How do I prevent my 6-month old kitten from gaining more weight than healthy?

Question

I'm feeding him a cup of kibble a day, as the instructions say. but I can tell he's getting fat.

Answer 1

It's not a good idea to have a male cat on a totally dry diet. Go to www.littlebigcat.com and read Dr. Jean Hovfe's article, "Why Cats Need Canned Food". It's at the end of about sixty articles on cat health, diet, behavior etc.

There is also an article there titled "Selecting a Good Commercial Pet Food" which will help you in learning to read food labels and to know which nutrients are best for your cat. All the grocery store brands of cat food are 2/3 corn. Corn is used to fatten animals for slaughter. That is not your objective in feeding your kitten.

You can go to www.petfooddirect.com and pull up any commercial food and read the contents in the bags under the ingredients listing. Compare the brand you are feeding with Natural Balance, Felidae, Solid Gold, Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic, CA Natural etc. The first three ingredients listed make up 90% or more of what is in the food. You want a food that has the first two ingredients as high-quality meat protein (not by-products)and fillers such as brown rice, millet, oat, pea etc. which are not as fattening (and a better nutritional source) than corn.

Answer 2

He's a kitten and kittens tend to gain weight specially if they are under the age of 1yr and if they have been spaded or neutered. Sometimes pets gain weight thru lack of being active. Wait another month if you feel the same way, you may have to cut back on the kibble a bit.

Answer 3

Some types of cats are just bigger than others so it may be just his way of growing. If it really bothers you then maybe you can give him just a little a time througout the day instead of all at once. In my opinion it's never really been a horrible thing to have a cat that a little overweight. My cats have always been a little on the heavy side but they all lived to be very healthy, energetic, loving and lived long lives. I have currently have two cats that are 14 years old and they are plump and lively, you'd never know they're at that age.

Answer 4

Switch to adult cat food. Kitten food is higher in fat and calories and he is old enough, at six months, to have adult food.

Feed only the amount recommended on the bag/can. If he eats too fast, you can put the dry food in a treat ball that he has to roll around to get the food to fall out. Or you can put the food in a muffin pan--a bit in each cup--to slow him down.

Remember that treats have calories too--so if you're giving him cat treats or some table scraps, he'll need less dry food.

Also he needs to exercise--so you could get some toys to drag around for him.

Good luck!

Answer 5

put her bowl during her two feedings a day in a room up a flight of stairs (i.e. upstairs bathroom) or down (basement) so she has to get a bit of exercise just to reach it
-schedule daily play sessions using an interactive toy such as a wand toy with feathers at the end to get her running and chasing for 15 minutes
- if she doesn't have, and will use, buy some toys that she can self-exercise with..ping pong balls or catnip-infused balls (cloth or rubber, both are on the market) for her to bat and chase, or crazy cat spinners, rock 'n rollers are other roll and chase toys
- mechanical mouse is another fun toy you can use in a play session daily or there is the Panic Mouse that you can set up for her

Answer 6

Don't feed the kitten as munch and feed it healthy.

Answer 7

how sad what is the world coming to when we put our cats on a diet.....Im sorry I had to say it...