The "Tiny" Weight Loss Thread

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.

Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 17 pounds - 9.5 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 10.5 ounces = 3.6% of starting weight

Here's the first installment from my log covering the period from the beginning in March until mid-April. The first month or so was spent doing research, getting used to feeding my cats wet, finding a food they would all eat, finding out what they were allergic to, etc.


3/22/09:
I have decided that I want Tiny to lose weight. She weighs around 19 pounds, which is probably about twice what she should weigh. Reading through some of the threads on The Cat Site, it has been suggested to me that feeding a good quality wet food will help them lose weight. Towards that end, I went to PetSmart today to check out the canned food selection. I brought home 3 cans that looked decent: Blue Buffalo, Nutro, and Nutro MaxCat. I tried the Blue Buffalo with Tiny, Tre, and Promise tonight and they inhaled it.

3/29/09:
I have decided to research feline nutrition more thoroughly. At the advice of one of the TCS members (Jack31), I ordered a book called Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life by Elizabeth Hodgkins.

I am continuing to feed wet food at one meal every other day or so. Since the cats liked the Blue Buffalo, I bought a case of that as well as a case of mixed flavors of Authority.

3/31/09:
Well, cats being cats, they decided that they aren’t too fond of the Blue Buffalo, other than Tiny. Figures.

4/3/09:
I’ve been feeding wet food 1 meal a day for a few days now. It seemed OK, but Tiny has a pretty bad case of diarrhea. I’m having to clean her rear with a washcloth a couple of times per day. I’m going to back off the wet and go to all kibble for a couple of days until it clears up.

4/7/09:
The diarrhea has cleared up and I’m trying wet food again. Tiny threw up tonight though, and it was the 2nd night in a row. Last night, it was HUGE! I’ve never seen a cat throw up that much at once – it looked like an entire can of cat food. Tonight I tried just putting down 1 can (split between 4 cats) because I thought she was eating too fast. She got sick again. I’ll have to ask on TCS and see if I can get some idea what’s making her sick. The food I fed them tonight was the Authority Beef formula. I posted a thread about Tiny’s problems on TCS:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=194926

4/8/09:
Well, per Sharky, I should look for something with no fish and a named liver. The Authority Beef just says “Animal Liverâ€. At the PetSmart, the only brands that I like that fit that bill are the Nutro foods. I checked Pet Supplies “Plus†today and found a couple of good brands. They are “Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul†and Wellness / Wellness Core. The Wellness looks really good and actually smells like something I would eat, but it’s pricey ($1.39/can). On the other hand, the Chicken Soup doesn’t seem quite as good, but it’s considerably cheaper at $0.89/can.

4/11/09:
I have been reading Dr. Hodgkins’s book and it has really inspired me. She claims that switching to a high quality wet food will not only help my cats lose weight, but also minimize the chances that they will develop diabetes (a big fear of mine) or get crystals in their urine. I have also been reading Dr. Lisa Pierson’s web site (http://www.catinfo.org) and she has similar ideas about the wet food diet. I have decided to order a baby scale so that I can keep track of Tiny’s weight loss. Dr. Pierson recommends that cats lose weight no faster than about 1-2% of their body weight per week to prevent hepatic lipidosis from occurring. For Tiny, 1% comes to ~3 oz per week (19 pounds x 16 ounces = 304 ounces of body weight). Tiny seems like the perfect candidate for this low-carb ‘catkins’ diet. She doesn’t seem like she eats that much and she doesn’t beg for food during the day. I am hopeful that she will respond well to wet food and start shedding some pounds.

I am feeding the cats wet food at night now and dry in the morning. There don’t seem to be any major problems and they seem to be enjoying the food. I weighed them on my bathroom scale today and came up with the following weights: Tiny – 19lbs; Thufir – 16lbs; Tre – 9.5lbs; Promise – 7lbs. That half-pound increment might be OK for the occasional weigh-in, but it’s certainly not accurate enough for weekly tracking. I’m guessing that the ideal weights for the 4 cats are 8, 12, 8, and 7 pounds respectively, for a total of 35 lbs. If I feed them 1 oz. of food per pound of ideal weight, that would be ~6.5 5.5 ounce cans per day. Yikes, that’s a lot! I’m feeding them between 2 & 3 cans each night and that seems to be plenty to satisfy them. There’s usually a good bit left when I go to bed, but it’s gone by the time I get up.

4/14/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I took Tiny to the veterinarian to have her checked out today. The purpose of the visit was actually to have a cyst on her back checked out, but it gave me a chance to discuss her weight with my vet and discuss my plans to get her to lose weight. I told her that I was starting Tiny on a high protein/low carb diet. When I told her that, my vet said that her office was putting together a list of recommended foods and offered to go get me a copy if it was ready. I was very excited, hoping she could steer me toward some good foods. I was very disappointed when she came back and told me that the list wasn’t ready, but that she would prescribe some Hill’s r/d weight loss food for Tiny. This food is loaded up on carbs and has tons of fiber. I have seen several horror stories on TCS about cats on this diet being hungry all the time. I posted about my experience here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=195385

Well, for now I’m going to try it my way. I’m hoping that by the time I bring Tiny in for her annual in December she will have lost a few pounds and I’ll be able to tell how I did it without having to resort to the r/d. I’m going full speed ahead now – 2 wet meals in the evening and 1 dry in the morning.

