Outsmarting the dieting kitty

I have two cats.  One is overweight (TJ) and one is not(Rudy).  They have to be fed separately because TJ will eat all of his food and then eat Rudy's food also.  They are both indoor cats, but have quite a few toys and get lots of interaction and play time.  TJ is harnessed trained and gets walked daily. I was slowly reducing the calories that TJ was getting but he was still gaining weight. I changed his food and that did not help.

I put up a camera on their food bowls during the day to see how much he was eating when I was gone to work.  The bowls are near where the container for their food is kept. Then I caught TJ in the act of opening up the Tupperware container where the food was stored, climbing in and eating more food.  He would swat the lid back closed and put weight on to make it snap.   I moved it to a kitchen cabinet.  He has also figured out how to beat the child lock on the kitchen cabinets to get to his food.  Does anybody have any ideas on how to put him on a diet when he is defeating all my efforts? I also only live in a one bedroom and they sleep with me so I can't put it in another bedroom.

Give him only wet food and hide the can opener 

Seriously though, switching to a high quality, grain free food would definitely help. l work 12 hour shifts so l'm gone 13 hours, but my boys are fine on 2 wet/raw meals a day, they never have snacks or treats.

There are some great threads in this Nutrition section to browse through for all the merits of wet food over dry, more than just dieting. Also, http://catinfo.org/ is a fantastic resource.

lf you're ever so inclined, we have an active and informative raw (and cooked) feeding forum too. l made that switch since joining here a year ago and can attest to the health benefits.

They already are on a grain free diet. No treats or snacks. I will look into making their food but Rudy refuses to eat wet food of any kind, even with it slowly being mixed into his dry food so I have to keep dry food around for him.  Rudy is 13 and TJ is 10.

Unfortanately, I was hospitalized for a while and mother sued to get my cats from my boyfriend who had been taking care of them. She sold Rudy back to him for $200 after a month, because he could not stand her and would growl and scratch if she came near him.  TJ likes everyone so she kept him.  During that time, she way overfed him.  Like 4-5 cans of food a day, dry food was not rationed.  At first she was filling his bowl up daily but she got tired of filling it twice daily and just started filling a disposable roasting tin with food. (and it was not good stuff either- whatever happened to be cheapest at dollar general or wal-mart) plus table scraps and went through a bag of treats every two days. He also went from getting regular exercise to being kept in a small room. It took 11 months for me to get released from the hospital and go to court to have her return TJ to me and during that time he gained a lot of weight ( went from  9.5 lbs to 15.6lbs). I'm trying to very slowly cut back on his food but he still acts like he is starving. The vet has examined him and could find nothing wrong medically and recommended grain free diet and to slowly reduce his food intake from what it had been. And to make sure that he gets plenty of exercise. I was hoping someone would have more ideas for me to try with him that I am willing to try. I am going to take a look at making their food, Though we are now trying putting a chain and lock around the Tupperware where the dry food is kept.