Getting my fat cat on the not-so-fat track

LOL a spreadsheet you are such a nerd   Being a quality engineer, I can't begin to tell you how many spreadsheets I have created for Midi. Excel is like the best tool ever!!

Zed Xyzed said:

 
LOL a spreadsheet you are such a nerd 

 Being a quality engineer, I can't begin to tell you how many spreadsheets I have created for Midi. Excel is like the best tool ever!!

Click to expand...

I work in IT, of course I"m a nerd.

This is so frustrating though. My main priority in the "community" canned food (ie, the Friskies replacement) is phosphorus. Anything between 0.71-1.1% is in my "short term goal' list. Anything less than or equal to 0.70% is in my "long term goal' list, meaning after the kittens grow up. Everything else was thrown out. I also threw out all the Friskies and Fancy Feast. They will still get Fancy Feast once a week, but Friskies will ultimately be going away.

My second priority is the protein. Pretty much anything between 35-65% is good to go. I'd prefer less than 50% but that left me with a lot fewer choices. Anyway, this further whittled down my list.

And now my third priority is the calorie content per oz. I've taken away anything greater than 32 cals / oz. Even that might be too high but needed a starting point of some sort. I'm not sure what is considered "normal". I think cats are supposed to get 20 cals / lb of body weight. At least that's what I remember when trying to figure out how much Lucky needed at minimum. I'm guessing if we want them to lose weight, we don't want to use their current weight. But what SHOULD we base it on if we don't want them to lose a ton at once? I'm assuming cats should lose weight slowly, just like humans.

The other thing I've been looking at is carbs. I don't know what to think here, or even if I should bother. The Friskies that I feed them actually isn't that bad in the carbs department. If it was better in the phosphorus department, I'd probably leave them on it! Most of the foods labeled as "grain free" actually have more carbs than what I'm feeding them now. And what about fat content? Not sure how much of their diet should be that.

Yes, I realize I'm probably over-analyzing. But with five cats with vastly different needs, I have no choice.

I'd also like to get more activity into her life. I'm really not sure how to go about that. While I mentioned a treadmill that wouldn't really be feasible. While taking my cats for a walk would be nice, nah, I'd rather not. Plus it's winter outside, they wouldn't like it very much. They are not feral and Maple definitely doesn't know what it's like to have to be in the cold, nor do the kittens. Sara and Penelopy have a few years that I can't speak for unfortunately. So I'm gonna try to get her to play more, like with the Cat Dancer toy I got them for Christmas. Will have to make sure to do it every day and make sure sure actually makes SOME movement. Lazy butt that she has become.

Zed Xyzed said:

 
LOL very carefully. Poor Maple, the indignity  

Click to expand...

I'm just laughing at the vision of her having to shave her cats rear end.

Kittens Mom said:

 
I'm just laughing at the vision of her having to shave her cats rear end.

Click to expand...

I seriously have no idea how I will do that either. I wish she didn't have that poop reflex that she seems to have. I seriously only thought wild animals had that!

Donutte said:

 
I seriously have no idea how I will do that either. I wish she didn't have that poop reflex that she seems to have. I seriously only thought wild animals had that!

Click to expand...

I suggest a reverse cowgirl with the burrito blanket.

Have you seen this thread?  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight

Not sure if anything in there will help with Maple's weight, but it's an interesting read to see that a cat can lose weight.

I laughed out loud when I read Maple has long since lost his Canuck accent.  Guess that means he no longer "meow-eh's".  

rubysmama said:

 
Have you seen this thread?  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight

Not sure if anything in there will help with Maple's weight, but it's an interesting read to see that a cat can lose weight.

I laughed out loud when I read Maple has long since lost his Canuck accent.  Guess that means he no longer "meow-eh's".  

Click to expand...

I have not, though I read the first page of posts and it doesn't sound exactly like the dilemmas I have, but looks like it will be worth a read, so plan on doing so.

I forgot to put the dry senior food up last night. I was going to tonight, but I am not really sure she got her fair share of the canned food - little hoovers that I have. So don't want her to completely be miserable tonight. Normally there is still a little bit left of the canned and she'll eat it but that food is GONE today.

I tried to use the cat dancer with her yesterday. The only exercise she got in that department was running away from it. I have no idea how i got such a skittish kitty. She's always been that way, but it's so much worse now than it used to be.

Today I feel is the first day we've really started making any changes. I woke up at 7:30am for reasons unknown to me. I was feeding Sara her 1/4 can of k/d, so spontaneously decided to split two 3oz cans between the other four. That definitely got Maple running out of my bedroom! 