4/15/09
My neighbor Susan was here when I fed the cats last night. She suggested that when I fed the cats I mash up the food to bring out the smell and make it more appealing. I decided to do that and add some water as well. I figure that adding water will help keep them hydrated. The cats seem to really like the food that is prepared in this way. I do the mixing in a bowl, and then break some of it up onto 3 saucers. I put down the bowl and the 3 saucers for the cats to eat from.

Here's the second installment from my log. It covers the period from mid-April until the end of May. During this time, I had a baby scale so I was able to track Tiny's weight on a near-daily basis. It was an extremely frustrating time because her weight really didn't respond to the introduction of wet food. Every time I thought she was starting to lose weight, her weight would bounce back up. I slowly changed over to all wet and her weight still didn't come down much. In the end, I finally realized that the only way I was going to get her to lose weight was to implement portion control.

4/17/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I finally have my new scale. I got it yesterday, but I had a hard time getting the cats to stay on the scale long enough to get their weights. I have found that if I give them a treat while they are standing on the scale they will sit still long enough for me to get a good weight measurement. Tiny is actually hard to get OFF of the scale. She seems to like taking a nap there. I posted some pics of it up the TCS. The number I got matches the weight at the vet’s office, so that’s a good sign.

I haven’t decided how often I am going to weigh the guys yet, but I have decided on a weighing protocol. I’ll weigh them sometime after the 2nd meal of the day. If I wait about an hour after I come home and feed them, they should have eaten their meal and used the litter box, so hopefully that will give the most consistent weight each time. I’m using the ‘hold’ function on my scale, which averages the weight over a couple of seconds to minimize the effect of a fidgeting kitty. The scale gives the weight to the nearest 0.5 ounces.

Here are the current weights of all 4 cats: Tiny – 18lbs-4oz; Thufir – 17lbs-4oz; Tre – 10lbs-9oz; Promise – 8lbs-7.5oz. These numbers are as much as 1.5 pounds different from my bathroom scale weights a few days ago. That’s why I need the baby scale – it’s just not possible to track a cat’s weight on a week-to-week basis using a bathroom scale. Even with a good digital bathroom scale, you’ve got +/- half a pound at each weigh-in; that’s half a pound for the person, plus half a pound for the person+cat, so it’s quite possible to get a value that’s 1 pound different even though the cat’s weight hasn’t changed at all.

4/18/09: 18lbs-4oz.
Since it’s Saturday, I decided to feed my cats all wet food today. There didn’t seem to be any big complaints, so I’ll keep an eye on the litter boxes and see if anyone develops diarrhea.

4/19/09: 18lbs-3.5oz.
All wet again and no problems. They seem to tolerate the wet I’m feeding them well. I’m almost tempted to try and go to an all wet diet since Dr. Hodgkin’s book seems so adamant about that. I have to do some travelling this summer though and feeding all wet will make my cat sitter’s life harder, so for now I’m going to stick with the mixed diet.

4/20/09:18lbs-3.5oz.
Tiny’s weight ticked down a bit. Hopefully that’s a good sign that she is beginning to lose weight. It’s nice having the scale so that I can follow her progress. I fed kibble this morning before work and wet after I got home. I’ll be doing that during the week.

4/21/09:18lbs-4oz.
4/22/09:18lbs-5.5oz.
Crap, she gained 1.5 ounces! That may just be a natural fluctuation as she uses the litter box and whatnot, but that means the ‘drop’ I have seen so far may not be real at all.

4/23/09:18lbs-3.5oz.
4/24/09:18lbs-2.5oz.
4/25/09:18lbs-3oz.
It’s Saturday, so I fed all wet food today.

4/26/09: 18lbs-4.5 oz.
I wanted to find some new food, so I went to Agri Feed Pet Supply, a locally owned pet store near me. They have a really small cat section, but they have a great selection of canned cat foods. I picked up a large 13.2 oz can of Evo for $1.57 and a large can of Innova for $1.36. Both look like great cat foods. They also have California Naturals (which doesn’t look as good), large cans of Wellness ($2.24 / 12.5 oz), and small cans of Merrick. I fed all wet food again today.

4/27/09: 18lbs-3.5 oz.
Well, Promise vetoed the Evo. She wouldn’t have a thing to do with it. I had to feed her some kibble in another room so that she wouldn’t starve.

4/28/09: 18lbs-2oz.
Promise said no to the Innova as well. I’ll look at Agri Feed again and see if there’s anything else she might eat. I notice Tiny’s weight has dropped again. Looking at my daily weight chart, it seems like her weight drops a couple of days after the days when I feed all wet food. I think I’m going to consider transitioning the cats to a diet of all wet food.

