Fat Cat...

Piquant_2

Hi - longtime lurker on the pet forum here!

I'm hoping someone can advise. I have adopted a rescue cat, not my first. I've had him about eight weeks. He is an absolute darling, but is always eating!

He is two years old and was dumped by his previous owners in some wasteland twenty miles from his home, whilst they moved house over two hundred miles away. They can't have been too bright as he was microchipped and they were traced to their new home. In short, they didn't want him anymore as a cat didn't fit their lifestyle anymore.

However, he had been fending for himself for at least three months, so every meal is important to him as he probably didn't know where his next one was coming from.

I've been feeding him when he asked without really thinking about it and hadn't noticed his weight gain until the vet pointed it out to me yesterday! He has an allergic reaction to flea bites even though he hasn't got any, apparently the fleas bite and die, but his skin reacts. Just something we will have to live with.

Back to the original request...How much food is normal for a cat. The vet says feed him for a 4.5kg cat. At the moment he has Whiskas wet and dry food as that is what he was feed at the cat shelter. I was thinking of three pouches a day and about 20g of dry, do you think this is too much or too little? The instructions on the packs are not clear as they are in diagram form and possibly I am too thick to understand them!

He is the dearest of cats and I want to do what is right and healthy for him, despite his protests that he is fading away...

Many thanks

Piq

rising_from_the_ashes

Awwwww poor wee soul ..... what a horrid thing to happen (and what stupid people:() - so glad he's found you now.

He may well always overeat a bit - hopefully once he realises food is always going to be around it will help.

It's really difficult to say about how much to feed as each cat is different - I have 2 who are both around the same weight but one is very skinny, picks at his food & really needs to gain weight when the other is very fat, eats all the time and needs to lose weight .... it's really hard.

Really just a case of feeding and seeing if the weight comes off at all - 3 pouches sounds quite a lot to me with dry as well?

RosaBernicia

How about recording what he has at the moment, then gradually trimming it? That might be easier on both of you than suddenly cutting him down drastically.

Also, I don't think the info on the packs is necessarily reliable - my big mog should be about 6 kg but has never eaten as much as they recommend for a 4kg, and was putting on weight when I served that (and no AFAIK he's not also being fed by anyone else!). What has worked for him is me measuring how much dry food I put out per day - I used to just top it up so he had plenty - and taking it up overnight. I guess moggies are liable to eat what's in front of them like many of the rest of us

He may also calm down more as he settles - I've had big mog about 5 months and he has suddenly decided that he'd prefer to have his stroll before breakfast (works fine on the days I'm home, results in lots of yowling on the days I'm going to work :rotfl:), or at least leave the food to warm up instead of eating it straight out of the fridge. I think it may be to do with realising nobody else is going to eat the food while he's away.

Though we now have little mog - who was also abandoned by :eek::mad::eek::mad::mad: people moving house and leaving her behind - and he's turning his nose up at anything she's also been given. Until he's actually hungry

Glad moggie and you have found each other :A


Rosa xx

[Deleted User]

Mine get half a sachet each in the morning, and a whole one at night.

And they always have a bowl of dry food out that they can graze on.

Perhaps if there was always something for him to graze on throughout the day then he'd not feel the need to assume that every meal is his last?

It's a difficult one

Piquant_2

Thank you for your help, it's really appreciated.

He's polished off two pouches and 20g dry food today already, the bowls are licked clean. The idea, clearly not shared by the cat, was that the dry food would stay down all day for nibbling at. Needless to say, it's all gone!

Normally, he'd be out in the day for a few hours, but today everywhere is flooded and waterlogged and he has refused to leave the house Being in gives him plenty of time to think about his tummy.

I think today he'll end up with four pouches, but once I'm at work tomorrow he'll be down to three.

This is very difficult :rotfl:I'm not sure how I'm going to resist his persuasive powers....In case you're interested, here is a picture of him.

IMG]http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t386/Piquant2/Colin.jpg[/IMG

rising_from_the_ashes

Awwwwww, he's lovely!

4 pouches ...... wow!

Really need to try to get some weight off wee cat but so difficult as need to leave dry down for skinny cat who literally just eats a couple of mouthfulls at a time ... several times a day *sigh*

McKneff

Wow, he is eating too much.

Our cat gets half a pouch, then later on dry food for lunch, the second half of the pouch at teatime and a handful of dry at supper. The vet said to feed dry food last because wet food would stick on her teeth and be there all night and end up rotting her teeth.

She is a constant 4.5kg, would eat all day if I let her.
You must ignore her pleas for food, until it is time to feed her.

And by the way, I dont know if anyone has let you know that you musn't feed cats milk, it is bad for their kidneys. This came from the Vet.

Yu must let her know who is boss or she will take major advantage of you,

scaredy_cat

my Giz eats between 2 and 3 pouches a day plus dried which is left down all the time. he does graze but he's a young cat, only 18mths old and he is a big cat in that he's long and tall, not fat.

if you feed him a set amount twice a day and try to ignore any begging, he may get the idea that food will always be there and he doesn't have to eat all now incase there's not a next meal, iyswim.

Piquant_2

Thank you all so much. I am ignoring his begging and have been playing with him. He loves his ball and is happy to run up and down the hall batting it and somersaulting over it - very cute and exercise as well.

Luckily, because of going to the vet he is not obese, he's chunky. My bad feeding habits were caught in time! The vet said it wouldn't take long to slim him down and he wasn't dangerously overweight, but it needed to be sorted out now and that is what I am doing.

He wouldn't leave my side when we returned home, he seemed almost relieved that I had brought him home and not left him behind. This is his forever home and, hopefully, he will learn that he is always fed, just at set times and set amounts.

snozberry

Oh the poor darling! If it helps, my boy was the same when I first brought him home. He acted as though every meal was his last and then he went on the rob whenever the opportunity arose. He was a glutten! He did settle down and now eats properly.

I would personally, wean him off Whiskers and give him something a lot better to eat.

Have you thought about incorporating exercise time into his day? Cats would sleep all day if they had the choice. We have laser pen time everyday as mine are having to stop in as I have recently moved house.

Piquant_2

snozberry wrote: »

Oh the poor darling! If it helps, my boy was the same when I first brought him home. He acted as though every meal was his last and then he went on the rob whenever the opportunity arose. He was a glutten! He did settle down and now eats properly.

I would personally, wean him off Whiskers and give him something a lot better to eat.

Have you thought about incorporating exercise time into his day? Cats would sleep all day if they had the choice. We have laser pen time everyday as mine are having to stop in as I have recently moved house.

That gives me some hope that he will settle down, thank you! The exercise regime is a brilliant idea, playing ball with him is a good start. He is afraid of anything that makes a noise, meaning the balls with bells have been relegated to a box. He is also afraid of the bird on stick type toys, just runs away and hides under the bed. He is not the bravest of cats...

I have been looking at other types of cat food, the Bozita range seems to be well thought of. I was also looking to getting at Zooplus via Quidco. I could probably pick up a laser pen too!