Kitty on a diet!

According to the vet Lucky needs to lose some weight. Probably around 2-3lbs.

Anyone have any tips or advice for doing this? The vet looked it up and we've figured out the kcal that my 2 need at rest per day (440kcal/day for both). I've got the kcal amounts for their dry and the wet food i hope they will eat (picky eaters). Do i just restrict their food, no treats and try and make them exercise more. It seems that if a human is just eating the calories to survive that they wouldn't have much energy to play etc.

I just want to make sure i do this right for both of them.

I would appreciate all your help.

What food are you feeding..???

My views on cat diet food is give more protein moderate fat and little carbs mosts dry foods give moderate protein low fat and high carbs... if you can give the chunky cat extra play sessions and wet food

Originally Posted by sharky

What food are you feeding..???

My views on cat diet food is give more protein moderate fat and little carbs mosts dry foods give moderate protein low fat and high carbs... if you can give the chunky cat extra play sessions and wet food

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There on natural balance dry, and i'm trying to get them onto natural balance wet or wellness or merrick's. The problem is rambo is still growing and i don't want to restrict the food to him. So should i try and get them on all wet? mostly wet?

I've tried to feed them separately....won't work. They refuse.

They play all the time...and if the weather stays nice they'll get some romps outside soon.

How old is Rambo??

Yes allwet would be best ...

I disagree, wet food has a lot of calories. The best thing to do is to increase your cat's playtime and exercise level. Feed the cat on the top of your cat condo, so she has to climb to get the food, or invest in a treat ball or one of those food puzzles. Don't take off the weight by diet quickly or the cat can wind up with some severe health issues.

Originally Posted by sharky

How old is Rambo??

Yes allwet would be best ...

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Rambo is 10 months old

Originally Posted by hissy

I disagree, wet food has a lot of calories. The best thing to do is to increase your cat's playtime and exercise level. Feed the cat on the top of your cat condo, so she has to climb to get the food, or invest in a treat ball or one of those food puzzles. Don't take off the weight by diet quickly or the cat can wind up with some severe health issues.

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They play all the time. Lucky and Rambo regularly keep me up tearing around the house. And we usually have several games of fetch per day. I tried the treat ball and lucky ignored it. Rambo was interested a bit but not much.

The vet recommended feeding to their resting energy requirements and then engaging them in play. But Rambo is still growing and his energy requirements are alot higher. Very confused what to do.

Originally Posted by hissy

I disagree, wet food has a lot of calories. The best thing to do is to increase your cat's playtime and exercise level. Feed the cat on the top of your cat condo, so she has to climb to get the food, or invest in a treat ball or one of those food puzzles. Don't take off the weight by diet quickly or the cat can wind up with some severe health issues.

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Hissy, where did you find this information? If you compare the kcal/cup in most brands of wet and dry food, this is just not true, infact it's the opposite of the truth... Here is the info for a few brands (I couldn't find the information online for many brands).
Wellness Dry (chicken Super5 Mix): 449/cup
Wellness Wet (Turkey and Salmon): 243.6/cup (I had to do some math here, as the kcals were listed by can)

Innova Dry: 537/cup
Innova Wet: 300/cup

If you were having any luck at all switching your kitties to a better quality wet food, I'd suggest increasing the amount they're getting or taking out dry entirely. But until they're on better quality wet this probably isn't such a good idea!

You've said you can't feed them seperatley, but do you feed them in seperate bowls? I would just measure out how much each is supposed to get (in kcals per day) and make sure they stick to their own bowls. (Which is hard... I know. I've had to start sitting in the kitchen with mine at mealtimes, because Buddy pushes in and eats Nya's when he's all done!)

And as Hissy said, increasing the amount of excercise Lucky is getting can't hurt She might get lots, but it may not be enough for her system.

You might want to look at this website, I know Lucky isn't THIS fat, but it's full of great info:
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/catweight.html

Originally Posted by vanillasugar

If you were having any luck at all switching your kitties to a better quality wet food, I'd suggest increasing the amount they're getting or taking out dry entirely. But until they're on better quality wet this probably isn't such a good idea!

You've said you can't feed them seperatley, but do you feed them in seperate bowls? I would just measure out how much each is supposed to get (in kcals per day) and make sure they stick to their own bowls. (Which is hard... I know. I've had to start sitting in the kitchen with mine at mealtimes, because Buddy pushes in and eats Nya's when he's all done!)

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Thanks Julia! I had some success with getting them to eat some Natural Balance wet this morning (which reminds me i need to call the company and see how many kcals it is). They both got a quarter of a can and Lucky ate most of hers and Rambo ate her leftovers and his.

The have separate bowls for their wet and there dry is just open during the day. I'm only giving them a small amount of dry. I'm beginning to think i will try and get them on to all wet until i can get Lucky's wet regulated (and of course i just bought a new bag of dry).

My concern is making sure Rambo gets enough since he's still growing.