4/29/09:18lbs-2.5oz.
4/30/09: 18lbs-4.5 oz.
I decided to bite the bullet and start the cats on an all wet diet today. Tiny doesn’t seem to have lost any weight at all and neither has Thufir. Tre and Promise, on the other hand, seem like they’re losing a bit of weight. It would figure that the cats that need to lose weight don’t and the ones that don’t do. I was pretty happy to see that Tiny’s weight was down from the starting figure over the last 2 days, so I decided to try and push a little bit harder by eliminating the dry all together. Now that she has popped up above her starting weight again, that seems all the more prudent.

5/1/09: 18lbs-4oz.
5/2/09: 18lbs-5oz.
Wow, one of her heaviest weigh-ins yet. I’m still playing with feeding amounts, but right now I’m thinking 3.5-4 cans per day will be enough. Maybe 1.5 cans in the morning and 2-2.5 cans over 2 meals in the evening.

5/3/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I picked up a can of the California Naturals to try. Promise didn’t like this one either. Man is she picky!

5/5/09: 18lbs-2.5 oz.
5/6/09: 18lbs-2oz.
5/7/09: no weight today
Tiny got sick tonight when I fed her. It was almost like projectile vomiting. The food I fed her was the Wellness Beef and Chicken formula. I have fed her the Wellness Chicken formula several times and she hasn’t gotten sick, so I think she must be allergic to beef. Luckily, that’s not a really common ingredient in cat food, so it should be fairly easy to avoid. I posted a thread on TCS here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196723

5/8/09: 18 lbs-2oz.
I had Thufir shaved today. He lost 4 oz from the time I took him to the groomers until the time he came home. 4 ounces doesn’t sound like a lot, but in terms of cat hair, it’s a ton.

5/9/09: 18 lbs-1.5 oz
5/10/09: 18lbs-0oz.
Wow, down to 18 pounds! I think Tiny is finally beginning to respond to the wet food.

5/11/09: 18lbs-2oz.
Well, back up 2 ounces. There is a lot of variability from day to day, so some fluctuation is to be expected. I noticed Thufir straining a bit in the litter box tonight. I have been feeding him with the rest of the cats (i.e., not his c/d) for the last few days, so I’m going to put him back on it. I’ll feed him half a can of c/d in the morning and then a regular high quality canned food at night. Since he’s being fed separately, I’ll feed the other 3 cats 1 can split 3 ways in the morning. At night, I’ll feed 2 meals of 1 can each split amongst all 4 cats.

5/12/09:18lbs-2oz.
5/14/09: 18lbs-2oz.
5/15/09: 18lbs-2.5oz.
5/16/09: 18lbs-3oz.
Tiny’s weight is creeping back up again and I can’t explain why. Maybe the 18-0 mark was an outlier, but it seemed like she was really starting to lose weight. Now, I’m not so sure.

5/17/09: 18lbs-4oz.
I can’t believe Tiny’s weight is back up to where it began! Man, this is REALLY frustrating! After she hit 18 even a few days ago, I thought I was finally beginning to make progress. There’s no help for it – I’m going to have to implement portion control to get her weight down. All 3 of the other cats are at an all-time low. That may be because Tiny is eating more than her fair share and Tre and Promise are getting less than they need.

5/18/09: 18lbs-1 oz
Tiny dropped 3 oz! I don’t think that loss is all real, but it does give me some confidence that the portion control I started last night is working. New low for Thufir – down 2 oz from yesterday. If it wasn’t for the fact Tre and Promise didn’t lose any, I would think the scale was off.

5/19/09: 18lbs-2oz
Slight uptick in weight, but I don’t think the 3 oz loss yesterday was all real – that would be WAY too fast anyway. Still rationing Tiny’s food. She doesn’t seem happy about it, but she’s not making a big fuss. I’m trying to give her slightly more than her ‘share’ if I split the can evenly among all the cats. Tre is down again, which is worrying. I’m going to give him special attention and make sure he’s eating well.

5/20/09: 18 lbs-2.5 oz.
5/21/09: 18 lbs-1 oz
It’s really odd the way Tiny’s weight bounces around. All the cats’ weights seem to bounce around, but Tiny’s seems to have a pattern – it creeps up for a few days and then drops suddenly. I can’t imagine what it would be other than maybe a touch of constipation followed by a big BM that brings on the weight loss. I haven’t seen evidence of that while cleaning the litter box though.

5/23/09: 18lbs-0.5 oz
I’m leaving for Vilnius tomorrow and I’ll be gone for nearly a week. I have a friend taking care of my cats. She’ll keep them on the wet food diet, but I don’t want her to have to mess around with locking Tiny up at every meal, so no portion control. My kitties will have enough stress with me gone. If they gain an ounce or two, so be it.

5/30/09: 18 lbs-0.5 oz
Good news! Tiny didn’t seem to put on any weight while I was gone. Susan reports that she did end up feeding them less than I had instructed her because “what you wrote down looked like way too much foodâ€, so that probably helped.

