Cat Food Questions (1 cat needs to lose weight while 1 kitten needs to be fed frequently)

Hi everyone. Need some advice here.

I have a 6-year old female cat named Aloof who weighs almost 10lbs. She has a big (noticeably protruding) stomach, but the vet did not find any problem when they conducted a blood test, except that she was anemic (she's taking medication for that now). So, the conclusion was that she was just really big and needs to go on a diet.

They recommended a 100% boiled fish diet, no seasonings (to prevent stones from forming), 220g daily. They said meat is okay as long as it's boiled. So I've been feeding her just boiled fish for a few days now. However, when I did more research and checked some posts here, I read that a 100% fish diet is not really healthy because of the lack of some nutrients (taurine, B1, and E).

My question is, would boiled chicken with no seasoning have all the needed nutrients? I read about supplements, but I'm trying to find out if there's any way I can feed her a purely home-cooked diet without any over-the-counter addition (I haven't considered a raw diet yet). I have also read about chicken liver and heart, and I'm wondering if these are all good when just boiled. Right now, I stick to the 220g boiled fish daily, divided and fed morning and evening with no dry food in between meals.

Aside from Aloof, I also have a 5-month old kitten (named Small) who weighs 4.5lbs. I understand kittens need to be fed as frequently as possible (which is becoming a challenge because of the situation of Aloof). Right now, Small eats wet food twice a day, with free access to dry food in between... Though not as much dry food lately because of the Aloof situation... Whatever food we leave for Small when we're not home, Aloof is most likely to find and eat. My question is... Can we also transition Small to a home-cooked diet? We're thinking about this to save preparation time, reduce cost, and for health reasons also.

Alternatively, if we keep Small on commercial cat food, what would be the best diet to keep her healthy and prevent common illnesses associated with a pure-commercial food diet? Are there tried-and-tested healthy cat food out there (both wet and dry)? Right now, we use Whiskas wet food (this is what we feed Small twice a day). Other wet food options in our nearby grocery stores are Friskies and Fancy Feast. We found Nine Lives wet food at the vet last time, though this does not seem to be available in supermarkets. As for dry food, we've tried Whiskas, Kitekat, Vitapet, and Friskies.

Will appreciate any advice. Thanks!

I understand you live in the Philippines, so may not have access to some of what I recommend but here are some thoughts. First please read some of the links and articles about raw feeding at the top of the forum page. In order to safely feed raw, you must include a secreting and non secreting organ (such as liver and kidney) and bone. Heart is considered a meat protein, not organ. So no no just feeding chicken is nutritionally very incomplete. Bone is particularly important to growing kittens. I would stick to commercial canned cat food until you are able to find the appropriate components of a raw diet. Of the foods you mentioned, I believe fancy feast (classic if available) is the best. Also I am concerned about the amount of fish you are feeding, though I understand it is probably widely available. Some fish contain metals due to pollution, which can cause problems in the long run, especially with male cats (urinary tract infection).
In reference to the two cats with different caloric needs, I don't have much experience with this, but can you feed the cats in different rooms. You can certainly transition the kitten to raw feeding -- after doing some more reading and finding the ingredients needed. Good luck and write back with any problems, puzzles. We here on this forum have experienced them all.

In addition to Ritz's advice, since you are looking at cooking the meat, I wanted to stress the importance of feeding a calcium source but no cooked bones!  Cooked bones will splinter and can kill by poking holes in the kitty's stomach/intestines.

Can you bake the meat instead of boiling it?  Important stuff from the meat gets into the water that may be thrown out, and I'd rather my cats have all that nutrition.  When I bake any of my cats' meats, I add the drippings back into the food.

Making raw/home-cooked isn't impossible, but it is very important to follow a balanced recipe.  Cats need certain nutrients from liver for example.  If you can't source taurine powder, hearts will be needed to provide that.

I got my youngest cats at 8 months old, and they were immediately taken off the free-fed kibble and put on 3 times a day of canned food.  At 10 months old they went onto 3 times a day of raw only.  Gadget was a year when I got him, and the more frequent feedings didn't affect him negatively.  Just don't feed as a much per meal for the kitty needing to lose weight.

Yes, Peaches08 made excellent points. Absolutely no cooked bones--including fish bones.

Ritz and Peaches08, thank you so much for your response.

I am a bit reluctant about raw feeding because I'm not sure about the safety of our meat and fish here, bacteria-wise (maybe if I find a reliable source, I can do that). Right now I'm thinking about cooking them (or maybe partially cooked just to kill surface bacteria?)... I will have no problem finding chicken, fish, and chicken organs (liver, heart, gizzard) in our supermarket, but I'm not sure how to deal with bones as their calcium source. Baking is not yet possible now. Whenever I boil fish, I take out the fish bone (are they possibly missing other nutrients because of this?)... I read about grinding the meat, and maybe that can be a good option for the bone, too.

Regarding metal in meat, I have read about mercury, but I'm not sure about any alternative right now except chicken. The fish that I feed Aloof is similar to what's available for human consumption in our supermarkets. I might have to transition them to chicken to avoid the possible urinary tract problem.

So, my understanding now is that boiled chicken, heart, liver, and gizzard will be enough... Plus bones (ground) for the calcium. Kindly add if there are other nutrients I might be missing.

I'll do more reading on raw feeding so that I'll have more info when I finally find a guaranteed safe source. And while in the transition, I'll try Fancy Feast for a commercial wet food (haven't tried it yet).

Thank you so much for your help and I'll post any question or challenge that I encounter here. Thanks!