What should I feed my fat cat?

Question

I have a 5 year old male, American Shorthair, that I adopted 2 years ago.When we got him, he was already overweight, and we have been feeding him with a 1/3 cup dry food every day.

I went on a 2 month trip and when I came back I realized that his weight was REALLY out of control. His belly jiggles when he walks!! I read that I should feed him canned food without grains, but I don't know what brand.

I'm looking for a brand, that is not too expensive, and not too hard to find. Please, I really want to help my poor cat. Also if there's another way to help my cat lose weight, please put that in too. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Theres food you can buy i think science plan and pro plan do it its called weight contol. And feedhim indoor cat food (less calories). Also get him lots of toys and play with him for at least 20 mins a day.

As for canned food there are so many take a look on the labels and see what will fit your ca best.

Answer 2

get him on diet food

Answer 3

Put him on 5 tablespoons of high protein low carb cat food twice s day. EVO is excellent but expensive. Wellness CORE is good too.  

Answer 4

You are correct to think that grain-free wet food will be better for your overweight kitty than most dry foods.

I feed my kitties grain-free foods from treating a diabetic kitty for years.  There are many good brands available and you can do a quick check of the ingredients label. But one of the quickest ways is to avoid anything that says 'gravy' in the title or any of the pouch foods.  

Fancy Feast has several gluten free flavors and I have attached the list from the feline diabetes website.  These are available at most grocery stores or WalMart for about 50 cents a 3 oz can.  One of the downsides of these are the by-products.  

A food that I have found recently is the PetsMart brand Authority.  The meats are listed as meat and not by-products.  My cats like every flavor I've gotten, even flavors that they turn their cute little noses up at of other brands.  The 6 oz can is about 60 cents.

I also add a little water to their food and stir it until it is mushy or soupy.  Kitties are not big water drinkers.  Adding the water serves two purposes, give kitty more water in their diet and keeps the food from drying out too quickly.

I would try feeding him 3-4 small meals a day rather than 2 larger meals.  This would prevent him from getting so hungry between meals and begging for food.

The second link is a nice website about cat nutrition written by a cat lover and veterinarian.  She explains in easy to read terms about dry, wet and raw diets and some of the common health problems from a poor diet.

The last link is for Innova EVO.  If you would like a dry formula, this is a completely grain free human quality food.  I tried it with my kitties, but they could not handle how protein rich it was. But it is worth you checking for your kitty.  The 6.6 lb bag is about $18 and should last you a while.  This sized bag would last about a month with 5 kitties. They do have a wet formula, but the store I shop didn't carry it in stock.  They could order for me, but the store is over an hour drive from me and I didn't want to order not knowing when I could make the trip again.

As for helping him in his weight loss, try to play/exercise him daily.  The last link are some ideas from Drs Foster & Smith.

Purrs to you and kitty.

Answer 5

Feed a low fat tinned cat food, replace 1 teaspoon of cat food with a teaspoon of bran, this will make him feel full.  Its important that your cat 'thinks' he is getting enough food.  There are also many low fat dry foods to choose from

Answer 6

That's really great that you are helping your cat, because some people just wouldn't care!

I'm pet-sitting a 'plump' cat right now, and his vet said he should be fed 1/4 cup of tuna twice a day, with only a little dry food kept in his bowl.  My own cat is a nervous eater, and always stops to chow down whenever she walks past her bowl.  Luckily she does get lots of excercise.  The easiest way to help get your cat more active may be to use a laser pointer.  Less effort for you, and it can make her chase around in circles forever!

Brands of food are hard to say because I think the best ones are a little pricier.  Foods comparably higher in protein are best for weight control.  I get mine from the vet-  (sorry can't remember brand now) but I mix it with dry food- Science Diet-Sensitive Stomach. Changing a cats food too suddenly can make them ... um, purge.  (Throw up).   I learned that the hard way.  So whatever you do, mix your new food in with the old for a while during transition.

Good luck, and if I can find bag of my kitty's food brand I'll come back and write it for you.