Here's the 3rd installment from my log and it brings Tiny's progress up to the present. For the first time, Tiny actually started making some real progress on her weight. In the first 2 weeks of June, Tiny lost about twice as much as she did during the first 45 days of her diet. Hopefully from this point on it will just be a matter of staying focused and continuing to do what we are already doing.

Sorry for the book. I honestly didn't realize that I had written so much in the log.

6/1/09: 18lbs-1oz.
It’s the first of the month, so here are the weights of all 4 of my cats: Tiny – 18lbs-1oz; Thufir – 16lbs-13oz; Tre – 10lbs-3oz; Promise – 8lbs-1oz. Tre and Promise have each lost about 6 ounces since I started weighing them about 1.5 months ago. Thufir and Tiny have each lost perhaps 3 ounces.

6/2/09: 18 lbs-0.5 oz.
I noticed Thufir straining in the litter box last night, so I took him into the vet this afternoon. I was actually thrilled when she reported that he had a bacterial infection. His urine pH (6.0) and Specific Gravity (1.016) were all on the low end of the normal range and the vet reported seeing no crystals at all. That hopefully means that the all-wet diet is keeping him well hydrated.

6/3/09:18lbs-0.5oz.
6/4/09:17lbs-14.5 oz.
I’m ecstatic today because Tiny finally broke the 18 pound barrier. Her total weight loss is still only 5.5 oz, but it has been a tough 5.5 oz to get her to lose. I’m hopeful that the last two months have shown me what I need to do and from now on it’s simply a matter of keeping it up. Tiny’s weight hasn’t been above 18lbs-2 oz in nearly 2 weeks, so I am hopeful that we have nearly left the 18+ lb range for good. Visually, I can’t tell that Tiny has lost any weight, but here’s the first picture of her at less than 18 pounds:



In other news, I bought a postage scale today for measuring out food. This will be used to ensure that Tiny is getting a consistent amount of food each day. The scale measures down to ½ ounce, so I can keep tight control of how much food each cat eats. 1 can of food is approximately 5.5 oz. When I add water to it, it comes to ~ 8 oz total, of which I will give Tiny 2 oz. This is about 1-3/8 oz of food per feeding, or about 4-1/4 oz per day.

I have decided Thufir needs some portion control as well as Tiny, so I’ll be locking him in the bathroom and locking Tiny in the closet for meals. Right now, Thufir weighs ~ 16lbs-12oz and I’m thinking his ideal weight is under 14, and maybe as low as 12.5 lbs. Thufir gets 2.5 oz, and Tre and Promise split the other 3.5 oz. Tre and Promise haven’t finished their portion yet, so if I need to give Tiny some more, I can get it from their portion. I’m going to try feeding her at this level for several days and then adjust if she is losing too rapidly or not rapidly enough.

6/5/09: 17lbs-15.5 oz.
One of the hazards of weighing every cat every day is that it’s hard to tell the ‘noise’ (those random factors that affect each measurement) from the real data. Tiny’s measured weight has changed as much as 3 oz. from one day to the next, so that’s the noise: urination, defecation, hydration, how much she ate at the last meal, etc. Since the ideal weight loss for her right now would be about 3 oz per week, that’s less than 0.5 ounces per day. So from one day to the next, the random fluctuations are going to be larger than any real weight loss.

So how does one track weight loss under these circumstances? The easiest solution, and the one I would recommend for most people, is to just not weigh as often. When weighed over a sufficiently long time scale (1 week or so), the average weight loss is the same as or larger than the noise, so it’s easy to see if the cat is losing weight or not. The other option is to weigh every day and apply statistics to look at the trend. Sure, the weight is bouncing around, but it’s bouncing around some average weight. Being the statistics wonk that I am, I take the data, make a linear fit, and use that to measure the rate of weight loss. You should see how Susan rolls her eyes when I show her that.

Back to Tiny, the point of the last 2 paragraphs was that I don’t think she gained weight from yesterday; the weight gain is just the product of the ‘noise’. That’s just my intuition, but Tiny is eating only 4.25 ounces of wet food per day right now. That’s less than 0.25 ounces per pound of body weight and I just can’t imagine her gaining weight at that level. If anything, I think she’ll start losing weight too fast and I’ll have to feed her more.

6/6/09:18lbs-14.5oz.
6/7/09:18lbs-13.5oz.
Another new low for Tiny. I’d have to check with my vet, but I believe she has been above 18 pounds for over 2 years now. Hopefully in a few months, it will seem like a bad nightmare to her as she continues to lose weight. She has dropped 3 ounces in the last 4 days. It’s too early to tell, but if that’s her rate of weight loss, it’s too fast for my taste. That would come to 6 ounces per week, or about 2.1% per week. I’d like to see something closer to half that rate – about 3 ounces per week. That rate is right around 1% of her body weight per week and would result in the loss of a pound in about 40 days. I spent that long just getting her to lose the first 4 ounces, so that would be amazing to me. I think I’ve finally figured out the logistics of feeding everyone wet and how to do the portion control (though perhaps not the exact amounts yet) so I’m hoping that it’s just a matter of perseverance at this point.

