Diet for Very Overweight Cat

permanentruby · Feb 13, 2017

This is Milo:

13731956_165189240558115_7536075086657490766_o.jpg

permanentruby
Feb 13, 2017

I hate to say it, but he might even be a little bigger now, as this photo is from last summer.

Milo is my brother's cat, and he is very well loved and spoiled. However, he's pretty overweight, as you can see. I've been trying to convince my bro to take him to the vet, but I think he is embarrassed and trying to avoid a lecture about Milo's weight.

Milo has been on a diet of dry food (not sure what, honestly, as my brother stores it in a large tupperware) in the mornings, and a 5.5 oz thing of wet Meow Mix at night. Recently, my brother has taken the wet food out of Milo's diet, as he was told by his girlfriend that it is the cause of his weight gain.

My vet told me this past weekend that dry food is actually often the cause of cats becoming overweight, due to all of the fillers and carbs in kibble. Therefore, I want to suggest to my bro a nice wet food diet that will help get Milo back to a healthier weight. I also plan to bring him a referral brochure from my vet's office, as i really liked them.

Any ideas on what Milo's diet should look like? Also worth mentioning that my brother's currently paying a boatload to his stupid selfish ex-wife, so budget-friendly would be preferred!

lisahe · Feb 14, 2017

My vet would agree with your vet that it's the dry food that usually causes the weight gain! Switching to wet food only -- preferably low-carb food that's grain-free, and without other fillers like potato or peas -- could be a huge help. Fancy Feast classics, the pates, are all those things so they're a popular choice for many people whose cats are overweight. Here's a thread about a very obese cat that lost lots of weight on Fancy Feast: link is here!

There are links to other threads that might be useful here. One crucial point is not to reduce Milo's food intake too much too fast: that can cause all sorts of problems. @LTS3, maybe you're available with calorie information?

Good luck! Milo looks like a very sweet cat -- I love that look!

margd · Feb 14, 2017

You might find this thread interesting. It's a bit old but it follows the weight loss journey of Mickey, a very overweight cat.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245236/mickey-my-27-lbs-foster-and-his-journey-back-to-a-healthy-weight

permanentruby · Feb 14, 2017

LisaHE said:
My vet would agree with your vet that it's the dry food that usually causes the weight gain! Switching to wet food only -- preferably low-carb food that's grain-free, and without other fillers like potato or peas -- could be a huge help. Fancy Feast classics, the pates, are all those things so they're a popular choice for many people whose cats are overweight. Here's a thread about a very obese cat that lost lots of weight on Fancy Feast: link is here!

There are links to other threads that might be useful here. One crucial point is not to reduce Milo's food intake too much too fast: that can cause all sorts of problems. @LTS3, maybe you're available with calorie information?

Good luck! Milo looks like a very sweet cat -- I love that look!

Thanks!! He is super sweet - definitely a character!!

I'd love some guidance regarding calorie intake!

The dry food he's on is Purina Cat Chow Healthy Weight.

lisahe · Feb 14, 2017

permanentruby said:
Thanks!! He is super sweet - definitely a character!!

I'd love some guidance regarding calorie intake!

The dry food he's on is Purina Cat Chow Healthy Weight.

I am definitely not good at advice on calorie intake! A lot of it is based on cat weight, too, so it would be helpful if you know Milo's starting weight...

Diet dry foods are often particularly unhelpful for weight control: we had this experience with our previous cat, who didn't lose weight on them! (And I suspect the only reason she didn't gain more was that we started feeding her a can of Fancy Feast every day...) I've noticed quite a few other people on the site mentioning similar experiences. Unfortunately, diet dry food was a vet recommendation -- we don't use that vet clinic anymore, in large part because they were so unknowledgeable about cat foods and feline nutrition. (Our new cat specialist vet has been great with our new cats!)

permanentruby · Feb 14, 2017

LisaHE said:
I am definitely not good at advice on calorie intake! A lot of it is based on cat weight, too, so it would be helpful if you know Milo's starting weight...

Diet dry foods are often particularly unhelpful for weight control: we had this experience with our previous cat, who didn't lose weight on them! (And I suspect the only reason she didn't gain more was that we started feeding her a can of Fancy Feast every day...) I've noticed quite a few other people on the site mentioning similar experiences. Unfortunately, diet dry food was a vet recommendation -- we don't use that vet clinic anymore, in large part because they were so unknowledgeable about cat foods and feline nutrition. (Our new cat specialist vet has been great with our new cats!)

