Is Cracker eating only his food, or is he eating his food and then cleaning up the other kitties food dishes?
I ask, because both of my civies eat really fast. When they are done with their own food dishes, they switch and clean up any tiny little bits in the other's dish. Once that is done, they start to eye Wink's food dish, snake out a paw to drag the dish out from under Wink's nose, or try to get Wink to move and abandon his unfinished meal so they can crowd in and finish off his food.
Do you give any treats to your kitties? Is Cracker eating more than his share?
Any food left out on the counter?
Access to food in a cabinet that Cracker gets into?
Are you giving him bites of any people food?
Is there any food left out beyond fixed meal times? You say you feed in the morning and evening, but are there leftovers for the cats to finish until you put out the next meal?
I've had to monitor Wink closely to make sure he gets to eat all his food and the other kitties don't eat it instead. I can only use meal feeding at this time, with my other 2 kitties being real "hoovers" (vacuum cleaners) when it comes to cleaning up their food dishes.
Dr. Lisa Pierson has a great article on her site about
Feline Obesity.
Perhaps try a lower calorie/carb version of the Friskies pate foods. For example, the Friskies Classic Pate Turkey and Giblets is a lot lower in calories (150 calories less) than the Salmon flavor. The Friskies Special Diet pate foods are about half the carb content of the Friskies Classic pate foods and the Special Diet foods are also about 1/2 the calories of the Classic foods per
Dr. Lisa Pierson's Food Chart.
ETA: I managed to get my overweight civie Monet down from 16.5 pounds to 12 pounds. Took a year to do this slow and steady weight loss, like Dr. Pierson recommends.