As for Tiny, she’s a little unhappy about the diet, but I think that’s to be expected. It’s not too bad though, she starts squawking for food a couple of hours before it’s time to eat – pretty much the way Thufir has always behaved – so not too bad. I noticed today how soft her coat felt. The fur along her backbone has been dry and brittle for quite some time and I always just chalked it up to her not being able to groom back there. Now I think that with the new diet she is on is showing itself in a healthier, shinier coat. It isn’t dry or brittle at all. She also seems more graceful to me. I watched her jump up into my lap a few minutes ago and it looked like a pretty smooth and well-timed jump. Perhaps she’s also putting on a little bit of muscle in addition to the weight loss.

6/8/09:18lbs-14.5oz.
6/9/09:18lbs-12.5oz.
Today is another new low for Tiny! There’s just no doubt about it, she’s beginning to respond to this diet! It’s still too early to tell if she’s dropping too fast, but tentatively I’d say it’s right on the border. She has dropped 4 ounces since this time last week, but a regression indicates she’s dropping 0.03125 pounds (1/2 ounce) per day, or 3.5 ounces per week. To put things into perspective, it took her 7 weeks to lose that amount (3.5 ounces) when I started her on the diet. Since she doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to the dangerous (> 2% body weight lost per week) I’m going to keep feeding her the same 3/4 of a can (4.1 oz) for at least another week.

In other news, I’ve realized that the way I mix up a can of food with water (5.5 ounces of food + 2.5 ounces of water) only works with the Chicken Soup. The Wellness has more gravy to begin with, so applying the same formula yields something with the consistency of soup rather than oatmeal. I’ll just have to mix in enough water to get the consistency I want, give Tiny ¼, Thufir slightly more than ¼, and Tre and Promise the rest of whatever it amounts to. I’ll still be using my scale because seeing the difference between 2 ounces and 2.5 ounces is nearly impossible to do by eye.

6/10/09:17lbs-12oz.
6/11/09:17lbs-12oz.
6/12/09:17lbs-9.5oz.
Well, I think I caught Tiny post-poop tonight. But still, that’s a nice low number and it’s always good to see those. Since I usually catch her before she visits the litter box, I imagine she’ll bounce back up a couple of ounces the next time I weigh her. For the last meal tonight I fed a can of Merrick Turducken. Tre and Promise both liked it, but neither Tiny nor Thufir did – neither one of them finished the entire quarter can I gave them. That’s the first food I’ve found that the fat cats don’t like as much as the thin cats.

I’ve also been trying to play with toys a bit lately. It’s tough because Promise is so energetic jumping around and sprinting all over the place it’s hard for anyone else to get any play in. Still, I discovered for the first time that Tre is interested in the feather wand I have. Even though he’s 13 years old and nearly blind, he’ll pursue it and swipe at it. It’s just a cheap $3 wand from PetSmart, so I’ll pick up another one so I can play with two different kitties at once. Tiny will take a couple of swipes, but she won’t actually get up or, god forbid, chase after it and Thufir is just completely uninterested.

6/13/09:17lbs-10oz.
6/14/09: 17lbs-9.5 oz.
I think I have mentioned “doing a linear regression†a couple of times in this log, so I’d like to illustrate. Here is a chart of Tiny’s weight for the ~45 days or so from April 17 – May 31.



Here is a chart for June 1-14:



Each of these charts has a line (a linear regression) that shows the best fit of all the points. The most important thing on these charts is the circled number next to “Day #†at the bottom of the chart. This is the slope of the line and it’s also the best estimate of the rate of weight loss in pounds per day. From 17 April – May 31, the rate of weight loss was about 0.005 pounds per day, or about 0.5 ounces per week. Over the last 2 weeks, the rate has been 0.037 pounds per day, or about 4.2 ounces per day. That’s probably not dangerous, but I think it’s a little bit faster than the 1% (~ 3 ounces) per week level that I’m looking for. I’ll probably increase her portions slightly at each meal and see how that changes things over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks. I was almost a little embarrassed after I posted it because I didn't realize I had written so much. This is what happens when you let a science geek with a manic personality loose on a problem.

Yay, congrats on slimming down your kitty! It's always great to hear about other peoples' success stories because it drives home the fact that it can be done and keeps me motivated. Tiny isn't thrilled about the program, but she's taking it better than I ever would have expected. Two months ago if you had told me I would be feeding her just 3/4 of a can per day without her ripping my face off, I would have thought you were nuts.

Yeah, it is hard. This is why I found the scale so useful. Before, I was trying to divide the food into 1/4ths by eye and I would look at Tiny's bowl and think that it looked way to small and add a little more. Luckily, Tiny doesn't cry too much between meals, so I'm not sitting around all day listening to her cry - that would break my heart. She does like to jump up on the baby scale when she's hungry though. I give her a couple of treats for sitting on the scale quietly while I weigh her, so she likes to hop up and hope I'll decide to weigh her.

