questions ..

[tigerbaby]

If it wasn't for all the lovely helpful peeps on this forum I wouldn't have known much about catfood either! I used to assume it was all 'the same stuff'.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

thankyou everyone for your help, feel horrible for feeding him that rubbish..

Don't feel bad.  You weren't to know.  It's sold in the suermarkets and says it's a complete food, so unless you do loads of reading up about cat nutrition nobody would guess it's anything other than a perfectly ok food.  It is balanced, and there are cats who have lived long lives eating only stuff like that, but there are better foods out there if you know what to look for.  You've been given some good suggestions so far - JWB, royal canin, hills, PAH own brand are all pretty good dry foods.  I feed Orijen which I buy from zooplus as it's grain free.

[Millys Mum]

Also, dont feel bad for feeding go cat, when you look at what supermarkets stock its mainly poor quality dry so people just assume its ok 

[Millys Mum]

Slowly for his dry so he wont notice  he is an addict so needs to wean off gradually.
I would suggest james wellbeloved, pah brand, nutro or joe & jills. You can source sample packets of most of these.

Is he greedy? If so then 3 meals aday would break things up for him.

You need to be guided by his tray results in regards to wet food. Something like poultry felix in jelly would be worth a go, alot of high meat wet foods are rich so its a double edged sword between going grain free and getting the richness.
If you get pouches it will be fresher and you wont be tempted to give him more to use it up 

Its also important not to cut his food down too dramatically at once, and to weigh him once a month.

[sammy**]

thankyou everyone for your help, feel horrible for feeding him that rubbish..
im definatly going to change his diet, would it be alright to feed him a good quality dry food for his meal in the morning and wet food at tea time?
or is dry food a definate no no?
also how should i introduce him to the wet food? ..
sorry about all the questions, thankyou all for your help

[Ann Clarke (Tabby cat)]

I have two indoor cats and I feed them on Royal Canin Indoor plus wet food but there are other makes that do an indoor version too, not all of them expensive. It is especially designed for cats that live indoors most or all of the time and isn't as high in calories for them. I have one very active and one very lazy and although Dylan, the lazy one lol, isn't small he has managed to stay the same weight for the last two years. He also is prone to dandruff and I find when I feed the better quality dry his coat is much better.

I can also recommend the Da Bird, even Dylan loves it - never seen him move that much until I got it 

[Dawn F]

you need to change dry food gradually, Star is very conservative over food but I have managed to change her by slowly increasing the amount of new food daily

I can also recommend da bird, I got one for my lot at christmas and sort of forgot about it in a drawer, we had it out in the garden last night and had four very tired cats at the end of it, they took it in turns to chase it so they could have a little lie down!

[Mark]

Also wet food in Jelly is much lower in carbs than ones in gravy - Also gravy ones seem to upset a lot of cat's stomachs.

[Puffball (Louise)]

I prefer a combination of wet & dry food. But if you want to introduce a new make of food mix a little into his usual food and gradually increase the ratio of old to new over several days until you are able to drop the old food without him noticing 

[Gillian Harvey]

yeah ive tried him on loads of dry foods, iams, science plan, whiskers and loads more .. but he refuses to eat it and then i feel bad and end up giving him his usual..

Dry food is addictive - especially that of the Go Cat variety! Like MM said, he needs a high meat content/no or low carb food (so thats no grains, cereals) and preferably a wet food. Which wet foods did you try him with? you say it upset his tummy, but if it contained cereals thats probably why, cats arent designed to eat them. A balanced raw meat diet works wonders for overweight cats.

[sammy**]

yeah ive tried him on loads of dry foods, iams, science plan, whiskers and loads more .. but he refuses to eat it and then i feel bad and end up giving him his usual..
yeah i measure it .. got a laser toy he just ignores it lol, but loads of people have recommended da bird so im deffo gunna get that

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

It's possible the Go Cat is causing the flaky skin.  Have you tried him on a different brand of dry food?  A fatty acid supplement such as viacutan might help too.

