Fat cat: more tips?

[immortalflower]

Oh, I should mention that neither of my cats are that big. Sarah is probably around 6 or so pounds, and I would estimate Isabel to be close to double that weight... but I'm not possitive on that.

 

[gurlpower]

Hi immortal flower!

i like your user name - so soft, feminine and sounds very very Chinese!

:

i help maintain my kitties weight by exercising them (besides watching their diets) - encouraging them to run and play through interactive games.

i often run and play with them. i also encourage them to climb their tree by playing fetch with them, throwing their favorite toys up in the air and up in the most upperdeck of their trees. This way, they will jump and climb, etc.

They also exercise by chasing each other around the house, especially in the middle of the night when everyone is at sleep! :LOL:

Cheers!

 

[sherbear]

I have 4 overweight adult cats. All have been fed Science Diet Light in measured amounts twice daily. My vet has decided to put them on canned kitten food (Science Diet or IAMS) and gave me the amounts based on their current weight. They are to be fed twice daily and whatever they don't eat I put away. The canned food is lower in carbs and higher in protein. Because of the fat content, fatty liver disease is not a concern. This diet is used on obese diabetic cats also. It's only been a few days and they seem to be doing fine. The doctor said they will miss the carbohydrates in the dry food but will adjust to the canned and will loose weight slowly and healthily. We'll see!

 

[sbd45]

Curious: How much did your cats weigh, and how much did he say to feed them of canned per day? No hard food at all? Thanks for the information. My mom's vet said about the same thing to loose weight, but didn't say how much to feed.
Thanks for your help,
Ruth

 

[jcat]

I haven't had this problem yet, but a neighbor did. Her rather large domestic shorthair weighed 18 kg. (that's well over 36 lbs., which unfortunately isn't the world record) and wouldn't eat canned food. She put the cat on 60 g. of Hill's Science Diet Light dry per day, divided into two meals, and the cat dropped to 11 kg. in a little over a year. That's still way too much, but the cat is now eighteen and healthy. She was almost 15 when she was put on a diet, and has always been a very active cat. Does your cat go outside? We used to have several cats living next door to the school I work at, and one overweight cat in particular was constantly mooching. Her owner put a collar on her which read, "Do not feed, for my sake". It worked. I've stopped using cups to measure dry food, because it's not very exact - a postal scale with a plastic dish on top is much more precise. I was in the hospital last summer for two weeks, so hubby had to feed the cat. He used a measuring cup (breakfast is dry food, dinner is canned), and JC gained an entire pound in two weeks! After I was home and weighing his food and taking him for walks, he quickly dropped the extra weight.

 

[immortalflower]

My cats are indoor cats. My skinny cat, Sarah, loves to endlessly chase things. She doesn't care if she ever catches them, she is just happy to do it. So, she gets lots of energy. Isabel, the one losing weight.. doesn't chase things, she sneaks up on them. That isn't exactly good exercise and I can't seem to coax her to run around. But, she is a good jumper. She can just right up onto the window sill with no problem. But, I can't seem to make her jump for exercise.

I'm glad I don't have to worry about other people feeding them too much! But, these two aren't beggars so I don't think they would coax people to feed them too much extra.