Hi, good luck with your kitties' weight loss! I drug my feet for a long time on Tiny, so I don't think it's ever too late to start. It's always easier to get into good habits from the start though, so the next time I get a new kitty, I'm going to do my best to make sure he never gets fat in the first place.

As for the rate of weight loss, a 1% of body weight drop per week is a nice safe, conservative rate for a cat. It would be the same as me dropping from say 200 lbs to 198 lbs in 1 week, which would be no big deal at all. At that rate of weight loss, after 6 months a cat would weigh .99^26 = 77% of its starting weight and after a year it would weigh .99^52 = 59% of its starting weight. So a cat weighing 16 pounds initially would weigh 12.3 pounds after 6 months and 9.5 pounds after a year. That's certainly not to say that you need to have your cats lose that fast, but just to give you an idea of how much they could lose safely.

Hi,

It sounds like that formula is being used to calculate the cat's ideal weight. Is that correct? I'm not using anything like that. For the ideal weight, I just ask my vet when I take the cats in, but I think it's hard for them to pin it down exactly when the cat is way over its ideal weight. For example, when I took Thufir in to the vet Tuesday and asked what his ideal weight should be, she told me to get him down to 13 lbs (he's 16.5 now) and she'd look again and see if he needed to lose a bit more. For Tiny, all I know is that she needs to lose a lot of weight so I really haven't thought too much about what her ideal should be. It's almost certainly under 10 pounds, but until she gets close to that number, it's hard to pin it down exactly.

The formula I posted for weight loss was just 1-2% of the total body weight per week as the maximum safe level, so for a 20 lb. cat, he could lose 0.2-0.4 pounds per week = ~3-6 ounces per week. I got that value from www.catinfo.org, which has a really good section on feline weight loss. I just multiplied 0.99 (the fraction of the cat's weight after a 1% weight loss) by the number of weeks to show the long term weight loss potential.

As for the dry food, only certain kinds (the ones that specifically say they do) actually clean teeth. Dry food in general doesn't clean the teeth.

Well, another week has gone by and Tiny has lost a couple more ounces. Every week brings me just a little bit closer to finding that thin little kitty who's hiding in there.

7/15/09:17lbs-9oz.
7/16/09:17lbs-9.5oz.
I took Thufir in today to have his urine checked again. No sign of the bacterial infection remained and his pH was 6.0 and USG was 1.012. A clean bill of health. I also asked the vet about his ideal weight and she suggested 13 pounds would probably be a good number for him, though possibly a bit lower. Thufir’s weight at the vet was 16lbs-6 ounces, so he needs to lose about 3.5 pounds.

As for Tiny, I tried feeding her a little extra, but she didn’t eat it all. Hmm, I’m going to hold off on the increase for now and observe.

7/17/09:17lbs-7.5oz.
Well, Tiny’s weight loss certainly seems to be revolutionary – she’s hover at around the same weight for several days and then drop a few ounces. That’s becoming a familiar pattern. And, she’s under 17-1/2 pounds (at least for today ). It’s not a huge milestone, but I will have to start rounding down now and say she’s a seventeen pound kitty.

7/18/09:17lbs-6.5oz.
Tiny didn’t finish her breakfast this morning. She left 0.4 of the 2 ounces (mixed) I put down for her. It was the “Chicken Soup”, same as a couple of days ago, so the problem may be that she has decided she doesn’t like that food as much. Figures it would be the cheap food she doesn’t like. I haven’t seen any problems with the Wellness yet.

Also, when I woke up this morning, I saw Tiny sitting on the bed and for a moment it looked like she was a sleek, muscular cat. The illusion didn’t last long, but I haven’t thought that about Tiny that way since she was a kitten. Consciously, I can’t see a difference in her physique yet, but maybe it was my subconscious picking up on it.

7/19/09:17lbs-8oz.
Tiny finished all her meals, although she didn’t clean her plate as thoroughly as normal at one. This amount of food seems to be suiting her, so maybe it’s not the Chicken Soup after all(?)

7/20/09:17lbs-6.5oz.
7/21/09:17lbs-7.5oz.
It’s really interesting the way Tiny’s weight clusters. It hovers around the same weight for 3-5 days and then takes a big drop, where it hangs around for 3-5 more days, etc. It’s very odd and I have no idea what would cause her to lose weight like that instead of a steady half ounce per day.



EDIT: Just realized I can't edit the first post anymore, so I'll have to add the running totals here:

Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 17 pounds - 7.5 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 12.5 ounces = 4.3% of starting weight

There's not very much to it, unfortunately. If I wave a toy in her direction, she might swat it with her paw once or twice, but she's not about to actually stand up and chase after it. She will play with toys from time to time on her own, but just on her schedule and not mine. So right now, I think she gets most of her exercise rough-housing with Tre. They like to do that several times per day. Also, when I feed her, I put down Thufir's food in the bathroom first she will follow me in there and then walk back into the kitchen where I feed her. I make her get up and follow me into my office when it's weighing time as well. So it's not very much right now, but I'm hoping that after she loses a few pounds she will feel more like playing and that will help keep the pounds coming off.

