how do you know?

How do you know if your cat is putting on too much weight? I have two cats, one is a kitty who burns off every ounce she puts on... and the other is two and a half. I adopted the second one in January and just in this past month (approx) she had clearly put on some weight. She is still active and I don't think she is eating any more than she did before. Mostly, I just want to know how to prevent her from being fat. But I don't know how to do that when I also have a kitten who needs that extra food.

If you go to Purnina.com they have a pictorial chart where you can gauge the weight of your kitty. Some cats metabolism is different, if you have concerns that your kitty is too fat, try interacting with her and doing some playtime where she chases a string or something you trail behind you as you work around the house. Or start putting her food up on top of things so she has to work to get at it. And remember to feed the cat, not the bowl.

I couldn't find the chart on the page but I did find a description telling me that I should be able to feel her ribs but not see them and that when looking down at her she should look like an hourglass. Well, her ribs are a bit padded but I can still tell they are there. She isn't an hourglass figure though. Standing up she is fairly straight, when she lays down her middle looks at tad bit wider that her shoulders. Is that bad?

I have the same problem, Jinx and Rossi are brothers, Jinx burns off everything but Rossi is gaining quite a pot. I try stop him from making returns to the bowl, I only feed them 2-3x/day, which is good for the other two. If I leave a little extra food in the morning Rossi always heads back to the bowl, the other two are perfectly comfortable with not eating until after their 7 hour nap. Rossi is the most active one too, so it isn't a matter of exercise. Oh well, I am sure he will find a way to get rid of it.

I'm assuming that the shelter had her fixed before you got her and they informed you of this? If not and she has been outside, she could be pregnant.

Actually almost that very thing did happen already with this cat. I adopted her and it was unknown if she was spayed. two and a half weeks after I brought her home (this is back in Februaru) she gave birth to a kitten that died. She has since not gone outside and was fixed in March. So, she is not pregnant. She is a solid cat to start with so I don't expect her to be a perfect model of weight but she has some extra weight I think, at least she is fatter than when I got her (post pregnancy).

The spaying may also have contributed to her weight gain. I'm sure you are feeding kitten food for the kitten, so that's probably another factor there. Maybe you could feed the kitten it's kitten food seperately and not leave it out and just leave out the adult food?

That might be it, I will try to feed them in the evenings separately. In the morning I just don't have enough time for that.

I was trying to exercise her more with a dangly toy too but it doesn't work with her. She is a creeper. She just creeps all along the furniture and pounces once so that doesn't really give her that much exercise.

You could also try catnip. Mine get very active with it!

I will try that, she has not had any yet.