Help with diet changes for overweight kitten

Simon is 10 months old and has always had a bit of a pouch. When we got him at 12 weeks, he had a little saggy belly pouch but it was mostly just skin.  Now, he's fat. His belly swings when he runs. He weighs 12lbs- but he's a relatively large cat, and I assume at 10 months he could grow a bit more. I was always under the impression that growing kittens shouldn't have their food limited, but we didn't free feed him long because it was clear he would just eat and eat and eat- very food motivated. He will eat ANYTHING.

I've been researching foods to put him on when i make the switch to adult food. He currently eats Nutro Max kitten dry (1/2 cup per day split in 2) and a can of fancy feast kitten food (half, twice per day.) (i know, fancy feast is crap, but my selection of Kitten cans is limited.)

I would like to continue with a diet of both mixed and canned, but I am open to making it more of "canned food, supplemented with some dry" rather than the other way around, because I know the carbs in dry are probably contributing to the problem.  I'd also like to nip any possible urinary health issues down the road in the bud before they start- and i know wet food is the place to do that.

I think I would like to switch to Taste of the Wild dry food. It's important that it be available conveniently, and I feel that is a decent food with a reasonable price tag.

I don't know what I want to do for canned food- maybe TotW or another brand. I'd like to find a good compromise between quality and price. I know mass-market brands like Iams don't have a great reputation, but is adding ANY canned food better than a dry-only food? That's why I went with the fancy feast.

My biggest issue here is not knowing how to go about figuring out what amounts to give him. I've been contemplating switching his amounts right now, and cutting his dry food in half and doubling his wet food (the current ones- Max Kitten and Fancy Feast). Would that be a good place to start? I did the math out, it would be slightly lower in calories, but significantly higher in protein, lower in carbs.

Advice? Again, I'm only interested in wet & dry diets in readily available brands. Also, please no Natura products.

Kait27 said:

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• kait27
• Mar 4, 2014

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What a beautiful boy .. Nice color! He looks like he is a big-boned cat, big feet so this may account for some of his weight. He doesn't look fat to me.

High protein, moderate fat and low carb is what you are looking for. FF pates which are grain-free/carageenan-free are a good, economical choice with few to no carbs. There is also Authority which is similar to FF but does not feature by-product, and is next to grain-free. Some of the varieties contain brewers rice and all contain wheat gluten but that's it for the grains.

While you will want to feed him according to his ideal weight, you also have to take his activity level into account. If he is active, he will require more calories than a more laid-back young cat. I have a Tuxedo cat who is coming on 2 and he could eat all day until he explodes and probably wouldn't get fat on account of his high activity level. How much are you feeding him at this time?

EDIT: If you want to control his weight, then you will want to get him on a schedule where you are feeding a certain amount at the same time every day. No free feeding of kibble. A general rule of thumb is a healthy, active 8 lb adult cat requires about 30 calories per pound per day. So, the average 8-lb cat requires about 240 calories per day. Typically, dry food contains about 300 calories per cup, and canned food contains about 220 calories in each 6 oz can. (or, 125 per 3 oz. can). Using these amounts as a guide, an 8-lb. cat would need 4/5 of a cup of dry food and just under a full 6-oz can (or two 3-oz. cans) of wet food per day.

Thanks! Oh, he's fat all right. His belly swings to and fro when he runs. I also can hardly feel his ribs. He's a chunker.

He currently eats Nutro Max Cat kitten dry (1/2 cup per day split into 2 meals, 1/4 cup each) and a can of fancy feast kitten food (half, twice per day.)

The caloric content of this is 229 kCal of dry and about 100kcal of wet per day, for about 329 kCal total.

You're telling me there are grain-free, low carb, decent varieties of Fancy Feast?? That's amazing. I didn't think you could get anything halfway decent in the grocery store!! I've been googling it and it seems all of their "classic" varieties fall into this. Amazing. I always assumed that if you could get in on the grocery store shelf (Friskies, Whiskas, Iams, Fancy Feast, etc.) it was pretty crappy and full of fillers.

When you say high protein, mod fat and low carbs, do you have any numbers associated with that I should aim for? What would be considered high protein?

Here is a chart of wet foods commonly available in the US broken down by protein/fat/carbs. http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf   You want to aim for >50% protein, <50% fat, and <10% carbs. Yes, most of the Fancy Feast classic pates and well as some of the Friskies pates fall into this category.

vball91 said:

 
 Yes, most of the Fancy Feast classic pates and well as some of the Friskies pates fall into this category.

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mind. blown.

Kait27 said:

 
Thanks! Oh, he's fat all right. His belly swings to and fro when he runs. I also can hardly feel his ribs. He's a chunker.

He currently eats Nutro Max Cat kitten dry (1/2 cup per day split into 2 meals, 1/4 cup each) and a can of fancy feast kitten food (half, twice per day.)

The caloric content of this is 229 kCal of dry and about 100kcal of wet per day, for about 329 kCal total.

You're telling me there are grain-free, low carb, decent varieties of Fancy Feast?? That's amazing. I didn't think you could get anything halfway decent in the grocery store!! I've been googling it and it seems all of their "classic" varieties fall into this. Amazing. I always assumed that if you could get in on the grocery store shelf (Friskies, Whiskas, Iams, Fancy Feast, etc.) it was pretty crappy and full of fillers.

When you say high protein, mod fat and low carbs, do you have any numbers associated with that I should aim for? What would be considered high protein?

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Thanks vball91 ..

@Kait27: Yes, I didn't realize that about FF until someone mentioned it here. It really is quite amazing that FF can get it done it terms of offering a grain-free/carageenan-free wet food but other brands can't! The grain-free ones are available just with pates (CLASSICS for US), not the chunky/shredded varieties. The draw-back here is that FF contains by-products, whereas Authority doesn't. So, if no by-product is important to you, go with Authority. If carageenan-free is important, then go with the FF.

Thank you all. I think I'll go ahead with the Taste of the Wild Dry (grain free) and make a bigger part of his diet canned food, sticking to the varieties of Fancy Feast and Friskies that are grain free/low carb and higher in protein.