fat cat

My 10 month old kitten smokey has turned into a pudding overnight. I always knew he would be a little on the plump side, but he is growing so fast. He's quite a big cat as well. I feed him and his sister on a good diet of royal canin and applaws food. Was giving them royal canin neutered male dry food which is meant to control weight, but when i went to buy more they didn't have any. I bought the normal kitten one instead. Maybe i need to find the other one again? I also started giving them one 85 gram tin of food each instead of them sharing 1 1/2 tins a day. That's not very much! My vet saw my female and said she shouldn't put on any more either. I can't give them raw food as it does not agree with them. Any ideas?

@kitty chew
Make them run and exercise! Play catch and let them chase balls or laser light running along the floor.

>dehydrated poultry protein, maize, wheat gluten*, rice, maize gluten

Those are the first five ingredients in the neutered male food, no wonder he's getting fat! It's all those carbs. Look for a low carb, grain free food. Switching to wet only will help him lose weight as well. 

They do run around. I take them for a run and play in our garden. And i throw their toys for them to chase.

I thought royal canin was grain free. Maybe i should buy applaws grain free. He only got really fat when i switched back to normal kitten food.

Kitten food generally is higher in fat, so that is probably why they gained more weight whenever you switched back to kitten! I am not familiar enough with that brand of cat food that you were using but I definitely would switch off of the kitten food!

We had luck getting Francie's weight down with Purina Pro Plan weight management chicken and rice wet food. Our cat Jane has had good results on Hills Science diet dry weight control food too!

Thankyou. Thought kitten food might be too high in fat. I used to give them hills food. I have trouble getting it though. Most places don't stock it. I never seem to be able to get the same food when i go back for more.

Thanks for posting, I have a 10 month old kitten who looks exactly like yours and is having the same problems. It may be time I switch her over to adult food. 

You didn't mention whether you were giving her wet or dry. In my opinion wet is preferable to dry because of it's water content, and even though dry foods may be grain free they often have other types of carbohydrate in them. Watch out for Aplaws wet though, it is only meant to be a supplement to the dry (doesn't contain taurine etc). 

I was talking about dry food. When i got them at the shelter they said that hills dry food could be used as a complete diet. I don't agree with dry food only, so i started them on raw meat also. Didn't really agree with them, smokey especially was getting an upset stomach, so i put them back on to tinned food. Hills, applaws, and fussy cat, a grain free food. Think it is an australian brand. I also cook them chicken thighs as a treat. Think we might need the adult food. I don't even buy them treats anymore. Must be the kitten dry food. They also love vegies. Always try to pinch them off our plates. I give them a bit of mashed pumpkin in broccoli on occasion. Hope our kitties will get into shape again!

Make them run and play with you

buy a laser

They run around our house and garden. I take them out for play time. We have a big tree they love to climb and run up as well.

elkie said:

 
>dehydrated poultry protein, maize, wheat gluten*, rice, maize gluten

Those are the first five ingredients in the neutered male food, no wonder he's getting fat! It's all those carbs. Look for a low carb, grain free food. Switching to wet only will help him lose weight as well. 

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Indeed, it's almost always the carbs! Cats are more able to handle fats than carbs. Protein's what they need most, particularly at Smokey's age, when he's still developing, so high-quality wet food without carby additives like potato, grains, tapioca gravy, and the like are generally the best thing! Good luck!

Most dry foods are packed with high carbs, NOT GOOD for any kitty! Another thing to watch out for is high fat foods. I've been feeding Nature's Variety Instinct & 2 of my cats are tub guts. I'm switching back over to Weruva which is lower in fat.

There are many websites that will teach you how to figure out carb content, it's not a complicated calculation, just google carb content for cat food. I base what I feed on carb & fat cause I don't want overweight kitties.

In my research what I've found to be under 10% carbs & medium fat is Fancy Feast Classic, Purely Fancy Feast, Halo Impulse, Halo Spot's Pate, Merrick Limited Diet & Purrfect Bistro (NOT the shreds), Sheba pate, Sheba Perfect Portions, Soulistic Chicken Dinner, Tiki Cat, Wellness Core, Wellness Complete Health, the majority of Weruva's line, Wild Calling, Wysong Epigen & Ziwipeak. These are all canned foods.

You're just going to have to buy a bunch of different kinds & see what he'll eat, it can be frustrating! 10 month is almost a year old, I think he would be fine to switch to non kitten food.

Thank you all.