Does anyone have a suggestion to make a cat lose weight?

Question

My cat is well over weight at a very big 33 pounds and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help him lose weight he is 7 years old and just too big any help is wanted so please help by the way his name is Sugar

Twinkle that's a good answer and i thank you but if he dosn't have food he meows and i can't stand his meow plus i have tried pretty much everything and the funny part is he is afraid of my 7 pound dog and it's starting to worry me he started to gain weight when we had to stop letting him outside due to construction work going on around his tarratory

Thank you those answers really helped I gonna go to the town pet store tommarow and get him toys i would also like to know how to make my other dog the pitbull cooper gain weight he is like way under weight the vet said that we should feed him more and give him more protein but he still isn't gaining weight

Answer 1

Any certain toys he likes to play with? Dragging a string across the floor, chasing paper wads? Getting him to chase those will exercise him, being the equivalent to running and sprinting for humans.

Answer 2

Well a good thing to do is to feed your cat 1 cup a day of dry food for a diet to lose weight. There is a purina cat chow healthy weight formula that you can use. Most people leve there cat food out all the time which is not good if you have an indoor cat, because your cat will gain weight.

Answer 3

Unfortunately Sugar is not alone in this area. Many pets are overweight for lots of reasons. Sugar is most likely fixed, this helps to add weight. I also suspect that he is an indoor cat which makes for less exercise.

Being a cat he can only eat what you give him. I would suggest stopping all treats or at least take it down to no more than one a day, for now. Maybe check into a cat vitamin. Yes, there are vitamins for cats. I get mine at Walley World in the cat department. Next is to limit his intake of food. If you put food down and leave it then start putting his food down for an hour or two in the evening and remove it until morning. He will adjust with it over time. Also lower the amount of food you give him. At 33 lbs. he is a big boy with a big appetite. Try him out on one cup servings twice a day. You can lower that amount or take it to one serving a day over a period of time. You can even check labels of different cat food product. Some are healthier than others.

Just remember, that like a human, the weight went on gradually and will need to come off gradually. Try some exercise for him. I just bought some mice from Walley World that are great. Hartz 5 mini mice are about $4 and are made from rabbit fur. My cats love them and throw them about for hours at a time, literally.

Lastly, make sure you have your Sugar seen by a vet. The vet will have ideas I may have forgotten. Besides, at 33 lbs. little Sugar may have some health issues. Cats can get diabetes, thyroid disease, tumors, heart disease, urinary tract issues and other problems just like humans. The vet may even have some idea of a good food product to use, for now. Love your cat as you would yourself.

Good Luck! ;)

Answer 4

Time to start exercising that guy, he won't like it but get a collar and leash and start taking him for walks. Buy a few toys that he can play with, my cats love those little toy mice (the small 89 cent variety I get at the pet store). They run around with them batting them in the air and doing all the things a cat would do if outside and came across a real one. And for goodness sake, buy food formulated for over weight cats (he won't like that at first either). Doesn't have to be the most expensive stuff on the market or even come from the vet's office. Just make sure it's for over weight cats.

Answer 5

You're right being that large is hard on his health and could make him live less long and be sick more. Cats loose weight the same way humans do by eating a healthier diet and by exercizing more to burn calories. There are specific cat foods that are made for overweight pets. Try one or two of those till you find one Sugar likes. Look on the package or can and see what the recommended amount is to feed. Divide that up into 3 or even 4 feedings so he can stay feeling full. Add a little bit at first because he is a big cat and just carrying himsself around takes extra energy. Cut out table scraps and most but not all treats. He's got to enjoy things still, Feed the dog when he is not around so he doesn't get into a contest with the dog about dinner. Be sure he always has plenty of water available so he can fill up on that if his tummy feels empty. Some cat grass (a pit with grass or even catnip seed growing in it) will help too because when he went out he probably ate grass sometimes and it is not fattening and is good for vitamins and fiber.

