How to put a cat on a diet. Please help !!!

I'm watching this this thread with interest. Our 6 year old cat has suddenly ballooned!

Why can you not just stop giving him so much? You know it's for the cats health and wellbeing why wouldn't you.

Halve his portions. Buy the low calorie good quality dried food, occasional cooked chicken, plenty of water.

You can control what he eats - but does he go out and is he fed by someone else as well?
Cats are very canny.
Does he need worming? That could make him eat but his tummy could look large.

Yes, check he has been wormed and then halve his diet.
I would actually take food dishes away after he has eaten, until the next meal is due.He will pester you for a while but eventually wait until his dish is put out with food in it.
We did this once with a greedy cat and it worked.
If you leave the dish out he will sit by it waiting for a refill.

See if you can encourage him to play, maybe? Get him to have a mad half hour every day. I'm not sure if rice is an option, mixed in with his food, because I've known it to used for an overweight dog.

Is he a Six Dinner Sid? It's very hard to control a cat's food intake if they go out because they'll scavenge and take food where they can.

Don't put an overweight cat on a crash diet they have to lose weight very slowly. This is because cats have something special about their livers that if they start metabolising fat too fast their livers give out. I don't really understand it but the long and short of it is be careful to make sure they only lose weight slowly.

Try Senior Iams- it has less calories as older cats don't need as many. Supermarkets sell it and can usually find it on offer. Measure carefully!

I have the same problem with one of our rescue cats. He constantly clamours for food and will steal the other one's food unless I stand guard. I try hard not to give in. Removing the bowls after feeding is a good suggestion.

Is he a Six Dinner Sid?

Try Hills Prescription Feline r/d (reduction diet) dried food. It can be bought online, much cheaper than buying from a vet. It is still quite expensive but lasts for ages, both my cats love it, and it works.

Talk to your vet first - check there are no medical problems that need resolving

Then you can buy the prescription diet cat foods that have reduced calories

Have your cat checked for hyperthyroidism its quite common as your cat gets older. One of the signs is eating a lot just thought I would mention it. I also buy bon-apettreat.com/product/super-premium-senior-cat-food/
its reduced fat and no nasties and has helped my cat with stomach problems. My dog is on the reduced fat no grain food from here too and he is so much healthier. Best Wishes

One of my cats had liver cancer and a symptom was wanting to eat constantly. Not what you want to hear, I know, but please get your cat checked out by a vet asap.

My late-lamented cat Charlie was enormous too, and he lived to eat and sleep. He was a very gentle, friendly cat, and although we rationed his food, he would find others who would feed him. Whenever I came home from work I would hear a nearby door open and a "Bye Charlie!"..........he knew where to go! In the end I had to put a tag on his collar which said, "Please don't feed me!"

Poor Charlie met his end while impersonating a roundabout on the road outside the house. The whole street was devastated.

Does he have a 'gym' in the house? You could try putting his food in small amounts on the different levels of a cat 'activity centre' to at least encourage him to hunt for the food rather than having it presented to him in a comfortable place.

My Oliver is such a greedy boy and I have to watch him carefully as to what he eats,he is a big breed anyway a chunky large British Shorthaired Blue who weighs in at 6kgs,we have put him down slowly to 2 cartons of food a day along with treats (6 at a time only) he seems to have kept the weight the same for a few months now so we must be doing something right.All my neighbours have been told not to feed him if he appears in their garden begging pretending he is a starved cat.

My cats the opposite he grazes through the day. Very fussy and will only eat tin fish cat food. Has to be Wilkos tuna and tuna a shrimp. Likes dreamys though have to be strict there.
Does like tuna though. Has that once a week.

Years ago we had a cat called Suki. She moved with us many times with no problems. Very much loved. She lived to 17 years. When we left that last address the lady next door told us that when we were at work/school, Suki would go in to their house to be fed!! along with all the other food she got from us. Cats are very clever/crafty.

PS she wasnt overweight. Also I had a kitten called Holly I gave to a friend.. She never ate any usual cat food. My friend would buy her ham, chicken slices etc. And cut up the meat into small squares for Holly. She was treated like a child. She would drink milk with her paw, and sit under the fridge and cry for her ham or chicken. She was over weight.

One of mine is, and always has been, very very greedy. I have to feed mine in different rooms and make sure greedy cat can't pinch timid cat's dinner. I have to hide all food as she will savage bags to get at it, even bread, scones, croissants etc! I just try to keep to her two meals and a treat during the day. It is hard as she clammours for food all the time I am in the kitchen but if you give in and give her some she does it even more.

We have just homed a Rescue cat whose owners moved away and left him behind. The neighbours fed him for over a year and I think this is why he is hungry all the time.
We have the added problem that he eats so quickly that he has terrible wind. (Green cloud that can clear a room!)
I have been giving him Royal Cnin digestive and it’s a bit better. They do loads of different dry foods for sedentary cats, overweight etc. It’s a little expensive but it lasts for ages
He has been checked by a vet and given a clean bill of health but he did find an air gun pellet lodged in his side. It was still in his skin and had caused a lump.
P.S.Harry is so loving, even though he has been so badly treated..

‘Six Dinner Sid’ - a lovely children’s story by Inga Moore about a cat who had 6 owners and 6 dinners, 6 beds etc. No one knew about the others.