Help! My cat is too FAT!

I am new to the site and I love it! I have a 1yr old kitty, Nini, and she is fat. I have done some research and it looks like I would have to prepare home-cooked meals for my cat to have optimal health. I don't even have time to cook a big meal for myself every day. I love my kitty and I want her to be the healthiest she can be.

I buy Authority brand dry food at Petsmart. Does anyone have experience with this brand? Does it have too much filler? I was advised against getting the "weight control" food so I really don't know what to do. Obesity in cats can cause many health problems and I am concerned. Please help!!

thanks, charlottiek and Nini

Hello and a very warm welcome charlottiek! I hope you will love this site as much as we all do. I know you will get lot's of advise from our wonderful members!

My Harry is a bit on the podgy side and I was wondering what to do about him too. I have been feeding him a little less wet food and watching that he doesn't finish his then start on my other cats food dishes too (which is why I think he has got a bit tubby)LOL.

I have also bought lot's of new cat toys and he particularly likes the one I call 'Da Bird" it is a stick with a piece of string attached and a ping pong ball that rattles and feathers coming out the end of it. He goes nuts and jumps around, runs and wrestles with it so now we have an excercise program as well LOL. I don't know if this has made a lot of differance as yet but hopefully it will improve his fitness and health.

I will be interested to read what advise you are given.

Take care

Welcome !!!

What breed of cat is she, and how much does she actually weight?

Do you give her the food, or do you free feed like we do?
if you free feed, you may need to give her food, so you can regulate how much she is eating

Does she have a playmate (either another pet, or human playtime)?
if thats "no", she may need some interaction to try and keep weight off. At one time, our lone cat (Jackson) was putting on weight, so we got another cat to play with, and it made all the difference for him

I am familier with the "Authority" food, but for puppies. We free feed Nutro Max Cat Adult to all our cats. At one time, we were feeding our youngest cats Nutro Max for Kitten, and our older cats Nutro Max Cat for Less Active. At her age, she should be okay if you need to switch to a weight control food.

If she is significantly bigger than normal, a vet visit may be in order, to be sure her organs are not being taxed too much by having to support a larger mass.

A visit to the vet is not out of the question, just to be sure its not health related.

Let us know how everything turns out.

My kitty Abby is gonna be fat I think. She gets plenty of play and eats well. She's got a little head and a big belly. I'm not gonna worry about it much right now though. She's healthy so I'm happy.

Hmmmmm. After looking at that picture, I may need monitor food intake for a while. :laughing2

Jason, I wouldn't worry too much about Abby right now. She is still a kitten, and just like kids, they go through some awkward growth stages and look a little strange. We always knew Trent was about to spurt because his ears would get too big for his head, then the rest would catch up. LOL

charlottiek, the easiest way to help kitty lose weight is to increase play time. Another interesting suggestion someone had that helped their cat lose weight was an eating game. Instead of just putting the food in the dish, they would sit on the floor and toss a piece of food. Kitty runs after it, then comes back for a piece from your hand. Repeat until the allotment of food for that feeding time is gone. Increases exersize and you monitor the amount of food.

Hey Fuzzy317! to answer your questions...
Nini weighs around 14lbs, but she has a small build/bone structure. She has short legs and a pretty short tail compared to other cats. She is kind of short, stubby and cute. Nini has a round face and her hair is not super short and not long either, but it is really soft. It feels like rabbit fur! She was a stray kitten that I rescued from the pound so I really don't know what kind of breed she is. I wish I had a scanner so that I could put a picture up, but I don't, so my description will have to do.

As far as feeding her, I have 2 cats(they DO play a lot!), so I put 1/2 cup food in each of their bowls 2x a day. Maybe I should start letting them eat for 30 min. and then put the food up. Do you think that is a solution?

I will switch to the Nutro Max cat food and see if that makes a difference! If you have anymore suggestions please send them my way!
Thanks, charlottiek

How long have you had Nini? How long was she on the streets? The reason I ask is that she may have learned to eat everything she would get her paws on, and is continuing that method. Does she eat your other cat's food as well as her own? Does she gobble up her food as soon as you put it down?

This was brought up in a thread about eating too fast, but what one person did to show kitty that there was going to be enough food was to put down so much food kitty couldn't possibly eat it all. She put down about 9 bowls of food at a time. Her kitty had been a stray and still had the stray mentality that she didn't know where her next meal came from. After a few days of doing this, her kitty figured out that there was plenty of food for her and she didn't have to gorge herself when she was fed. She settled down into a normal routine after that.

Of course, if you just have a kitty who loves to eat (and some do), putting food down for a limited amount of time will help if she snatches your other kitty's food. They will complain that you are starving them to death for a while, but they will get used to it eventually.

Ashley is the same way....she is actually pretty heavy when you pick her up in comparison to my 18 year old at my mother's. We took Angel (18 year old) to the vet a few weeks back and she weighed 9.8 and is pretty light in comparison to Ashley. Ash is maybe 8-9ish and the last time we took her to the vet she was 10.5. You wouldn't think there would feel like a huge difference between 9.8 and 10.5, but it does!!!! Ashley also LOOKS fatter...it is really weird. She is only given Iams Weight Management and once in a while gets it in the can, but she still seems to keep the weight on. She will eat just to EAT! I swear! It is the craziest thing in the world, but we love her anyway

When we got Nini we took her to the vet and he said she was about 2 months old. She doesn't eat all of her food at once so I am guessing it's the food that we feed her. She isn't extremely obese, but I can see where this is going. She just keeps getting chubbier! I think I will try the Nutro Max food and see if that works.

Someone mentioned making feeding time into a game by throwing pieces of the food on the floor one at a time(kind of like fetch). I tried this yesterday and both of the cats LOVED it. They were all over the kitchen jumping and eating and just having so much fun! I think this is a good way for them to get excersize and have fun.

Thank you so much for your suggestions, and if any of you have anymore they would be very much appreciated!

Thanks, charlottiek