low calorie snacks for my chunky cat lol and questions about exercise...

does anyone know any home made low calorie snacks i could feed my cat? i buy her tempatations treats, i know they arent the best but she loves them. my cat normally eats one canned food a day (wellness, natural balance,newmans own). but at night she gets antsy, and i end up giving her snacks before i sleep. lol it helps to calm her. i feel bad as shes an indoor cat, and i know how much she loves food, shes most affectionate when shes hungry. XD

shes 3 years old and 11-12 lbs, shes not huge by any means, but the vet did say she should weigh 9 lbs. i have to start doing daily play with her, i got bored of running around with her feather stick. lol my house is thankfully a good size, so she has space to run around and play by herself. how much exercise should i do with her daily? or is a healthy diet enough? she has lots of places to jump and get to, so i tend to not worry too much.

sorry about the long post, this is my first cat, and ive been having to figure things out as i went along. lol the last time i had a cat, i was 5 years old, and my mom told me i would stuff them in toilets, and drawers, no wonder they all eventually found a way to leave. 0_0

Does she eat the can of food at one meal, or spread out between 2 or 3 meals? You could give her the last 1/3 can before bed as a treat. lt sounds like her food intake is good for her age/size.

ln addition, you could try her with a treat ball. Someone on here mentioned she has one. @pinkdagger   maybe? You put treats inside it and the cat has to work on it getting them out. So it's fun and they feel satisfaction from "killing" and eating it 

l would use a quality kibble as treats. Most cats love kibble, so although we think of it as food and not a treat, l think kitty will see it as a treat.

Exercise is so important. I have a chunky cat myself (although she is naturally large - big paws, long body etc.). What I am starting is harness training. I am getting her used to being on a harness outside with me. She's still scared but is becoming increasingly relaxed because she knows I am there, that I am not going to leave her, and that she goes back inside with me. She's an overgrown baby. As for a snack, I will echo what others have said: use a high quality kibble.

Yes! The treat ball is great and it's the highlight of Kismet's evening! I turned mine into a Frankenstein creation so all the kibble doesn't fall out too quickly because the flaw with the product out of the box is that with a few rolls, EVERY piece comes right away:



(sorry, didn't realize how messy the apartment was. Just bought the AC at that point and were trying to find stuff to prop it in with - junk everywhere!)

I would sack the Temptations too.

Space her meals apart so she can eat some of it in the morning and some of it in the late evening. Two to three meals as @Andrya suggested is a good idea. With our cats, our underweight cat gets a third wet meal when I go to bed, and Kismet (healthy weight, in video) just gets her two wet meals and a palmful of high quality kibble in the Kong and I just let her loose on it when I go to bed. At least with a good quality kibble, they aren't just empty, tasty, carby calories. If you want something to be a treat treat, try something like PureBites. They're just dried meats.

You can also try interactive toys. Kismet passes by this toy in the video, but she loves to stalk and pounce the ball, and flop down to paw at it.

Cats will chase weird things, so if you can find a weird thing that just sets your cat off, this will help get her plenty of exercise. You can just toss it up and down the length of your home. Our cats love big bubbletea-type straws, these straw things I found at Pet Valu, and old dried up black licorice.  And laser pointers! They're usually a hit. Do as many play sessions as your time and cat will allow. At one point this spring, I was funemployed and playing with Kismet 7-10 times a day for 10 minutes at a time.

I think everyone has given great advice already with the play exercises and quality kibble as treats - though I use freeze dried fish cat snacks (Thrive) as my boy is on a dry prescription diet and it adds a tiny bit of protein.   Mouse also loves a similar circuit toy to the one @pinkdagger  linked to and has since I first adopted him, but will play with pretty much anything so I'm lucky that way.

The normal feeding technique in this house is active chase and hunt for the kibble / biscuits rather than  bowl and bowl feeding is only for when I'm out for a few hours and  little over night so he can snack in the early hours without getting me up.  I don't use the feeding bowl but throw it around the room which has floorboards so easy to clean, and can make him run and jump as much as possible - the room is a kitty zone with several boxes to leap in and out of so that adds to the chase.  Would work well for kibble used as treats to get a cat to race about and negotiate under and over obstacles.  Boxes are a great way to add mental and physical activity in to your cat's home without spending a fortune (at least not on the box toy itself - just the contents which in my case are usually for Mouse anyway   This is my chubby boy enjoying his daily kitty-gym (kibble chasing) work out.

Remember to allow for the kibble / treats fed during activity in the daily food rations for achieving your cat's weight goal.  For Mouse his food is measured in to the container I use for the chase feeding and added together with the small amount put in his bowl.

Andrya said:

 
Does she eat the can of food at one meal, or spread out between 2 or 3 meals? You could give her the last 1/3 can before bed as a treat. lt sounds like her food intake is good for her age/size.

ln addition, you could try her with a treat ball. Someone on here mentioned she has one. @pinkdagger   maybe? You put treats inside it and the cat has to work on it getting them out. So it's fun and they feel satisfaction from "killing" and eating it 

l would use a quality kibble as treats. Most cats love kibble, so although we think of it as food and not a treat, l think kitty will see it as a treat.

