Fat cat help.

Hey everyone. My mother has 2 obese cats. Both are brothers and your basic tabby. Bother are obese, one weighs 25lbs and the other 21lbs. I measured tyem myself 2 days ago, and both are 5 year old couch potatoes who see probably 10-15 minutes a day of activity(I guess, no idea what they do when she is at work).

For the longest time she has fed them kibble in a free feeding setting, always having food out for them to eat whenever and often feeding them when they cry to make them be quiet.

Recently one had to go to the vet(the 25lb one) and the vet said he wants to see them both drop weight, ideally he wants both to weight 15lbs.

So I have set to make her whip them into shape and drop those pounds.

Issue is, I have no idea how many calories they need. Calculating people is easy, cats is a bit difficult.

I did get her a bunch of wet food for them, the blue wilderness stuff and told her I would buy the food for her as long as she feeds them properly and gets their weight down.

Like I said though, my issue is figuring how many calories to deed them, and how fast they should lose the weight.

This is why I joined up. I want these cats to have a long, healthy, happy, vet free life with her. But I need everyones help figuring out caloric intake needs.

Welcome!

Wow, a 10lb reduction - it sounds like a lot of work ahead, but it's doable!

My first suggestion would be to check out Lisa Pierson's page on obesity: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity

She has a general guide to count calories: [13.6 * ideal weight (so around 10lbs in your case) ] + 70 = total number of calories per cat per day, but since your cats have quite a bit of weight to lose, start tapering down from their current amount of food. You can base this off of how much food they are free fed and how much of that food is eaten daily, or you can start off by feeding them based on their current weight and work down from there, pound by pound so they aren't shocked by the sudden lack of food.

I like using this tool to calculate the calories (and carb content) of each food I have the cats try: http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

A lot of wet foods I've found average around 28-30 calories per ounce, whereas dry foods are closer to 100-125 calories per ounce. The higher protein and lower carb, the better the food. The same site also has a dry matter basis calculator, which will tell you how much protein is in foods (since it can be difficult to determine when most of the percentage is taken by moisture in wet foods). TCS has an article discussing dry matter basis: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis

This page can also help as a guide: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/03/03/weight-loss-for-fat-cats.aspx

If they've always been free fed, these articles should help with the transition to wet meals too:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade

Of course, getting them more active more often will only do them more good.

Good luck!

Thabks for all the links. I was off yesterday so I spent the day watching her cats eat and what not.

They really are the couch potatoes, but they entertain themselves about 10-15 minutes a day with toys.

They also ate 2.5 cans each of the wet food during the day. When I left at night they were both sleeping and actually had a hard time finishing off that final .5 but got up a littlw before I left to do so.

I do know before I got them the wet food she would do about 1 cups daily of kibble or 2 cups total(1 cup per cat), so close to 500 or so calories daily for a cup of kibble(could be off here).

I will give it to them, even though they free eat, or had, they really never went much past a cup of kibble each.

Pinkdagger gave good advice + links for weight loss. Getting them more active will really help too. I find that putting toys for a few days in a bag full of catnip and rotating out the toys makes them more likely to be active on their own but I still make time to play with them each day with interactive toys such as a laser pointer, "dancer toy" (Toys with long strings and bells attached to a long wand) and mine also have this toy that I have no idea what it's called but it was like $2 at Petco and looks like it's worth 2 cents but they LOVE IT!!! It's a long wire that bounces in crazy directions with 3 pieces of cardboard bits on the end. Super cheap looking (and could be easy/free to make with crap likely laying in yours or a friend's garage) but they -looove- that toy more than any other. Surprising how entertaining the cats find something like hubby's ear buds or a twist tie off the bread bag too. Lol!! I'd feed them 3-4 times a day if possible and make them "work" (play) before each meal for at least 5min. Interactive playing + what they do on their own could easily total 30+ minutes each day of good exercise. Weight loss isn't just about dropping pounds but also building more muscle and making their bodies/metabolism work more efficiently.

CHWx said:

 It's a long wire that bounces in crazy directions with 3 pieces of cardboard bits on the end. Super cheap looking (and could be easy/free to make with crap likely laying in yours or a friend's garage) but they -looove- that toy more than any other.

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I had a cat years ago who had one of those and she loved it, too! They're great toys. The best free toy I've ever seen and made is just a sheet of newspaper, folded down to a small rectangle (about 1 inch by about 2.5 inches) with a long piece of string wrapped around it. Cats love it! We also roll toys in catnip. I make catnip toys with old knee-high socks: put catnip in the toe, knot the toe, and then turn it inside out (over itself, I'm not sure how to explain it), adding more catnip, and repeating that step a few times so the toe/knotted end gets bigger. Our cats love those!

Good luck with the new regime(n) for the cats, @jberry03qq... just switching the cats to wet food is a great start!

Thanks everyone for all the help.

The boys seem to enjoy the wet food they have been getting and seem to get full on 2 cans daily, which is better than the 2/3-3/4 cup of kibble they had been getting free fed daily. I also have them monitored when they eat so that we know they are not taking the other food and they are being fed 4 times a day at half can portions.

We originally tried feeding them more but they kinda would just turn their nose up to that last half can, so 2 cans it is.

I have also made sure they are getting played with more, and one loves his laser pointer. I will have to get one of those cardboard toys and a catnip container as well for them to get them going. I did buy them a wand that has a long snake looking thing with little fluffy balls on it......but one cat just loves to pull the balls off so now its just a snake looking thing.

