lotocats: I'm feeling pretty lazy this morning so I'm just going to cut and paste :lol: .
When I got Levi, he was about 3 lbs overweight. Lucas and Cleo were kittens when I got them. All three became obese under my care (although Levi was obese to start with, he just got bigger). I didn't realize that there was anything wrong with them, because you hear of big, fat cats all of the time. I thought it was completely normal. I was free-feeding them a dry, very cheap food (Costco) and store-brand wet food first thing in the morning. My mom had always told me that it didn't matter what brand of food you buy, that they all contained the same ingredients. So I fed them that crap for 2 years without knowing that the food would make a difference.
I realized that something had to be done when I switched to a new vet and she labelled my cats as obese. That really shocked me because I hadn't realized how bad it was. She also informed me of the risk factors of an overweight cat and so I took action.
First I switched them to Science Diet dry and stayed with the store-brand wet. They GAINED weight on this. I was very angry at the vet for suggesting a "better" food that made my cats fatter . So that is when I found this forum, in the hopes of finding something better for my kitties. I also switched to a new vet which suggested feeding at least half of their diet as wet food. Then I was feeding them Medical wet and Medical dry (prescription weight-loss food). In order to retain a smooth weight loss, I gradually reduced the amount of kibble and increased the wet until they were getting about 60 kibbles each, per day. They would not have lost the weight if they had remained on dry kibble because I would have had to feed them less than would have kept them satiated. They would have been starving all the time because the food amount was so low in order to take the lbs off.
Then I decided to switch completely to wet food and to a different, "better" brand. They are currently being fed Innova and Eaglepack and the weight is still coming off. Only about 1/2 lb to go!
And here is the thread I started that has before and after pics!
http://www.catforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=5811