Choosing the best cat food can be a bit tricky, and you always need to keep in mind your pet’s age and health condition. Also, picking the wrong kind of cat food could lead to severe health problems or weight gain. That’s why you need to do your homework before you make that purchase at the pet store. Things are tougher for cat owners with skinny cats. If you want your cat to gain some little weight, here’s what you need to do.
Increase her calories
If you want to help your cat gain weight, try increasing her calories by adding nutritional yeast to her food. You could also add canned pumpkin, cottage cheese, or cream cheese. If your cat is really skinny, try mixing extra calories into the food, so she doesn’t even notice it’s there.
Access to dry food
Give your cat unlimited free access to dry cat food. This is what most pet food companies recommend, and it makes sense. Dry food has more calories per pound than canned, so the cat can gain weight without getting full. And cats seem to like to nibble all day long.
Give your dog canned food
Give your cat some canned food once or twice a day as treats or rewards for doing tricks. Canned food has more protein and fewer carbohydrates than dry, so it’s better for cats. Also, they really like it, so it can be useful for training them to come when called or do other tricks that are hard to motivate them to learn with dry food alone.
Take her for regular check-ups
If your cat refuses to eat more than usual but is still losing weight, check with your vet about getting a prescription diet food that will help her gain weight.
To make sure your cat stays healthy when she’s trying to gain weight, take her for regular check-ups and make sure you don’t overfeed her.
Avoid stressing her out
Surely, you’d try feeding it more? If your cat is underweight, you will do much better to reduce its stress level. Overfed cats are fat because they are so stressed that they’re mindless eaters. They don’t know when to stop.
Cats are territorial. They like having a place that’s “theirs.” Stress arises whenever this sense of ownership is threatened.
This can happen in many ways:
– Letting other cats into the home
– Moving house
– Having a new baby or another pet in the household
– Having guests over
– Having their schedule altered
It makes sense that having more food available would not help much if your cat is stressed. It’s not as though your cat is on a diet and just needs to be encouraged to eat more by having food available 24/7. If you have an overweight cat, it’s probably because your cat eats mindlessly due to stress, and having extra food around will only make things worse.
Key Takeaway
If you’re at all worried about your cat being too skinny, the first step is to make sure it eats enough. The simplest way to do this is to feed it more. It’s also crucial that your cat eats at regular intervals; cats don’t respond well to fasting and feasting.
Some cats will gain weight better with wet food than dry, and vice versa. Experiment a bit and see what works best for your cat. If possible, try to keep its food down to a single type of food. Cats are notoriously picky about switching foods once they’ve settled into a routine. If you think your cat could stand to put on a little bit of weight, don’t let it outside unsupervised.
