One overweight & one underweight, how to feed?

I need some ideas on how to feed my cats when one needs to lose weight and another needs to gain. I have 5 cats who are at a good healthy weight. Shareena and Goldy are my problem children.

Shareena is 5-1/2 years old and should be a sleek 9 pounds. In the last 8-10 months she's gotten a little chubby around the middle and is now just over 10 pounds. I know it's not a huge weight gain, but she definitely doesn't need to be getting any heavier.

Goldy is a tiny little thing. The heaviest she's ever been was 7.5 pounds, four years ago just after her kittens were born and she was lactating. After she weaned the kittens she dropped to 6.5 pounds and still looked pretty good. Over the last year she's gotten really skinny and now weighs 5.5 pounds.

I feed wet food once a day, approx. 1.5 oz per cat. Shareena generally takes a few bites and then heads for the dry food. I never know what Goldy's going to do. Sometimes she sniffs at the food and walks away. Other times she'll dive right in. The times she does eat it she's very slow but will eventually take most of it.

For dry food I feed grain-free measured free feeding. I put out a total of 2 cups/24 hours, which is a little less than 1/3 cup average per cat. Obviously they don't divide it up equally. I need to figure out some way to get Goldy to eat more and Shareena to eat less.

Just so you know, doing 2 or 3 feedings a day on a set schedule instead of free feeding would be very difficult for me. I work a 12-hour shift on an irregular schedule. That means my schedule is different every day, and the times I work I'll be gone for up to 14 hours.

Bumping this up. I really need some ideas on how to get more food into Goldy before she wastes away to nothing.

Since Goldy is small, can you put food where she can get at it and [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Shareena can't? [/color]

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Here is what I did to keep my obese foster kitty from getting at my kitties food:[/font]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight/240#post_3267000[/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]I'm not suggesting you do exactly that. It just illustrates one thing can can be done. Another idea I've seen is to cut a small opening in a large plastic storage container and put food inside. Probably additional holes for light would be good.[/color]

mschauer said:

Since Goldy is small, can you put food where she can get at it and Shareena can't? 


Here is what I did to keep my obese foster kitty from getting at my kitties food:


http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight/240#post_3267000


I'm not suggesting you do exactly that. It just illustrates one thing can can be done. Another idea I've seen is to cut a small opening in a large plastic storage container and put food inside. Probably additional holes for light would be good.

Click to expand...

Aww, poor Mickey. He looks so sad in those pictures.

I'm not sure how well something like that would work since my house is mostly an open floor plan without doors between rooms. I think I'd have to build a box with a small opening rather than trying to block off a room. Then the trick would be getting Goldy to go in it to eat. She's not highly motivated by food.

I've thought about putting her in a cage for an extra meal once or twice a day, but again I don't know if it will do any good if it's not a time she's chosen to eat.

Any idea how much extra I should be giving her? What about a timeline? I'd like to get her weight up by at least 12-14 oz, maybe even a pound. What would be a good length of time to aim for? I know it's not good for her to gain weight too fast.

My idea for the skinny one is hook her up with some high fat/calorie treats that are so delicious she will gobble it up immediately - examples being kitten food, butter, bacon, fish oil, fancy feast.

Are you sure the skinny one does not have worms, bad teeth or any other health problems?

aeevr said:

My idea for the skinny one is hook her up with some high fat/calorie treats that are so delicious she will gobble it up immediately - examples being kitten food, butter, bacon, fish oil, fancy feast.
Are you sure the skinny one does not have worms, bad teeth or any other health problems?

Click to expand...

As I said, Goldy isn't food motivated. When I offer her treats she sniffs a them for a while, and then usually walks away. Or else Merlin zips in and steals the treat from my hand while Goldy's thinking about it.

Goldy does have gingivitis & stomatitis. She had a dental about a year ago and the vet took out a couple of teeth then. She's had three methyl-prednisolone shots over the last year, plus a couple of rounds of antibiotics. That clears it up pretty well, but only for a short time. It always comes back. She got another shot of the methyl-prednisolone this week and is scheduled for a dental next week after some of the swelling goes down. If her teeth are too bad this time my vet will probably refer her to the dental specialist who took care of Merlin's teeth. I went back over her vet records and realized that most of her weight loss was last year. She just hasn't gained any back since we started treating the stomatitis.

