Obese cat

[elliriyanna]

My cat Emma is 3 years old and ever since her spay she has been fat. We tried wet food ... no go, we tried switching foods ... nothing 

Currently she is on Simply Nourish grain free ( I refuse to switch her off grain free) and gets 1/2 cup daily

Part of the problem is my boyfriend refuses to think she is overweight ... So he is not ok with me trying new foods and such. Its become a huge issue. 

what can I do? What foods do you recommend? 

 

[Willowy]

Canned food is better for cats in general. When you say "no go" for wet food, did you mean she won't eat it or she just didn't lose weight? What brands did you use, and how much did you give her? The carb content in dry food makes it hard for cats to lose weight while eating it.

Is it the sweet potato and turkey formula? That's the only Simply Nourish grain-free dry food I could find. If so, it has around 385 calories per cup so that's about 192 for a half-cup. How much do you think she should weigh? You generally want to feed about 20 calories per pound for a normal cat and 15 calories per pound for weight loss. Feed for her ideal weight, not her current weight. So if she should weigh 10 pounds, she would need only 150 calories per day, so 1/2 cup of that food is too much.

The boyfriend problem, well, not so easy to fix :/.

 

[elliriyanna]

I don't have her current weight but her ideal weight my guess is 10 lbs ...

I will weigh her when I find her ( you know cats and sneakiness) 

This is her food. I have fed her the same since she was a baby ... probably part of the problem. 

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food/si..._id=36-25936&_t=pfm=category&pfmvalue=faceted

Emma WILL NOT touch wet food, She will not even eat real meat. We tried for weeks. 

Boyfriend will not let her bowl be empty ... it makes me mad. 

I wish we could get this cat on wet ... I had always planned to feed wet. but from day one she refused it. 

 

[jodiethierry64]

I was told with my obese 18 lb Buster Brown to feed him the calories of a 17lb. When he's 17 lbs feed like a16 lb. because you don't want to stress them out and because you don't want their liver failing. Now my Buster Brown hasn't gained but he hasn't lost either. I understand your dilemma!!! He is diabetic and is on can only.

 

[elliriyanna]

I am planning to switch foods soon so any recommendations would be great. I do have a budget though.

Emma has been the same size for a while ...

 

[pinkdagger]

What about toppers? If she's very familiar with that Simply Nourish food, crumble up the kibble and top wet food with it. She can smell something familiar and start eating it, and inevitably end up with a few laps of wet food too. Are there particular brands you've tried? There may be some good, affordable brands you haven't tried yet. Unfortunately, when it comes to diet changes, it's a pretty heavy trial and error process just to find something your pet will like.

Is your boyfriend heavily involved with the cat care? I'll be honest (and of course, this isn't for everyone and I don't want to be ruining relationships or anything), when I moved in with my boyfriend and he was fine feeding his cat Whiskas and just topping up his plastic bowl whenever he could see the bottom, I just stepped in and took over. Got a better kibble, then gave more wet food. More wet food turned into all wet food. Litter box went from being cleaned once a week to once a day. If the boyfriend wanted to help care for the cats, I left him instructions.

What actually turned him around was going to the vet together with his cat and having him hear from the vet herself that "yes, you're doing good with feeding more wet food. He should get wet food". If Emma has any appointments coming up soon, take him with you and have the vet address your concerns with him present. Sometimes all it takes is hearing it from a figure of authority in the field to break them out of that denial. Having a vet assess her current body condition, weight, and give you an ideal weight can be a good starting point too. Like @JodieThierry64 said, you don't want to decrease food too quickly and try to make a 5lb leap down if it's going to end up starving and shocking Emma.

Since I feed several different brands - often more than one in one meal, I keep a digital kitchen scale on hand and have this link handy: http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

Instead of going by amount on can or cup serving and trying to combine it, I can weigh the food and get its calorie count. You can see how high a food is in carbs too, which is good to know when controlling weight. You'll definitely want something low carb.

