Underweight?

Hello!

A few weeks ago, we adopted two cats. One is a Siberian named Fida and the other is a male named Cez, we were told he is a Norvegian Forest Mix, but seems more Maine Coon mix to me. 

The girl that gave them to us said that they are both 6 year old. 

Fida weighs 12 lbs and seems fine, but Cez is very skinny. 

He had 8 lbs when we got him and you could feel his bones through his coat. 

The lady was feeding them Whiskas dry, she said that Cez was addicted to it. I think she just fed them the cheapest food. 

We give them dry food now (select gold) and wet food as well as cat sticks. 

Now Cez is 9.5 lbs now.

Is he still underweight or am i over reacting? He still feels skinny to me, i can feel his spine very easily when i pet him. 

Am i over reacting ? I just want them both to be healthy. 

Here's a pic of both of them


Thanks

Hello,

What beautiful cats.

If you are concerned about a cat being underweight; I suggest taking that cat to a vet for a physical and for the vet's opinion on it's weight.

And, switching your cats from dry food to wet canned food would be the best thing for their future health. I will not give the facts on the negatives of dry food. You will be more convinced if you Google to get that information for yourself. .

SBlack

They look fine to me but more photos would help. You want to feel their ribs if you can't it means they overweight but you do not want to see their ribs then they need to put on some weight. How much are you feeding them?

How easy could you feel their bones?

Fida is perfectly fine, she's a big boned cat and has 3 layers of fur. I can't feel her bones. 

But for Cez, i can feel every bone in his spine and quite a lot of his ribs. He eats, he drinks water just fine. No litter box problems. He doesn't seem like a walking skeleton, but he doesn't feel like a normal well fed cat either. He's has a lot of energy and is not crying for anything.

I did read stuff about dry food, but one of the most cons against it was that it wasn't moist enough and the cats don;t get enough moisture. 

Both of my cats drink the proper amount of water, so there is no concern there. We change the water in the bowl twice a day. If they run out, they go to the bowl and alert us about it. Cez also likes to play in the water bowl. We give them wet food once every 2 days.

They get 3 meals a day, at designated hours (10 am, 3 pm , 10 pm). They usually alert us when the hour is close to feeding time. 

They are both neutered by the way. 

The only reason i worry is the weight difference between them is quite big. Everything i've read about both Norvegians and Maine Coons says that he should be heavier. Since we've had him on good food, he went from 8 lbs to 9.5 (in one month). Also it might be related to the fact that they have 2 food bowls (Fida used to push him out of the way to get to the food, now she doesn't anymore, as we feed them in the same time). Maybe the girl before didn't really take care of that ? 

We haven't taken them to the vet yet, but the girl assured us that she took them to the vet right before traveling with them (she moved from Poland to Germany and didn't have a place for them here). 

He looks healthy but as donotsurrender said If you are really concerned, you can take him to a vet. They will be able to tell you better then someone over the Internet.

How many cups you feeding him a day? A fixed cat requires less food then a intact one

Can you feel fida ribs? As I said you want to feel their ribs, you don't want to see their ribs

I can't feel her ribs, but she does have an awful lot of hair. she is very fluffy, with 3 layers of fur. But she doesn't seem fat either. She's just normal, no saggy belly, no fluffy sides. google says that for a siberian, 12-14 lbs is fine. she's very agile, runs a lot, jumps around. 

They have tiny bowls and we give them about a hand full of kibble on each feeding. They get one pack/pouch at around 85g split in two bowls.

I don't think we over feed them or under feed them.

We also tried free feeding, but Fida would start meowing at night for attention if we did that.   

I checked Fida today and I can feel her ribs under all that fur. So she is not over weight. But i still feel like Cez is way too light for his age/breed

cez is the white one right? 

yes, Cez is the white one

I would say to bring it up with the vet as well. All cats are individuals and not all of them will be reflective of the archetype for their breed, but feeling all of their bones is quite skinny, and it's so misleading to have it under all that fluff. If he eats well, there may be an underlying health issue that may prevent him from gaining weight. Sometimes this is evident in their litter box as well, if his output is large in proportion to his body size or possibly very smelly, it could mean that not all the nutrients are being absorbed and just passing through. Parasites can have this effect too.

There are pastes that are calorie boosters (one of the brands is called Nutri-Cal, but other companies probably have their versions as well) and it can help entice him to eat more, but I would recommend the vet visit first. If there is a health issue, this kind of stuff can be ineffective, and a waste of money and effort.

We give him multi vitamin paste from Gimpet. he adores it. since he's been with us, he gained some weight, he was being fed Whiskas before. And i noticed Fida tends to shove him out of the way to get to the food, so many the former owner never payed attention when that happened. We always make sure to feed them in the same time, so Cez has time to eat as well. It also seems that he was neutered at a very young age, as he should be much larger for a 6 year old male cat.