I guess what I'm needing more than anything at this point is a way to limit Shareena's food without taking it away from all the others. She's not grossly obese, but I don't want her to get that way. In addition to any health problems it creates, she's my Household Pet show cat. The judges rarely use chubby cats in their finals, especially when they've seen the cat before and know it's not just her body type.

I had to do this when I was feeding my skinny girl cat kitten food. My other two cats are massive and the last thing they needed was to gain more weight from eating kitten food. So I tried putting my girl's bowl up high in places I didn't think my other two would try to access. First time was up on a high dresser, but my fattest cat was determined to get up there once he saw his sister eating there. I tried another even higher spot that I only ever saw my female cat go to and for a while, it worked. Then I found my younger male cat eating up there and I have no idea how long he's been chowing down on the kitten food.I ended up just locking my female in the bathroom with her bowl every time she'd meow for food (which would be about every 3-4 hours, and she had no shame in waking me up in the middle of the night for food). Doing this while working long shifts is obviously going to be a challenge. The only thing I could suggest is, if you can, isolating your smaller kitty in a room by herself and put food, water, a litter pan and various comfy things to sleep on in said room, and then when you get home, let her out and feed her by hand? I've said it in a bunch of other topics, but I definitely recommend kitten food for weight gain.

I hadn't thought about giving her kitten food. I was just trying to figure out how to get her to eat more of her regular food.
Any suggestions for a high quality high calorie kitten food?

Goldy had her dental today and it was much worse than I had thought. The inflammation in her gums was extreme and she'd already lost several teeth. The vet took out all of her teeth, upper and lower, behind the fangs. Poor thing hasn't even come out of her carrier since I got her home. Of course, that's her safe place anyway so I'm not too concerned about it. She hasn't eaten anything yet, but she did drink quite a bit of water when I put it in the carrier. I'm hoping she'll start eating more and gain some weight once she heals up. Her mouth should start feeling better soon.

So if I've gotten Goldy's problem fixed all I need to do is figure out how to put Shareena on a diet without starving the rest of the gang.

Poor Goldy. I hope she heals quickly and her appetite improves now.

jcat said:

Poor Goldy. I hope she heals quickly and her appetite improves now.

Click to expand...

Her mouth is looking really good. I think she's eating a little more and overall she looks healthier, but I don't think she's gained any weight yet.

Goldy has gained almost 6 ounces since she had her teeth pulled. She's still a tiny little thing but she looks and feels so much better.

Now I just have to figure out how to put Shareena on a diet without taking away Goldy's food as well.

Since everyone is free fed, you don't have too many options. You could make two cat feeding stations: one for shareena and one for everyone else. (Someone on here made one with a cat flap door that only lets certain cats in)
Or you could change everyone's food to a higher quality kibble with more protein.

Minka said:

Since everyone is free fed, you don't have too many options. You could make two cat feeding stations: one for shareena and one for everyone else. (Someone on here made one with a cat flap door that only lets certain cats in)
Or you could change everyone's food to a higher quality kibble with more protein.

Click to expand...

I'm already feeding a grain-free dry food that is 46% protein. The problem is the quantity that Shareena eats, not the quality. I'm thinking I may just have to find a way to make her exercise more. That could be as tricky as putting her on a diet, since she mostly sits and stares at me when I get out the feather toys or laser light. :frusty:

I had the same problem as you did, starting about 15 months ago.  Darko needed to lose 4 lbs (according to the Vet), and Sven was literally skin and bones, so it really was a dilemma.  Plus, like you, we free fed, even though it was a measured amount per day.  But when you have a couple of bowls out, it's still hard to tell exactly who is eating what amount.  So first we tried changing food to high protein, low carb kibble (the Catkins diet), and I just would feed Sven extra treats as often as he would take them.

Darko didn't lose any weight at all on the Catkins diet, so eventually we switched over to a prescription weight loss kibble (and every cat had to go on this in order us to continue to free feed), and everyone maintained their weight, including Darko .

