Low calorie cat food

[shalebing]

One of my cats, who is roughly 4-5 years old, is rather overweight and she tipped the scales at 5kg last time she was at the vet for her annual booster. She doesn't really eat much but prefers dry food (Go Cat usually). If I feed her some wet food all she does is lick the jelly or gravy off it and leaves the meat. Is there a low calorie dry food that anyone can recommend? Bearing in mind what she does with wet food I don't see the point in buying low-cal wet food for her.

[alanc]

My neighbor uses Hill's Science Diet Adult Light on her pair of mogs, similar age and weight to yours. They haven't got any heavier, but are still overweight!

[booktigger]

Go-cat is very poor quality I'm afraid. Do you measure her food or just give her a bowl?

[shalebing]

Thanks for the replies. I don't measure her food - just top up her bowl which I tend to do at night as she is a cat that seems to do most of her eating during the night.

[alanc]

I think you would be best to measure out how much you give her. Next door's Tay and Toto are only allowed half a cup per day each. Tay does his best to get more by coming round to raid Tilly's left overs. Does your girl pinch your other cats food? If so, you may need to invest in a microchip cat feeder as well.

[booktigger]

Just weighing the food could help with her weight, it is very easy to overfeed on dry as the correct amount looks so small. I would still change her food for a better quality one tjough, Purina One is reasonably priced and easy to get hold of

[shalebing]

She doesn't eat my other cat's food as that one only likes wet food and, as I mentioned, Cleo is only interested in the gravy and not the actual meat. I'll try and get hold of some Purina1 and see what happens.

[Kay]

you could try her on a pate type food, which has no lumps - I have to feed my two on Gourmet Gold pate as they too are perennial lump leavers

except for tuna, which by some miracle they manage to eat without leaving the smallest scrap

[LittlePenBigHeart]

Please, please, please don't give a food specifically designed to target overweight pets. As AlanC has observed, they don't generally work (mainly because they are a nutritionally deficient food which is usually coated in fat to entice the cat to eat it - yes, that includes Hills and Royal Canin). Your best bet with getting ANY cat to lose weight is to put the cat on a high-nutrition, good-quality food, and follow the feeding guidelines for a cat of the weight you want your cat to be. Think about it for a moment - if we're overweight, we're always warned not to eat low-fat or reduced sugar items because they're usually filled with a bunch of other nasties we should avoid. We're told to eat good, natural foods, but in smaller portions, right? Same for our pets!

Something like More or Canagan would be your best bet. Use the feeding guide on the side to work out how much your cat should be eating (for example, if your cat is meant to be 4kg instead of 5kg, begin feeding the correct daily portion for a 4kg cat). It'll seem like a teeny portion to begin with but remember cats are satisfied by the nutrition in the food, NOT the portion size. Since Go-Cat has only 4% meat and animal derivatives only, and the rest is mostly cereals, you'll have had to feed a lot more....and the full feeling your cat gets will have been superficial, as the cereals bloat the stomach instead of truly satisfying.

Hope that helps!

[booktigger]

Just one comment on feeding what they should weigh rather than what they Do, if they need to lose more than half a kilo, don't reduce it by the full amount as losing weight too quickly can be bad for them, so using the example below, you'd feed for 4.5kg not 4kg

[Janey]

Regarding feeding wet food, lots of cats just lick the jelly or gravy off so you could try mashing it together, I’ve found it definitely helps.