The only way to regulate Clyde's portion is to set regular feeding times and feed the cats separately.

I, too, always used to free feed dry food and offer canned occasionally as treats. As a result, I live with a house full of fat cats (and a few leans ones). It wasn't until one of the fatties had a diabetes scare a couple of months ago that I finally made the decision to get serious about reducing kitty weights around here. I started out by researching foods and finding ones with minimal carbs (Innova Evo dry and Wysong au Jus canned). As I was slowly switching them over to the new foods, I also took away their "communal dry food silos" and started feeding them three times a day - dry (which they prefer) in the a.m. and midday, canned (which they don't much care for) at night.

Because the new foods have a much higher protein and fat content than the foods they were receiving before, several of them actually put on weight even without free choice access, so I switched the feeding schedule to dry a.m., and canned at midday and night. Several still experienced weight gain, so I cut out the midday meal altogether. At that point, everybody either held steady or lost weight.

That was a couple of weeks ago, and I'll be doing their regular weigh-in on 9/1 to see how they're doing now. I purchased a digital baby scale off of eBay and weigh all of the cats every 2 weeks to check their progress. I'm keeping a database to track kitty weights so I can make dietary adjustments as necessary.

Since I have 13 cats, it would be exceptionally difficult for me to try to separate them all and give each one measured portions of food, so I simply let them eat their fill of dry food at communal bowls in the a.m. until they all walk away, then I put the bowls away. I do the same with the canned food at night.

If I only had two cats, however, one lean and one not, I'd definitely be feeding them portioned amounts separately to meet their individual needs.

Laurie

I have 3 cats - one torti (female) and a sibling pair of orange & whites (male and female). I feed them in 3 separate locations and monitor them during their meal because my male orange & white is a Type A eater and will seek out the others' food!

They all (including our collie) get fed twice a day. At 7:00 a.m. they get a portion of wet food and a sprinkle of dry. At 7:00 p.m. they get kibble only. I feed the cats Royal Canin kibble (indoor) and Felidae canned. Our collie gets Canidae.

My boy is bigger by about 2 or3 lbs than the girls, even though his intake is the same -- perhaps because he's a male or just the way he's built. Thankfully, none of my cats are overweight, they're "just right" according to my vet, even though the male is indeed heavier than the girls. My long-haired girl looks the biggest of all because of her coat.

Anyway, I agree with Laurie that separate feeding stations and monitoring their intake is the simplest and best way to ensure your two are eating what you want them to eat, calorie-wise. It has worked well for us. With just 3 cats, it's about a 15-minute process of doing brekkie and dinner and making sure they all stay where they should and eat what they like from their respective dishes. They don't always clean their bowls and that's fine -- once they've walked away "for good" from their meal, I collect dishes. I rarely treat them during the day, and never more than a couple of tiny "kitty biscuits" (about the size of a kidney bean).

(I also haven't ever done free-feeding so I didn't have to make that transition to portioned feeding, but your kitties will adjust, I'm sure.)

Good luck! (Any pictures?)

Wet food is the first step and exercise is the second. In the evenings try to spend at least a half an hour playing with him. With my boy I had a toy that looks like a fishing pole with a fake mouse at the end. Sometimes they are attracked to shiny objects. Whatever works. Of course now I have a small dog that chases him around in play so he's really slimmed down.

Thanks for the advice. DH and I will need to get a game plan together tonight.

Here's a picture of the lil' gangsters (Bonnie's the long hair, Clyde is the bullseye tabby):

Oh Clyde, you remind me of my fat Mikey :-( Beautiful kitties.

I gave up the free feeding 5 or 6 years ago when I finally realized that 2 out of 4 cats were overwieght. It takes a long long time for a cat to lose weight. But but both Mikey & Saul went down from 21 pounds to 14 and 16 pounds over 4 year period. I stopped the free feeding, which was scarey since I had two thin ones, and introduced portion control. Everyone gets the same size portion twice a day and I run inteference if the fast eaters try to move in on the skinny slow eaters. It works, you just have to get used to it, and they will too! My very old thin boy (CRF and Hyperthyroid) does get a snack or small 'extra' meal most days to help him keep weight on.

What beautiful cats!

My Finney went from 18 to 14 pounds in 2 years on 1/4 can wet food diluted with water fed three times a day.

No dry food.

Clyde looks just exactly like my Henry. I have the same problem and I still free feed because of the thin ones. I haven't weighed them in a few months but Henry has gotten to about 17 pounds ..along with Nellie and Annie the identical fat torties. But the other four are thin..the two oldest really thin altho they both have good appetites. Phoebe and Lily are perfect specimens under 10 pounds. Mine all get wet food in the morning portioned to allow the thin ones the most, but I have dry food always available. ...for now till the old ones are no longer here.

When I posted this last night, I thought..I need to weigh them which isn't fun since they perch on a little platform on the scale. Annie 18, Henry and Nellie 15, Phoebe 10, Lily 7 and Louie and Maddie 6 each..L actually 6 3/4...I last weighed them in Feb. and no one changed by more than 1/2 pound..except Henry who wasn't full grown them. He gained 5 pounds.