My 7-year-old indoor cat needs low-calorie dry food. What's best?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There is diet that would be perfect for him because it can help him lose weight and it is also well-balanced. It is the Science Diet metabolic weight management diet. If you wish to not use a weight loss diet then any of the Science Diet foods for adult cats would be great for him. Good luck and have a great day!

Getting cats to lose weight can be very challenging. Cats are obligate carnivores and cannot use carbohydrates efficiently, so they tend to be converted straight into fat. Any any dry food needs to have a good amount of carbohydrates in it in order to makes it "dry". So, even using low calorie biscuits, it can be very difficult to get a cat to lose weight. (And the bags generally recommend more calories than a normal cat needs.) My best recommendation for weight loss in cats is to change to a completely canned food diet. This website has some good information about cat nutrition. http://catinfo.org/ Some of the packets are actually also high in carbohydrates, so you have to read the labels carefully. It will seem odd that you are actually feeding a higher fat and higher caloric food in a canned food, but cats tend to lose weight that way. I generally recommend an average of 5.5 ounces of canned food per day for an average ideal body weight of 10 pounds for a cat. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Thanks for more information! Wet food has fewer calories that dry food due to the higher moisture content, so I'd recommend wet food for Snowball. Do not free feed, give him food twice a day at set times, and feed him according to the instructions on the can of food. No treats at all and no human food. I see he's an older boy, so he may not be into playing, but you can look at trying to get him more active with some toys. I hope this helps!

Yes, there is a low calorie food that is formulated for growth, it is made by Royal Canin and is called Kitten spay/neuter. This food will allow Tasha to continue growing but not have as many calories. You may also institute feeding her less amounts but more frequently like 1/8 of a cup four times a day. In the wild cats eat 9 to 16 times a day so their metabolism is geared to run constantly. Make sure to keep her active with lots of play. Best of luck.

Yes, you should definitely cut the food back. If she seems overly hungry when you cut the food back you may need to talk to your vet about putting her on a prescription weight loss diet. Prescription diets are low in calories (so they can eat more of it) and it is very filling (they are high in fiber). If she doesn't lose weight I would be very worried about her developing diabetes. Remember, you need to feed the amount of food recommended on the bag for their IDEAL weight. Ideally she should be between 10-12 pounds. The average indoor cat should have 20 calories per pound so you should only be feeding her 200-240 calories per day INCLUDING her treats.

Well done in researching this so well! Any dryfood would be recommended to be urinary focused as wet food in itself contributes to urine dilution and is more forgiving in this regard. I would recommend royal canin urinary moderate calorie (which comes in wet and dry) and can be very effective in weight reduction whilst promoting urinary health

Hello, depending on her lifestyle, indoor only cats should be fed atleast twice daily. This can be a variety of dry and wet food and should not exceed more than 1 cup of dry food per day or more than 1 can per day. There may be differences depending on how many calories each food contains so it is hard to determine this. Your kitten should be consuming around 201 Kcal per day. Hope this helps and best of luck.