First an introduction. I'm mommy to two lovely fur babies Nola (Born January 2013) and Damon (September 2013.. his birthday was yesterday).
I brought Nola home at 7.5 weeks. She was exactly 16oz. Her mom was a tiny Siamese, her dad a tiny medium hair. Both her parents were under a year old. I assumed she'd stay tiny like them. Nope. At her spay in September 2013 she was 12lbs. Here's the kicker, I'd always fed a good high quality low (as possible) dry food. and fed what the bag said. She peaked at 19lbs. I was super upset.
Damon came from my step son's cat who got outside. He's one of 5. They kept two of the remaining 4. One brother is quite large, a medium hair. The other brother is tiny, a buff tabby. Damon has always hoovered between 9 and 10lbs on dry food. He was 1.5lbs at 7.5 weeks, so I figured he'd end up being a big boy. I guess I was wrong. He was 8lbs at his spay last spring. He is a very long cat, he can take up half of our couch, or half of a queen size bed if he feels like it.
Before we went away on vacation, I'd decided when we got back (we were gone 3 weeks, with a twice weekly pet sitter coming to the house), I'd switch them to wet food and see what happened. When we left, I weighted nola, who came in at 18.8lbs. When we got home I weighed her, and she was 17.6lbs. They never ran out of food, they were being fed by free feeders (I'd been using free feeders for a while, and noticed when I was home they lasted 10 days, when I was away (hubby works out of state so I'd frequently be gone a week visiting him) they'd last 14 days. My husband realized what was happening. Nola was a "Feed me please" cat, even though she had free access to food. If we moved from our chairs, she'd go get a snack. She wasn't over eating her 3/4 cup a day, but she was eating more than when there was no one to "walk her to the dish" as we've jokingly called it.
Nola started her "diet" at 17.6lbs on July 23rd of this year. It started with 2 cans of wet food a day, and 1/4 cup of dry at night for snacking per cat. Most of the time the dry food would last two days as long as they were promptly fed. If I slept a little longer, they'd eat the dry food. After the first two weeks I cut them back to 1/4 cup combined. A week later they'd stopped eating it so I stopped giving it (and wouldn't you know I've got a most of a $35 bag of cat food left over. fun!) As wet food is not cheap, and I do not feed them any corn or grains, I choose fancy feast classics as it fit my budget and didn't have any grains or veggies/fruits.
Her weight loss has been greatl and has gone as follows.
July 23rd - 17.6lbs
August 2nd - 17.4lbs
August 10th - 17.4lbs
August 20th - 17lbs
August 29th - 16.8lbs
Sept 3rd - 16.6lbs (they hadn't been fed yet when I weighed her, so she's probably not quite down a full pound in 42 days)
I'd like to see her get to 12lbs (less would be better), where ever she stops on 2 cans of food I guess will be her actual weight. Mainly I'd like her to be able to lick her own butt.
However, I made an error, and didn't weigh Damon before all this started. I popped him on the scale this morning and he only weighs 8lbs! Yes, he's always been a lean cat, but 8lbs seems rather light? he doesn't appear to have any bones sticking out, but he does look thinner than when I started feeding them entirely wet.
Both cats will have a vet check up next week (we're moving to another state and they need shots), but I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing with the tiny cat. I'm expecting some flack for Nola's weight (she's still very fat, and you can tell she's not just a big cat), but now I'm worried I'll get flack for his too. Or maybe I'm just crazy and he's just a small cat who is crazy active and runs around like a maniac.. and is my first ever tiny cat? I've tried feeding them in separate locations, but he'll just try and eat her food first, then go to his which she can't reach (she can't jump).
I'm including (or attempting to) some pictures of my brats (hence my name), Damon's a snuggle bug, it's not always easy to get a picture of him where he's not curled into a ball or hiding in a blanket. I can attempt to get some super recent pictures of them later if needed.
a size comparison.
