Am I over feeding my cats?

1. 81

   Eiddwenposted 11 years ago

   Am I over feeding my cats?
   
   We were adopted about two months ago by Mother cat Tabatha and kitten Megan who is now around 18 weeks old. When we brought them home from the rescue centre they were both terribly thin but thankfully had good appetites. Today Tabatha has gone the other way and  has quite a fat tummy. They will both go out in around four weeks as Megan is being neutered in a week and  we decided to wait until they could both go out together. I keep their dish full of dried food and they eat a little tinned cat food twice daily .Am I over feeding??
   
   

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2. 60

   Martin VKposted 11 years ago

   I think it will be alright when the cats begin to go out! Cats are supposed to be agile and elegant - quick and flexible little creatures. I always thought something was wrong when I saw a cat that could barely move around.

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3. 47

   Ericdierkerposted 11 years ago

   If they eat the right food - which it appears here that they do, then it is not about the amount of food, but just like children, it is about the amount of exercise. If you got a couch potato you got a fat cat ;-)

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4. 72

   kidscraftsposted 11 years ago

   
   
   I have a tough vet.  She really insisted on not over feed our cats.
   Usually, cats would eat when they are hungry; I have one like that.  One of my son also has one like that. But sometimes, I suppose some cats are like human and they like to snack ;-)
   If I would let the food bowls available with always some food inside, my younger cat would not be able to walk because he would be seriously overweight. 
   My younger cat is two and a half years old; I feed him a small can of food (around 80 gr) in the morning and he gets a quarter cup of dry food in the evening.  Because he is a male he is a little bit more stocky than my other cat.
   My other cat, she is 17 and a half years old and she wants to nibble from time to time during the day and she is really thin!
   Maybe when your cats will go out, they will lose some weight.
   My cats are indoor cats because I live near a big road and several cats in the neighbourhood were hit by cars.
   I love the pictures of your cats:-)
   I will try to add a picture of my little monster :-)  He was trying to catch something on the table ;-)

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   1. 73

      CraftytotheCoreposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That looks like my Rusty.  He passed away several years ago, but he lived a very full life.

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5. 73

   CraftytotheCoreposted 11 years ago

   I have two indoor cats.  We give them about 1 cup of dried food each morning and one can of moist food.  They rarely finish all of it, but my Russian Blue still has the pouch.  He is totally active too.  One weighs 8 pounds, the other 12.  They run around like crazy all night, and sleep all day.

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6. 0

   Bob Bambergposted 11 years ago

   Absent a metabolic disorder or some other health issue, the only way they can get fat is to be overfed.  So the short answer is probably yes.

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7. 56

   kineticpoetposted 11 years ago

   It's easy to overfeed a kitty! I'd suggest not allowing them to graze. I was in and out of the hospital for a bit last year which meant leaving out extra food for my 2 year old... he's quite a bit pudgy now. Like other people have said, keeping them well exercised helps too so that it's not just a matter of feeding too much or too little.

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