how much I should be feeding? Are the suggestions on the can more accurate than the dry feeding suggestions which can be a bit high?

I would think EVO 95% wet foods would be a good choice, they also have more novel protiens which may work better.

EVO wet has about 36 calories per ounce.

TO get how much your cat needs take the weight of cat x that by 13.6 and add 70 this will give you calorie intake for the day.

so a ten pound cat would need around 206 calories a day.

206 (calories for 10 pound cat) / 36 (calories in EVO canned) = 5.72 ounces of EVO wet a day.

Of course its going to depend on what flavor of wet and how active the cat is.

Ohh, and a link to one of the EVO varieties: http://www.evopet.com/products/defau...nel=ga&id=1664

evo is easy to find.. califonia natural is made by the same company and many cats seems to do well with it.... I use some of the wellness with my "weird one" as she does not like evo

wet food general is 1/2 to 1 oz per lb of ideal wt.. so 5-10 oz if feeding only wet

say 1/4 cup dry with 3-6 oz wet...

dry has roughly double the calories per oz of wet...

Originally Posted by ReesesPBC

Thanks for the tip and for the link when you have time.

She has a sensitive stomach and hasn't favored well to wet food, so do I have any other options?

Click to expand...

here is the thread where I posted advice on ways to get a cat more interested in playing and exercise.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...=207092&page=3