Wet food for kitties

[RolliePollie]

I have a fat cat / skinny cat problem too, and when I get back from vacation, I'll have to try the canned pumpkin for fat Herald. Where did you get the Nutrical? Meanwhile the kitties will board at the vet, so fatty's diet will be monitored, and Bonnie will get all the food she wants (+ her thyroid pills 2x/day). Two more work days, then camping! No electronic means of communication for a week!!!! They won't be able to find me!!!

I found Nutri-cal at a local feed store but I'm sure you can get it online too. She actually likes Laxatone better (kitty laxative made by the same company) and sometimes I have to give her a little lick of that to convince her she likes the Nutri-cal too!

Mimi - I tried several different scenarios to convince my skinny kitty to eat at specific feeding times, but I guess she's just more stubborn than most because nothing worked. I really think this is a cat who only eats the bare minimum to survive. She has just never been interested in eating. The looks she gives me when I try to get her to eat are really pretty funny. She looks at me like I'm totally nuts!

[Biciclista]

Mimi - I tried several different scenarios to convince my skinny kitty to eat at specific feeding times, but I guess she's just more stubborn than most because nothing worked. I really think this is a cat who only eats the bare minimum to survive. She has just never been interested in eating. The looks she gives me when I try to get her to eat are really pretty funny. She looks at me like I'm totally nuts!

how long did you try?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Whenever my cats get a change in diet (like from pellets to canned, or from regular to organic, changes like that in my pursuit to keep them healthy), they absolutely refuse to touch the new stuff at all. But after 3 or 4 days of literally starving, they always seem to miraculously change their minds. It takes will power on my part to 'allow' them the time to reconsider their preferences.
The last change a few months ago from dry pellets to canned wet food was the most difficult. It took several days and they were adamant about not eating canned food. But....hunger won out in the end, and now they dont' even care much for pellets at all and they just love the canned food that they despised before!
Funny what actual hunger will do for an appetite.

I have several friends with grossly obese cats who tell me their cats 'hardly eat anything' and they can't imagine why they are so fat. Then I see that they have GIGANTIC bowls brimming with pellets set out and they admit that the bowls are out and available 24 hours a day....but that their cats "really don't eat that much"!
Of course the cats are always waddling about like grotesque walruses during this discussion and can barely even clean or groom themselves anymore they are so fat.
Putting out 24-hour-a-day bowls of pellets is a recipe for obese cats.

Underweight elderly cats are a different problem altogether though.

[Tuckervill]

My cats have always been free feeders, and are not fat. My son has 3 cats who get fed twice a day and they are all as big as houses. The only difference is that mine go outside. I think it all just depends, you know?

Karen

[GLC1968]

My cats have always been free feeders, and are not fat. My son has 3 cats who get fed twice a day and they are all as big as houses. The only difference is that mine go outside. I think it all just depends, you know?

Karen

Ours is the same way. He is free fed (dry food) and has pretty much always been indoor/outdoor (4 years). He's very svelte, very active, and very healthy.

When we first moved here, he was confined to our apartment (for 4 months) and he did gain quite a bit of weight. He was getting what we called the 'beer belly'. After a few months at the new house, he was back to fighting weight. He also drinks a TON of water, but only because we allow him to do so from a dripping bathroom sink. When we used to go out of town, we'd confine him to the house and set up a water fountain. He drinks from that if he can't get us to turn on the water but he'd rather exercise his power over us if he can. He often will sit and meow at the dog door so that we'll hold it open for him. I draw the line at that.

[Aint Doody]

My Petey is in/out door and is a bit overweight but not obese. The problem is that our neighbors leave their cat food outside. All the kitties in the neighborhood join them for "snacks" at will. I just hate it because it also brings in skunks, possums, and raccoons at night.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My cats have always been free feeders, and are not fat. My son has 3 cats who get fed twice a day and they are all as big as houses. The only difference is that mine go outside. I think it all just depends, you know?

Karen

Yes it does depend, there are many variables. And some cats do seem to be more prone to getting fat than others!

GLC- your cat looks just like my Lydia!

[GLC1968]

Lisa - they look like siblings!

Lydia doesn't seem to have that 'holier than thou' look that our cat ALWAYS has on his face. I swear that most of the time ours looks like he'd kill us in our sleep if he could.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Lisa - they look like siblings!
Lydia doesn't seem to have that 'holier than thou' look that our cat ALWAYS has on his face.

Oh yes she does!- we call it her "Buddha face"- very wise and all knowing- meditative and 'holy'. She puts it on regularly.

And lydia's color is a bit milkier thanit looks in that photo- her color really matches your kitty perfectly. Does yours have a slight rosy tinge to his belly fur like Lydia? Our Lydia has a brick colored nose- we call it her "Kool-Stop nose pad"

[tantrumbean]

Lisa - they look like siblings!

Lydia doesn't seem to have that 'holier than thou' look that our cat ALWAYS has on his face. I swear that most of the time ours looks like he'd kill us in our sleep if he could.

GLC, I think I've found you another family member - just a bit more white on Eric than yours!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh they are all so cute!!! There is something about velvety grey kitties and their little *****-willow toes...

[Biciclista]

Aggie is jealous

[tantrumbean]

AWWWW! She's gorgeous!!!

[GLC1968]

Our cat (his name is actually Kitty, original, no?) does have a rosy tinge to his belly! I never really noticed his nose color, but I'll definitely look tonight.

Mimi - your kitty looks exactly like our neighbors cat - his name is Rocky. He's a lover...and so incredibly gorgeous.

I'm generally a dog person, but there is a special place in my heart for grey kitties.

Funny story. As I mentioned earlier, we have a dog door. One night, we were rudely awoken by both of our dogs barking like mad in the house. It was clear that there was something there and not just random 'I hear coyotes' barking. We both jump up and follow the smart dog to what she's trying to show us. There's a cat curled up on my husband's desk chair. We glanced at it, told the dogs to get over it and started to go back to bed (we thought it was our cat). Then the cat lifts his head and opens his gorgeous emerald green eyes. We about had a heart attack!

The funny thing is, only the day before did our neighbor mention to my husband that she'd lost a cat a few months ago. She described this same cat to my husband and almost started crying thinking that it had been taken by the coyotes. Had she not told him that, we would have chased this cat out of our house! Instead, we closed the office door and left him there until morning. Then my husband took him next door and made our neighbors day! Now we see him around all the time (though luckily, not IN our house anymore!).

[Biciclista]

The funny thing is, only the day before did our neighbor mention to my husband that she'd lost a cat a few months ago. She described this same cat to my husband and almost started crying thinking that it had been taken by the coyotes. Had she not told him that, we would have chased this cat out of our house! Instead, we closed the office door and left him there until morning. Then my husband took him next door and made our neighbors day! Now we see him around all the time (though luckily, not IN our house anymore!).

GLC thanks for the great story. I hear about too many cats disappearing because of coyotes. I like an occasional happy ending too.