Have you read over these pages by Dr. Pierson already? If not, maybe they can help:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity

Good luck!

 

[elliriyanna]

My boyfriend currently cares for the cat, but I select her foods, feeding amounts etc. He always goes to the vet with me and has told me he will not listen even if the vet says she is over weight. He feels because he has had cats he knows everything. Unfortunately we live together.

Emma is heavily litter box loyal so I have zero problem with it being cleaned once a week. But she also has a big litter box and is our only cat.

I have a digital scale. I use it for everything though lol. I originally got it to take small pet weights.

The only brands I can remember trying are 9 lives, friskies and in a last ditch effort this really expensive fancy feast ( $1 per 2 ounches) She LOVES the fancy feast. Any kind. but its too expensive for me ... I have a very small budget right now.

I cant get it through my boyfriends head that wet is better no matter the brand. Not that it should matter, she is my cat.

I actually found a website with the calorie count of wet foods.



http://www.catinfo.org/docs/SortableCatFoodChartCatinfo.org2-22-13.htm

 

[elliriyanna]

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• elliriyanna
• Jun 27, 2014

Btw this is Emma now ... 

IMG_7320_zpsbba1f504.jpg

• elliriyanna
• Jun 30, 2014

IMG_7777_zps9fe0091d.jpg

• elliriyanna
• Jun 27, 2014

 

[pinkdagger]

Strange and a little worrying he won't even listen to a vet.

What if the internet told him the cat is overweight? lol.

That's the same reason I got my digital scale too, haha! If she's your cat and he still wants to care for her, get him to do other things like grooming and litter and you'll take care of the food. If he understands it's important to you that she receive a wet diet, then he should be willing  to let you make this change. If he doesn't respect the decision you've made for your pet, I would question how much respect he has for other things you do or say. You're allowed to disagree with each other, and if he thinks Emma is fine and will do fine on dry, that's good and dandy, but irrelevant if you're her owner and caregiver.

Do you have any bulk stores around? If you already know she likes Fancy Feast, you can call them and ask if they sell in bulk cases. I was able to find 48 cans of 5.5oz of Friskies for $25 at my CostCo where they're normally like $0.65 per can at grocery or pet stores. Where are you from? I know lots of people in the US like to order from Chewy - a 24 can case of Fancy Feast is around $15 - $0.65 a can.

That page is great for the foods listed! Since it was last updated in 2012, some of the less common foods aren't listed, and some may have updated recipes that have since changed the nutritional information. It's a really good baseline for gauging the foods that are readily available, but I feed a few store brands that aren't listed and will often double check the foods I buy with the manual calculator too. Sometimes it's easier if I can't be bothered to pull up the page and search, I can just punch in the numbers.

Emma has such nice colouring, and I didn't see this in the other thread with her pictures before, but that little white ring around her tail is so cute! She definitely looks heavy though. Sad to think if his previous cats were in the same condition their entire lives.

 

[elliriyanna]

We don't have any bulk stores here.

His previous cats were thin, they were outdoor cats. I believe indoor is best for my cat ... which means caring for her is different than what he is use to.

I wish my cat wasn't so picky.

I love her white ring. And at the VERY tip she has a teeny orange dot lol.

What other brands can I try? I am not working much right now so money is an issue ... but I will spend all I can spare trying to get her at least partly on wet food.

 

[pinkdagger]

Hm, what stores do you have nearby that sell cat food? Some stores or chains may have their own store brand that can be just as good as expensive big name brands. Petsmart has Authority ($0.80 for 6oz) and Grreat Choice ($0.60 for 5.5oz), Pet Valu has Performatrin ($1.30 for 3oz) and Health Diet ($0.65 for 5.5oz). I've even gone into grocery stores lately and looked at their pet section for foods I haven't seen. I recently brought home some President's Choice cat food for ours to try, 13oz for $0.88, and some no name 5.5oz cans for $0.45. The cheaper ones tend to have some things like rice or rice flour to beef it up, but it can be worth a try if she hasn't budged for wet yet and they're more affordable.

