Best food for sedentary indoor cats

Honest answer first: wet food is generally better for cats. It provides hydration they'd naturally get from prey, it's more satiating per calorie, and it aligns better with how cats are built to eat. Dry food is cheaper and easier, which matters — so a mixed approach is often the practical sweet spot. That said, for a sedentary indoor cat you're specifically trying to keep lean, the details matter a lot. How old is your cat, do they have any health conditions, and what are you feeding them at the moment?

The free-feeding dry food setup is probably the biggest risk factor here, honestly. Cats are grazers by instinct, but dry food is calorie-dense and easy to overeat — and for an indoor cat who isn't running around much, the calories add up fast without you noticing. She sounds healthy right now, which is the perfect time to get ahead of this. Can I ask: is she currently at a healthy weight, or are you already seeing a bit of extra padding around her belly?

Good — acting now while she's still trim is exactly right. Here's what I'd suggest: switch from free-fed dry to scheduled wet food meals, two to three times a day. Wet food has far fewer calories per gram, keeps her fuller longer through the protein and water content, and naturally enforces portion control because you're serving set meals rather than leaving a bowl out. For a cat in her situation I'd recommend Purina ONE Sterilised Adult Wet Cat Food in gravy — it's specifically formulated for indoor cats prone to weight gain, high in protein, low in fat, and the individual pouches make portioning completely straightforward. It's also widely available on Amazon UK and genuinely good value for a quality wet food. If you want to keep some dry food in the mix, that's fine — just use it as a small supplement rather than the main event, and measure it strictly.

For a 3-year-old Domestic Longhair at a healthy weight — probably around 4 to 5 kg — you're typically looking at three to four pouches of wet food per day, split across two or three meals. The Purina ONE pouches are 85g each, and the pack guidelines are a reasonable starting point. That said, watch her body condition rather than following the packet rigidly: you should be able to feel her ribs easily but not see them, and she should have a visible waist when viewed from above. Adjust up or down by half a pouch based on what you see over a couple of weeks. Longhairs can hide weight gain under their coat, so running your hands along her sides regularly is more reliable than just looking at her.

A few things worth keeping in mind. First, enrichment matters for indoor cats — puzzle feeders and food-dispensing toys slow eating down and add a bit of movement, which helps both weight and mental health. Second, get her weighed at the vet annually even if she seems fine; small weight creep is much easier to reverse early. Third, once you switch to wet food, her water intake will go up naturally, which is great for kidney health long-term — one of the real benefits of wet food for cats that live indoors their whole lives. You're thinking about this at exactly the right time.