How can I get my cat to loose weight?
This might be confusing, I will edit if anyone has any questions.
I have 7 cats and one of them is a female, year and half and extremely overweight. My vet told me to have her loose .5-1 pound a month for a minimum of 6 months. She is about 15 pounds right now and only getting fatter. My other 6 cats are in good shape though. I try to monitor their eating but my parents don’t listen and will refill their dry food when I am not around, allowing her to just pig out and me not being able to stop it. What can I do to make her skinny? I exercise my cats alot using Da Bird and rattle mice and things like that, but she will join in but give up quickly. I feed them a mixture of several different foods because they are picky and all want different things. It’s all Holistic though. I took carbs out of their diets and now they are basically their diet is 95% grain free. The only treats they are allowed are all natural things like Catswell treats. Help!She’s getting too big! Her brother is fine!
My cats are fed Holistic. As in Innova and Halo and brands like that, I know alot about cat food but not how to make my cat skinny again =/
June 28th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
your vet should have offered a diet dry food. Hills Prescription Diet has a diet formula called r/d for weight control. it can be purchased at most vets. At 15lbs, you should probably feed no more than 3/4 – 1c per day. Separate her from the rest of the cats when feeding her and refrain from giving her treats. If you feed her this for 6 months she should lose the weight no problem.
good luck!
June 29th, 2011 at 12:03 am
My 16 year old cat was overweight so the vet told us to play with her ! Get some toys like a fluffy thing attached to a string play with her! Also you might want to change her food get it in light it has less fat! You might want to give smaller portions when feeding her! Even though the treats are all natural you still should cut down on them a lot!
June 29th, 2011 at 12:15 am
if she can graze all day she wont sorry it sounds like you have to work on the parents
June 29th, 2011 at 12:42 am
Well, you’re on the right track! Too bad you’re being sabotaged.
But even though you’ve improved their diets, you’d do better with canned food. Dry food and diets just don’t work very well!
In a nutshell, most cats are fat because they’ve been fed too much (free-feeding or indulging them) and because they’re fed dry food which is NOT appropriate food for them due to the grain/carb/sugar content. Cats are obligate carnivores who need to eat a high meat-based protein diet, which is also high in fats and low in carbs.
Many vets, who are sadly ignorant on the topic of proper cat nutrition, will recommend prescription diet foods (usually dry). Cats are expected to lose weight on a starvation diet of 1/4 or 1/3 cup of food per day. Everyone is miserable in these situations.
The solution is to switch the fat cat (and any others in the household as well) to a good quality canned food. Because these foods are species appropriate, the cat will lose weight at a safe, slow pace (no more than 1 pound per month). Switching foods needs to occur slowly, and if you’re trying to get a kibble junkie to eat canned food, that will happen naturally.
How much should cats eat?
This varies. Average cats may eat between 20-30 calories per pound per day. But note that that is IDEAL pounds. Using 25 calories per day for example, an 8 pound cat could eat 200 calories per day. By the same token, a cat who weighs 20 pounds but should weigh 10 could eat 250 calories per day. You multiply the ideal weight by the calories to arrive at that figure. When working toward weight loss, it’s perhaps best to start at the lower end of the scale (20).
How do I find out how many calories are in cat food? See the link “Values in canned food.” If it’s not listed there, you’d need to contact the manufacturer…..I believe that link provides some help there as well.
That’s it. Easy as pie. Not only will fat cats lose weight, but it and any others in the home will reap many benefits of eating a speciies appropriate diet.
See the links below for detailed information on this topic.
UPDATE: Poppy lost 5 pounds and Sophie lost 2 following this plan (from October to October). Each cat gets one can (5.5oz) of Nature’s Variety Instincts per day. No one is starving or miserable. My vet is happy with her progress and so am I. Only 4 pounds to go!