I have one obese cat and one overweight cat. It's not hard. Get 2 cats with conflicting feeding styles, open-feed them dry cat food, don't play with them too much. I ended up in this trifecta situation unintentionally.

I sound like a lousy pet owner, but in my defense the first was already fat when we got him, and when the second one arrived, things went downhill immediately.


Dry food makes a difference because it has much higher carbs than canned, and being carnivores rather than omnivores (like dogs), they process poorly and store as fat.

Not playing with them is self explanatory, especially in small apartments.

Both these happen naturally if owners are not home all day (since wet food cannot be left out).


But the killer is incompatible eating styles. Our obese cat pigs out as soon as you put food out. The other one grazes and nibbles all day. Leaving food out means Cat 1 eats far too much, and Cat 2 eats a little too much.

But timed feeding means Cat 1 eats enough and Cat 2 doesn't get enough (since he doesnt eat enough at a single meal-time, and leaving his food out will only cause Cat 1 to steal it) and wakes us up at 4 AM with hungry miaows.

Path of least resistance, leave dry food out. Cats get fat.

I hate that I cannot solve this problem. But controlled feeding with wet food is simply too hard to keep up. I either need a much larger place with safe outdoor play areas and/or RFID collar controlled gated separate feeding areas or something.