Is a "fat cat" really bad?

Hi everyone. I have 2 young male cats, one who is a chunk at about 20lb and the other who is lean and fit and a healthy weight. Our overweight cat has always been small, until he reached about a year, then he suddenly put on a ton of weight. He's been to the vet who said he'd like to see him lose weight and that speaking as a vet he was healthy and there was really no reason for him to have gained so much weight, except that "some cats are just big cats" and "sometimes after being fixed they gain weight." I'm thinking it's the getting fixed thing, because a couple of my moms cats did the same, and they all have the same little tummy pooch. Right now we're feeding them Purina One Indoor Advantage, I believe (it comes in a blue bag) and it's for hairball control and healthy weight for indoor cats. I'm open to switching though. Our vet suggested this one but it's been a year and he hasn't lost any weight so I'm looking for something new. He also suggested that we feed him wet food several times a week, for the cats teeth, and because our heavy cat has had 2 episodes of...I can't remember the name, but where he couldn't pee. Both times he was checked and there were no crystals in his urine, but he had to have antibiotics. The vet said he wasn't sure why it was happening, and that maybe he was just prone to infections. So I don't know.

I just want to make sure both my cats are happy and healthy. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Especially with a history of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) or blockages, I'd feed grain-free wet food. Blockages are usually caused by cats not getting enough moisture in their diet. Male cats are especially prone, but I've had females get them too. Dry food is just that... dry. Cats aren't absorbing any water from it, and in the wild, they get most of their water from their food.

High protein, low carb wet will also help your cat lose weight. It only works if you stop free feeding dry food, or the cats will just eat 100% dry. You can still feed a little dry for timed meals, but dry food is mostly just carbs. Cats are obligate carnivores, so to really thrive, they need mostly protein in their diets. I personally would switch to 100% wet food since 1) Your cat needs to lose weight and 2) He has a history of UTI's. 

Any recommendations on brand? I've considered before but I usually just give them wet a couple times a week to change things up. What about feeding plain chicken too for snacks?

Plain chicken is fine for a treat, but it's not nutritionally complete so I wouldn't feed it as part of a regular diet. 

Do you have a budget for cat food? Brands kind of depend on that. As does your cat's texture preference... Pate, Shredded, Chunks? If anything goes, I really like Merrick, it comes in different flavors and textures. It's best to buy a few cans in different flavors and try it out. It's sold at Petco. Pates are generally the least carb filled, a lot of "Gravy Lovers" cat food is pretty high in calorie. 

Budget wise, sometimes bigger cans work out cheaper in cost per ounce. Wellness comes in 12 oz cans (which is great if you're feeding multiple cats. I used to just split 1 - 12 oz can between my cats per day, breakfast and then refrigerate till dinner. Dave's Pet Food (sold in independent stores and online) is usually pretty cheap. It comes in the 5.5 oz cans and 12 oz cans. 

If you have a rough idea on what you want to spend per can, I can come up with some more specific brands. 

Well no, not really. I usually buy a smallish bag that lasts about a month, give or take. I do most of my shopping at Meijer and they carry brands like Fancy Feast, Iams, Whiskas, Beyond, Sheba, Cat Chow, etc. I'd prefer to pick the cat food up there since I do all my shopping there, but I guess I can go somewhere else, as long as I'm buying in bulk. Then, honestly, I don't even know how much to FEED the cats. My parents free-feed, and I usually feed our cats twice a day, in the morning when I get home from work, and before I leave for work at night.

Paiger8 said:

 
Especially with a history of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) or blockages, I'd feed grain-free wet food. Blockages are usually caused by cats not getting enough moisture in their diet. Male cats are especially prone, but I've had females get them too. Dry food is just that... dry. Cats aren't absorbing any water from it, and in the wild, they get most of their water from their food.

High protein, low carb wet will also help your cat lose weight. It only works if you stop free feeding dry food, or the cats will just eat 100% dry. You can still feed a little dry for timed meals, but dry food is mostly just carbs. Cats are obligate carnivores, so to really thrive, they need mostly protein in their diets. I personally would switch to 100% wet food since 1) Your cat needs to lose weight and 2) He has a history of UTI's. 

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I think this is great advice! Low-carb wet food only would be ideal, give the issues you're dealing with.

@2TatoCatz, if you're looking for grocery store foods, Fancy Feast Classics are a good place to start: they're low-carb and most cats like them. Fancy Feast's newer Purely foods would also be low-carb; they're pretty expensive for the weight at our grocery store but if convenience is important, you might want to try those, too. (Similar foods from companies like Weruva or even Tiki, sold at independent stores, might be a better value, depending on where you live.) I'd be careful not to feed much fish at all, particularly given the urinary tract issues. Others... A lot of cats also like Sheba. Our grocery store sells Newman's Own; some of those have rice (which you don't want!) and others don't. That's very decent food, too, though more expensive. Basically, you want foods without wheat, corn, rice, other grains, potato, peas, sweet potato, and any other carby vegetables the pet food makers slip in as fillers. Or to make the food sound nutritious to humans!