I also put the cat food in the back up on top of the washing machine. I figured if the other cats want food, either they'll just go up there, or get the food that is up in the cat tree. Maple's too lazy to get to the one in the cat tree, and she doesn't know I put the other one on the washing machine. I also brought her a bowl of water, want to make sure she's getting enough water. I don't want her to completely depend on that though (there's water in other places outside of my bedroom, and I'd like her to come out more), so trying to walk that fine line there.

We've also started bringing in other "community" foods (the canned food they all get) and rotating them. Haven't come upon an organized rotation yet. Just always picking something different than the day before.

Gonna try to make that morning feeding a bit more of a habit with them all. Will make it easier to give Sara her food too. Oscar and Oliver go nuts when she gets her k/d. I think there must be crack in it or something.

I think I've decided to start doing a morning feeding now with the wet food. Trying so hard to figure out how much to feed Maple, as I don't want to starve the poor thing. I'm only giving them a little in the morning right now. I think my main goal is to give them food in the morning, when I get home, and then at night. I'm not quite at the point where I feel like I'm feeding enough in wet food for her, not sure I'll be able to get to that point. So still have to leave some dry out.

I figured since Sara will be getting her k/d in another room while the others are eating in the morning and after work, I CAN go the high-protein, better quality food route for those particular meals. Which I just bought. My credit card is crying.

I've been working on getting my overweight cat down to a health weight too. It's going to take a while! I made a spreadsheet, too. You might already know this, and it probably won't be a problem, but be careful that he doesn't lose too much weight too quickly, or he could develop fatty liver disease. 

I based most of my planning from the information in the obesity section on catinfo.org, which explained how to determine how much to feed very well! My cat should probably be around 11 pounds, but she was 14 when I adopted her six months ago. Now, we're down to almost 13, so progress has been made! (She probably could have lost a lot more but she was having constipation issues and I had to keep her on her old food for a while until we figured it out.) Actually, now that I think about it, her constipation issues were resolved by adding acacia fiber to her food, which has probably been helpful in curbing her hunger a bit! It's marketed to humans as a weight loss powder because the fiber makes you feel fuller, but my vet highly recommended it because it feeds the good bacteria in the colon without bulking up stool like psylium, which can contribute to megacolon. Anyway, it's called Skinny Gut acacia fiber, and maybe you can ask your vet about it? It's tasteless and dissolves right into the wet food.

Delilah, my overweight kitty, now gets 1/2 a can of Wellness CORE twice a day, and she's slowly and steadily losing weight. She loves her food of course, and I've gradually weaned her down to this amount. When I cut down too much too quickly, she would start biting me in the early hours of the morning wanting food. But she did eventually adjust to her diet, so don't get discouraged! Now she's content to just sit and stare an hour or two before her mealtime to make sure I don't forget. I can't get her to play very much either, and her "play" usually involves a lot of laying down and batting at toys with her paws, so diet has been key for us.

Best of luck to you and Maple!

Molly92 said:

 
I've been working on getting my overweight cat down to a health weight too. It's going to take a while! I made a spreadsheet, too. You might already know this, and it probably won't be a problem, but be careful that he doesn't lose too much weight too quickly, or he could develop fatty liver disease. 

I based most of my planning from the information in the obesity section on catinfo.org, which explained how to determine how much to feed very well! My cat should probably be around 11 pounds, but she was 14 when I adopted her six months ago. Now, we're down to almost 13, so progress has been made! (She probably could have lost a lot more but she was having constipation issues and I had to keep her on her old food for a while until we figured it out.) Actually, now that I think about it, her constipation issues were resolved by adding acacia fiber to her food, which has probably been helpful in curbing her hunger a bit! It's marketed to humans as a weight loss powder because the fiber makes you feel fuller, but my vet highly recommended it because it feeds the good bacteria in the colon without bulking up stool like psylium, which can contribute to megacolon. Anyway, it's called Skinny Gut acacia fiber, and maybe you can ask your vet about it? It's tasteless and dissolves right into the wet food.

Delilah, my overweight kitty, now gets 1/2 a can of Wellness CORE twice a day, and she's slowly and steadily losing weight. She loves her food of course, and I've gradually weaned her down to this amount. When I cut down too much too quickly, she would start biting me in the early hours of the morning wanting food. But she did eventually adjust to her diet, so don't get discouraged! Now she's content to just sit and stare an hour or two before her mealtime to make sure I don't forget. I can't get her to play very much either, and her "play" usually involves a lot of laying down and batting at toys with her paws, so diet has been key for us.

Best of luck to you and Maple!

Click to expand...

Oh, I wish Maple was only 3 lbs overweight, lol. I really need a scale I can put her on. Most of the typical "cat" ones only go to 15 lbs. I saw one that is used for bigger animals as well, so thinking of getting that. I looked at everything I bought on Amazon the last three months and about 90% of it is for cats, lol. Anyway, I'm gonna err on the side of feeding her a bit too much until I can properly weigh her. Just not as much as she was getting before. I'm trying to lean toward timed feedings for the dry food during the day, and then will put down a little bit for her at night. Of course, since the others will eat from that bowl too. I'm thinking a 1/4 cup since the others sometimes eat from it too.

