what can i do about my overweight cat?

Question

two and a half years ago i adopted an eight month old male cat(nutered), i was'nt sure how i should feed him because he always seems hungry, so i feed him small portions of science diet light(dry food), i feed him sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. if i wake in the middle of the night and i dont feed him, he gets an attitude and feeding him is the only thing that calms him down, but hes entirely too fat now, he wont excercise or play with toys, just lays around until he sees me go in the kitchen. i took him to the vet last year and she told me to get him off the dry food and feed him canned, but he wont eat the canned food, he does'nt like it, and i've tried all kinds, he definitely wont eat it,i did'nt want him to starve, so i went back to the dry. what can i do to make him loose some weight? thank you in advance, cookie

Answer 1

Yup had this problem... my cat was also getting heavy and when we switched food my cat rebeled and refused to eat but i didn't give in and in time hunger got the best of her and she started to eat again. Now all she eats is 1 of friskies a day (which is what she eats) and she looks extremely healthy and is in the perfect weight range. I also learned to stop giving her treats. Be strong if your cat gives you attitude ignore him and he'll soon learn to eat the wet food :) Promise

Answer 2

He has you hooked! Put him on a diet. instead of giving him the full amount 5 times daily, keep the same schedule, but keep cutting the amount gradually until he is getting one quarter of what he is getting now, Don't worry, he will not starve to death. he probably has enough fat on him to last a very long time. Once you get him down to small feedings, try to mix a teaspoon or so of the canned food mixed with the dry. Try either quicken or fish. See what happens. Get him off the couch and let him move, even if you have to put a collar on him and a leash and take him out for a walk. He is not going to like this at first, but when he gets thinner and can move, he will live longer. Good luck.

Answer 3

You can email me if you like, I do weight clinics for animals and am always happy to help.

Firstly, Science Diet is good stuff - I think where you went wrong is the 4-5x daily feeding :-). Some people will tell you that cats don't naturally overeat - as you've discovered, they most certainly do!

I'm surprised the vet told you to switch to canned food. Weight control is generally easier with dry food, and if that's what your cat likes, there's no reason not to stick to it.

I utilise Hills and their products for weight loss regimes. I use Hills r/d for overweight cats, it comes in dry and wet forms and you get great results with it. I would suggest moving your cat onto r/d until he's lost weight, and then switching back to the usual food, but at a reduced amount! You need to get your cat used to this - I know they can be insistent, but it's your constant giving in that's encouraging him to persist. Once he's realised you're not feeding him more than twice a day and that's that, he'll get over it.

R/d is good stuff - it's high in fibre, so it's bulky, meaning it should fill your cat up more. One thing about 'light' is that it might keep hungry cats, well, hungry.

Check out the Hills website for great diet tips:
http://www.hillspetslimmer.co.uk/overweight/diagnosis_bodycondition.html

You can get the r/d from your vets or order it online with a prescription. You should feed the amount recommended for your cat's ideal weight, usually 3.5-4.5kg (7.7-8.8lb). This is up to 80g of the dry food, which you then split into two or even three daily meals. You need to weigh regularly, like once a fortnight to be sure your cat is losing weight but not too quickly (should lose about 1% of body weight a week). Diets must be accompanied by exercise, so get a laser pen or start swinging a toy mouse at your cat to get him moving!!

As I say, feel free to email me for further advice and support.

Chalice

Answer 4

Sounds like a very stubborn kitty. I'd put him on the dry cat food Evo No Grain. that what I converted my cats to recently. I was feeding them science diet and have used that for YEARS. Most cat foods contain grains which are a number one cause of Allergies, digestion problems, and OBESITY in cats (and dogs). Cats don't need grain, (corn, wheat rice) it's a filler. They eat meat. But they also need a variety of nutrition. Mix a little of the new food into your current food and increase the new food until you have ALL new food, over a period of like a week or so. He should take to it just fine. There's a money back guarantee. You can feed him several times a day and before you go to bed, but don't feed him more than a total of about 3/4 of a cup for a 24 hour period. So you can give him a quarter of a cup three times a day and that will help to keep him happy. You may even try less food, just to help get his weight down. I give my cats a "snack" of about 10 kibbles before I go to bed and they don't bother me. sure, Louie still occasionally lays down by my head and punches me in the face, but he's a bit slow and doesn't quite "get it" that it's "sleeping time". He's a lot better than he used to be. Also try all different toys on your cat. My 11 year old, she just looks at you like your strange if you try to play with a toy with her, but dangle a string around, and she acts like a kitten. try different things. Try walking around the house several times with his food dish when you feed him. He should get a little more excersize following you around for the food! Make him work for it, it's in his nature.
Hope this helps! Good luck!

Answer 5

I have two cats and my vet told me to feed a combination of canned and dry food to keep their poo soft enough so they aren't straining (to prevent kitty hemorrhoids possibly?). So they each get 1/2 the recommended daily intake of canned food in the morning, and 1/2 the recommended daily intake of dry food in the evening. If they get attitudes during the day and are hungry, I give them a "snack" of a few treats and they are usually fine.... they don't do that all the time though.

If you must continue to feed him dry food only, monitor his intake. Read on the bag, or ask your vet, how much your cat should eat daily. If he prefers to eat a few times a day, measure out the total amount allowed for the day into a separate container and give him a little bit when he gets hungry. Make sure to make it last the whole day though.

Answer 6

I also had a fat cat for many years. So here is how I stopped his fat filled days.
1. Working him out! figure out a way to make him move... For example...I moved to a place with 3 stories, put his litter all the way on the first floor, his food in the second and his bed on the third. Then I moved to a place with a yard, I took him out to the yard..supervised since he is declawed (that is how I got him)
2. Feed only small amounts, even when they are begging, just the motion of giving food might satisfy him.
My cat went from being called Gordo= fat and gato perro== cat dog, since he was as big as a dog...to Supergatto...the cat that can run as fast as he can.
http://supergatto.blogspot.com/

Answer 7

Converting kibble junkies to canned food can take a while and may take a lot of patience and a few dollars!

It took me 2 weeks to find one food that Poppy would eat.

So I hate to say it, but you maybe just haven't tried enough varieties. Or tried for long enough.

Check out the ones from this link; they're all very good brands.

I personally feed Natural Balance venison & green pea (canned). That is the ONLY one Poppy will eat! So I suspect it's higher in carbs than is desired, but what the heck ..... it's better than dry and certainly better than supermarket brands. And she has lost weight.

I mention that particular one since Poppy is also so picky; maybe there's something especially tasty about that one that your cat might like too.

Answer 8

Your fat cat is just like mine. I had to put out 1 1/2 cups of food for him and all the water he wants. He went from 22 pounds to 13. Sure he complained, sulked, had major attitude and acted as though I'd stolen his birthday. He's healthier now, he will play, greets me when I get home and I'm glad I did that for him. He will live longer and healthier because of it.
Good luck with Gordo Gato. (Fat Cat)

Answer 9

He will not starve himself.He will eat whatever you give to him.You'll soon have a diabetic cat and then you'll have much bigger problems.Get tough!

Answer 10

have him go on a diet