So, finally I accepted the fact that the only way he was going to lose weight is if I stopped free feeding and switched to wet food, with the ultimate goal of moving on to raw, which I did.  Now, finally, he is losing weight. When I switched them to raw, he actually started gaining again, because I didn't know how much to feed him, and overdid it .  So now he's had to cut down again and is slowly losing once more.  (actually, Stinkpot gained too, so is also now slowly getting back to his normal weight, although he's putting himself on a diet )

OH!  forgot to add that to make Darko exercise more, whenever I give them treats, which are either Stella and Chewy's dehydrated raw or any other brand dehydrated 100% pure meat (cooked), I toss them around the house for them to chase, which is not only great fun for them, it's great exercise!  And I break the treats into pretty small pieces so they don't get too many calories but get lots of running and jumping in.  They love treat time, mainly for the game

mrsgreenjeens said:

So, finally I accepted the fact that the only way he was going to lose weight is if I stopped free feeding and switched to wet food, with the ultimate goal of moving on to raw, which I did.  Now, finally, he is losing weight. When I switched them to raw, he actually started gaining again, because I didn't know how much to feed him, and overdid it :lol3: .  So now he's had to cut down again and is slowly losing once more.  (actually, Stinkpot gained too, so is also now slowly getting back to his normal weight, although he's putting himself on a diet )

OH!  forgot to add that to make Darko exercise more, whenever I give them treats, which are either Stella and Chewy's dehydrated raw or any other brand dehydrated 100% pure meat (cooked), I toss them around the house for them to chase, which is not only great fun for them, it's great exercise!  And I break the treats into pretty small pieces so they don't get too many calories but get lots of running and jumping in.  They love treat time, mainly for the game

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, raw feeding is not an option for me right now because of my irregular schedule. I'd have to pay someone to come in several days a week--not always the same days--to feed the kitties when I'm not there at feeding time. That's the main reason I do free feeding. I haven't changed the amount of food I put out, so if Goldy is eating more then someone else is getting less.

The good news is that Goldy has gained 8 oz. now, she's up to 6# Another 8 oz. and she'll be just about perfect.

Shareena is down 1 oz, although that might be just a variance in the scale with her moving around. She's not hugely overweight, just could stand to lose 10-12 oz. Part of the reason she's overweight is that nothing much motivates her to exercise. She likes to eat regular food (obviously) but doesn't care about treats. By the time she finishes sniffing at the treat and decides maybe she'll try it Merlin zips in and snatches it right out from under her nose.

I'd love to get one of those exercise wheels, like a giant hamster wheel, but the cheapest ones I've found are at least $600 and don't have very good reviews.

 I have a similar problem.  I have three cats, Hester is 7 and gets chubby if I'm not careful.  Bestimus is 10 weeks old and really skinny.  He was orphaned at 4 weeks old and I think he's always had a high calorie requirement, even for a kitten.  Kubla is 14 weeks old and she's just fine.  

I've been giving Besti wet food with KMR and salmon oil mixed in to chunk him up a bit, but Hester's been sneaky stealing the kittens' food and she's definitely gained weight since the kittens came along.  

I, too, have a wonky schedule.  Right now I'm on Christmas break, but I go back to school soon.  I'm a full-time student, plus I work part-time, My husband works 18-24 hr shifts all weekend and we have three kids.  It's pretty nuts.  I feed wet or raw when I can and if that's not an option, they get a measured quantity of grain-free kibble.  When it was just Hester, I put her food into a little treat-dispenser ball.  That way she had to work for her food.  It exercised her because she had to bat the ball around to get the food, plus she ate less because she would only eat if she was actually hungry because it was more effort.  Plus, she really enjoyed it.  It was fun.  

Now, I'm not totally sure what to do, because I can still put kibble in the treat ball, but then if Besti's food is out, she could just eat that instead.  I have considered taking a carrier and putting a cover over the door with a hole only he can fit through.  I haven't tried it yet, though.  

GoldyCat said:

I'd love to get one of those exercise wheels, like a giant hamster wheel, but the cheapest ones I've found are at least $600 and don't have very good reviews.

Click to expand...

I've seen plans to build your own for fairly cheap.  No idea how easy it is or how well they work.  You could Google it.

They're free feeding kibble, right?

What about using the setup Carolina had - only you'd have two micro-chip activated feeding stations. One for everyone else, and one for Shareena - where you use measured amounts of kibble for her?

Here's what Carolina did: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239771/...hope-to-raw-challenges-galore/30#post_3157561

She has links to what she used and instructions on how she built it. What I don't know is the microchip part, but I'm sure you can PM her!

My brother had a cat door with the microchips. I'm pretty sure the chips are in collars. Now if I could just keep collars on a couple of the Houdinis that live in my house.