I want to fatten my cats up a bit, would Ox fat or Goose fat be any good?

Sorry, I really should know but what are you feeding your cats?

BTW, has the latest batch of DAF minces been any better?

I certainly wouldn't feed ox or goose fat in addition to a balanced commercial cat food. Giving cats additional fat like this could lead to liver problems and pancreatitis. One of the predisposing factors in acute pancreatitis is a high fat diet.

I would just feed them more of their normal food.

I'm feeding them all sorts, they get fed whenever they want so it's not a lack of food, it's more the lack of them eating it. I wish i had the problem of greedy cats.

I'm trying to get them on the better brands but they don't really eat it, or only eat small amounts. I've currently got: Grau, Carny, Schmusy Rabbit, Porta 21 Tuna Shrimp, Smilla meat pots, Cosma chicken, salmon and tuna tins. Butchers Classic, Yarrah, Feline Fayre black mini tins, Almo Daily, Animonda pouches, Sheba pouches, Gourmet pouches, Carny Exotic buffalo pouches, Miamor jelly pouches, Royal Canin pouches. Maybe others but can't remember.

The RTG mince is a total fail. It's not getting any interest from the cats. I've tried 3 so far, and i don't hold out much hope with the others.

I'm going to make some of my own which should go down better, or at least i expect they will pick the meat parts out. I saw on Zooplus that i could feed per 100g meal, 80g meat, 15g heart, 5g kidney and 1 scoop of Felini Complete.

Holy moly that list rivals that of a petshop hun! You would think that from amongst that list with the different consistencies there would be at least (if not two or three) that appeal to their sensibilities. (Just out of interest, how long has it taken you to go through this impressive list? I am just wondering whether there has been too much chopping and changing and not enough perseverance)

You say that the problem is that they don't eat a lot. You see if you had said that they mostly eat the wet Porta 21, Feline Fayre, Cosma stuff and they love eating it, I would have said, well just add a tiny bit of goose fat to that food to bump up the low fat content in that food.

But if they are not eating much of anything, then giving them goosefat to bump up their calories is not a good idea, as Ianthi so rightly says. Yes, cats need fat but most of all they need protein and good, balanced diet.

You say food is always down. Is that wet food or do you also feed dry food? Have you considered giving them set feeding times instead of letting them free-feed? What doesn't get eaten gets taken up and either gets refrigerated or chucked out. Have you ever tried sticking to just one food? Will they eat the likes of Whiskas and Felix? If yes, then tbh, instead of using goose fat, I would start feeding that again. Give them a period of time on that food and then SLOWLY change to one(s) that you them to eat.

Have you ever employed any "tricks of the human trade" to make them see the error of their dietary ways?

Re the Felini Complete - yes, you can certainly try that route. Keep in mind though, that just like food, no complete supplemental powder is perfect, so you might want to look into other ones as well and rotating them. Or you just look more into a making a good diet for a cat from scratch.

But are they underweight at all? Cats are meant to be lean and fit creatures. I know it is human nature to want to feed them up, but if they are healthy and active and eating, surely that is fine? Some cats seem to eat more than others. I know, I have a male cat who seems to eat way too little, but he is a normal weight and the vet says he is fine, just doesn't have a high metabolism.

I agree totally, even though I am firmly in the habit of panicking if they don't wolf a meal down twice a day! I believe there is actually a great deal of variation between what various cats need/want to eat, and am constantly surprised when I read about cats on here that eat 3/4 pouches or300/400g of food a day. None of my cats eats anything near that quantity but they are certainly not underweight, in fact I am actually a little worried that my two youngest are turning into little porkers!

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No i don't think they are underweight, it's just that Tylah is looking like a scruff bag. He's quite boney and you can feel his spine, it doesn't look very good. I've weighed me, weighed him and he apparently weighs in at 4.7kg. My uncle came to the house and saw him on the stairs and called him 'scrawny and scraggly'.

Larney is a bit of a pudding so his weight doesn't bother me, he weighs 5.1kg.

Heinz looks scruffy as well, he's snoring on the settee now, so i couldn't weigh him. He's not boney though, it's just he always looks like he's just woken up.

Larney & Heinz are about 14 and Tylah is 11, so they're old men now.

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As to food, yes, they'll happily eat Felix, Whiskas, Sheba, Butchers Classic (although it's Heinzs fav it makes him throw up sometimes) and the cosma tins. I just wanted to get them eating the better food, so i've been giving them, either a tin of Grau or Carny a day for one of the meals, sometimes it'll get eaten and sometimes the whole tin is left. I'm going to have to pay allot more attention to what flavors they eat.

They have Taste of The Wild biscuits out in the utility room and i've got some Royal Canin Outdoor Mature in my bedroom. I don't class it as food really it's just there for a nibble. I very much doubt that they eat more than a few mouthfuls a day.

I feed a different variety of food at each meal time. So for breakfast they had Miamor, Sheba and a Gourmet pouch. Heinz didn't come down for his food, so i brought it up for him like breakfast in bed. Tylah had second breakfast at 10am of Gourmet Solitaire chicken. I don't like the idea of restricting their food and taking it away as Larney only eats a small amount of food at a time. I've bought some brewers years for the Grau and Carney. I'd ideally feed them raw in the morning, Grau for dinner and Carney for tea, but they've other ideas.

As for the raw, Larney doesn't eat more than a few pieces of chicken or mince, so it's just for Tylah and Heinz. They'll both eat flesh meat, and cow hearts so that's those ingredients sorted. Lambs liver only Tylah will eat, and they've never had kidney. I'm going to Asda later and will try them on chicken liver and a kidney of some sort. If that get's eaten by both then i could try the more traditional raw approach but they don't eat bones so that would need supplemented. I gave them a chicken wing the other day and Tylah licked it and Heinz tried to bite it but followed me into the kitchen so i could chop the meat off for him (he's had 5 teeth removed).
The benefit of using Felini Complete was that I'd only need to get them eating a little bit of kidney so there was less ingredients for them to reject.

Here's some pic spam of the cats I took this morning:
002 + 017 is Heinz asleep on my settee and flashing his bits.
007 is Tylah lying down, he looks OK like that, but in pic 010 you can see that he's doing his best 'I'm homeless' impression.
040 is Larney under the dining room table.

Attached Images

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	017.jpg (115.6 KB, 10 views)
	007.jpg (110.9 KB, 10 views)
	010.jpg (45.9 KB, 10 views)
	040.jpg (73.2 KB, 9 views)

This is going to be a completely unhelpful post but OMG AT HEINZ'S BELLY. I want to rub it so badly my hand itches!

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My lifelong ambition is to be a crazy cat lady. The only obstacle is my OH.

Who will go and who gets to stay? Stay tuned...

Has Tylah had a recent vet check to rule out a medical condition? The bony spine shows quite a bit of weigh has already been lost.

Has he always been this thin?