We talked about this one earlier on the nutrition forum. I can't get any locally, but I may try to get some online if if I can buy just a few cans along with a case of something I know the cats like. They've proven so picky that I hate to pick up more than 1-2 cans of anything until I know they will actually eat it.

No stairs unfortunately and not a good neighborhood for cat walking, but I do have a nice high cat tree. This time of year with the windows open, she climbs up a few times per day to look out the windows. The windows are 54" off the floor (basement apartment), so if she wants to look out she has to climb up. I did try the ball, but she was never interested in pushing it around. Tre would use it sometimes and whenever some food would pop out, she would swoop in and steal it. Needless to say, that was not quite what I had in mind.

One thing she does like to play with is a cardboard box. I may have to go buy something so she has something new to play with. A 12-pack of beer comes in a nice cat-sized box, so I may have to suck it up and buy some beer this weekend so Tiny will have a nice box to play in.

Another week is gone and another 3-1/2 ounces of Tiny have gone with it. She reached 17 pounds 4 ounces today, which is exactly 1 pound under where she started. There are quite a few more to go, but hopefully the rest will come off easier than the first pound did.

Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 17 pounds - 4 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 1 pound = 5.5% of starting weight


6/22/09:17lbs-7.5oz.
6/23/09:17lbs-6oz.
6/24/09:17lbs-6oz.
6/25/09:17lbs-5.5oz.
Tiny has left a little bit of food once or twice over the last couple of days, but it’s not much, maybe 0.1 oz at the most. I really think she’s beginning to get used to this amount and her stomach is shrinking, so she’s not just wolfing down everything I put in front of her anymore. She’s lost weight a bit more slowly over the last 10 days or so as well, so I don’t think there’s any fear she’s starving or losing too quickly.

In other news, the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is feed the cats. It can take about 5 minutes for me to warm the food, mix in water, and separate it out into portions for each cat. While I was doing that this morning, Tiny climbed up the cat tree and watched the birds instead of her normal habit which is sitting at my feet and meowing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her do that before, so perhaps it’s an indication that it’s getting easier to get up and down from there. After breakfast, she went back up and then right before lunch she came down and sat in my lap. That’s quite an active morning for Tiny. After lunch, she went up the cat tree at least two more times.

6/26/09:17lbs-5.5oz.
Well, Tiny didn’t finish any of her three meals today. Breakfast was Chicken Soup, the evening meal was Merrick Turducken, and the final meal was Wellness Core. At the last meal, she left about half an ounce (1/4 of what I feed her). She’s not starving, but I am a bit concerned about it. I’m going to try to feed her Wellness Chicken, which she usually seems to like this weekend and see how she does on that. Her weight isn’t dropping really fast, I know that for sure, but I’m not used to Tiny being shy at mealtime. By comparison, Thufir who weighs just slightly less than Tiny never fails to clean his plate.

6/27/09:17lbs-4.5oz.
I fed Wellness Turkey for the morning and afternoon meals and Tiny gobbled it up both times. I’m pleased with that and she appears to be doing quite well. She seems quite contented. The weight is still coming off nicely.

6/28/09:17lbs-4oz.
Well, this is a big milestone! Tiny has now officially lost her first pound! She still has quite a few more to go, but it’s really nice to know the weight loss program is working. It’s too early to see a big difference in her physique yet, so here’s a picture that shows her up on top of the window sill and the cat tree she has to climb to get there.

I haven't updated in a while because I was out of town a bit and, more importantly, Tiny has been rather sick. She went on a hunger strike and her weight plunged by a full pound in only 2 weeks. I was in panic mode, but the good news is that the blood tests didn't show anything wrong with her, so there doesn't seem to be any major underlying illness. Until I'm sure that she's going to keep eating normally, I'm going to let Tiny free-feed and build her strength back up.


Starting Weight: 18 pounds - 4 ounces

Current Weight: 16 pounds - 1.5 ounces

Weight Loss to Date: 2 pounds 2.5 ounces = 11.8% of starting weight


6/29/09:17lbs-3.5oz.
I watched Tiny grooming her stomach this afternoon. It looks like she still has a long way to go before she can clean her own bottom.

6/30/09:17lbs-3oz.
Tiny still seems to be pretty unhappy with the Chicken Soup when I feed it, so I am feeding it less and less. She seems pretty happy with the Wellness, but I’m just afraid she’ll stop eating that as well. I’m not sure what I will do if that happens.

It’s also the end of the month, so it seems appropriate to put up a chart of how she has done for the month. Essentially the answer is, she did great. Her rate of weight loss for the month was 0.03 pounds per day, or 3.32 ounces per week. At her current weight of ~17 -1/4 pound, that’s 1.2% of her body weight per week. That seems to be a safe and reasonable rate and she doesn’t seem unduly hungry. Overall for the month, she lost about 14 ounces, or just a touch under 5% of her starting body weight.



