My rescued cat is underweight and losing fur. What should I feed?

How lovely of you to take in Leo and look after him! I would be feeding him a high quality cat food, such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, or Iams. Feed him according to the package instructions on the food label. You can speak to your vet to see if they feel feeding him more than what the label recommends is appropriate, or if a prescription weight gain diet would be beneficial. I hope this helps!

Since she was missing for so long, an exam with your veterinarian would be recommended. Submit a stool sample to diagnose intestinal parasites. If she gets a clean bill of health, continue feeding a high quality canned diet until she is back to her normal weight.

Hi there and thank you for using PetCoach to address your concern. I would increase the amount of food being fed per day. Science Diet Adult maintenance would be a good choice or something high in protein and calories. If you would like to feed a homemade diet to see if he eats better with home cooked food, I would recommend visiting www. balanceit.com If he continues to lose weight or does not gain any weight with the diet switch, I would recommend having a veterinarian examine him so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. I would definitely consider testing his thyroid to make sure he does not have hyperthyroidism, which can lead to weight loss or difficulty gaining weight. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

It would be impossible to tell what's wrong without an exam. If he will let you handle him, catching him and bringing him to a vet so he can be sedated, checked for illness or injuries, dewormed, vaccinated, etc can help ensure he stays healthy, and doesn't get ill or spread disease to other pets once re-released. If you can't handle him, most humane societies have humane traps you can rent and smelly wet food or warmed up chicken can be used as bait to entice him to enter. As for food, any [commercial adult cat food](https://www.petco.com/category/cat/cat-food) should be good for helping him gain weight and stay healthy once he's been seen by a vet. Science Diet, Nutro, Royal Canin, Purina, etc all offer great options for food.

He is not so far away from his normal weight,, actually. Count 100g/per week. So if he is a week old and weighs 90 g, that would still be ok, especially since he may not have been fed for a day before you found him. Keep feeding him kitten milk (pet-lac), as much as he wants, and keep him warm. Do not forget to stimulate his genitals and anus after feeding so he urinates and defecates and keep him clean (use a moist warm paper towel or tissue to rub gently, like a mother cat's tongue). If he is healthy, ie does not have any congenital conditions, he should grow normally. If you have any other cats in the household, it might be a good idea to let them interact with him, you might actually find a mama that way who may not have milk, but takes on the hygiene and babysitting and eventually teaching him to be a cat! It is very rewarding to raise a kitten! Enjoy!

He is still very young and misses his mommy and his siblings. You should feed him canned kitten food, as kibble is still too hard and a kitten cannot eat enough of it. Feed him small portions 4-5 times a day and feed as much as he wants to eat, ie refill the bowl a little bit at a time. Make sure water is available but not next to the food. It needs to be about 6 feet away from the food bowl. At this age (71 days) he should weigh a little over 1kg, or 2.3lbs

You can get a human scale and weigh yourself and then weigh yourself again holding him. Then subtract the two weights and you will get an estimate of his weight. I can tell you, it is VERY rare for a cat to be too thin. You would have to be severely underfeeding him. The biggest issue with pet cats is obesity so I honestly would not be that worried. If you get his weight once a month (as explained above) and you notice he is losing weight then you should get him to a vet for an exam.