Feeding a 9-Year-Old Ocicat: Calorie Advice

Ocicats are genuinely one of the more athletically demanding breeds to feed — they're lean, muscular, and stay active well into old age, which means their caloric and protein needs can sit higher than a typical 9-year-old cat's. At the same time, cats are obligate carnivores with specific nutritional requirements that a lot of commercial foods undercut with fillers and carbohydrates — and wet food is generally the smarter choice for hydration, which becomes increasingly important for kidney health as cats age. To give you useful advice: is your Ocicat male or female, roughly what does she or he weigh, and what are you currently feeding — wet, dry, or a mix? Any health issues flagged by your vet?

4.8kg lean and muscular on a mixed diet, with the vet noting he's on the slim side — that tells me the current calorie load probably isn't keeping up with his activity level. The dry kibble is giving him calories, but it's also loading him with carbohydrates his body doesn't use efficiently, and it's doing nothing for his hydration. One evening pouch isn't enough wet food volume for an active male of his size. Before I suggest anything specific, what's the wet pouch he's currently getting — do you know the brand and roughly the protein percentage on the label?

That's almost certainly part of the problem. Supermarket own-brand pouches tend to be heavy on gravy, gels, and cereals — the actual meat content is often surprisingly low, which means he's getting bulk without the protein and calories he needs to maintain that athletic frame. My recommendation is to switch him to Applaws Tuna Fillet in Broth — it's a whole-muscle wet food with around 75% natural tuna, no added grains, no fillers, and a very clean ingredient list. For a 4.8kg active Ocicat, I'd move him to two or three of those daily, drop or significantly reduce the dry kibble, and let the high-protein wet food carry the calories properly. The broth also adds meaningful hydration. It's available in bulk pouches on Amazon UK and works out cost-effective given the quality. Within two to three weeks on better protein volume, you should see him filling out slightly and staying better muscled.

It's a common concern but the evidence doesn't support restricting protein in healthy senior cats — that's advice carried over from dogs and it doesn't apply. High-quality animal protein from a source like whole tuna is not hard on healthy kidneys. What is hard on kidneys is chronic dehydration, which dry-food-heavy diets cause over years. Since your vet has confirmed he's healthy with no kidney issues, feeding him more high-quality wet protein is the right move, not a risk. If his kidney function ever changes, that's when you'd revisit protein levels — but right now, more good protein and more hydration is exactly what he needs.

Yes, always transition over about a week — introduce the new food alongside the old, gradually shifting the ratio. Some cats are fine switching cold turkey, but a gradual change reduces the chance of any digestive upset. With Applaws being a simple, clean ingredient food, most cats take to it quickly. Keep an eye on his weight over the following month — if he's still looking slim after a few weeks at higher volume, you may want to add a fourth pouch or consider a complementary high-calorie topper. But start there and see how he responds.