7/1/09:17lbs-2oz.
It’s the first of the month, so here are the weights of all 4 of my cats: Tiny – 17lbs-2oz; Thufir – 16lbs-2oz; Tre – 9lbs-15.5oz; Promise – 7lbs-13oz. Since this time last month, Tiny has lost 15 ounces, Thufir 11 ounces, Tre 3.5 ounces, and Promise 4 ounces.

7/2/09:17lbs-1.5oz.
7/3/09:17lbs-1.5oz.
7/4/09:17lbs-1oz.
7/5/09:17lbs-2oz.
7/6/09:17lbs-0oz.
Tiny still leaves some food from time to time. She always leaves some when it’s the Chicken Soup, but even with the Wellness she sometimes leaves as much as 1/4 of what I put out, but at other times she demolishes it and wants more after she comes out of the room where I feed her. I try to do my best to make sure she doesn’t go hungry and as long as her weight doesn’t drop too fast, I’m not too worried.

7/7/09:16lbs-15.5oz.
Another big milestone! Tiny has dropped under 17 pounds for the first time in many years. There’s still a lot left to lose, but she’s doing great so far.

7/8/09:17lbs-0oz.
7/9/09:16lbs-14oz.
7/10/09:16lbs-15oz.
Today was troubling. Tiny only ate about half of her food yesterday. This morning, she wasn’t interested in eating at all, so I took her to the vet to get checked out. The vet tested her blood and checked her urine. The white blood cell count was slightly low a couple of kidney values were at the top of the normal range, but otherwise the results were normal. The vet told me these could be signs of some very early kidney disease, but more likely they’re just the result of dehydration. She finally just gave Tiny a bag of Qub-Q fluids and sent her home with some cyproheptadine (antihistamine/appetite enhancer).

For dinner, I put down some Fancy Feast (aka kitty crack) about 45 minutes after giving her a cyproheptadine pill. She ate the half can I put down for her, so I let her out to eat some of the Wellness Chicken I had set out for Tre and Promise. She ate a good bit of that as well, so hopefully that means the fluids have helped.

7/11/09:17lbs-14.5oz.
Tiny was stood at my feet and cried for food while I was preparing breakfast this morning. I didn’t give her any of the appetite enhancer, but she still polished off the other half of the Fancy Feast can. I gave her Wellness for lunch and she ate ~2/3 of it, so I gave her FF again at dinner. I really can’t tell if she’s revolting against the Wellness or if she feels bad.

Unfortunately, I have to go out of town in the morning and I’ll be gone for almost a week. I’ve given my cat sitter instructions to feed Tiny Fancy Feast at every meal. If she quits eating, she’ll take her to the vet and board her. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to travel for a while.

7/17/09:16lbs-4.5oz.
I’m back, and things are NOT going well on the home front. Tiny has lost 10 ounces in 1 week, which is 3 times as much as she should be losing. My pet sitter tells me that she started a hunger strike a couple of days ago. Even worse is that Thufir seems to have done the same. He’s also dropped 10 ounces in the week that I’ve been gone. He also seems to have some diarrhea. I put out some dry food when I got home. They both nibbled on it, but didn’t seem to eat much. Thufir threw up at least some of his a while later.

7/18/09:
I called my vet first thing this morning and scheduled an appointment. They’re only open until 12 on Saturdays, so I had to rush right in. On examination, the vet thought Tiny looked OK, but said Thuf is dehydrated. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I boarded them over the weekend. They’ll give them some Sub-Q fluids and then watch them over the weekend.

7/20/09:16lbs-0.5oz.
I talked to the vet this morning and things still don’t sound good. Tiny still hasn’t been eating and Thufir still seems to be dehydrated. The vet ran a few more tests, but really didn’t find anything wrong, so I went ahead and picked them up. Tiny nibbled a little bit after I picked her up and set her in front of the bowl, but otherwise she’s still not really eating. I may end up having to syringe feed her if she keeps on refusing the food.

7/21/09:16lbs-0oz.
I think I’m beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. At breakfast, Tiny nibbled a little on the Wellness I put out. Before I left, I put up the wet food and put out some kibble. Thufir wouldn’t touch the wet, but he ate some of the kibble. When I came home from work, I fed Wellness again and Tiny seemed to eat pretty well. She went back for 2nd’s and 3rds, although I don’t think she ate too much on any of her trips. Thufir nibbled the wet a bit, but only when I picked him up by the rear so that his nose was almost in the bowl. I think I’ll feed everyone some dry food before I go to bed to see if I can’t get everyone at least one good meal this evening.

7/22/09:16lbs-1.5oz.
I fed Chicken Soup for breakfast this morning and everyone ate it! Everyone ate again at dinner time. Both Tiny and Thufir’s weights jumped up today, and that’s hopefully because they’re eating and drinking normally again. I’m going to let them free-feed the wet and put down kibble at night for the next few days until I’m comfortable they’re completely better.