As for how much to feed, @LTS3 always has great advice on that. Given that one of your cats needs to diet and the other is a healthy weight, I'd probably separate them for timed/regular feedings. We do that for our cats because one is a slow, deliberate eater and the other will stare her down for scraps. It sounds cumbersome but it works pretty well and stresses everybody--cats and people--a lot less than the alternative! It can take some time to get yourself and your cats used to a new feeding plan but it's worth the effort.

Good luck!

You need to feed him WET food, not dry, and it should be very low carbohydrate, i.e. grain free AND free of the other fillers so many manufacturers now use so they can claim to be "grain free," i.e. sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, which are all starchy and raise the carbohydrate level.  Cats lack the enzyme to burn carbohydrates as energy.  They burn protein and fat, and if they get a lot of carbs, they can store those as fat.  Most of the so-called diet foods don't address this either, since filler is cheaper than meat.  They just put in a lot of undigestible fiber and filler. and your cat may lose weight, but he will be losing muscle weight, not fat, and the weight loss will stop as his metabolism slows down to match the reduced nutrition he is getting.  Weight loss must be slow or you risk putting the cat into "fatty liver syndrome."  MEAT (not vegetable) protein, moderate (not high) fat and low carbohydrate WET FOOD will also prevent crystals recurring in your other cat.  He should not be eating dry food either, except as an occasional treat.  Wet food will keep the urine dilute, and low carbohydrates will keep it slightly acidic, and that combination prevents BOTH kinds of urinary crystals that cause problems for cats, struvite and calcium oxalate. They can eat the same diet, just different amounts.  If you are the scientific studious type, I can give you quite a few links to studies clearly proving this.

2TatoCatz said:

 
Any recommendations on brand? I've considered before but I usually just give them wet a couple times a week to change things up. What about feeding plain chicken too for snacks?

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There isn't any particular brand that works best for all cats. You just feed whatever brand(s) your cat likes to eat and you can afford Here are some threads about affordable canned foods you can start with:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272192/affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/313700/budget-friendly-can-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/253771/very-inexpensive-grain-free-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292890/4health-now-has-affordable-grain-free-wet-food

There are expensive premium brands out there that may only be sold at independent pet stores, like Weruva and ZiwiPeak, but you don't need to go broke buying food.

For dry food, the usual recommendation is to feed a measured amount vevery day of a grain free brand. Orijen, Nature's Variety Instinct, and other smilar brands are good. There's not a whole lot about dry foods here on TCS sinec many members aren't big fans of it but here are two threads:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/273030/inexpensive-grain-free-dry-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/244492/what-grain-free-dry-and-wet-foods-do-you-recommend

A few pieces of plain cooked or raw chicken and other meat is fine as a treat. Limit it t no more than 10% of the diet.

Scheduled meal times works for many cats. Three or four meals daily is typical but some cats may prefer more or less. You generally want to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of idealy body weight daily. There more info here on how to help a fat cat to lose weightly safely here: http://catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity

To see calorie content in food, see these:

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

http://www.petobesityprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cat_Canned_Pouch_Foods.pdf

http://www.petobesityprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cat_Dry_Food.pdf

Note that many dry foods are well over 200 calories per cup while many canned foods are under 200 calories for a 5 oz can ( under 100 for a 3 oz can). It's a lot easier to achieve weight loss with canned foods than dry foods. A 10 pound cat  may need roughly 250 calories daily but one cup of a dry food that has 300 + calories is way too much and the amount of food isn't enough to keep a cat's tummy happy for an entire day.

Since I was out at the store a few days ago, I picked up some wet food. Even though I already had bought dry food for the month (d'oh!) and I've been feeding them wet food for breakfast and "dinner" with a snack, usually a few kibbles each, of the dry food. So  far I'm noticing my one cat is less vocal. They still come and bug me to be fed, but not as bad as before. So I guess we'll see what happens.

2TatoCatz said:

 
Since I was out at the store a few days ago, I picked up some wet food. Even though I already had bought dry food for the month (d'oh!) and I've been feeding them wet food for breakfast and "dinner" with a snack, usually a few kibbles each, of the dry food. So  far I'm noticing my one cat is less vocal. They still come and bug me to be fed, but not as bad as before. So I guess we'll see what happens.

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That's great! And I'm not surprised: with the water and meat, they're probably feeling more full because of the wet food.