[Buffy the eggs layer]

As some of you will already be aware when Polly the stray arrived with her 4 hungry kittens she was a skinny young thing.

she has now recovered from her snip and from feeding her kittens and has filled out alot.

O.H recons that she is over weight but im not sure how she should look, not having owned a cat before.

Shes around 12 months old now and expect that neutering her will have resulted in hormonal changes which could account for a little middle age spread.

She and toby get two tins of meat a day and add lib biscuits which they dont really like. As toby is a growing boy hes usually peckish so im not sure exactly how much of that Polly actually gets. They also hunt and eat what they catch.

any thoughts?

Buffy                                                     i

[ambriel]

I've kept cats for nearly thirty years now and can safely say that cats come in all shapes and sizes.

Some cats, especially ones that have been strays for a while, will eat at every opportunity and these need more controlled feeding. Others will appear to live almost on fresh air alone.

So long as she's not so over-weight that she can't move around properly then I wouldn't worry too much.

One of our cats, Spice, was the archetypical 'barrel on legs' but went missing for a  couple of weeks after a house move. When she did turn up she was very much slimmer, but has subsequently returned to her normal rotund shape.

Another of ours, Fidel, is your typical beefy tom cat: big on shoulder muscle and with a belly that swings from side to side as he walks.

So long as she can run and jump without difficulty don't worry about it.

[Hermit]

I  agree with Ambriel, I have 8 cats and all are different.I have one huge male that the vet has never seen one as big without being fat but I never see him eat! I have one Siamese cross that looks like a streak of bacon and I feed her seperately to make sure she eats. The others are all inbetweenies , two live out on rabbits and look like bricks on legs . As long as she is healthy and can do normal cat things then she is at her found weight. Start to worry when she cant groom her back and gets a 'fat mat' at the top of her tail.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Thanks you two,

                      thats reasuring. I have decided to try reducing them to half a tin twice a day between them with ad lib biscuits and see how they get on.

Polly seems fit and active. She comes for a walk with me over the fields with me and gallops along like like a grey hound. She hunts regularly though not as often as she did and has daily wresling matches with Toby.

 She does like to be indoors alot though

Buffy

[SallyintNorth]

I had a friend had a cat called Square, because he was.  He used to feed him on top of the fridge; when he got too fat to jump up there, he got not food and lost weight until he could jump up again!


Polly sounds plenty active enough but even so I would do the usual things to keep an eye on her weight.  Just like dogs, you should be able to feel but not see the ribs - if you have to press hard to find them, she's fat!

As a guide, I have always fed my adult cats (all of whom have been very active hunters - and none of whom have been small cats) the equivalent of one half of one large tin a day, split into two feeds.  Ad lib plain wholebake biscuits, sure, but if you are feeding (and they are eating) Go-Cat or similar 'complete diet' biscuits, then the amount of that they are eating should reduce the tinned meat pro rata.

I did have one very greedy cat who would pig out on plain terrier meal (pretty much anything in fact!) so I had to restrict those too, but all my other cats have liked the Pedigree Mixer Biscuits (the ones with the roast fat coating -  ) and eaten a modest amount so I've been able to leave a bowl out for them to pick on at.  When they start cleaning that bowl out and miaowing for more is when I know they probably need to be wormed!

I've lost track a bit, but is Toby 6 months old now?  I think I would have had him on a kitten ration up to 6 months; just like puppies they need more protein in the early stages.  I also read once and have always followed the advice that kittens should be introduced to raw meat - but if they are hunting I suppose they're getting that themselves.

They sound as if they are doing great, anyway! 

[ellisr]

I was following the diet and amounts that the NAWT gave me for the kittens, they had always had runny stools even at the cattery and this worried me a bit so I cut down the amount of kitten meat and left bowls of complete food out all day and lo behold there little bums are in balance now so I think it was just a case of over feeding. They are very healthy and growing well (about to go out for the first time this weekend) and they have already killed rodents in the tack room and stables so I have no worries about their hunting skills.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Well I would certainly say that she is stocky if not chubby as she has a good covering over her ribs.

