What to feed an overweight cat?

Answer 1

You need to regulate the food your cat is eating. Also, enticing your cat to play and exercise several times a day will help. If you free-feed your cat (keep a bowl of dry food down all day), you need to take this away and feed your cat at set intervals - small meals about two or three times a day. This may take a while for your cat to adjust, but its for her/his own good.

Ideally, your cat should be on a wet-food diet. Good, high-quality wet foods have high meat content in and no grains. Grains, which are found in cheap wet foods and many dry foods, is what is what makes a cat overweight, as its overeating to try and get the nutrients it needs (dry food doesn't contain much meat based protein which is what cats need). Cats cannot digest grain or corn, so it just gets converted into fat. The best thing about wet food is a cat will often eat less of this as it has far more nutrition than dry.

Good quality wet foods are high in Protein and Fat, and because cats are strict carnivores, they use these two nutrients as their primary source of energy. Be sure to look at the ingredients - The best cat foods are the ones with a very high named meat content (labeled as Chicken, Turkey, Rabbit, Lamb, Tuna, etc.) as the first, or first three, ingredients.

This conversion can take several months for cats to get used to, and several more months on top of that to get your cat at a ideal weight. Cats need to lose weight SLOWLY, as losing weight too quickly can lead to many health problems. You might want to invest in a digital scale for this so you can check up on his/her weight once a week so you can check the progress.

Answer 2

It depends on the breed but cutting down by 50% per day is a good start. Consult your veterinarian too!

Answer 3

Any cat food will do, also feed lots of water.