Chubby Kitty vs Skinny Kitty

[Loobyloo]

Hi Folks, hoping someone will have some pearls of wisdom for me on this one.

I have two cats, Sid and Nancy (brother and sister), They are just over a year old now. Nancy is chubby and Sid is skinny and has a sensitive tum so a lot of cat foods makes him sick. They are on complete dried food. I've tried feeding nancy on diet food and giving sid his normal stuff separately but he will have a couple of mouthfulls and then doesn't want any more and if he does manage to sneak any of the diet stuff he's sick. He likes to nibble throughout the day and will resist all attempts to persuade him to eat a full portion at meal times, and even when he is allowed to eat when he wants he remains really quite boney. Nancy will fill up at meal times and then nibble all day as well and she is proper little chubster now!

Both are happy and active with glossy coats etc although nancy is, ahem, not as light on her feet as she used to be and isn't able to leap up to high places.

Help!! How do I bulk him up and slim her down!?

[Millymollymandy]

Oh dear you have a nightmare situation, been there, done that and it's not easy!!! I only have one cat now who verges on obese even though he's been on a diet for years and has 5 small measured meals a day and wolfs it all down in 2 seconds flat. He also has to have special food for a sensitive stomach!

When we had a 'normal' cat and him, I would have to feed them separately as they ate different food. So we'd have fat cat howling as he does all the time for food anyway, then normal cat howling cos she wanted to just have a nibble. All we could do was keep putting her bowl down for her as and when she wanted it, and watch fat cat to make sure he didn't get in when she'd had enough. It really wasn't easy at all.

If there is a place your skinny cat could jump up to to eat where the other one can't get to that might work.

[Loobyloo]

Ooh, thats a good idea! Hmm will have to have a think if there is anywhere... thanks!

Oh and on the up side, chubby hardly ever miaows, she never cries for dinner just stoically accepts it as and when its provided!

[Millymollymandy]

You are lucky then! And I've just realised who Sid and Nancy are - skinny Sid, sounds about right! Hope he doesn't 'sing'.

[Thomzo]

I wouldn't worry about bulking up skinny sid. Just let him eat what he can when he wants. He'll probably put weight on in winter.

When my Jade was young she put on quite a lot of weight. An exercise programme helped (think kitty aerobics). Lots of running around with bits of string helped me to get fit as well. Now she fluctuates between skinny and chubby depending on the weather.

Zoe

[Mrs H]

Skinny cat is maybe just meant to be skinny!! We have 6 cats, all related and half of them r skinny minnies. They all get fed together. We find that r chunkies slim down a bit over summer and then bulk up over winter. As for the intolerance, do you give them milk? Milk and tinned food gives r's chronic squits!! I wouldn't worry too much as long as they r both healthy and happy. X

[agreenmess]

We own 3 cats of which two are skinny and one of them is seriously obese, we have had him on expensive diet food (as it’s the only one he will eat) for about a year now, what we do is they get feed twice a day and 2 of them get feed on one side of the kitchen and BamBam gets feed on the other side, we watch them to make sure BamBam doesn’t travel across to the other side and as soon a Felix and Spider are done we pick up the food. Before this we let them nibble throughout the day.

At first BamBam didn’t eat his food, so once he was finished even if he just had a few bites we picked the bowl up and then he didn’t get anymore till the next feed time. He soon wised up that if he didn’t eat it all he didn’t get anymore, or anything different.

My Mum and Dad have Spiders brother and he is really really skinny, he eats all day and gets several "treats" a day from fresh fish to cat treats (they do spoil him!!), though he does allot of exercise and is always bringing in "presents". It might just be that you skinny cat is very "out there" whereas your fat cat might be like BamBam and prefer to sleep all day??

Hope that helps

Nessy