 I think a feed reduction is in order as I can always increase it again. The biscuits they get are the complete ones as Polly had a cough when she came which I supected might be a fur ball on account of all that kitten grooming. The complete food is good for their teeth and has addressed the fur ball problem ( no more coughing) but as far as their concerned if they havent had tinned meat then they havnt been fed!

The only wormer they have had was part of a parasite control treatment which was administed as drops on the back of their necks. Not sure if they need treating for tape worm seperatly?

Yes toby is about 6 months old now and turning into quite a sensible little chap. His nija super hero chapter seems to have passed and been replaced by a much calmer and more affectionate Toby who spends as much time as he can wrestling with his mother and grooming me. I'm so pleased that its that way round

I didnt know about kitten food, though it makes sence of course but as they only get fed whatever Aldi sells then he has been on the same food as his mum. I do hope that his development dosent suffer as a result as he was such a scrawny kitten to begin with. He was so weedy that he looked conciderably younger than his bigger, stronger siblings.

Buffy

[Cinderhills]

What a great photo. 

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, that's a beautiful pic.  I'd forgotten just how like my cat Mix Polly looks - is it a coincidence, do you think, that Mix was the one cat of mine that would eat plain dog biscuits to excess? 

Buffy, I agree about the fur balls and teeth cleaning aspects of the crunchy biscuits.  So if you want to carry on feeding a complete diet crunch, reduce the tinned feed accordingly.  If they prefer tinned as their 'ration' and the other is just for tooth cleaning, then you could if you wanted try them on the Pedigree Mixer biscuits or similar.  If they like them they'll clean their teeth for a fraction of the cost and have very little dietary impact.  (Though see note about Mix above...)

The other way to keep their teeth clean is raw meat.  I used to feed 3-4 oz raw ox kidney, heart or cheek (in large 1" cube chunks so they have to chew them up) daily (instead of tinned meat), plus the mixer biscuits, and had the healthiest cats' teeth any vet had ever seen.  I also used to let them have raw bones from the butcher before the dog got them - only one of my cats, Trigger, could eat the whole ox knuckle, all the others left some for the dogs...   Or you can do half-and-half - 2oz raw meat for one meal, 1/4 tin tinned food for the other. 

Of course, crunching up freshly caught mice and rabbits will do the job just as well!

[ambriel]

I agree about the raw meat. When we're doing the Tesco shop I keep my eyes open for short-dated liver or kidneys at knock-down prices and treat our cats to a slap-up meal.

[SallyintNorth]

Just a caution on liver (whether raw or cooked - or tinned, come to that.)  An excess can cause hypervitamonosis-A, which can result in bony outgrowths on the skeleton, particularly the vertebrae in the neck.  I was advised to feed liver no more often than once a week.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Having had their reduced breakfast this morning, Polly and Toby are playing cowboys and indians / native americans in the hall. This game involves running up and down the stairs, in and out of the bed rooms and hiding in the airing cupbord and behind the bathroom door in an attempt to ambush the baddie and wressle them around the landing.

They sound like a heard of migrating wildebeast up there! Polly certainly needs to loose a few ounces (about 16!) little hefalump.


Buffy

[SallyintNorth]

I can actually see them!  And hear them too!     You do have a gift for descriptive writing, Buffy!

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Hi Sally,

        here is how the story ends just for you.

They kept this noisy game up for about 40 mins ( Toby taking the part of the oppressed and marginalised native american brave known as One comes mewing and Poly the baked bean eating pioneer and mouse rustler known in these parts by the name of Catsmeat Purbright )

The resulting noise was sufficient to rouse Big Chief Thunder cloud ( OH, who was snoring in his sleep) from his bed at the ungodly hour of 9.am Where by they were both told firmly but clearly to "go west"

United against a comon enemy they put down their weapons and decided to both to sit round the camp fire (wood burning stove) and share a pipe of peace. They are snoozing now and conserving their energy in anticipation of a game of cops and robbers after lunch.

 

Buffy

[SallyintNorth]

Ahh, what a lovely after-dinner story.  Thanks, Buffy!  (Though I can't help hoping Toby and Polly think up a 'bed mouse' game to play with OH's toes another morning...  )