The best way to tell if a cat is overweight is to feel around the tummy area. You should be able to feel the ribs but not see them. If they have more than a very thin layer of fat over the rubs and hanging down, then they are a bit overweight. So hard to tell by weight as it varies so much depending on the cat. Foodwise, Jaffa has 300g wet food per day plus about 8 dreamies per day. That maintains his weight of about 4.8kg. He's a tall, long cat aged 13 and an indoor cat. Mosi has 150g wet food per day plus approx 20g biscuits plus the same treats as Jaffa. I'm not sure of Mosi's weight as it's ages since he's been weighed and he wasn't fully grown then, but I think he weighs a little less than Jaffa. His weight is pretty constant but I do notice that if I get a bit heavy handed with the biscuits, he can put on a little weight (I regularly "feel them up" to check their "weight"!). Whereas Jaffa never seems to lose or gain, Mosi can gain a little weight from time to time and I know it's the biscuits so I am feeding him more all wet food meals now. I seen to recall that 20-30g dry food is approx equal to about 100g wet food and I think most cats maintain their weight on approx 300 - 400g wet food or equivilent per day although obviously that will vary depending on how active they are, size and build, age etc. It will also depend on what they eat. Cats, like humans, can only gain weight through fat storage if they eat carbs and so stimulate insulin production. In short, no carbs = no insulin = no fat storage. It's the cereal and grains in cat food that cause weight gain and just like in humans, you have to reduce the calories quite dramatically to get any weight loss. Much better to ditch the carbs and give them meat. Crazy that vets prescribe carby weight loss foods for overwweight cats.
