My Turkish Van is prone to obesity. What's her ideal calorie/carb?

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.

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.

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.

This is genetics. Just like people, some are more prone to obesity despite diet. The best diet to feed is actually a canned food to stimulate weight loss in cats. Look for a low carbohydrate percentage... idieally inder 10%. You can also try to increase the exercise and activity level by using treat disornsers or a laser pointer

Any complete weight reduction food from companies like Royal Canin, Hills Science Diet or Purina would be suitable. You should also not free-feed your kitty but feed him twice a day according to the instructions on the bag.

I recommend feeding an all meat canned or wet diet with added canned plain pumpkin. Cats do not do well with carbohydrates so feeding only meat will help Pumpkin lose weight. The canned pumpkin will help fill her up and add fiber and bulk up the stool to prevent constipation. Increasing her exercise also will help. You can feed her up on the dryer or a table so she has to jump up, and having her increase her activity chasing toys or a laser pointer will help also. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Pumpkin.

Misty is a beautiful cat and it's great that you are concerned about ensuring you are feeding the right amount. The amount of calories that your cat needs is actually based on their ideal body weight; not on their current body weight. Whatever weight she was at one year was likely a good estimation of her ideal body weight. From there you can calculate the amount of calories she should have, but it still isn't an accurate number. For that reason, I do not recommend looking at the calories, but rather ensuring that you are feeding good food at the right amount that is necessary for her to maintain a healthy body condition. Below are a couple of links to good information about calculating the calories and feeding your cat to prevent obesity. https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-services/nutrition-support-service/basic-calorie-calculator http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/health_information/brochure_feedingcat.cfm I hope you find this helpful and can get Misty down to a slim size again.