PUTTING A CAT ON A DIET

Tinkrbl44 · ‎08-23-2010

Oh boy .... I took Bogey to the vet yesterday for his annual checkup. Apparently, he is "overweight". He weighs 14 pounds, and his ideal weight is 12 pounds!

I'm going to do some googling research later, but wanted to know if anyone here has successfully helped a cat to lose weight?

I already feed him an indoor weight cat food.

Would love your suggestions and feedback! TIA

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

In the past, I had a couple of cats who were a heck of lot more overweight than that. A lot! They both loved their food and they were big cats. One was a Himalayan and the other was a big tiger cat. I owned the cats 10 years apart but they both had the same vet who advised I give them half portions. I always filled the bowl with dry food for them to snack on during the day and then I gave them wet food for dinner. I cut the portions in half and it was indeed hard on me and hard on them in the beginning. The begging for food, the whining, the trying to open the cabinets to get to their own food. One would have thought they were starving. I don't remember how long but they got used to half rations and they actually lost the weight pretty fast. Neither one ever got down to their normal weight but they weren't chunky and rolly polly anymore. They got to where they could walk and not waddle. And then I increased the portions a little but I was careful not to over feed them again. The tiger lived to be 17 and the himalayan 23.

x Hedge · ‎08-18-2016

Figure your total amount of food for 24 hours, feed more frequently but in smaller amounts per meal.

If you're not already making 'meat flavoured water', (canned food+hot water+stick blender) now's a good time to start.

I started making it daily as a vehicle to get adequate water into my youngest cat. We had a very expensive vet bill from her not drinking enough water.

You can use it for one or two of your cat's meals. It 'fills the belly', but with mostly water.

MFW is always presented with ceremonial enthusiasm as a 'special treat' in a special dish for good cats.

I now use meat flavoured water for all the cats, adjusting the food-to-water ratio.

For kittens who are almost ready to stop nursing, I start them with MFW that is mostly water to first teach them to lap liquids.

You'll want to try starting your cat here, where it smells like food but is more water than food.

For my dying cat who could no longer handle anything else, I made meat flavoured water as thick as pudding, he'd lick it off a spatula.

blackhole99 · ‎08-22-2013

Our first cat Muffy loved to eat, she would honker down at the cat food dish and just eat and eat. Muffy was 3lbs. over weight and on a cat you can really see it. We always kept her food dish full so she could eat at will, but we stopped that.Muffy also liked to drink milk and we quit that too, we didn't know any better 40 years ago that cats should not have milk. We fed her half the amount she usually got, twice a day and in 3 weeks she lost the 3 lbs. and never gained it back.

NickNack · ‎03-10-2010

I've only had one overweight cat. I had three cats at the time, and it was hard to feed them separately, so she stayed overweight.

I had to put my dog, Frankie, on a diet a couple of years ago. I started feeding her weight control food (which I know you already do). I just fed her less. I was feeding her a little less than 1/2 cup of regular food twice a day, and I'm now feeding her 1/3 cup of weight control. She needed to lose 1 1/2 lbs. and did lose it.

The Bluebird Carries The Sky On His Back"
-Henry David Thoreau

KingstonsMom · ‎03-09-2010

I don't know if you 'free feed', meaning leaving dry food available all day, but if you do, stop.

Use set amounts of food at certain times of the day and that's it, other than a couple of healthy treats.

DD is a true cat lady, she has 8 indoor cats that were formally feral and once she tamed them and brought them inside, they naturally wanted to gorge on food, since they were half starved, trying to fend for themselves.

Two lbs. overweight isn't that bad, but I'm sure your Vet doesn't want it to get out of control.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.

Meowingkitty · ‎06-19-2010

My vet suggested picking up the food (we leave bowls down all day) after say 6 pm and put them down again in the morning. Also there are dry food diet options you can try. I usually feed the diet dry food only. We're not real good at picking up the food at night but when we did it seemed to work except the cats get a bit annoying when they want food in the middle of the night.

kare29 · ‎07-03-2018

I have a chubby kitty also. Gizmo is an indoor kitty and loves to eat. She had her annual check up in July and I have managed to get her weight down from 14 lbs to 12 lbs over the past year by measuring her dry food. I allow her 1/3 of a cup dry food daily along with a 5.5 oz can of canned food half in the morning and half in the evening. I don't leave the dry food down but give it to her here and there when she is looking for it. There are times when I have to walk away from her because she loves her food but she is not starving.

I also moisten her wet food with warm water more so to keep her from upchucking. That was a tip I got from watching Jackson Galaxy on Animal Planet. It has helped quite a bit and I also spread her food out over the morning and at dinner time, I don't give her the entire portion at once.

Her vet would like to see her down to 10 lbs but I don't know if that will happen taking her age, she is 10 years old and her being an indoor kitty into consideration. As long as I don't put any weight on her I am happy.

Good luck, remember you don't want to be killing Bogey with kindness. It's just as much retraining for us as it is for them but it can be done.--Karen

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

Whatever you do, make sure you're going for a slow weight loss. Cats cannot handle quick weight loss; it can lead to hepatic lipidosis and be fatal. Tufts says:

"What is the ideal rate of weight loss?

"When restricting calories veterinarians follow a very important rule for the desired rate of weight loss. For dogs this is 1-2% of their total body weight per week. For cats this is 0.5-2% of their body weight per week. So, for example, if you have a 100 lb Labrador Retriever, he can safely lose 1 to 2 lbs per week. If you have a 20 lb cat, she can lose 0.2-0.4 lbs (or about 4 oz) per week. It’s also ok to lose less than that per week, but your weight loss plan will just take longer (and you won’t see the benefits so quickly!)."

I'm afraid I don't have good tips. I have a difficult time with my overweight boy because he's so food-motivated and he'll become very aggressive with his sister if he sees her getting her high-calorie veterinary diet. Never mind that he's got perfectly good grain-free dry food. I still free-feed the dry because of her. I try to "run" him more to burn off the fat. At least he's not gaining now, and he's a senior.