Just wanted to say the calorie math is not always correct. My guys started at 20lbs and 16lbs last April. They are now 13.8lbs (formerly 20) and 14.2lbs (formerly 16). I started them both on one and a half 5.5 oz cans a day. Now the 13.8 pounder is getting one full can (180cals)/day and is still losing. The 14.2 pounder is getting 5/6ths of a can a day and is losing VERY slowly. So the recommended calories are not always right. Just slowly lower the calories as they begin losing weight. When they stop losing weight at one calorie amount, lower it a bit more, but go slowly. 

xcourtney3 said:

 
Just wanted to say the calorie math is not always correct. My guys started at 20lbs and 16lbs last April. They are now 13.8lbs (formerly 20) and 14.2lbs (formerly 16). I started them both on one and a half 5.5 oz cans a day. Now the 13.8 pounder is getting one full can (180cals)/day and is still losing. The 14.2 pounder is getting 5/6ths of a can a day and is losing VERY slowly. So the recommended calories are not always right. Just slowly lower the calories as they begin losing weight. When they stop losing weight at one calorie amount, lower it a bit more, but go slowly. 

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I figured. That is why we basically kinda sorta free fed them with the wet food, since they had always only had kibble.

From what I have seen both can only eat 2 cans daily, when we tried more they simply smelled the extra half can and walked off and fell asleep. I plan on weighing them in a few days to see how they weigh and if they have lost any weight and then I plan on going from there to figuring out a slightly reduced calorie intake. The amount they get right now is about 260 or so calories daily, and that seems to keep them pleased.

I find cats tend to moderate themselves better eating wet food too. It's like leaving a kid (or heck, even a grown adult) with two different foods, something dry like tortilla chips or something moist like a stew. You could eat a whole bag of tortilla chips without a thought and still not feel full, but once you drink a glass of water, you realize all that dry stuff absorbing that moisture is suddenly causing a feeling of WAY TOO FULL. A stew or something of the like on the other hand has the moisture in it, so you feel that fullness as you eat. Instead of feeling the regret afterwards.

pinkdagger said:

 
I find cats tend to moderate themselves better eating wet food too. It's like leaving a kid (or heck, even a grown adult) with two different foods, something dry like tortilla chips or something moist like a stew. You could eat a whole bag of tortilla chips without a thought and still not feel full, but once you drink a glass of water, you realize all that dry stuff absorbing that moisture is suddenly causing a feeling of WAY TOO FULL. A stew or something of the like on the other hand has the moisture in it, so you feel that fullness as you eat. Instead of feeling the regret afterwards.

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Putting a cat on an all-canned diet forces the human to moderate, too. No more leaving a big dish of food down. Everyone starts to form good habits.

There are special diet foods for cats. I hope you're giving them that and not just
cutting down the amount so that they'll be hungry.
You also have to get them moving and playing (says overweight me who doesn't even go walking! ).

I could never starve them . They kinda decided what to eat themselves. We started with About 13.75oz of food each per day, but they would only eat 11oz of it.

So far we have been sticking there until I can weigh them again to see how they are doing self monitoring and eating till they get full on the wet food, which will certainly be less calories than when they self monitored kibble.

Wow 13.75 is a lot my big male is 17 pounds and eats only 8 to 9 oz

That is a HUGE amount! What formulas/can size are you feeding of the Wilderness and what kibble were they previously eating?

Formerly they were eating friskies kibble.....a lot of it.

My goal was to not feed them to little. I started with giving them to much the first day to see what they would eat(13.5oz was to much) of the wet food. It ended up being about 11oz give or take because they leave small amounts every meal.

I am going to weigh them tomorrow and see how it looks and then cut back their portions once again.

If you want them to loose weight switch from friskies kibble which is cereal to canned friskies Pates which are meat.

@Bonepicker, They're not on kibble anymore. OP said they eat Blue Buffalo Wilderness now.

Which cans of Wilderness are you feeding? The calories for each range quite a bit. I'm trying to pull calories on Friskies. You need to calculate how many calories they ate with the kibble to compare to the caloric intake in the canned. You can't base on cup measurements since canned is far more nutritionally dense.

Hey everyone, just wanted to update.

Goober is down to 23lbs, a loss of 2 lbs from his original weight. Gomer is down to 19.5lbs, a loss of 1.5lbs.

So far both are doing great and loving the wet food, and the biggest issue has been keeping Gomer from eating his brothers when he is done.

One issue we had was neither like the blue wilderness, so I switched them over to the Friskies Poultry variety pack and they love that.

Currently they are being fed 1.25 cans(6oz cans) daily atm which seems to be keeping them at a steady weight loss, and once a week they get 14 treats that we make them run for in a game of catch.

Gomer has been the biggest challenge due to his supreme laziness. He was the runt of the liter and frankly, hes just a bum. Getting him to play is a monumental challenge and when we can he taps out at 5 mins or so. He then lays there and grabs the toy and holds it lol.

But both are happy and so far doing well losing weight.

Ok, so I plan to keep this updated as they progress.

I also will have some pics of the 2 tonight posted.

Goober has hit 21lbs, and Gomer has hit 18.4lbs.

Both are doing well with 7.5oz of wet food daily, their favorite still seems to be friskies wet food.

The best part is both are actually running, jumping, and playing more than ever due to their weight loss. Goober has seen the biggest improvement though.

At his heaviest 25lbs he was unable to bathe his bottom, this was a huge issue and eventually led to us having to keep him clean after he went to the litter box. Well now at 21lbs he is finally able to take care of his own bottom with a little leverage from the floor, but he is able to clean himself.

The shine on their coats is also improving as well as their water consumption which is much lower now, due to the wet foods high water content.

Overall both are pooking and acting much healthier.

That's great news! I'm so glad to hear it's going well.