My Cat Needs to Lose Weight

It's official! My 5 year old Maine Coon has a pooch! I just noticed it swaying when he was running across the street and I was calling him home. He has so much hair that I never even noticed it until I saw my baby's tummy swaying. I was wondering if anyone else has ever had a fat cat and what methods you guys used to help him slim down. I do measure his food, but I think he is hitting up other houses in the neighborhood for seconds

 

You can get weightloss food for cats, probably from the vet. Maybe try chasing him around the house for extra exercise?

 

One of my cats (Booger) is overweight I feed him weight loss food once a day and try to get him to be active. He has lost some but it's going very slow. I thought maybe after I got Bella that she might get him to be more active but they pretty much ignore each other.

 

Maybe you could put a note on his collar for your neighbours saying "Please don't feed me, I'm getting fat!"

 

LOL Becky! I have talked to a few of them and they said that they just leave out a lot of food in a bowl for the strays. Yikes. I just hope my Kitty Love isn't eating it all and letting the poor strays starve. I bought him some diet kitty kibble and am mixing half in with his current food so he doesn't completely refuse to eat it. He just ate some, but jumped up and down on the washer hoping I would open up a can for him. Maybe I can get him to exercise that way.

 

It depends on how much time you want to spend, but we put my former roommate's cat on a raw food diet (my cats got it too but were not overly fat)- her obese cat who had feline diabetes ended up losing a bunch of weight and not needing insulin shots anymore. It was pretty amazing. It took about a month for the cat to stop needing insulin and about six months to drop down to about half her original size. She became a much happier, healthier cat. Doing a raw food diet takes dedication, though- you pretty much have to make all the cat's food yourself and make sure the cat gets the right proportions of things.

 

Thanks for the info, Alli! I am totally trying to prevent him from getting feline diabetes. I didn't even know that cats needed insulin shots. Wow. I think portion control now would be easier for me to do instead of trying to give my cat his insulin shots all day long. Thanks for the motivation!

 

First you get a stepladder like this:


Then every time you want to give your cat a treat, put a little bit of it in a bowl and put the bowl at the top of the stepladder. Tadaa! Motivation to exercise.

 

It is hard if you have no way of restricting the amount of food they get (if you kitty is getting seconds from the neighbors). If that is the case, you need to try and increase the amount of exercise. I would recommend trying to play with the cat more, or giving it more active toys that will stimulate it to be more active. If you don't have another cat, maybe getting a young kitten with lots of energy for your cat to play with would be an option. Also, getting to go up and down stairs a few times a day (you can chase it if you have to...in a fun way) is another good way to get it to exercise. It takes time and dedication, but your kitty will feel a lot better being in a good health range. Good luck to you!

 

My cat is five now, but when we first had him he became overweight and barely moved. I switched his food to Orijen about a year ago, and I have noticed a HUGE difference! He's like a kitten again playing, jumping onto counters and beds, running. I truly believe it's the food that has helped him because of it's ingredients he eats less and is satisfied which has, of course, caused him to slim down majorly. Hope this helps!

 

Peas!

My youngest cat absolutely loves peas...especially frozen ones. Mixing them with food would bulk up your cat's mealtime amounts so maybe they won't go eat as much as the neighbor's house. We actually use ours as treats instead of cat treats because she loves them so much. Bonus: Toss them across the room for your cat to chase, if you find that they like peas, too, and you'll add in some bonus exercise, too!

 

I remember reading about a chicken farmer who would spread sawdust over the chicken feed which he spread over the ground. He said that it gave the chicken exercise to scratch for their food and it also made the chicken feel happy when their scratching uncovered some food. I wonder if something similar can be done with cats.

 

Well they do have balls for dogs that use the same general idea. You put their food (or treats) into the ball and they have to roll it around to knock the food out. It makes them work for a while, gets them exercise, and slows down how much food they're gobbling down at once. I'm sure there's probably something like that for cats, too, although cats tend to get impatient faster.

 

It's a cat.. it's supposed to be fat.. lol

 

Oh? Fat cats, eh? Like this one?

 

Hehe. I think there's a difference between a cat with a bit of a saggy belly and one who can barely hold himself up still like this one:



He's obviously channeling his inner Garfield.

 

I think that cat's owner should be sued for animal abuse. The poor cat must be having all kinds of health problems.

 

This is one happy kitty.. you can't tell me if you were a cat that you wouldn't want to be like this

 

I think I could, wils. As a cat, I'd want to clean myself constantly, I suppose. It seems like most cats do. As that fat cat, I don't think I'd be able to lift my back leg to clean it, though...or jump up on anything, no? I'd just be stuck, sitting around doing nothing, lol.

 

What kind of food do you feed? Cats are unable to properly digest carbohydrates, and the cheaper foods (i.e. grocery store foods) are loaded with them. Therefore all carbs digested will be stored as fat. I suggest getting a high quality food that's high in a good quality protein (look for a meat as the first ingredient). Canned is best, if he will eat it. If you want to encourage extra exercise, a laser "dot" light for him to chase should help!