Hi! I have a year-old (almost two!) tortoiseshell cat who my vet has deemed overweight. He recommended that I switch her from dry food to wet food - however, I work nights at a restaurant and wouldn't be home to feed her dinner each night if I did this. I was wondering if I'd be able to feed her wet food in the morning, and then have her kibble dispenser give her dry food in the evening? Or would this be bad for her?
Also, if I should only be feeding her dry food, should I cut back on the amount? I already tried once (only reduced it by 1/4 of a cup) and my cat lost her mind. I was worried she was very hungry so I started giving her the same amount again. Would she get used to the reduced amount? I just felt so bad, she would lick the kibble bowl like she hadn't eaten all day.
Any advice would be much appreciated!!
See attached: my cat Cecily 🙂
Yes of course you can feed wet and dry food, although it may a bit harder to control calories that way. If you want to stick with dry, get your cat's target weight from your vet, and feed the amount of dry per day for the target weight, not the current weight. She should lose weight that way slowly and safely. You can divide the total among as many meals as you want, taking care that she does not go more than 12 hours between meals. BUT if you stick with dry food, use a high quality low carb food, and you MUST go out of your way to make sure she drinks plenty of water, leaving her several sources, and try to get her interested in drinking out of the sink/tub faucets when you're home. The key is for her to lose weight slowly and stay hydrated. So if, for example, her target weight requires 3/8 cup of dry food per day, you can divide it up into three 1/8 portions. You can still give her treats, but keep it to only a little (like 2) at a time. Ignore her pleading eyes.