How can I get my cat's weight down?

Question

My cat is huge. Was really fat when I got her about 4 months ago.. What food is good to give her?

I give her dry food. She won't eat wet. She is constantly running to her food bowl and I think maybe she is eating just for fun

Answer 1

Please do not attempt this on your own. PLEASE.

If an overweight/obese cat goes on a medically unsupervised 'diet' and loses too much too quickly, or in the wrong way, it has a tremendous likelihood of developing an often-fatal problem (specific to cats), called feline hepatic lipidosis syndrome. Their liver will flat-out shut down. Even with aggressive treatment and the advances we've made in the past few years with that treatment, many don't survive.

That said, it's extremely unhealthy for a cat ot be overweight. Chances are you are feeding her a high-carb diet, which is not natural for cats. They are carnivores. They are the original Atkins/South Beachers/low-carbers of the world. The problem is that the public demanded inexpensive commercial food for cats when it was first starting to be produced. It's a lot cheaper to make commercial foods with corn, etc. than with meat. As a result, we are seeing obesity, diabetes, hepatic lipidosis, and other related problems in epidemic proportions.

She needs to lose weight to avoid all that, but she needs to have her current health status evaluated by blood tests first. Your veterinarian can then recommend the best food for HER. Please don't go by what anyone says here (except that m/d....which stands for metabolic diet....will likely be the best choice. It's a prescription diet for exactly this purpose...it's available in dry as well as canned.) Most grocery-store (and many pet-store) brands will do exactly the opposite.

If you decide that that's too much trouble and just keep her on her current diet...she's GOING to have health problems. It's cheaper to do the blood tests now, than to do them later when she develops a critical health problem as a result of her weight.

Answer 2

I'm in the same boat, so just recently I've done a lot of research, and I hope that I've hit on the solution.

Get rid of the dry food! It's full of grains. Grains are providing carbs. Cats, being carnivores, do NOT need carbs. They need protein and fat. Wheat and corn are the absolute worst, not to mention that they can be allergens.

Cutting down the amount of dry food isn't going to help - unless you've been feeding her two cups a day and cut her down to one cup. I tried cutting my cat down to 1/3 cup per day, and it didn't help in the least. She was just hungry all the time.

You should get her going on canned food. You've already found that it's not going to be easy, but you just have to be patient and stick with it. It took me 2-3 weeks before I found the ONE food that Poppy will eat. I wasted a lot of money! But it's going to be worth it.

It hasn't been very long so I haven't seen any weight loss yet (cats lose slowly), but other improvements have occurred. No more dandruff! Not a speck. Shedding is down. Loose stools are a thing of the past. I rarely have to clean her butt anymore. She's more active and perky. Her hair is glossy and silky.

Putting your cat on a diet of GOOD quality canned food is the best thing you can do.

Here is a link to a very good site which will tell you more about weight loss, and about weaning a cat from a dry diet. There's another link to a list of the BEST canned foods.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Hills Prescription Diets have some really good weight loss diets that come in dry and tinned foods (M/D & W/D). They are veterinary formulated and only available from your veterinarian so a good idea to pop down to your local vet - get your cat weighed and find out how much weight your cat needs to lose. They will also advise on which diet is best, how much to feed and how often to come in to recheck her weight. Obesity carries with it many health problems so good on you for wanting to help your cat just make sure you stick with it and resist giving in to your cat. She will thank you for it ... eventually!

Answer 4

Well, when my cat got really fat I fed it wet cat food for seinors. She's lost a great deal of weight since then. Just make sure if you do the same to only feed your cat at 5:00 PM each day.

Answer 5

Okay. I will say I am not an exert on cat dieting, but here is my opinion. First of all, try to SLIGHTLY lower your cat's amount of food. For example, if you feed your cat 3 cups of cat food (which is WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much), lower itto 2 3/4 cup, not to 1 cup. Your cat might get sick if you do it. Also, NEVER starve your cat.

Good Luck!

Answer 6

You can try a different cat food.

Answer 7

check your local dep. store! they sell cat food to trim down your cat! make sure he gets lots of exercise! please, my Friend had a very fat cat, and he die from health complication from being very over weight!

Answer 8

Organic food or you can ask the vet!

Answer 9

feed her dry food twice a day.

Answer 10

you should to a vet they will tell you about this speciel food

dane i fogot what the food was called