How can I help my female cat lose weight and not be stressed?

Hyacinth came to me as a stray I fed occasionally. She brought her three 6 week old kittens to my back porch. I took all of them in, and at the time from nursing she was extremely malnourished. She almost died.

 I fed her like three times a day, canned food, and eventually she put on weight. Then I had her spayed after the kittens stopped nursing. She really put on weight then. She weighs about twelve and a half pounds. She's just so big she cannot groom her private parts and ever so often I have to clean that area with a gentle cleanser and wash cloth,  for her because if I don't it gets matted and that.

Right now I give her like two to three tablespoons of canned food twice a day, and then she always has the dry cat chow.

My question is how safe is it to say reduce the canned food to just one feeding a day? She was always food obsessed, since she came to live with me, and would meow for food if I didn't feed her enough according to her.

So I don't want to stress her out unduly. In all other ways she's a great cat. Very affectionate, sweet and out of the three cats, the only one I say is normal.

I kept her kittens, as I had no luck trying to adopt them out, except for a male, which my daughter took.  Both of females are not spayed but they are not overweight, so Hyacinth is the only one out of the three I am really concerned about.

Also the canned food she eats is commercial, mostly Fancy Feast, or Friskies, 9Lives etc. The kibble is Purina Cat Chow and also Purina Naturals.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and I thank you in ad*****.

to TCS!

Kibble is full of carbohydrates that she doesn't need, so it would be better to increase the amount of canned she's getting and decrease the kibble. If you must feed both, you should stop free feeding the dry food and switch to measured, scheduled meals.

TCS has a number of articles that might be of help to you:

Choosing The Right Food for Your Cat
What Makes the Best Canned Cat Food?
Transitioning Your Cat from Kibble to a New Type of Food (Canned, Raw, or Homemade)
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?

Thank you jcat for responding. I never knew that about the dry food. I guess I just thought that was a staple and always just leave it out for my cats so they can eat when hungry. If I stop doing that the other two who don't have a weight problem won't be able to eat the dry either.

However I will look at the other articles here and see if I can find more info on how exactly to feed them.

Thank you SO much for the information.

This is a good article written by a vet explaining the drawbacks of dry food: 10 Reasons Why Dry Food Is Bad for Cats & Dogs

The other two could develop weight problems once they've been spayed, so it's not a bad idea to start them on scheduled meals, either, though if they're still kittens you may have to feed them more often. How old are they? You'll want to get them fixed before they start spraying urine around your home, trying to get out and going into constant heat cycles. The longer they're left unspayed, the higher the chances of them developing health problems like mammary cancer or pyometra.

Spay and Neuter Your Cats
When to spay/neuter a cat

Here is a great thread that will help you. TCS member mschauer was fostering a 27 pound kitty. She used primarily canned Fancy Feast (classics, not stuff with gravy) to bring him down to 17 pounds over the course of a year so he could be adopted out: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight

The heavy carb load from dry food is bad for your kitty's weight AND a host of other health concerns, including:

UTIs

kidney disease

diabetes

constipation

IBD

Those are just a few!

High protein, low carb, moderate fat WET food. Wet food keeps your kitty hydrated properly and has higher protein content. The Fancy Feast classic line or Friskies pate foods are good budget choices, so I would just increase these until there's no more dry food on the menu. Then think about adding higher grade wet foods as your budget and kitty's tastes allow.

Yes jcat I've thought about that. Once I got Inky and Willow spayed, they would probably become food obsessed too and put on the weight. The only reason I haven't yet is I haven't been able to afford it.

The "kitten" were born in July 2012. So they'll be two in July of this year. Their Mom will be probably around 3 and a half at that time.

Raintyger, I don't know if I want to remove ALL the dry food, but at least I am feeding them scheduled feedings now and I'm gonna continue with that and see how it goes. I will give them wet food and a small amt. of dry food too and then take that away when they are done. I'm glad you think that Fancy Feast and Friskies are okay for their wet food, That's what I buy and they seemed to like that.

Anyway thanks all for trying to help!