Show us your kitty cats

krooton · 21 Aug 2015 at 10:20

A variety!

Gf's cats

And Winston, who is now overweight at 6.6 kgs

PiKe · 21 Aug 2015 at 10:44

I forgot to say my cat is kept indoors, so would that reduce the amount of food he would require?

ThereIs0nly0ne · 21 Aug 2015 at 10:46

Harlequin chillin'

RoboCod · 21 Aug 2015 at 11:03

PiKe said:
I forgot to say my cat is kept indoors, so would that reduce the amount of food he would require?

I've never heard that advice, I can see why you might think that but I doubt an outside cat would need much more than an indoor cat to sustain.

Tefal · 21 Aug 2015 at 11:07

id have thought more, outside cats supplement their diet with the local wildlife.

RoboCod · 21 Aug 2015 at 11:30

Tefal said:
id have thought more, outside cats supplement their diet with the local wildlife.

Also true, which is why raw diets are perfectly fine.

krooton · 21 Aug 2015 at 11:53

Winston eats raw, but my ex gives him too much, and he does too little exercise

BuffetSlayer · 21 Aug 2015 at 12:14

PiKe said:
I forgot to say my cat is kept indoors, so would that reduce the amount of food he would require?

Possibly. Depends on how how active your cat is. Our cats definitely put weight on if kept indoors because they just tend to sleep and are nowhere near as active as when outside. But we don't have indoor activity things for them like a lot of indoor cat owners do.

I suppose the only thing to do will be to choose a starting point and take it from there. If your cat is getting overweight, reduce the food intake or increase activity levels by introducing more play.

Every cat is different. One of our cats has very low activity levels even when outdoors, but the other one is a complete loon and will be out and about all day and soon works off any excess weight. The other one needs to have his feeding regime modified because he is a lazy sod!

EDIT - also some cats are perpetually hungry and will meow for food when they dont even need it. Our one cat has great self regulation with food, but the other one MUST eat it if it is there to be eaten and has eaten so many biscuits in the past he has made himself sick, so we tend to regulate what we leave out as much as we can - but he is always the one bringing in birds and mice and scoffing them. We get in to find the remains and a rather self satisfied looking pud!

neil_g · 21 Aug 2015 at 12:16

our boys (indoor cats) get:

6AM
1/2 pouch of meat (each)
30g biscuit

6PM
1/2 pouch of meat (each)
30g biscuit (typically 1/2 of their morning biscuit is left over so is just topped up)

they do loon around the house (3 bed so a lot of space) a lot so are pretty active. for 2 year olds they're about average weight wise.

iaind · 21 Aug 2015 at 12:19

Mine get a handful of biscuits each in the morning when I get up and half a pouch of wet foot each with another handful of biscuits in the evening. They're outdoor cats and I lock them in at night when it gets dark, so they get fed then (they're much less willing to come in with full bellies!).

Both are healthy weights

Schnippzle · 21 Aug 2015 at 12:40

neil_g said:
our boys (indoor cats) get:

6AM
1/2 pouch of meat (each)
30g biscuit

6PM
1/2 pouch of meat (each)
30g biscuit (typically 1/2 of their morning biscuit is left over so is just topped up)

they do loon around the house (3 bed so a lot of space) a lot so are pretty active. for 2 year olds they're about average weight wise.

Misread that as "1/2 pound" and thought wow! big kitties!

doodah · 21 Aug 2015 at 12:49

Winston won't say no to a bit of Cat Crack:

RoboCod · 21 Aug 2015 at 19:50

Handsome cat

knip · 21 Aug 2015 at 20:16

Bruce is getting far too grown up and I'm not sure I like it.

neil_g · 21 Aug 2015 at 20:44

Schnippzle said:
Misread that as "1/2 pound" and thought wow! big kitties!

I'm sure they'd give it a go

PiKe · 21 Aug 2015 at 22:54

Here's the little tinker by the way.

Kronos · 22 Aug 2015 at 13:15

Spent the last couple of days or so in hospital following a minor procedure. Took to my bed when I got home and my personal nurse was in attendance.

knip · 22 Aug 2015 at 21:46

Bruce and Dave. Verrrry slllooooowly getting there.

Nexus18 · 23 Aug 2015 at 11:28

I would try to avoid dry food as much as possible too, if you have to give it to your cat, then only once a day and only about 10-15 pellets of it imo.

Sprite is very prone to getting cystitis so we can't give her much, if any dry food.

As for other food, we got Sprite onto the "good" food about 8 months ago, this is her list of what she likes etc.

Foods she currently likes:

Grau
Petnatur
GrantaPet
Power of Nature
Terra Felis

Foods she previously liked but has since gone off:

Animonda Carny
Lilly's
CatzFine Food

Foods she never took to:

Terra Pure
Macs
Ropocat
Baldwin

We mix it up with felix every now and then though as she is the most fussy cat ever, could clean a bowl completely and then next day we give her the same food, she won't touch it...

We do a rotational diet so as to stop her getting bored of one brand i.e. brand a one day, brand b the next etc.

lafemmefatale · 26 Aug 2015 at 13:49

I've recently moved into a new area and I have a third floor flat. I've always had cats and the place feels quite empty without a little furry companion. As I've never had an indoor cat (always lived in a house with plenty of countryside around in the past), what's the necessary adjustments to make to ensure their long term health and happiness?