June 2015 before her diet
June 2015 before her diet
she's lost 9oz in this picture.
I brought Nola home at 7.5 weeks. She was exactly 16oz. Her mom was a tiny Siamese, her dad a tiny medium hair. Both her parents were under a year old. I assumed she'd stay tiny like them. Nope. At her spay in September 2013 she was 12lbs. Here's the kicker, I'd always fed a good high quality low (as possible) dry food. and fed what the bag said. She peaked at 19lbs. I was super upset.
Damon came from my step son's cat who got outside. He's one of 5. They kept two of the remaining 4. One brother is quite large, a medium hair. The other brother is tiny, a buff tabby. Damon has always hoovered between 9 and 10lbs on dry food. He was 1.5lbs at 7.5 weeks, so I figured he'd end up being a big boy. I guess I was wrong. He was 8lbs at his spay last spring. He is a very long cat, he can take up half of our couch, or half of a queen size bed if he feels like it.
Before we went away on vacation, I'd decided when we got back (we were gone 3 weeks, with a twice weekly pet sitter coming to the house), I'd switch them to wet food and see what happened. When we left, I weighted nola, who came in at 18.8lbs. When we got home I weighed her, and she was 17.6lbs. They never ran out of food, they were being fed by free feeders (I'd been using free feeders for a while, and noticed when I was home they lasted 10 days, when I was away (hubby works out of state so I'd frequently be gone a week visiting him) they'd last 14 days. My husband realized what was happening. Nola was a "Feed me please" cat, even though she had free access to food. If we moved from our chairs, she'd go get a snack. She wasn't over eating her 3/4 cup a day, but she was eating more than when there was no one to "walk her to the dish" as we've jokingly called it.
Nola started her "diet" at 17.6lbs on July 23rd of this year. It started with 2 cans of wet food a day, and 1/4 cup of dry at night for snacking per cat. Most of the time the dry food would last two days as long as they were promptly fed. If I slept a little longer, they'd eat the dry food. After the first two weeks I cut them back to 1/4 cup combined. A week later they'd stopped eating it so I stopped giving it (and wouldn't you know I've got a most of a $35 bag of cat food left over. fun!) As wet food is not cheap, and I do not feed them any corn or grains, I choose fancy feast classics as it fit my budget and didn't have any grains or veggies/fruits.
Her weight loss has been greatl and has gone as follows.
July 23rd - 17.6lbs
August 2nd - 17.4lbs
August 10th - 17.4lbs
August 20th - 17lbs
August 29th - 16.8lbs
Sept 3rd - 16.6lbs (they hadn't been fed yet when I weighed her, so she's probably not quite down a full pound in 42 days)
I'd like to see her get to 12lbs (less would be better), where ever she stops on 2 cans of food I guess will be her actual weight. Mainly I'd like her to be able to lick her own butt.
However, I made an error, and didn't weigh Damon before all this started. I popped him on the scale this morning and he only weighs 8lbs! Yes, he's always been a lean cat, but 8lbs seems rather light? he doesn't appear to have any bones sticking out, but he does look thinner than when I started feeding them entirely wet.
Both cats will have a vet check up next week (we're moving to another state and they need shots), but I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing with the tiny cat. I'm expecting some flack for Nola's weight (she's still very fat, and you can tell she's not just a big cat), but now I'm worried I'll get flack for his too. Or maybe I'm just crazy and he's just a small cat who is crazy active and runs around like a maniac.. and is my first ever tiny cat? I've tried feeding them in separate locations, but he'll just try and eat her food first, then go to his which she can't reach (she can't jump).
I'm including (or attempting to) some pictures of my brats (hence my name), Damon's a snuggle bug, it's not always easy to get a picture of him where he's not curled into a ball or hiding in a blanket. I can attempt to get some super recent pictures of them later if needed.
a size comparison.
June 2015 before her diet
June 2015 before her diet
she's lost 9oz in this picture.