I'm not familiar with many other pet stores who have their own brands, or any brands more affordable than Friskies or the ones listed above. Once you find a food she likes, however, you can save some money by buying the 13oz cans instead of a bunch of the little ones.

If you have any friends or family members with pets, ask if they might want to split some costs and try some with you. If your cat doesn't like it, you can let their cat(s) have it and vice versa.

Oh, I see the little orange dot in the bath tub photo! How cute is that!

 

[lisahe]

elliriyanna, one other thought: do you live near a Trader Joe's? Their canned cat food is pretty decent (the one thing I don't like is it has rice) and very reasonably priced, around 60 or 70 cents for a 5.5 oz. can. I used to feed those foods to our previous cat and she loved them.

Our vet likes to tell people with overweight cats to let them eat as much canned food in the morning as they'll eat in a half hour and as much as they'll eat in the evening in a half hour. I haven't had to use the advice myself but she mentioned it to me, as did a friend whose cat is that vet's patient. The cat gained a lot of weight free-feeding on dry food and the "diet" worked great: it regulated his eating really well. (I know that wouldn't be possible for you, at least in the start, because your cat (not to mention your boyfriend!) is so resistant to dry food but it might be something to work toward.)

One other thing: our grocery store used to sell (and maybe still does, I don't know) bulk packages of Fancy Feast, Friskies, and Nine Lives. They were a little cheaper than individual cans.

pinkdagger's ideas on feeding wet food topped with dry food are the same things I did to get our cats eating only wet food. I hope you're able to give them a chance for Emma! She's a beautiful cat! Good luck!

 

[elliriyanna]

Petsmart has a generic fancy feast. I am going to try that first. I am hoping she likes it because even 2 cans a day fit my budget  

I have never heard of Trader Joes, So I doubt we have one here. 

Emma is not a big eater actually she grazes throughout the day. 

We have Petsmart, Walmart and Kroger. We tried walmarts brand and she doesnt like that. 

All my friends and family live too far away for things to be feasible So I will just buy a can each of a couple brands and flavors. 

 

[Willowy]

Did you try Walmart's generic Fancy Feast (the little cans, I think called Special Kitty Select or something like that)? It seems to be pretty comparable to FF and the Petsmart FF generic, maybe she'd like it too. It's always good to have more options. I don't know why kitties always have to like those little expensive cans, LOL.

Anyway, yeah, 2 cans might be good (I think most are about 80 calories a can so 160 a day, which might be just right for her). For your boyfriend, you could try to present it as a treat, as a way of pampering her, because a lot of people think of Fancy Feast (or the store equivalents) as a luxury cat food. So instead of "oh, she's fat, we have to feed her canned so she loses weight", it's more "look how much she likes it! Let's pamper her like a queen!". It might help him feel better anyway.

 

[lisahe]

The pampered queen angle might work... as might the cats-are-carnivores-after-all angle. I spend a lot more on cat food than I'd like to (I buy it) but I think my meat-loving husband finds it amusing to think of our sweet little cats as meat-ripping carnivores!

 

[elliriyanna]

Its my cat ... I buy her food so he feeds what I buy, he will get over it.

He thinks its worse for her, he can't understand that wet food is way better for cats tham dry but he agreed to switch her, even though he doesn't think she is fat and thinks its worse for her.

 

[elliriyanna]

I went to the store to get the food ... And they don't carry it ... nowhere does, and you cant order it online. So I got some grreat choice and she just ate the juice ... 

 

[petcrazy76]

How often do you play with her? Keeping her active will help a lot towards her losing weight.

 

[elliriyanna]

My cat hates me ... I dont play with her at all ... She wants nothing to do with me.

 

[bonepicker]

Natural balance and trader joes