Daily Kitten Chat Forum » General Chat

1. 

   This came up in my post about Nora yesterday, but I thought I would open it up for suggestions. Nora has always been a big girl, but the time has come where she really needs to lose some weight. I have two problems:

   None of the cats like wet cat food, they only eat dry. That means portion control is difficult. My cats have been what we refer to as "free range kitties", with dry food always left out for them.

   They refuse to eat at the same time, even though I have separate bowls. This makes it impossible to monitor how much each one is eating.

   So, I am looking for some ideas. How do you get one cat to lose weight while making sure the others are eating enough?

   Posted 7 months ago by NNGM #

2. 

   The foster mom I work with has 21 cats to care for. One of the cats is a big girl, Sally. She is a giant compared to the other cats. All of the cats are used to having food always available to them, day and night. Sally was getting even bigger, so we decided to limit her food. We thought maybe she was 'stress eating' at night. So we started to give the cats a full dish of food in the morning and they eat what ever they want. At night the food dish is taken away. It took a couple of days to adjust but the cats figured it out. Generally, cats know how much they need to eat. Sally has been losing her roundness and the other cats have kept their normal weight.
   For Mittens I have to feed her twice a day or she would be orange and white baksetball.

   Posted 7 months ago by Teresa #

3. 

   I'd say switch to a low carb dry food with high protien and fat.

   Have you tried "accidently" dropping some wet food on the floor when one of your cats is watching? That worked for Milo to realize he could eat wet food. Fancy Feast most cats can't resist.

   Posted 7 months ago by furryfriends50 #

4. 

   NNGM...I guess I'm one of those who understands completely, the problems w/feeding multiple cats. I really had a problem w/the 3 Muskateers & still struggle. Spunky is close to 20 lbs. of sheer beast. Don't know why he's so much bigger than Misty & Rusty. I also have a prob. w/him being susceptable to crystals (a double whammy). He loves kibble & I practically have to force feed him canned.
   I did what Teresa suggested. Took the kibble away from them at night. It doesn't seem to be affecting his bro & sis weights. But,it does make him hungry enuf to eat his wet food in the morning. He's become a very Large-boned kitty(don't know if it's from the side of Hopper or from his mother Hissy). He sounds & feels like a hippo when running & playing.

   Posted 7 months ago by feral #

5. 

   I have a container that has the daily quota for all 4 of my cats (dry kibble) that I measure out each AM. I put ~half down in the AM, and the rest in the evening. Everyone eats when it appears, some more than others, but when it is gone it is gone. Porky Puzzles is most frequently at the bowls, but has stopped gaining. Leia has slimmed a bit and Luke and Hester are maintaining weight just fine. You have to be the one to control the access... I had to feed one of my cats a special diet for a while, and then I had to pick up the other food when the rest left the bowls so he would not get to it... THAT was a hassle... They will adapt, and certainly will not starve!

   Posted 7 months ago by nawlins catmom #

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