I *think* he's 22 lbs. If not 22 exactly, he's around that weight. When he was getting wet food at night, he would freak out all night and act like he was super starving, and since feeding him dry twice a day, he's been better and doesn't seem as starving in the AM. So I definitely think it will be finding that proper balance, as it seemed to have been in Mickey's case.

lisahe · Feb 14, 2017

Yes, balance is key... and adjusting feeding times and amounts can be crucial. One of our cats always claims to be hungry and it really helps that we feed five small meals a day. (We do this largely because she has a tendency to "scarf and barf" but it really helps with her alleged hunger, too.) If Milo is a rescue -- as our cats are -- that can contribute to demanding food, too.

permanentruby · Feb 14, 2017

LisaHE said:
Yes, balance is key... and adjusting feeding times and amounts can be crucial. One of our cats always claims to be hungry and it really helps that we feed five small meals a day. (We do this largely because she has a tendency to "scarf and barf" but it really helps with her alleged hunger, too.) If Milo is a rescue -- as our cats are -- that can contribute to demanding food, too.

I guess Milo is a rescue, in a way. He was apparently a Miami street cat, until my brother's sister-in-law took him in, and then he's been with my brother for almost three years now. He's put on the weight mostly since being with my brother, so I think it's his diet/being spoiled that's caused his weight gain, haha. One of the big problems is, if my brother is in the basement (where Milo's food bowls are) at non-feeding times and Milo is begging for food, he'll give it to him. So now that Milo's used to that, he keeps it up to get more food.

lisahe · Feb 14, 2017

permanentruby said:
I guess Milo is a rescue, in a way. He was apparently a Miami street cat, until my brother's sister-in-law took him in, and then he's been with my brother for almost three years now. He's put on the weight mostly since being with my brother, so I think it's his diet/being spoiled that's caused his weight gain, haha. One of the big problems is, if my brother is in the basement (where Milo's food bowls are) at non-feeding times and Milo is begging for food, he'll give it to him. So now that Milo's used to that, he keeps it up to get more food.

Oh, yes, they get used to things very fast! Cats and households are all different, of course, but smaller and more frequent meals, on a fairly regular schedule, might work well for Milo, too. It really helps keep Edwina from begging because she always knows there's another meal coming.

I work at home, which makes it relatively easy but I've noticed that quite a few people on the site who work outside their homes feed various combinations of first thing in the morning, just before leaving for work, just after coming home from work, and just before bed. We feed first thing in the morning, mid-day, mid-afternoon, evening, and just before bed. The morning and evening meals are the biggest. In the end, it's all what works!

LTS3 · Feb 14, 2017

permanentruby said:
The dry food he's on is Purina Cat Chow Healthy Weight.

That dry food has 337 calories per cup. Does your brother measure out a cup of food or does he do what most people do which is just fill the bowl to the top and add more as needed? Purina dry foods are pretty poor quality, kind of like greasy preservative ladened artificial everything fast food for people.

There are tips on how to help a cat to safely lose weight here: http://catinfo.org/feline-obesity-an-epidemic-of-fat-cats/

What is the cat's ideal body weight? The general rule of thumb is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. 22 lbs is a lot but you don't want to drastically reduce the current calorie intake right away beause that puts the cat at risk for fatty liver disease. You need to figure out how many calories the cat is currently getting and then slowly reduce that amount over a period of at least several weeks to months until the cat reaches his ideal body weight and maintains it.

If the cat can eat more canned food than dry food, that would be ideal. Here are some calorie charts for canned foods:

http://www.petobesityprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cat_Canned_Pouch_Foods.pdf

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Some inexensive brands such as Friskies and Fancy Feast are pretty decent qualty and don't cost much, especially during those big sales at chain pet stores. Little 3 oz cans add up in cost over time so it's actually cheaper to buy 5.5 oz and larger sized cans.

Affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272192/affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/327692/cheapest-most-affordable-grain-free-or-healthiest-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/330459/...conomical-way-to-buy-friskies-canned-cat-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292890/4health-now-has-affordable-grain-free-wet-food

arouetta · Feb 14, 2017

I've got big kitties that I feed dry food to. Last visit, the vet said that one was 1 pound overweight but one was barely normal weight (I've always had problems keeping weight on him) and the other vet said that she was thrilled the female was half a pound overweight. (She said that most of the time when she sees cats that age, they are just skin and bones.) So they are big, not fat.

I have found that they are perfectly content when I feed roughly half the amount that is recommended on the bag for their weight. I do a quarter suggestion in the morning and a second quarter suggestion at night (ie, 1 cup is recommended so they get 1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup in the evening). If one is really noisy and all the food dishes are completely empty, I will do an additional 1/4 suggested serving, but I do that rarely enough that they don't learn the behavior gets more food, so they in turn rarely act that way.

