Is it normal for cats to lose some weight in the summer?
My indoor/outdoor cat is losing weight but we have him on a diet so that’s to be expected. However, my strictly indoor cat has unexpectedly lost a small amount of weight (she looks healthy) even though she is eating the same as before.
She’s not at all lethargic and I haven’t noticed any other health symptoms such as urinary issues. Is it just related to the change in season? Also my mom wants to switch her to a “heavier” food. Is that necessary?
September 29th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Look at your cat. If you can see the rib cage well then you should start to worry but if its just a little bit of extra fat it shouldn’t be a problem.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
ANY sudden change in either your cat’s behavior or weight warrants a visit to the vet to make sure there are no health issues.
If your vet gives her the OK, then I’d say she’s just eating your “boy’s” food and as it was designed to make him lose weight, it’s also working on her…
Hope this helps,
September 29th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
There can be other reasons for losing weight not related to urinary issues. I cannot answer your question You need to weigh her and weigh her again in 10 days and if more weight is lost then a vet check up is necessary. A baby scale is best so you can measure oz’s.
Diet food? heavier food? This is all nonsense. Try proper foods for the species You won’t have to limit food
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…
http://www.sniksnak.com/ac/petfooddefinitions.html
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)
An even bigger problem is that it IS dry and it dehydrates no matter how much your cat drinks
Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food. Cats are not naturally big drinkers.
95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Think about it.
Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck in between.
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=doesdryfoodcleantheteeth
http://www.felinefuture.com/?p=470ary&act=sho
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm…
Prescription diets It is extremely rare that they should be fed
The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with the people pushing it on
them with their own research showing how great their food is. Who is going to spend money or research for animals these
days. The food companies that is who. Their research is designed not to hurt their bottom line
Believe me a company researching their own products are in it for profit
Some vets are behind the times when it comes to nutrition
but more are reading and becoming up to date
Times change information changes over time as more is learned. Please do your research
. Notice grants for for this nutritional class in a vet school
http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_gr…
September 29th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
well it could be he’s more active in the summer or he shedding his winter coat. though if he makes a huge weight loss and you see his ribs or he is super skinny or skin and bone skinny you should take him to the vet.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I don’t think anything is wrong with your cat, but if it keeps losing, you should see a vet.
Usually it’s easy to manage overweight and underweight problems with proper diet. And no, I don’t mean prescription, indoor/outdoor formulas and all that. It’s just marketing.
There is just one proper diet for an obligate carnivore and that’s meat.
If you feed them dry food there is no wonder you felt like one needed to lose weight, the dry is usually loaded with carbs from the fillers (grain) and it’s #1 cause of feline diabetes and obesity. No other dry ‘diet food’ will fix that as it still contains too many carbs.
The other cat losing could be a sign of malnutrition from the very same food.
An appropriate diet for a cat is a grain-free, muscle meat based diet with no by-product. Wellness, Merrick and EVO make good wet options.
Wet diet is important since your cat is designed to get it’s fluids from food, they are not natural drinkers. Also it is far more closer to the way a cat would be eating in the nature.
I had to learn the hard way (have my cat die) that diet is crucial for the health of my pet, so I studied a lot on the subject and if you take the time to read through these articles, you will be able to provide your cats with long, healthy happy lives.
Best of luck!!