Fat cats

meoklmrk91

I have always fed the cats adlib and it has always worked fine. But now it has started going against me, my older cat is 9 and has started to gain weight as she is slowing down and the younger cat who is 2 has gained 25% of her weight since may due to luxating patellas, making her much less active, which is only going to worsen her condition.

The younger cat was at the vet yesterday just to get checked over and we agreed to put her on a diet, hills r/d and I am putting the older cat on it too as its just easier when you have two and i would like to get her weight down as well.

We put the food out last night, the right amount for both in their bowls and by this morning they had both eaten it all, I feel terribly guilty now as they are gong to have to go without food for the day!

Has anyone else had this issue and does anyone have any tips for me?

kylith

Just ignore the pestering for food. You are not starving them, they will not die. Sure they might be a bit hungry, but it's for their own good and you'll be putting years on their lives in the long run.

meoklmrk91

kylith wrote: »

Just ignore the pestering for food. You are not starving them, they will not die. Sure they might be a bit hungry, but it's for their own good and you'll be putting years on their lives in the long run.

Will do. Your completely right, they have clearly been over eating if they have eaten their daily recommended allowance overnight.

Alun

We've just been through this ourselves ... one cat was 6.6kg and the other was 5.8kg, and like you we had just got used to feeding them when they 'asked' for it.

The vet read the riot act to us the last time we had them there for their annual jabs, and we had them on Royal Canine 'Obesity Management' for about 5 months until their weight dropped sufficiently and now have them on Hills Light. They now just get fed twice a day, and exactly the amount suggested, and eat everything in one go as opposed to earlier when they'd always leave something.

Both cats are now at 4.5kg, which is what they were when they were younger, and although it is tough to start with, they, and you (!), do get used to it in the end, and we've noticed a huge improvement in both cats, but especially the heavier one who is now a lot more lively.

meoklmrk91

Thanks for the reply alun, it would be great if they would eat it all in one go, much easier to keep on top of things, to minimise them eating eachothers food we can only feed them at night when they are separated but hopefully in future we will get into a routine and we can feed them twice a day. Hoping that this might give the older one a new lease on life, she has been slowing down a massive amount over the last year or so, part of which is normal but still.

Alun

I split the recommended daily amount in two, and feed them half first thing in the morning, and the other half in the evening. It mostly all goes down in one go without them coming up for breath, but sometimes one of them finishes earlier and then tries to get at the other one's remaining food. In that case I just shoo the greedy one outside, and let the other one finish in peace. It does mean I have to keep a keen eye on them while they're feeding though which is a bit of an inconvenience.

I have also noticed a dramatic increase in the number of half-eaten mice in the back garden as well

Graces7

Alun wrote: »

I split the recommended daily amount in two, and feed them half first thing in the morning, and the other half in the evening. It mostly all goes down in one go without them coming up for breath, but sometimes one of them finishes earlier and then tries to get at the other one's remaining food. In that case I just shoo the greedy one outside, and let the other one finish in peace. It does mean I have to keep a keen eye on them while they're feeding though which is a bit of an inconvenience.

I have also noticed a dramatic increase in the number of half-eaten mice in the back garden as well

My two get fed as they want, but as they are on raw chicken etc their weight is fine. Girl is mouthy when she needs food... The necks take a long time to eat which is a good thing.

All the mice in this area ran up the lane waving a white flag long ago. two cats and two more ferals and a terrier.