Wrong cat losing weight :(

I am so upset this morning. I have at least one cat who needs to lose weight. The problem is I have others who don't. I weighed them this morning(same method) and 2 have lost like a half pound in 2 weeks.

Oreo went from 9.7 on 3-31, to 8.9 today. Rockie went from 11.5 to 10.8. The good news is Mittens is down to 15.1 from 15.4.

There are so many times i wish i didnt have so many to feed, it makes feeding times difficult. (They were all strays at my house.)

DH was like.."I don;t know why you don't just put food down for them to eat" (well ugh thats how they get fat).

I may need to see if i can put them in separate rooms to eat. But i would think they will be stressed and not eat. Feeling locked in somewhere. Unless I feed some, then take them to another part of the house while the others eat. One problem is they don't eat all their dry. I will need to keep track how much they are eating.

I can't afford to feed to much canned, so have been doing it once a day. Rockie is my pickiest eater and doesnt like much of the canned food. Oreo loves the canned food and i let her eat the leftovers. But she has been eating less dry. Probably the reason for the weight loss.

Any advice on how to deal with the different weight in cats. Even if i fed all canned, the thin cats don't eat enough of the canned to get enough calories.

I have two cats who are currently being fed two completely different types of food, due to an allergy issue. They are fed in separate rooms, and everyone is fine with the arrangement. Choose the cat(s) that are the most-easy going, or the most food driven, and that is the one to put behind the closed door. In our case it is our female kitten, the one who can eat anything, who goes into the office at meal times....she doesn't stress easily, and she adores food. It was a bit new to her at first, but we've been doing it for I think 8 weeks now, and it's totally normal for her...she beats me in there these days, most of the time.  The male eats slower than she does (he's primarily on kibble, still), and so she is behind the closed door a good 30 minutes or so. It's also happens to be a room where there is a litter box, so she was already familiar with the surroundings, before we started the arrangement.  It would definitely be worth trying for a couple days, before deciding if it would work for your cats or not.

Choose somewhere where you can be while the cat eats. Like the computer room or the bedroom where you'll watch TV anyway. If the kitty finishes eating and the other ones outside the room haven't finished yet, play with it. He/she will develop positive associations with the arrangement.

One problem is I have 7 cats. I have to feed them by myself most days.
I do watch them when they eat their canned food in the afternoon. I have been feeding them on a schedule for months now and still cant get some of them to eat more at meal time.
Oreo and Rockie nibble the dry food or not eat any at all and sometimes come back later. But then the food might be gone.
How do you keep them on a schedule(currently 3 meals a day) but make sure they get enough calories?
Obviously they are not getting enough to eat before its gone.
Separate feedings might work. But how often do I feed them if they leave food and want to eat 5 minutes later? They havent learned by now they need to eat at feeding time and are loing weight because of it.

It sounds like you might have previously been free-feeding your cats? And did you start trying to switch to the scheduled feedings at the same time you switched their food? If that's the case, you might have greater success if you first get them happily used to eating on a schedule, before you switch the type of food they are familiar with. Having a lot of variables switched all at once, could be what is slowing your progress down.  Look at it as a project that has to be completed in steps....set yourself mini-goals....don't go straight for the end result. You're odds of success will be much better.

When we first adopted our two, the only thing they'd ever known was having kibble available at all times, and wet food offered to them 5-6 times per day. George's habit was to graze on the kibble all day long and avoid the wet. Dory was the opposite, she preferred the wet and ate very little of the dry. When we first adopted them, we started by getting them used to 4 scheduled meals per day (food available for 30 minutes only at each meal...they could come & go to it as they pleased during that 30 minutes), and we used the food they preferred. Only once we knew they were ok with the schedule, did we make changes to the types of food they were eating. We're now at 3 scheduled meals per day, and that's where we'll stay. We still have some more work to do on getting George off the kibble, but we've temporarily had to put him on prescription food, so that has to wait a little bit longer until we have a better idea of what he can eat going forward. 
 

I would begin by getting everyone happy with the scheduled feedings, and eating the amounts they need each day (regardless of what the food is), before making a lot of changes to the types of food you're giving them. So if they are used to dry...let them have dry until they are used to the schedule.  If it is imperative that your overweight cat start losing weight as soon as possible... let him be the one you isolate during meal times, because you'll be able to monitor him the closest, and reduce or change his food well before you change the food of your other 6 cats, etc.  Cats tend to be stubborn and creatures of habit, so if you push them too hard all at once there's bound to be some problems...  Baby steps, especially with the cats who are otherwise healthy and aren't in need of a quick switch.

I think you need to set your focus on the one cat who needs this the most, the overweight guy, and for the others just work on the scheduled feedings part of things. Your stress level will go way down if you aren't juggling so much at once. When your overweight cat is eating the way he should be, and the others are used to not having food out all the time, then you can worry about switching the others food.... remember, it's all about one mini-goal at at time.

One more thing to add, in regards to the ones who are losing weight who you think should not be....

If you are able, offer the ones you think are too skinny a fourth meal each day (or even a few days a week...the calories will add up).  Put them into a room away from others for this one. Eventually, once you've established more of a rhythm with the group as a whole, you can work on weaning them off the extra meal....but that can be a ways down the road.

I can't imagine trying to juggle the needs of 7 cats, it must be incredibly difficult. Maybe sit down and make yourself of a list of all the individual things you'd like to accomplish in regards to this, and then organize it in order of importance. Focus on the item in the #1 spot, before worrying about things further down the list. I think that is what I would do...get my thoughts in order, prioritize, and not give a thought to the items towards the bottom of the list until the ones at the top have been successfully dealt with.