Similar weights, but changing composition.

Hello, 

I have a six year old (vet estimate) DLH cat. I found him a year ago and took him in. He's a big guy. I suspect he might have some heritage of one of the large, northern breeds. He hit 20 pounds and was starting to look like an American football.

I've reduced his carbs. He gets a combination of low carb dry and commercial raw. He's a picky dry food addict.

My weighing is probably imprecise. I use a human, digital scale that goes to the tenth of a pound. I weigh myself, note the number, weigh myself while holding him, and then do the math.

While he is still registering at 20 pounds, he looks better from above. Picture to follow. I would think that a change in body type would indicate progress, but I wanted to get opinions.


At any rate, this looks better than the football-from-above shape he had a couple of months ago.

The random white blob by my foot is a sock, not part of the cat. My other cat digs out socks to use as toys and to carry around like dead prey.

First, good for you for doing something about his weight, and going the commercial raw route.  Are you trying to transition him even more to raw?

He may have more lean muscle, less fat, percentage.  Similar to humans.  Is he playing more?

He is. He has always wrestled with the other cat because she's young and likes to instigate wresting. Now, he's getting more engaged with toy play. No actual running, but he's getting more involved.

Id like to transition him more to raw once he's for it. It took me a year to get him to eat raw. With canned, he just licks the juice with the exception of Trader Joes' Tuna for Cats, and he can't have tuna all of the time. I've trid the usual toppers, but he's good at picking them out. He eats 1.5 Primal Quail nuggets twice a day. The site recommends about six a day for weight loss for a cat his size.I measure out his dry once a day. If it gets eaten, they just have to wait until the next day.

He still much prefers the dry, but I'm happy that he eats a little raw, now.

The younger cat eats anything and is on mostly Primal. I don't give her the full recommended amount because she will indulge in Buddy's dry food. She was part of a outdoor colony for the first year of her life, and she has a tendency to inhale anything that isn't put away.

I'd like to see him get to 18 pounds or so. He's a big enough cat that' he should be able to carry that off.

Too bad you don't have a "before" picture, but if you are noticing a change, that's what counts.  So how much kibble are you feeding him, and what kibble is it?  You know the mfr's usually have you feeding WAY too much, right?  Could you increase his Quail and decrease the kibble  The only way I ever got my 15 pound guy to lose weight was when he went on raw, and he was eating Primal too.  I think he was only eating about 4 a day, until which I mixed quite a bit of water, just because it seemed so dry, and I think that also helped he feel more full.  He ended up losing 2 lbs over the course of a year. 

The way I get him to run is by tossing his treats (Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw pieces broken up into smaller bits) down the hall and all around so he has to chase them, AND has to outrun his slim and trim brother to get them .  First, he loves that game, and second, it's great exercise!

The kibble is Young Again50/22. They rate it as around 5% carbs. I haven't seen how others rated it.

There's a serving range for his weight. I took the low end and halved it. I use the bag chart. The website chart seems very minimal.

I should try the treat throwing!

I've tried adding a little water to the Primal as it does seem dry, but he seems to prefer it that way. It takes a good bit of reoffering to get him to eat the whole three nuggets, so I don't think he's ready to up it yet. I also don't think that three is enough to just pull the kibble altogether.

Oh, and I didn't have a good before. For some reason, his from-above photos are all in some sort of hunkered down position.

His belly is so fluffy, that I tend to take a lot of belly-up shots, lol. But, he's so fluffy that it's hard to tell size comparisons from that.

curlyqpgh said:

The kibble is Young Again50/22. They rate it as around 5% carbs. I haven't seen how others rated it.

There's a serving range for his weight. I took the low end and halved it. I use the bag chart. The website chart seems very minimal.

I should try the treat throwing!

I've tried adding a little water to the Primal as it does seem dry, but he seems to prefer it that way. It takes a good bit of reoffering to get him to eat the whole three nuggets, so I don't think he's ready to up it yet. I also don't think that three is enough to just pull the kibble altogether.

Click to expand...

Gosh, this is the 2nd time today someone has mentioned Young Again 50/22.  Up until now, I had never heard of it.  Sounds interesting (for kibble).  I see they make a supplement for raw too!  Kind of like Wysong

If he doesn't seem really interested in the Primal, you could try adding toppers to it , even a crushed piece of that kibble .  Or try a different flavor of Primal.  They have a sample package of Primal with 3 other flavors in it.  I believe it has 1 oz of 4 different proteins.  Good way to try other flavors.  Also, many natural pet food stores will actually take food back  if your cats don't like it.  I've returned several frozen foods because my pickies didn't like it.  I just asked before buying, told them my cats were picky, and they said "no problem".   And sometimes they have given me samples of other frozen foods too...like Stella and Chewy's frozen.  Just ask them. 

That was probably me mentioning the kibble in another thread, lol. It's Internet order only, so it's not as known as something in stores. I found out it because I saw a few spreadsheets about diabetic cats getting off of insulin when they were on the zero carb version.

I'll try the sample packet of Primal. Good idea!

I also picked up a RadCat sample today.

That's how I started Ritz on raw--commercial raw, variety pack, Primal.

Her favorite was the one with quail in it.

And I buy (frozen) quail at the international supermarket, which she loves.  I freeze most of the bone for subsequent meals (she gets the low percentage end of bone because she is prone to constipation).