Documenting cat's weight loss proceedings here because this is at the end of the day my personal blog, and also I'm excited that Milky being mine alone and in a single-cat house means I can get her to a healthier weight! +^+
Starting Weight: 12.6lb, 02/08/2026
Body Condition Score: 7 (overweight)
Goal Weight: 10.5lb
Dry Food Calories: 385 kcal/cup or 24 cal/tbsp (one portion on automatic feeder) for Solid Gold Winged Tiger dry food
Wet Food Calories: ~68 kcal/can for TikiCat After Dark Shreds (65 for Rabbit & Chicken, 79 for Turkey & Liver, 68 for the other two flavors)
Merck Vet Manual Calorie Guide advises to feed for 2lbs less than current weight, and Pet Nutrition Alliance advised for a 20% reduction from maintenance calories for her. When I specified that she is sedentary and neutered, this put her advised daily calories at 181-190 calories daily with her maintenance calories around 225 +/- 1. The maintenance is very consistent with how much she was eating when I was giving her enough dry food that she was functionally free-feeding. General vet advice from various vet clinics is not to lose more than 1% of total weight per week, which would be a quarter of a pound every two weeks, or half a pound every four weeks for Milky.
Daily Food:
16 cal in treats (four pieces of 2 cal Greenies Dental Treats BID)
68-79 cal can of wet food, half a can per meal BID
96 cal = 4 tbsp total dry food = 2 tbsp per meal BID
Total: 180-191 calories daily across four meals
I will see how she does in a month or so! :) Her theoretical daily calorie deficit being 35-45 calories means she should be losing very approximately 1lb per 3 months. Her litter box also keeps track of her weight, but the weighing has been weird lately (historical and estimated weights are super off, but when I go in to edit her profile it's actually extremely accurate), so the weight I took was manual. I've been feeding her like this for the past week or so now, and it's working pretty well; she finishes all of her wet food quickly, but doesn't beg for more after and doesn't sprint like a starving creature for the dry food dispenser when it goes off.
I am also wondering if once she is a couple of pounds lighter, she might feel more inclined to be less sedentary! I still play with her but she likes to just flop on her back and bat the toys around that way, pfft. Hard to get her to actually run or jump around more than once or twice. She was such a jumper and climber when she was an energetic kitten, too! Ah, well - we shall see. The lower energy is certainly more convenient, just gotta adjust her eating for it. Also my mom told me her brother Simba is gaining a little weight now that she isn't EATING ALL HIS FOOD, lmfao.
Also, YES, I am feeding my cat some EXPENSIVE-ASS CAT FOOD. She really likes the TikiCat, and it makes me happy to care for her in this way. Even then, she doesn't prefer to eat more than half a can at a time. Also, she used to be raw-fed for the first six years of her life, and Tiki Cat is the closest thing to it, so it was a good transition and I'm glad I guessed that she would enjoy it. She actually will refuse to eat and then paw at the ground and pretend to "bury" anything that isn't shredded in texture, lmfao. I also tried the TikiCat whole foods stuff with that famous little half-quail-egg in the can, and she ate it, but she doesn't like the bigger pieces at much. Even with the shreds, she eats those last and sometimes I give her the full princess treatment and break them up with a spoon, LOL. This is on top of the fact that she requires that I give her some Greenies before every wet food meal. I credit that developed habit to my mom.
Between the dry food (quail and pumpkin) and her favorite flavor of wet food can (quail and chicken, and yes, I bought the variety packs and gave them all a 1-5 rating based on her preferences, don't @ me)...
I think her favorite flavor is quail. :)