Find a few toys that he likes and take time to play with him. My husband used a fishpole -with no hooks of course- to cast a line that ended in a paper butter fly for one of our cats to chase when she couldn't safely go out any more. The pet store or pet dept at a department store will have things like 2 hollow circles with a ball inside, a cat dangler than is feathers on a string that mounts with a suction cup that many cats love to play with actively. There are also treat balls that he can roll around and bat at tll a small treat comes out. If you are cutting down on other treats he may like that a lot. But mostly at first Sugar will need you to play with him because he is probably out of the habit of being active,. He may want to chase a string with something tied to it, jump after something light like a paper plane you toss in the air for him...chase your feet under the covers, whatever he enjoys that mkeans you are paying attention to him and he is moving around to burn callories.

Sugar also needs to visit the vet and make sure he is in good health and that the weight gain doesn't indicate a problem like diabetes or a kidney situation or something else that is making him retain water and adding to his weight problem. The vet may give you more specific advice on feeding Sugar and how much exercize he can tolerate at first.

Please scratch his ears for me and tell him hi.

Answer 6

He's spoiled isn't he?

Well if you don't mind the constant pleading and begging,... you will just have to put him on a very strict diet of just a half a cup of dry food and ONLY a half cup of dry food for every 24 hour period.
With a fresh bowl of clean water every day.
Of course, if he's too fat to walk let alone waddle around the floor. He can at least crawl to his din din when he get hungy enough.

No,.. you don't carry him around the house too do you?

I don't think you want to give him a Liposuction treatment, but you could also try to not feed him anything for a month. He won't starve, but he will lose weight pretty steady. Just don't get caught by the SPCA.

cheers babe!!!

My mom's cat Kimo (shes in Honolulu) he is a little more than chubby, and she likes him that way, coz he's too fat to run around and get into trouble. Just lay around and be petted and givien treats and be the spoiled rotten.
He's about 46 pounds the last time she weighed him, an he's 12 years old.

Answer 7

You need a very high protein cat food to safely take weight off of him without losing muscle, at least 35-40% on a dry matter basis (meaning the water is factored out). Ask your vet for help, it's tricky to do and it takes a long time to do it safely, if you cut back calories too much the body will mobilize fat to make up for it, and cats are so good at mobilizing fat that it can overwhelm the liver (hepatic lipidosis if you want to google) and then you may end up needing to tube feed him several weeks-not fun! There's prescription diets meant for this sort of thing, and you can find all-meat or 95% meat canned foods at big pet supply stores, not sure if you can find over the counter dry food that's high enough in protein. Any exercise is GREAT, even if it's only 30-second bursts. With dry food, you can put it in toys that the cat has to bat around to get the food out, instead of putting it in a dish, to get him some exercise that way. Or you can cut a hole in the side of a milk jug, big enough for his paw to fit easily but too small to get his head in, to make him work for it. Unfortunately I don't have my books at home to calculate his calories for you, but your vet or vet tech can do that pretty easily. It should take at least 6 months to a year to do it right, but it's well worth doing, he is at big risk for diabetes right now, as well as heart and liver problems, arthritis, and early death.

Thank you for being concerned! Too many people don't see this as a problem. Good luck to you.

PS: don't listen to Somber, that's how hepatic lipidosis happens.

Answer 8

Get one of those little plastic cat nip balls. That will get your cat to chase it all over the house and plenty of exercise. Of course if sugar can't get up and run he will at least move around a bit more than he's used to. Also be sure to start feeding your cat the senior cat food it has less fat. A high quality cat food would be best.

I notice my cat will meow all day and act hungry on the cheap grocery store cat food, even Iams. I notice if you feed cheap food they poop all day so you are spending more money on kitty litter. Good luck with Sugar! ; )

Answer 9

My cat was really over weight I went to this web-site and tried some of things that they suggested. Give it a try

Answer 10

Hi, I have a similar problem so I will tell you what has worked for me. I have 3 cats, one fat older cat, one middle aged cat, and one 6 mo. old kitten. I feed the middle age and young one an adult food. The senior fatty gets senior food in reduced amounts. I also give him the smallest amount of canned food at night. Since senior cat is too fat to jump up on a table, I keep his food on the ground and the other 2 can jump onto my desk to eat their food. It seems to be working well so far.

Answer 11

Our cats were overweight too. We took them to the vet to see what we should do and they gave us this certain feline diet cat food. If you decide to do this , Make sure you don't all of a sudden start feeding it to your cat. You should mix his/her regular food with it until your cat gets used to it. If you just start to feed your cat this new food, your cat can either get a stomach ache or will not eat it. For further info talk to your pet.