I Have A Fat Kitty. Now What?

[msserena]

Two vets have both told me that it takes about 8 weeks for a body to fully get accustomed to a new food. If I want the blood panel to be as accurate as possible, I need to wait. She'll probably be on the new food that whole time. Yes I do worry about triglycerides because anything over 1000 can lead to seizures, blindness or pancreatitis. My girl is only 3, I surely don't her to have a major health issue this young.

Yes only canned. I usually give some kibble as a treat once or twice a week, but I need to be super careful with fat, so I can't give Ella any dry, any freeze dried, any raw, no extras. She's on a 7% fat (DM) diet & will stay on it I 8 weeks.

I've never even heard of that brand, she/he's in Norway so I don't think that brand will help me right now.

 

[thunderseed]

I imagine it's similar to humans, probably just changing a cat's diet isn't going to be enough, they also have to do more physical activity, and that's the hardest part because lazy cats just don't like to play.

I've bought so many different toys for my fat, lazy cat to try and encourage her to move around more. She doesn't really like any of them LoL. She's about 9 years old, so she's getting into senior territory and all she wants to do is laze around. She hates playing, but that's just her personality. Of course, the metabolism slows down as you age, so she has been getting slowly fatter over the years. Just like me. 

I was also free feeding her so she would overeat when she got bored, so I've started portion control. I haven't even bothered looking into a low calory senior food for her, because I'm certain the reason she's fat is because she was eating too much and was not active enough, so I'm trying to encourage her to eat less and be a tiny bit more active each day LOL.

 

[young again]

 
I imagine it's similar to humans, probably just changing a cat's diet isn't going to be enough, they also have to do more physical activity, and that's the hardest part because lazy cats just don't like to play.

I've bought so many different toys for my fat, lazy cat to try and encourage her to move around more. She doesn't really like any of them LoL. She's about 9 years old, so she's getting into senior territory and all she wants to do is laze around. She hates playing, but that's just her personality. Of course, the metabolism slows down as you age, so she has been getting slowly fatter over the years. Just like me. 

I was also free feeding her so she would overeat when she got bored, so I've started portion control. I haven't even bothered looking into a low calory senior food for her, because I'm certain the reason she's fat is because she was eating too much and was not active enough, so I'm trying to encourage her to eat less and be a tiny bit more active each day LOL.

I have a little different take on weight gain and aging animals. I think many people equate what happens to us and apply it to their pets. I make foods for many different types of pets. For example tortoises if fed the correct diet free choice, can live longer than people and you seldom if ever see a fat tortoise; captive or wild. Parrots are another example, I have a parrot that I raised from a baby that will be 35 years old this year and she still weighs the same as she did 33 years ago. Again she is eating a balanced diet free choice. Hedgehogs if fed the wrong diet will blow up like a balloon, but if you figure out what is balanced they can eat free choice their whole life and be trim and fit. I deal with hundreds of animal types and if the diet is metabolically correct for them they will not become obese. There are always exceptions but they are relativity few.

I believe strongly that if your cat is over weight and you are feeding free choice, you are feeding a diet that is not metabolically balanced for your cat. I have tested this theory on many thousand of cats and I have found it to be true for all but a few individuals.

Cats were not meant to get exercise to stay trim or grow muscle. Cats maintain basically the same muscle mass no matter the activity level. They were meant to hunt and sleep and that is what wild cats do and that is what house cats do. When a cats metabolism slows down they eat less because there is less demand for calories. Keep in mind your cat is a carnivore and protein and fat have the same digestibility curve for their whole life. Their adsorption of nutrients will degrade as they age, but that will not cause a fat kitty. On the contrary it produces a skinny cat. There is absolutely no genetic advantage for a hunter to gain weight as they age so they can become a poor hunter. There is no advantage for a tortoise to become so obese it can no longer pull his head and legs in to protect himself from a predator.

Here is the secrete I have learned. Starch/carbs mess with your cats metabolism and until you remove them from their diet you will continue to experience weight gain, diabetes and UTI issues.

Of course the diet also has to be nutritionally balanced for the cat. This concept is not hard to prove, feed a balanced carnivore diet, free choice and your cat will not be overweight in 8-12 weeks.

Consider this a starch free challenge. Right or wrong you will know in 8 weeks. How long have most of you been dealing with overweight kitties? I bet years.

 

[thunderseed]

Cats were not meant to get exercise to stay trim or grow muscle. Cats maintain basically the same muscle mass no matter the activity level. They were meant to hunt and sleep and that is what wild cats do and that is what house cats do. 

Ok that part is definitely not true... in the wild, cats are way more active than house cats. I raised hundreds of wild barn cats over the years. House cats do not hunt and some of them, like my cat, don't even like to play.
All cats have different levels of muscle mass and that muscle mass can change based on their activity level. I used to have an extremely muscular house cat growing up, that cat was one of the most muscular domesticated cats I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of muscular cats in my time, but most of them were feral. She was so muscular she sounded like a herd of elephants running across the floor, and it was all solid muscle, no fat on her at all. But she did exercise a lot on her own. She still lives with my parents, but not too long ago she got hurt and of course the time she spent recovering made her lose her muscle mass. Which is exactly the same as what happens to us humans... Ever since that she's been really scrawny, but she's been slowing gaining some muscle which is a good sign. Physical activity is important for animals too. And also, some cats do just fine on a grazing diet, but others just overeat, it's not really the same for all cats.   

 

[young again]

 
Ok that part is definitely not true... in the wild, cats are way more active than house cats. I raised hundreds of wild barn cats over the years. House cats do not hunt and some of them, like my cat, don't even like to play.
All cats have different levels of muscle mass and that muscle mass can change based on their activity level. I used to have an extremely muscular house cat growing up, that cat was one of the most muscular domesticated cats I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of muscular cats in my time, but most of them were feral. She was so muscular she sounded like a herd of elephants running across the floor, and it was all solid muscle, no fat on her at all. But she did exercise a lot on her own. She still lives with my parents, but not too long ago she got hurt and of course the time she spent recovering made her lose her muscle mass. Which is exactly the same as what happens to us humans... Ever since that she's been really scrawny, but she's been slowing gaining some muscle which is a good sign. Physical activity is important for animals too. And also, some cats do just fine on a grazing diet, but others just overeat, it's not really the same for all cats.   

You are absolute correct and I did not state this very well or even accurately. I guess what I wanted to say was that muscle mass in cats, seams very stable in cats that do not engage in much activity. In my experience I have not found exercise to be very effective in getting a cat to reduce their weight without a diet change.

I would be very interested to hear from others if they had success with exercise and weight loss and what worked for them.

 

[ReallySleepy]

 
Please let me know what you try and how it works out.

Just wanted to mention it to Young Again, if they are still reading this thread. Turbo fixed it all by himself. He has been much out-of-doors the past two months, and it has really helped. In December he weighed 9.0 kg/19.8 lb. Now he is down to 8.3 kg/18,3 lb. Good cat!