My kitty is getting fat.

Since being spayed,she is about 9 months old is gaining weight steadily. I feed her only dry food Purina indoor formula. After some research I hear I should be feeding her mostly wet. Any advice on what kind or any other advice such as transitioning etc.. Would be appreciated.

Update. I just tried to give her son pate wet food and she wants nothing to do with it.

This article is a great guide to transitioning onto wet food.[article="31138"][/article]
Basically, you need to take it slowly so you don't shock her system. I'm not all that surprised she didn't take to the wet food straight away - some cats take quite a while to get used to it. Don't give up though - wet food is by far the easiest way to control your cat's weight, and it's healthier for her too

Good for you for trying to make the switch! It will be a lot easier for her to lose weight and she will be much healthier. Sometimes it takes months for particularly stubborn cats to make transition, so just keep at it!

I'd also recommend checking the ingredients of whatever food you choose carefully. The more animal protein it has, the fuller she will stay and the easier it will be to cut down on her calories. Many foods are grain-free, which is good, but then they contain a lot of carbs like potato, which is not helpful for weight loss at all. Fancy Feast classics are a reasonably good, meaty option that many cats like and are not terribly expensive. There are a lot of higher end foods that are very good as well, but they are more expensive.

You can experiment to see if your cat likes certain textures or flavors more, and toppers (even crushed kibble if nothing else works) are a great way to get her to give wet foods a try. I also like adding some meat flavor human baby food (no garlic or onions) to get a cat to eat something because it smells very tasty to them. Hunger is also going to be a good motivator. Good luck!

Everything the above posters have said is absolutely true.  I used to free feed dry until I got a cat who lived at the food dish.  When he went in for his One Year check -up, we were told he needed to lose FOUR pounds.  He was only one year old .  I had always been told to let kittens eat as much as they wanted.  Aye, aye aye.  We were in deep trouble at this point.  So...after trying many diet foods which didn't work at all, I started doing a lot of research and decided all four cats were going to have to be transitioned to wet food so that Darko could lose weight.  I figured after my research that it would be much healthier for them anyway, so it would be a win, win situation for everyone.

First we transitioned them to timed meals.  Here's how to do that: 

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

Then it was just a matter of finding the right wet food that they liked to transition them to it, I kind of experimented along the way, because I wanted them to LIKE what they were going to be eating.  But I did follow the guidlelines that Columbine posted above. 

Here is another article that talks about choosing a good wet food:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/what-makes-the-best-canned-cat-food

Once you've got her eating some wet food, don't be afraid to switch it up and offer her varieties of wet.  It's good for them to eat different brands and flavors, because manufacturers will change formulas on you and if you have a cat that eats just one thing that could be problematic. 

Thanks so much everybody. I appreciate you guys taking the time to help.

Here's a pic of Miss Buddy.

mrsgreenjeens said:

Once you've got her eating some wet food, don't be afraid to switch it up and offer her varieties of wet.  It's good for them to eat different brands and flavors, because manufacturers will change formulas on you and if you have a cat that eats just one thing that could be problematic. 

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This is so true! Another thing is that some cats seem to have strong preferences--from the start--for pates but others prefer shreds. Our cats are more on the shred side. They, too, were strong fans of dry food when we adopted them but we gradually, over a month or so, phased out their dry food, starting by offering limited amounts during the day, then only at night and sprinkling a little on their wet food, then cutting back on dry food at night, and so on. Then, one day I and the cats forgot about the dry food. In the beginning, they would wait until night for their dry food and not eat a lot of wet food during the day.

Molly92 said:

I'd also recommend checking the ingredients of whatever food you choose carefully. The more animal protein it has, the fuller she will stay and the easier it will be to cut down on her calories. Many foods are grain-free, which is good, but then they contain a lot of carbs like potato, which is not helpful for weight loss at all. Fancy Feast classics are a reasonably good, meaty option that many cats like and are not terribly expensive. There are a lot of higher end foods that are very good as well, but they are more expensive.

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This is also very true! We avoid carby ingredients in our cats' foods: potato, peas, sweet potato, rice, oats, other grains, and (with one occasional exception) tapioca. They're just empty calories for cats so it really is worth checking the labels. (Or researching online since some foods have such small print on the labels that they're nearly impossible to read without a magnifying glass!)

Our cats' favorite canned brands are Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen (the canned foods: the pouches have tapioca so we only feed an occasional chicken/pumpkin pouch to them, partially drained), Bravo, Tiki Cat (expensive but very meaty), Nutro Natural Choice, and Merrick LID. Those brands have a variety of textures and protein sources that are good for cats who demand a lot of variety, as ours do.

Miss Buddy looks like a beauty! Good for you for switching her over to wet food while she's still young.

brian77 said:

Here's a pic of Miss Buddy.

IMG_20160305_161448239.jpg

• brian77
• Mar 13, 2016

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Oh my, she's gorgeous!

Oh my, she's gorgeous!
Yes, she is AND, she looks just like my Darko, the one who caused all the ruckus over here and made everyone switch over to a healthier diet

Here's another one just cause I love this pic.