SOME ONE HELP ME WITH MY FAT CAT!

My sister's cat was getting fat. The vet told her to switch from dry to wet food. It worked. Don't try to get the weight off fast, though. Quick, dramatic weight loss can be fatal to cats. Something about how their liver metabolizes. I'm too lazy to Google it.

The New York Times this weekend had an editorial on the obesity epidemic in this country. It said that a little known aspect of this epidemic is that our pets and our lab animals appear to be getting fatter over time too. This editorial said that, as far as the experts can tell, this is happening even though the animals really aren't eating more than they used to.
The point of the editorial was that the rising level of obesity is a bit more complicated, probably, than just a lack of willpower and bigger soda drinks.

First of all, stop feeding your cats garbage food. Go get them something that has real food in the ingredients (not "by-products") and preferably grain-free.

First of all, stop feeding your cats garbage food. Go get them something that has real food in the ingredients (not "by-products") and preferably grain-free.

Any suggestions for brands?

Without seeing the cat, my first thought is that the cats are eating the kitten chow. It's way higher in calories than the cat chow. Also, it's unlikely that 3 cats are maintaining or gaining weight on a half a cup of cat chow in total per day unless you're measuring with huge cups. A half cup of Cat Chow is 206 kcals total. The RMR of the 17 lb cat alone is higher than that.

Is Cat Chow the best food? Nope. Will the fact that it isn't nutritionally optimal somehow make a cat gain weight in a calorie deficit? Nope. Cats, while good at ignoring most rules, have to obey energy balance laws too. My day is filled with clients telling me all about how their overweight cat or dog only eats a "little bit of food," but when I get them to measure it, the animal is almost always getting a surplus.

As for weight, weight is useless as a population measure in cats. It's like saying what's a good weight for a person? You need to know frame, breed, size, etc. Body condition scoring is the way we determine whether or not an animal is at a healthy weight. My Maine Coon is at an optimal weight at 14 lbs. My uncle's little domestic shorthair is obese at 11 lbs. If an otherwise healthy cat is so fat she has problems cleaning herself, she's probably not at a healthy weight.

Are you separating them when they eat? Are you watching them? How do you know they aren't finishing their food, then eating one of the other cat's food as well?

Even some of the premium brands (I like Wellness) have rice in them so aren't strictly grain free but what you really want to avoid are corn, wheat and soy. The first two or three ingredients should be meat of some type (and not by-products). If you can get to Costco they actually have a pretty good food under their Kirkland brand that is reasonably priced.

Thanks, @aleggett321 and @callie006. I'll go read some labels. No Costco locally, nearest one's at least 150 miles away. :ohwell:

I feed my 12lb 16month old Wellness. She is actually a carboholic, which apparently is not normal for cats. I think its genetic since I love carbs too! Anyway, check out Wellness. My vet loves that I feed her that. She was getting wet food and crunchies twice a day, was down to wet food at supper and crunchies twice a day and is now reversed and gets wet food twice a day and a very small amount of crunchies (which has made her homicidal because she, again, is a carboholic!) He said she will probably lose a few on just the wet but he doesn't seem concerened about her weight. I think it depends on the type and build of the cat too