As far as exercise. Lucky isn't one for chasing the feather thing etc. She likes fetch...but she has to be in the mood or I can throw it till my arm falls off and she'll just look at me. Her and Rambo though chase each other all the time (my tenant downstairs has commented on the noise!).

Well....fingers crossed. I'm going to keep experimenting on wet with some dry until i switch them over to all wet.

The vet recommends no more then 0.2kg weight loss per month.

And thank you everyone for all the advice. Any more thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as i am struggling to figure out how to do this!

Thanks again

Originally Posted by hissy

I disagree, wet food has a lot of calories. The best thing to do is to increase your cat's playtime and exercise level. Feed the cat on the top of your cat condo, so she has to climb to get the food, or invest in a treat ball or one of those food puzzles. Don't take off the weight by diet quickly or the cat can wind up with some severe health issues.

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I agree with the exercise and playtime but I am also a bit confused about wet food and calories - I thought it was dry food that had all the useless calories and fillers.

I've been handing out advice to folks to change to wet food - have I been misleading them?

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I agree with the exercise and playtime but I am also a bit confused about wet food and calories - I thought it was dry food that had all the useless calories and fillers.

I've been handing out advice to folks to change to wet food - have I been misleading them?

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From what i've been reading (which is all i've been doing since getting back from the vet) is that wet food has less kcal's the dry. So you can feed your cat more wet (and they will probably get a better amount of protein etc) then dry.

ex: 1 cup of Natural Balance Dry has 500kcal's. Natural Balance Wet - ~171kcal/can. Lucky's resting kcal requirement is about 230kcals. So she can either have a can and a half of wet, or less then half a cup of dry. But when you start to look...to get good protein and fat into her she probably would do much better on the wet.

I have read that if you are going to diet your cat on dry then supplements might be required.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I agree with the exercise and playtime but I am also a bit confused about wet food and calories - I thought it was dry food that had all the useless calories and fillers.

I've been handing out advice to folks to change to wet food - have I been misleading them?

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Yosemite, if you see my post above, I compared the kcals between wet and dry foods. Wet has a significant amount less calories than dry. Don't worry you're not misleading anyone

Renny, it seems you're on the right track! Keep us updated (And I'm glad to hear that they ate something GOOD for them! lol)

(oops, i see you posted at the same time as me!)

My overweight foster has lost more while eating a purely wet diet (although he will pinch biscuits if he can) than he did on anything else. And my female puts weight on when she eats a mainly dry food diet (although she was underweight, so not a bad thing). I feed my foster at the top of the stairs, and he runs up them at teatime to get his food (whereas at breakfast he runs down them to go out!!)

My cats are indoor cats and get very little exercise.
How slow is slow enough?
I do not want to go too slow.
I don't want to go too fast!
Humble will only eat dry. Shenandoah will only eat wet.

Shenandoah has beenm getting 2 cans of Fancy Feast a day.
humb;le has been getting 3/4 cup of dry a day.
WHAT CAN I DO?

(The both weigh 13.5 pounds.)

Originally Posted by Renny

And thank you everyone for all the advice. Any more thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as i am struggling to figure out how to do this!

Thanks again

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My vet does free weight clinics where they weigh them and give advice on what they should weigh, and how much to feed them to get that - I go monthly with the two overweight males, my underweight female is now heavy enough to go down to 3 monthly checkups. Depending on how overweight, exercise should be done for short periods

Originally Posted by batgirl2good

My cats are indoor cats and get very little exercise.
How slow is slow enough?
I do not want to go too slow.
I don't want to go too fast!
Humble will only eat dry. Shenandoah will only eat wet.

Shenandoah has beenm getting 2 cans of Fancy Feast a day.
humb;le has been getting 3/4 cup of dry a day.
WHAT CAN I DO?

(The both weigh 13.5 pounds.)

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According to my vet, your cat should only lose about 1/2 lb per month. Fancy Feast is not one of the best wet foods to give. It has a lot of fats and preservatives. I've switched onto a healthier wet (i.e. natural balance, merricks or wellness). They do get some dry (i want them to be able to still eat that in case of an emergency when i have to go away for a longer period of time).

Basically you find out how many kcal/day your cat requires to live and then feed to that amount. My Lucky is female, 13lbs and she needs around 230kcal to live. I'm feeding to that amount (if you call manufacturers they will give you the kcals in their food.

Originally Posted by booktigger

My vet does free weight clinics where they weigh them and give advice on what they should weigh, and how much to feed them to get that - I go monthly with the two overweight males, my underweight female is now heavy enough to go down to 3 monthly checkups. Depending on how overweight, exercise should be done for short periods

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My vet also recommended bringing the cat in to be weighed every month - starting 2 months after starting the diet (i guess it takes that long to start seeing a difference).

Just me again....

After 1 weekend on the diet i have a question for all those who've dieted their kitties. Did you notice a change in behaviour and energy level when you changed the diet?