Fat Cat

I took Zane to the V-E-T Wednesday, and found that he had gained two pounds; he weighed in at 18 lbs.!

What can I do for my Plump Panther? I'm going to the grocery store tonight, so I'll be picking up some diet cat food, but other than that? He's an indoor cat and is home alone most of the day, and I suspect sleeps most of the time. The only toy I've found that he's at all interested in is Da Boid, and even that he'll not play with more than a few minutes.

Now his litterbox is in the basement and his food is on the second floor, but soon I'll be renting out the first floor apartment, so he won't even have the exercise of running up and down the stairs a couple of times a day.

My past cat was on Science Diet Light dry cat food. It also comes in canned food too.

Dry food tends to put on more weight, so giving your cat diet dry food will help some.

I also gave my cat tartar control treats with greens because overweight cats tend to get constipated easily, mine went as far as needing a laxative but he was 35 pounds at one point and had other health problems including urinary tract infections, your cat im sure just needs to loose some weight.

You can ask your vet, but when your cat does loose weight indoor formula dry foods are good.

As far as playtime there is alot you can try.

First if all try buying toys with catnip in them, smaller toys are better because it takes less effort to bat them around so it will be easier for your cat to play with them.

These are great and have catnip in them
http://www.petco.com/product/11758/K...tion-Toys.aspx

I highly suggest these tiny mouse toys, they are small but look like real mice, my cat loves them more than anything!
http://www.petco.com/product/9588/Me...Fur-Mouse.aspx

These cat teasers remind cat of birds
http://www.petco.com/product/9487/Ca...t-Teasers.aspx

Rolling these across the floor will also gets your cats attention, and no bells inside so there not noisy
http://www.petco.com/product/9590/Me...nis-Balls.aspx

A furball, should get some attention by your cat!
http://www.petco.com/product/9586/Fur-Ball.aspx

Feather/ball combination
http://www.petco.com/product/12126/P...her-Flips.aspx

You could also try a brown paper bag or cat tower.

Originally Posted by Zane's Pal

I took Zane to the V-E-T Wednesday, and found that he had gained two pounds; he weighed in at 18 lbs.!

What can I do for my Plump Panther? I'm going to the grocery store tonight, so I'll be picking up some diet cat food, but other than that? He's an indoor cat and is home alone most of the day, and I suspect sleeps most of the time. The only toy I've found that he's at all interested in is Da Boid, and even that he'll not play with more than a few minutes.

Now his litterbox is in the basement and his food is on the second floor, but soon I'll be renting out the first floor apartment, so he won't even have the exercise of running up and down the stairs a couple of times a day.

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My two cats freely feed all day long. They both weigh exactly ten pounds. I feed them Science Diet Indoor formula.

I think the problem is that you are buying the food from the grocery store. Go to a pet supply store and pick up a (yes slightly more expensive) but much healthier food. I wouldn't even go with diet food specifically. Just get him on the right amount (which isn't a lot) of a good quality dry food. Or you can go with wet and dry. But just control the amount of food he eats and that should help.

Buying this seemingly more expensive food, means the cat will eat less of it because he is filling up on wholesome ingredients and not fillers and by-products. It might take a couple weeks to get him used to it and for this to work. It also means less trips to the vet, healthier skin/coat/teeth/body, even weight. And less going to the litterbox. Just remember to switch over slowly.

For starters I hope you are not free feeding. Cats that need to lose weight should be given a measured amount of dry/canned food twice a day. No snacking in between.

I'd try as much exercise as you can - even if its about 5 mins two or three times a day will help.

Cats are individuals and sometimes some of them get fat. It takes an incredibly long time for them to lose weight too.

So just because many cats can free feed and remain the same weight doesn't mean that others won't get fat doing the same thing. I have 6 cats. Some are normal weight and one is enormously fat.

The enormous one gets 3 oz of canned food at breakfast and dinner. She can't get on the kitchen table, so the others who can get up there, get their portion controlled dry food up there for the day.

My enormous cat has no appetite turn off. None. So with the baby kitten around, she's like a rhino, pushing through to get at the kitten's food. Some of the others show some interest, but not much and walk away...except for the Royal Canin Baby cat food.

So even though my adults get the same mix of high quality wet and dry food, the one is enormous. The others are reasonably sized.

The big one just doesn't get smaller quickly. It can take months of dedicated food refusal to get them to lose a pound. And if you have other human adults (as I do) who have no discipline in refusing the food, progress you make on fat cat gets sabotaged. Grrrrr.

It's hard work to get a cat to lose weight.

We had a huge cat come into our shelter. To help get her weight down, we did not leave food out for her all day and she got absolutely no dry food, only small amount of wet food in morning and again at night. She has dropped some weight and is looking good now. An all wet diet is supposed to be good for them anyway.