5 cats, different diets

[onebigelf]

This is my first post, I sought this forum out hoping for a little advice.

We have 5 cats. The oldest is part Maine Coon and will be 16 in March. He has been dropping weight slowly in his senior years and is down to 10.2 lbs (he was about 15.5 - 16 at his peak). We have been trying to feed him extra.

We have three young cats that we adopted last fall, litter-mates, and again Maine Coon crosses. The girls are fine, but we are worried about the boy, who is 18 lbs and round like a basketball. We need to reduce his dietary intake and get him down to a healthy weight.

We have a new kitten, a random longhair adoptee. He's 6 months, under 5 lbs, much smaller than the others and likely to stay that way.

We free-feed a high quality dry during the day, and split 2 small cans between the five of them 2 x a day.

we've got 3 cats that are a healthy weight, 1 senior dropping pounds that we are trying to get to eat more, not that his appetite seems off, and our little Book, who seems determined to learn to roll instead of walk.

Obviously, free-feeding the dry is going to have to stop if we're going to get weight off of Book, but that's going to make it harder to get more calories into Kai, especially since he has always had a sensitive stomach and vomits if he eats too much at a time.

Has anyone got a fantastic plan for managing multiple feeding schedules and volumes with this many cats? We both work during the day. My mother-in-law lives with us, but she has a touch of dementia (short-term memory is gone) and can't manage anything complex at lunchtime.

Thanks,
John

[Kay]

can't advise generally, but a 16 year old losing weight but eating normally or more than usual is quite often a signal for hyperthyroid, so I would suggest blood tests for him

some timed feeders might help the lunchtime feeding

[Mollycat]

It would be a big expense in one go but microchip feeders for each of them would allow you to free feed some while restricting others and also to feed different diets to each one if need be. So the fat one could have his total portion restricted or even a diet low-calorie food, the three can still be free fed but if one day one of them needs to be starved for surgery or fed a special diet or medication, that can be done, and the skinny one can have a special high calorie diet. Plus everybody's wet food stays fresh if it's left down.

[fjm]

I would definitely get the 16 year old tested for hyperthyroidism, if he is losing weight despite eating well.

I am having similar issues, trying to get weight onto Tilly who has early CKD, while keeping Pippin and the dogs from eating everything in sight - apart from the weight issues, her renal diet upsets their systems. I have found one spot which Tilly can reach but Pippin can't - on the dining table if I move all the chairs etc out of the way. Pip can't jump that high due to arthritis. Perhaps a baby gate or similar with narrow bars would work to exclude your overweight cat?

[onebigelf]

Thanks, folks. Kai has been tested for hyperthyroidism already. We're going to try him on kitten food.
I'll look into the microchip feeders.

John

[booktigger]

I wouldn't use kitten food for a 16 year old, it may be too rich. I'd either use the convalescing food or extra treats like lik-e-lix.