I saw caprice's weight loss thread about Mittens (congratulations Mittens!) and it inspired me to do the same type of thing with Tiny's weight loss. I imagine that there are dozens of people on TCS trying to put their cat(s) on a diet at any given time, so perhaps my experiences with Tiny could be useful to others. I also have 3 other cats who have (involuntarily) joined Tiny on her weight loss journey. Thufir weighs about the same as Tiny, but he has a much larger frame. He could probably stand to lose 3-4 pounds though. Promise and Tre seem to be at a pretty good weight, so neither of them really needs to lose weight. Having to deal with all 4 cats presents quite the logistical challenge. While getting Tiny to lose weight is my main focus, I'll be putting in some details about my other cats as well when it affects the weight loss program.
Tiny just had her 10th birthday back in February and until very recently I had really given up on any chance of her losing weight. I even had a vet once tell me that it's nearly impossible to get a cat to lose weight without starving it. Coming on to TCS has really opened my eyes and convinced me that it IS possible to get a cat to lose weight, so I decided to give it a shot. Before I go too much further, here's the patient:
Tiny's initial weight was 18 pounds - 4 ounces. That doesn't sound like much compared to some 24-30 pound cats that have been posted here, but she has the frame of a small Siamese cat and I her ideal weight is probably around 9 pounds. For a 6' tall man like me, that's the equivalent of weighing about 380 pounds. I can't even imagine carrying that much weight around. Tiny ballooned up early in life, weighing 13.5 pounds by the time she was 1 year old and 15.5 pounds by the time she was 2&1/2. I don't think she has seen her rear end since then.
I started feeding her a 'lite' food (always kibble) back then and it slowed the weight gain a bit. 4 years ago one of my other cats (Thufir) got a UTI and was placed on the Hill's c/d prescription food, so I had to stop free-feeding. I put out food briefly 3 times a day instead of free-feeding. Unfortunately, none of that helped Tiny lose any weight and at best it just slowed her weight gain.
When I first started looking at the Nutrition forum here on TCS, I was really surprised to find that many people suggested feeding a cat a high quality wet food would help them lose weight. I had always viewed wet food as only a 'treat' to be fed occasionally because it was too fattening.
It took me a couple of months to finally allow myself to believe that this was real. I decided to get serious about Tiny's weight loss and I posted the first thread about it over on the Nutrition forum back in late March:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=194195
Although I actually started Tiny's diet a couple of months ago, I have been keeping a log of the weight loss progress to date. Assuming there is no objection to it, I'd like to post the log so far over a couple of posts to show Tiny's progress to date and, perhaps more importantly, all of the false starts and crises I encountered when first starting the diet. After that, I'll post her progress every week or two.
By the way, my initial goal for Tiny is to get her to 15 pounds by the end of the year. I think she can easily achieve that goal while maintaining a slow, steady, and safe weight loss.
Tiny just had her 10th birthday back in February and until very recently I had really given up on any chance of her losing weight. I even had a vet once tell me that it's nearly impossible to get a cat to lose weight without starving it. Coming on to TCS has really opened my eyes and convinced me that it IS possible to get a cat to lose weight, so I decided to give it a shot. Before I go too much further, here's the patient:
Tiny's initial weight was 18 pounds - 4 ounces. That doesn't sound like much compared to some 24-30 pound cats that have been posted here, but she has the frame of a small Siamese cat and I her ideal weight is probably around 9 pounds. For a 6' tall man like me, that's the equivalent of weighing about 380 pounds. I can't even imagine carrying that much weight around. Tiny ballooned up early in life, weighing 13.5 pounds by the time she was 1 year old and 15.5 pounds by the time she was 2&1/2. I don't think she has seen her rear end since then.
I started feeding her a 'lite' food (always kibble) back then and it slowed the weight gain a bit. 4 years ago one of my other cats (Thufir) got a UTI and was placed on the Hill's c/d prescription food, so I had to stop free-feeding. I put out food briefly 3 times a day instead of free-feeding. Unfortunately, none of that helped Tiny lose any weight and at best it just slowed her weight gain.
When I first started looking at the Nutrition forum here on TCS, I was really surprised to find that many people suggested feeding a cat a high quality wet food would help them lose weight. I had always viewed wet food as only a 'treat' to be fed occasionally because it was too fattening.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=194195
Although I actually started Tiny's diet a couple of months ago, I have been keeping a log of the weight loss progress to date. Assuming there is no objection to it, I'd like to post the log so far over a couple of posts to show Tiny's progress to date and, perhaps more importantly, all of the false starts and crises I encountered when first starting the diet. After that, I'll post her progress every week or two.
By the way, my initial goal for Tiny is to get her to 15 pounds by the end of the year. I think she can easily achieve that goal while maintaining a slow, steady, and safe weight loss.