He is having a mix of Purina and Iams, he loves the Iams, I give him the Purina for his first meal,then early evening he has a bowl of Iams.

Im sure last winter he didnt put on so much weight.

His bowls are not huge, and he is getting the right amount according to the packaging.

Could it be the dried food, and if it is, is there any thing else you can feed them thats likely not to make him into a hefer of a cat.

I did wonder too if maybe its his age, hes almost 7 and this year we haven't had half as many birds caught and bought home to us.

I buy the 'light' variety of Science Plan.

My cat is a bit overweight and the vet told me how much she needed to lose. He said to cut down the portions gradually and that I could take her to be weighed (free) once a month, and he would keep me right about how it was going.

Iams! Force feeding animals vegetable oil! Best avoided!

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/iams.htm

Raw meat is the best food as that would be their natural diet. This has to be organic and not processed or injected with growth hormones or other nasties.

They wouldn't be eating dried food and dried food does make cats fat and also poisons them and makes them ill.

Just a thought. Are you measuring out a days amount from each, i.e. he is getting two lots of food, each the recommended daily serving? As in twice the food, the cat should be eating.

my vet told me that one of the problems with some dry food is they can be a bit to salty not sure if that in it's self would cause weight gain but it could be that now you're cat is classed as senior he may need a specially controlled dry food diet my advice would be to make an appointment with your vet to disscuss your cats weight gain.

We feed both of our Orijen dry food - 80% meat and more importantly no grains - and we have never had a problem with their weight. I think Applaws is similarly made.

Iams research and testing methods are brutal and well documented - avoid!!!

Thanks for the replies, I had no idea Iams was bad

Hes such a fussy thing, I wouldnt want to spend a fortune on something he refused to eat.

I rechecked the pack for correct feeding, and I think I maybe giving him a bit to much of the stuff, mainly because he cleans his bowl out, then I go to work and he acts like hes not been fed when hubby comes in.

Will look up the foods suggested.

Lean raw meat is no more a complete diet for dogs than it is for cats. If you mean a BARF diet or similar then yes, it's complete and it's good, but it's hard work as well and suspect it can be quite an expensive way to feed a dog.

And why does their diet have to be organic any more than mine is? Growth hormones are also not an issue in the EU where they are banned - there has been a long-running dispute with the US about this.

There are also plenty of people with cats (and dogs) that have lived to good ages in good health on largely dried diets.

Typical cat! Between the two of you you need to make sure you don't over feed him.