Feral Cat- 7 years after being tamed is very overweight

Hey guys, so about 8 years ago my grandma got a feral cat and her kittens. She was very young , about 5 or 6 months old. The vet thought she got pregnant her first heat. My grandma did end up taming her, somewhat. The process took close to a year and most of it involved using animal handling gloves, as she gabe my grandma deep puncture wounds before. She's still skittish after 8 years and hides sometimes. We recently moved, and she takes several years to get accustomed to a new place. She is attahed to me, and doesnt like other people much. However, she is very overweight. Ever since my grandma brought her in , she didn't play. And to this day I have never been able to get her to. I've tried lasers, balls, feathers, mice that move. Everything. My problem is that she just won't play, and with her being so overweight it scares me. She starts to wheeze after running several feet or it she gets really exicted. She can't clean her own butt. I'm just at a loss for how to get her to lose weight. It's hard to monitor her diet and change her food, because we have 6 other cats in the house. 2 are
Kittens, and one who is underweight. So, switching to diet food is hard. I just don't know what to do anymore. And tips from you guys?

WHAT diet is she on now?

The perhaps best food, and also working as a good, mild, banting food, is simply - wet food. (canned food). You can use some fairly cheap brand, as it is easier to make decent wet food than good dry food...

About her skittiness, and probably also difficulty to relax - hence difficulty to relax enough to play:

Did you tried with Feliway?  Either a diffuser where she is, or a Feliway spray, - both have their advantages.

Relaxing, soft music on, can also be useful

Welcome to our Forums!

Good luck!
 

She is on Purina Naturals. And, like all te other cats, has a bowl out the whole day that has food in it. I heard wet food helps with weight, I just wasn't sure it it was true. And I haven't tried that for calming her. She never has calmed down fully, except for when she's being petted or laying in bed with me.

I would switch her to an all wet food diet! you could try grain-free canned foods if you want the absolute best, but if you don't wanna spend a whole bunch of money, lower quality wet food is better than higher quality dry food.

I would also switch to a wet diet, if you can. Also, don't leave food out all day. See if you can just start feeding on a schedule - even three times a day. That is what I do. AM and PM and then a light meal before bedtime about 10 p.m. Any wet food - even the cheap stuff - if just fine. What ever you can afford. :nod: It is really tough to get fat cats to lose. But feeding on schedule will allow you to feed more to the kittens and less to the overweight kitty.