question about feeding a pounce of cats

[Bertha Venation]

We have ten cats. One of them is obese, and the only way to get her to lose weight is to put everyone on the same diet. We used to free-feed kibble; that's why she got so fat: she was constantly at the bowl. But now we're feeding each a half-can of wet food in the morning and a half-can in the late afternoon. No kibble. No free-feeding.

Tomorrow we're going to be gone until well after dark. They'll get their morning feeding, of course. What do you think: should we put out kibble for the day, or just feed them late when we get home?

Thanks.

2 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	let them wait until you get home
	1 (50%)
	put out kibble for the day
	1 (50%)
	take them with you on the boat
	0 (0%)
	lock them all out of the house and let them catch their dinner
	0 (0%)
	other -- please advise
	0 (0%)
	Robb is a dingbat
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Xyzse]

1. Check this out from the Animal House

http://wamuanimalhouse.org/shows/2012-11-17/how-much-should-i-feed-my-pet/transcript

WEITZMAN
12:45:33
Yeah. And that's the issue with cats and often with having multiple cats which, you know, I'm a huge fan of having multiple animals, but it's very difficult. Often you'll have one cat that's overweight and another cat that's underweight. And then what do we -- how do we prescribe anything that's going to work for everybody? It's impossible. But I think you're probably okay. If you could, I would talk to your vet again about this, and basically it's getting her on a low carbohydrate diet.

We really think that that's a good way to maintain weight and health in cats, and definitely the best way out there now for them to lose weight. You know, it's kind of like the Atkins Diet or the South Beach, but it's pretty strict for cats and just cutting down the calories and increasing fiber doesn't always do it, and I'm sure you've already considered using, you know, one of the light foods out there, you know, as the grazing food.

So, I mean, you could start with that. I have not seen too many cats lose weight on light foods. Okay. Let me correct that. I have never seen cat lose weight on light foods, all right? But hopefully they won't gain weight. So if you could keep everything -- everybody at the weight they are now, would you be satisfied?

JOELLA
12:46:39
Yes. But we often try to restrict her eating, and I worry did she get enough? I wonder how much is enough for her.

WEITZMAN
12:46:49
Yeah. She probably doesn't need a ton, especially if she's 13 and three-quarter pounds at this point. Okay. I would say just as a general recipe, feed your cats canned food twice a day. You can put individual dishes down for each of them so that they're all getting the bulk of their food from canned food. Go to a light food as a dry, and preferably a premium kind, you know, a premium quality food. The EVO is fine, but go with the light one, and leave that out for grazing, and see what happens.

If she starts to really gain a lot of weight from it, then you are going to have to restrict the food for the other ones. But the good news is, that most of their calories are going to be gotten from the canned food and that's really what we recommend anyway. So does that make any sense? Give it twice a day, make hers a smaller amount, make theirs a larger amount of canned food, and then just...

Also, I'd suggest placing the food for grazing at a harder to reach place!
Make the fat one work for it.

Still, if it is just for the day, I don't think you should worry about it too much.

[Bertha Venation]

2. Wow. Thanks a lot, Xyzse!

(My google skills are sorely lacking.)

[Xyzse]

3. Thanks, but to tell the truth

I heard that in NPR while I was driving towards the GS shelter I volunteer for. I do it on Saturdays and they have the Animal House in the mornings during that time.

It is pretty cool!

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. Wait 'til you get home, but expect to be SURROUNDED, ENCLOSED, ENGULFED by;;;

.
.
.
... a caterwauling hoard reminding you that:
.
.
.
... You forgot to feed us!
.
... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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... You forgot to feed us!
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,,,HELLOOO! YOU FORGOT TO FUCKING FEED US!!!
.
.
.

[Bertha Venation]

8. ah, yes

And they'll be trying to trip us the whole time we're trying desperately to get the cans open.

[rug]

5. Proceed with great caution.

[Bertha Venation]

9. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That's freaky, rug.

[Chan790]

6. How obese?

My aunt had this same problem but her cat was so obese (and diabetic) that it could no longer jump so it was easily remedied by leaving food out for the others on a large-topped plant stand.

[Bertha Venation]

10. She's not so big that she can't jump.

She's about five pounds overweight. We call her Jabba the Catt. (Her name is O'Malley.) I wish we could put the kibble up high.

[Arugula Latte]

7. I'm a permissive cat mom. I'd think: "Eh, it's just for one day."

I can't stand to think of little hungry kitties waiting for me to get home.

[Bertha Venation]

11. Neither can I, A.L.

Fortunately I will have a supreme distraction: a day on the Choptank River.

[mockmonkey]

12. You never know

I'm for leaving kibble out for the day. If something should happen that you don't get home when you thought at least you don't have to worry that they haven't eaten since that morning.

But then again I was instilled with lots of anxiety and doom and gloom from my Mom, who wonders why I am so negative.