And yeah, people here do recommend wet food, but when you are on a budget that can be hard. If I fed my cats wet food, I'd be spending roughly $10 a day to feed the cats. I don't think I spend that much on food for myself in a day and I'm about 6 times their combined weight. And the few times I've tried wet food, I found there was a lot of wasted food and three vocal cats who were hungry but wouldn't touch the food after it had been out for half an hour. They are happy with dry because they don't eat the full amount I feed at once, they graze all day long.

dhruska211 · Jul 13, 2023

permanentruby said:
This is Milo:

13731956_165189240558115_7536075086657490766_o.jpg

permanentruby

Feb 13, 2017

I hate to say it, but he might even be a little bigger now, as this photo is from last summer.

Milo is my brother's cat, and he is very well loved and spoiled. However, he's pretty overweight, as you can see. I've been trying to convince my bro to take him to the vet, but I think he is embarrassed and trying to avoid a lecture about Milo's weight.

Milo has been on a diet of dry food (not sure what, honestly, as my brother stores it in a large tupperware) in the mornings, and a 5.5 oz thing of wet Meow Mix at night. Recently, my brother has taken the wet food out of Milo's diet, as he was told by his girlfriend that it is the cause of his weight gain.

My vet told me this past weekend that dry food is actually often the cause of cats becoming overweight, due to all of the fillers and carbs in kibble. Therefore, I want to suggest to my bro a nice wet food diet that will help get Milo back to a healthier weight. I also plan to bring him a referral brochure from my vet's office, as i really liked them.

Any ideas on what Milo's diet should look like? Also worth mentioning that my brother's currently paying a boatload to his stupid selfish ex-wife, so budget-friendly would be preferred!

Do not feed this cat any Purina products. The meow mix is not fit for racoons. The wet food contains mercury see attached. It also contains a thicker which the cats cannot digest. Please make your own. It’s cheaper in the long run and the recipe for raw should be on this site. Start up is a little pricey but after that no.
your cat is how 2 cats that I had looked. Both died from kidney failure. I’m very upset right now because pet food is barely regulated. Please try. Weruvs cat food is ok but change this cat. I’d hate to see you lose him like I did mine.

dhruska211 · Jul 13, 2023

dhruska211 said:
Do not feed this cat any Purina products. The meow mix is not fit for racoons. The wet food contains mercury see attached. It also contains a thicker which the cats cannot digest. Please make your own. It’s cheaper in the long run and the recipe for raw should be on this site. Start up is a little pricey but after that no.
your cat is how 2 cats that I had looked. Both died from kidney failure. I’m very upset right now because pet food is barely regulated. Please try. Weruvs cat food is ok but change this cat. I’d hate to see you lose him like I did mine.

Kris107 · Jul 13, 2023

Another thing to try perhaps is getting an auto-feeder. Your brother can fill up the hopper, program it, and then no other food/treats for the cat. It alleviates the begging too because they learn the human doesn't give the food. Could also put the food on another floor to make the cat go up/down the stairs more. Treats are hard, but mine only gets ONE (freeze dried protein) every once in a while. It's a treat, not a food supplement! Milo is lucky to have you looking out for him! Just like with humans, cats can have health issue when they're overweight.

dhruska211 · Jul 13, 2023

Kris107 said:
Another thing to try perhaps is getting an auto-feeder. Your brother can fill up the hopper, program it, and then no other food/treats for the cat. It alleviates the begging too because they learn the human doesn't give the food. Could also put the food on another floor to make the cat go up/down the stairs more. Treats are hard, but mine only gets ONE (freeze dried protein) every once in a while. It's a treat, not a food supplement! Milo is lucky to have you looking out for him! Just like with humans, cats can have health issue when they're overweight.

please try making your own. Purina owned by Nestles should have recalled their cat food. I could never understand why the chicken had fish byproducts in it. ? Now I know why. Fish fry products are skin and bones. This cat is only obese because of all the other things that are not digestible.. (Purina). I called Parina and ask them for a complete breakdown of what was in their product. I spoke to one of their food scientist because my husband is one of those…… I never received anything from them. I will be sending them all the bills from my vets trying to save my cat. ($6,000). She was the sweetest cat. Only 4.I’m taking the rest of the cat food back to the store. I won’t do this to them.
but oddly my feral cat won’t eat any Purina : fancy feast or friskies. It’ssays a lot when a feral cat has a bowl in front of her, walks away and comes back with a chipmunk that she ate in front of me. I’m done with this. And the FDA

Diet for Very Overweight Cat

permanentruby

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lisahe

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margd

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permanentruby

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lisahe

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arouetta

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