I don't think bathing harms cats (provided you use a suitable shampoo that isn't too harsh) - I know Gillian bathes hers regularly - but regular bathing is unnecessary for most.

Dry food is notorious for causing cats to gain weight as it's fairly calorific and very easy to overfeed.  Do you measure out how much you give him or just fill the bowl.  If you dont, I recommend starting to measure out what you give him so that you can get an idea of exactly how much he is eating.  Da bird is great for getting them running around.  Laser toys are good too.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

I agree with Milly's Mum ... Go Cat isn't very good quality food.  Although the premium foods seem more expensive in the long run they work out better value over time.

[tigerbaby]

You can buy a toy on here called Da Bird, which mimics a bird in flight and is a success amongst our puddys. Jameson goes absolutely crazy for it, and it gives him plenty of excercise.

[sammy**]

we used too feed him wet food but it gave him an upset stomach so the vet told us to put him back on dry,
we're forever buying him treats, offering him ham and chicken, we've bought different dry foods but he refuses to eat it..
 hes got boxes of toys and we used to take him out in the garden but he just runs back too his bed, hes been like it ever since he got neutered when he was kitten ..
hopefully tomorrow ill find him something he'll like ..

[tigerbaby]

If you're going to Pets At Home, ask them for a sample of their own brand dry food (Pets At Home Premium). This is very good quality food for a decent price.

[Millys Mum]

Go cat is like eating mc donalds, its not healthy! If he is happy to eat other foods you should change him to a high meat low/no grain food.
Will he eat wet food? Because its mostly water they can eat more of it eg the manufacturer will say 400g wet or 60g dry. Eating a few biscuits isnt very exciting or time consuming for a bored lazy cat!

Also as he is an over weight sedantry male eating a dry diet he is at higher risk of developing bladder troubles.


PS. iv assumed you use frontline...

[sammy**]

i feed him go-cat, two half bowls twice a day..
i feel really bad for bathing him now, he used to get fleas all the time so we started bathing him with de-flear then noticed that his dandruff went so just carried it on .. but definatly gonna stop now 

[Millys Mum]

Fat cats dont tend to groom so much, you could try adding a skin supplement to his diet as baths are not fun for a cat. Also if you check the frontline packet i think you should leave it 3 days after bathing as the product needs the natural oils in the skin to work properly.
What do you feed him and how much?

You need to get him motivated again, theres some great toys in the purrs shop, the link is up there ^^^ good quality food and exercise is your best way forward 

[blackcat]

bathing may actually make the dandruff worse as it strip out the natural oils in his coat - bathing in itself is not bad for cats though it can be bad for the owners (in the sense of pain and humiliation). Unless the vet has recommended bathing to treat the dandruff I would recommend stopping now.

Obesity is a common problem for indoor cats. They don't necessarily get enough exercise, so their food goes to fat. You should try feeding the mininum amount for his recommended weight (not the one he actually is) - the directions will be on the side of the pack. Twice daily feeding will be fine, it is the quantity that is at issue.

To increase his exercise, I recommend you try hiding his food around the house so he has to hunt it down, and also buy 'da bird' from the Purrs shop which will give him way more exercise than you can possibly imagine 

[sammy**]

heyy, got two questions lol ..

1) Is bathing bad for cats? For the past 3-4months ive bathed sammy every month because he gets flaky skin it looks a bit like dandruff once ive bathed him the day after we give him his spot on, then it all goes away for a month.. it doesnt seem to be bothering him, but it like comes out on your hands when you stroke him .. any ideas what it could bee?

2) Sammy is quite fat we took him to the vets and they just said only feed him two meals a day, which we do and thats it he's a indoor cat so nobody else is feeding him. We did catch him eating the dog food a few months ago but he cant get to that anymore, he doesnt do anything apart from sleep and eat so maybe its just he never burns it off, going to pets at home tomorrow so hopefully get him some toys which will help him exercise .. so i was wondering if theres a reason hes big or any good tips for exercising? also hes half maincoon doubt that makes any difference lol ..