Kitty Kat Overweight

Hi,

This my very first post. I have a 5 year old medium short hair smoke grey female that has weighed over 12 pounds on the last vet visit back in January. I don't think she is over 14 pounds now, at least I hope not. The vet did say she should way between 10 and 11 pounds for her frame size.

She eats a diet of Fancy Feast cod, shrimp and sole flavor. She also has Iams cerial and filtered water. The vet informed me that I should not feed her the Fancy Feast because in her opinion, (the vet), that it is comparable to McDonalds food, meaning junk food.

Being the huge push over sucker that I am, I give her what ever she wants. Which brings me to my question: What should I do? What can I feed her that is healthy, tastes good, and won't make her fat? The money is no object because she is my whole world. Thanks in advance.

Uh oh! I also struggle with a tubby in my house but have had success with other cats that were overweight and I've managed to control it to some extent.

Part of the weight loss regime must include exercise. Exercise can be anything from additional play time, to moving their food dishes on top of things (like a washer/dryer) to force them to exert energy to get to the food. Adding tall cat condos that they like to run up and down on is also a great idea. If you have stairs in your house, take advantage of them - put their food upstairs, their water downstairs and make them walk around. Look around your house and think of things you can do to get the cat to be more physical.

There are others on the forum that are much more knowledgeable about which foods are the most healthy. I free feed and have multiple cats, so I started mixing light food with their regular food to cut calories. When I give them their wet food snack each evening, the heavier cats get less than the normal weight cats. I split 2 small cats between 11 cats so some only get a teaspoon.

Here's an interesting tidbit I picked up yesterday: There are roughtly 35 calories in a mouse and in the wild, a mouse makes a decent meal. Think about that as you scoop out wet food for your girl! We all tend to over feed our cats.

btw....my cats adore the FF cod, shrimp and sole also, but they only get it on rare occassions.

Your vet is right about the Fancy Feast - it's not a very good food.

If you do a search on this forum you will find a ton of information on quality food.

Look for foods with no by-products for starters. Also, once you start feeding a better quality food, you will find your cat will actually be eating less. A few of the better foods are: Merricks, Natural Balance, and Chicken Soup for the Cat ......, to name but a few. When at your pet food store, start reading labels and choose a couple cans of each one to try with your cat. That's how I found that our two will only eat the Merricks.

Your vet is exactly right and unfortunately, Iams isn't all that wonderful either. Not horrible, but not great.

If you can start switching your cat to a healthier, high quality brand of wet food and gradually cut back on the dry food. I think that would be best. Dry food is fattening, wet food in generally healthier, you just need to get a better brand.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul
Merrick
Nutro
Solid Gold (this one is just like people tuna and is really smelly so if your cat is rejecting the better brands, try this one, you can get it at Pet Supplies Plus and probably Petco)
there are a bunch of high quality foods so let us know what you find and we can help you figure out its healthiness. just remember: no by-products and meat should be the first 2 or 3 ingredients. If the first or second ingredient is corn or a grain I would avoid it.