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i give her the can spread out to three meals a day. 5 am, 11am and then 5pm. then i give her a snack at 11pm. she gets fed at 5 am cause my mom sleeps with her door open, and kitty goes in there and throws things until my mom gets up and feeds her.

i have seen the treatball, right now what i have is this treat device that i found on amazon. but it doesnt help to slow her eating, she eats the treats in a couple of minutes. lol i like the idea of using a good kibble as a substitute, thanks! ill look around amazon to see what i find. =)

pinkdagger said:

 
Yes! The treat ball is great and it's the highlight of Kismet's evening! I turned mine into a Frankenstein creation so all the kibble doesn't fall out too quickly because the flaw with the product out of the box is that with a few rolls, EVERY piece comes right away:

 

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thanks for all the great suggestions, and for the idea on how to improve the treat ball. ill see about buying that soon. i was actually buying the purebite treats for awhile, but it got to be so expensive that i had to stop. ill look around to see if there is any really good kibble that i could buy. my cat sometimes just need a shipping box and she spends the day playing and sleeping in there. lol i tried the laser pointer, and she looked at me with this face... like she was thinking "really? you expect me to fall for that???" ill look up the straws you mentioned. thanks so much for the help! =) by the way, Kismet is adorable. very beautiful cat.

MServant said:

 
I think everyone has given great advice already with the play exercises and quality kibble as treats - though I use freeze dried fish cat snacks (Thrive) as my boy is on a dry prescription diet and it adds a tiny bit of protein.   Mouse also loves a similar circuit toy to the one @pinkdagger  linked to and has since I first adopted him, but will play with pretty much anything so I'm lucky that way....

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love the leaping cat. i love the idea of just throwing the treats. lol but the probably is that my niece has a dog, and this dog would eat anything. i even caught him eating my cats wet food, i have to feed her on a table now. lol but thanks for the suggestion, ill keep it in mind for the future. thanks!

Thehistorian said:

Exercise is so important. I have a chunky cat myself (although she is naturally large - big paws, long body etc.). What I am starting is harness training. I am getting her used to being on a harness outside with me. She's still scared but is becoming increasingly relaxed because she knows I am there, that I am not going to leave her, and that she goes back inside with me. She's an overgrown baby. As for a snack, I will echo what others have said: use a high quality kibble.

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i would love to take my cat outside. but i live with a lot of people and i worry shell try diving out the door when someone opens it. i hope to one day build some kind of patio cat area, but for now im scared to take the risk of walking her. especially since this is a very unsafe neighborhood for cats. =( thanks for the help!

terestrife said:

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i love the idea of just throwing the treats. lol but the probably is that my niece has a dog, and this dog would eat anything. i even caught him eating my cats wet food, i have to feed her on a table now. lol but thanks for the suggestion, ill keep it in mind for the future. thanks!

i would love to take my cat outside. but i live with a lot of people and i worry shell try diving out the door when someone opens it. i hope to one day build some kind of patio cat area, but for now im scared to take the risk of walking her. especially since this is a very unsafe neighborhood for cats. =( thanks for the help!

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If you have a box or 3 you can seal up and cut cat sized holes in for your feline to squeeze through but too small for the dog you can hide treats or practice your throwing aim to get the kibble in the box out of doggy reach.    While your cat is indoor only it adds to the interest as well as keeping food as an active hunting activity.

If living with other people and not sure if your cat might bolt out some time it might be worth trying going out with a harness or similar.  I used to do this with previous cats (currently boy gets scared at the street door), mostly so they got to know the area smells and could recognise their home if they did get out.

terestrife said:

thanks for all the great suggestions, and for the idea on how to improve the treat ball.

ill see about buying that soon. i was actually buying the purebite treats for awhile, but it got to be so expensive that i had to stop. ill look around to see if there is any really good kibble that i could buy. my cat sometimes just need a shipping box and she spends the day playing and sleeping in there. lol i tried the laser pointer, and she looked at me with this face... like she was thinking "really? you expect me to fall for that???"

ill look up the straws you mentioned. thanks so much for the help! =) by the way, Kismet is adorable. very beautiful cat.

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lol! Laser pointer was worth a shot. For kibble, I've heard super awesome things about Orijen (very high protein), but it is admittedly outside of my budget. I feed Petcurean's Go Fit+Free. It has a pretty strong smell and Kismet goes nuts for it. And thank you.

When we feed actual treats, it's VERY infrequent.. like for totally unpleasant things like claw trims. Kibble is a big enough treat for them now that they're on a wet diet, so we cut our costs by cutting down on treats and just splurging on a 4lb bag of more expensive dry food that will probably last us a year as we provide it in treat-like quantity.