Fat Cat

denizli

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My cat is forever wanting food. He is an indoor cat & is already overweight but he keeps on pestering for food.
We feed him on Hills science dry food & he loves it but he keeps coming back for more.
Last night we gave him a desert spoon full at 11.00pm & as usual I was awoken with him tapping on my head with his paw at 3.00am. I gave him a three quarter spoonful & he was back again at 4.30. If you don't feed him he starts whining & making a noise & as we live in an apartment this does not make us popular with the neighbours.
Is there anything that we can do to to reduce his food intake as I worry about his general health as he gets little excercise & justs keeps eating. He is only 2yrs old & we need to put the breaks on soon before he becomes grossely overweight or the neighbours kick us out.

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grogs

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Hi. It's definitely easier to keep them from getting fat in the first place than to try to fix the problem later. I'll try to offer a few suggestions.

First, I would look at the times when you're feeding him. I like to feed my guys right before bed so that they're not hungry in the middle of the night and bothering me. I also feed when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work at night. That way, the longest period my guys go without food is while I'm gone away and there is nobody to bother. Also, being consistent with feeding times means that kitty knows when to expect food and is less likely (hopefully!) to bother you at other times.

Take a look at the food. Despite its cost, Science Diet tends to use pretty low quality ingredients. For a cat, you want to feed a high protein, low carbohydrate food. Sharky and some of the others can make recommendations for dry food, or look through some of the previous threads. There is some evidence that a cat's hunger receptors are tuned to protein intake, so eating foods with more protein means kitty won't be crying for food as often.

A lot of us have had success with wet foods. Wet foods have the advantage that they can be made without using a carbohydrate based filler which is required for extruding the dry food, so they can be made almost entirely from animal proteins. The wet foods also contain a lot of moisture, so they help prevent dehydration, which can lead to crystals in the urine, and possibly a life-threatening blockage. A good online source of info can be found at:

http://www.catinfo.org/
 
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denizli

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Thanks for the advice. I will have a look through some of the other threads & consider changing his food.
 

grogs

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Originally Posted by denizli

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look through some of the other threads & consider changing his food.
Make the changes in small bits. Cats are creatures of habit, so sudden changes aren't always great. If you're going to try changing food, buy a small bag and start by mixing just a small bit into the old food for a while. Cats are picky and it's not unknown for them to completely refuse new food or even pick out the old food and leave the new (thus buying a small bag is cheaper if it doesn't work out
). Making the change gradual also reduces the chances your cat will develop diarrhea or get sick during the change.

One other thought I had was putting something like a golf ball (a clean one) in the food bowl. That makes the cat have to push the ball around to get the kibble and eat more slowly as a result. Some cats tend to gorge themselves, like humans do at Thanksgiving. If they eat more slowly, the "hey, I'm full" message will reach their brain before they've eaten as much.
 

shanynne

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This is some fantastic advice from Grogs!

I just want to add that in case you can't buy a sample size bag, keep your receipt. Most places will give you a refund on the unused portion, just check what their return policy is before buying.

And yes as Grogs has mentioned make the switch very slowly!
 

sharky

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FIRST : Have you seen the vet and discussed what the PROPER wt and way to lose is?

You can actually kill a cat trying to diet it ...

TWO: Wet food oz for oz on ave has half the calories than dry thus making it usually a better choice for wt management as well as having the moisture to aid in a more natural diet ...

Three : where do you shop? this helps me NOT recommend foods not avail
 
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denizli

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I actually live in Turkey so the food brands are a bit limited but thanks for the ideas.
At least I now feel I can change things gradually which is good as he has just lost his brother so sudden changes would not be a good ideas as he is already unsettled.

Cheers
 
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denizli

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Thanks again everybody. I'm off to find a golf ball.
 
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