Yesterday, I ordered Soulistic Upstream Dreams, BFF Tuna and Pumpkin, and Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken. I was reading that high quality protein diets are of big importance with weight loss. My Sara can't have "the good stuff" with such high protein, but since this is fed to them when she's in another room getting fed k/d, it works out. It was actually easier to shop for this than it was for the "community food" that they all eat.

So funny, the three younger ones were all staring at me while I was making coffee this morning. They only got that morning feeding that ONE time yesterday, and now they expect it forever. I think that's how feeding them the canned "treat" at night started   Except with a completely different set of three cats. Maple didn't come out until the food was actually being served of course, but she was happy to eat it!

Ok, just purchased a scale. Official first weigh-in will be on Tuesday.

Stupid me was reading wrong when I said the scale would be here yesterday. That was if I got one-day shipping. It will be here today, and then Maple will get her first weigh-in!

I'll take the opportunity to also weigh the kittens, as I've been dying to find out how much they weigh. Their last weigh-in was on August 25th, they were 13 weeks old and each weighed 4.5 lbs. I'm pretty sure they are more than double that now.

Scale arrived! Of course it's absolutely FROZEN right now, so won't even turn on. Letting it thaw for now

Ok, it said not to weigh on the rug, so I'll consider this the unofficial weigh-in. - 17 lb 3 oz!!

(seriously, she LOOKS so much bigger than that!)

I weighed Oscar in the kitchen on a flat floor, and it was 8 lbs 14.5 oz. It fluctuated a bit but landed at 9 lbs even on the rug. So she may actually even weigh LESS than that??

Wow.

Will weigh her later when she actually goes out into the kitchen.

I've discovered that I have to better watch the dry food I leave for Maple. The little ones like to gobble it up, even though they have an ever-flowing supply of their own stuff. So I need to put more in there for Maple who I knew hadn't had it yet, as she was sleeping after the morning canned feeding. Little snots, lol.

The only good thing is it means I go through this particular food just a little bit faster. Switching to adult formula (vs senior) after this is all gone. It's almost 200 calories less per cup.

Sunday, 1/17 weigh-in!

Sunday, 1/17 - 17.16 lbs
Wednesday, 1/13 - 17.18 lbs

My scale doesn't do pounds and ounces, and since the weight loss was so tiny, I'm just using it in the increments it gives me. Her weight loss equates to about a 1/3 of an ounce. I'm doing semi-weekly weigh-ins until I feel comfortable that I'm feeding a somewhat-correct amount. Don't want to over- or under-feed her. I think I'm probably doing the former at this point, so will adjust her food intake for next week to be between 200 and 210 cals/day.

I wasn't expecting anything profound after only four days. But I'll take a third of an ounce! At least it's going in the right direction.

Weigh-day!

Sunday, 1/24 - 17.14 lbs
Sunday, 1/17 - 17.16 lbs
Wednesday, 1/13 - 17.18 lbs

I think Maple is going the "slow and steady wins the race" route. She's lost about 2/3 of an oz. Which she probably gained back considering how many treats I had to bribe her with to get her on the scale.

Currently, she's getting ~1.5 oz of wet food in the morning, another 1.5 oz of wet food in the afternoon (either about 4pm or when I get home from work), then ~2.2-2.6 oz of wet food in the evening. I've been leaving her 1/8 cup of dry food to have overnight to make sure she doesn't get an upset tummy. Of course, she gobbles it up before I even go to bed, so not sure that is gonna work. It is about 195-215 calories per day, averaging out to about ~205 per day for the week.

She DOES seem to be coming out of the bedroom more though. I think it's more because she keeps hoping I'll be doing some spontaneous extra feeding, but regardless of why, she comes out more. She also just *looks* better. I don't know if it's just my imagination or something else, but she seems to just look better.

The most recent change I've made is to watch them while eating in the morning to make sure she doesn't steal the others' food. She likes to eat about 2/3 of what's in her bowl, then push another cat out of the way and finish off what's in their bowl(s). Yesterday I didn't allow that, but rather brought her original bowl back to her to finish that off, which she did. Then she promptly sauntered off back to the bedroom. I didn't watch this morning though because I forgot... will have to make sure to remember to do it tomorrow. However, ALL the bowls were empty this morning, and normally that isn't the case, so I think they were all gobbling it up.

I think this coming week, I'll leave all the same amounts of wet food in place, but reduce the dry to 1/16 a cup. That'll bring the daily average to about ~170 a day.