Scattered through a few threads, I've mentioned that I have a 12.5 year old cat named Tangent on a diet. I wanted to start a thread for him to track his progress (or lack of progress) as he loses weight.
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History: Tangent's brother, Cosine, had some eating disorders and was too thin. In early 2013, I stopped feeding raw food exclusively and started offering canned and kibble to try to keep Cosine's weight up. Between 2013 and September 2016 when Cosine crossed the bridge, Tangent got quite chunky from the free-feeding, particularly from kibble.
He was 16.5 pounds of chunky in September. His healthy weight is 13-13.5 pounds. I immediately removed the kibble and Tangent lost 1.5 pounds in 2 weeks eating all the canned food he wanted, and then quickly hit plateau at 15 pounds. I started cutting his calories, but at December 29th he was still at 15 pounds.
In January, I transitioned him back to the all-raw diet he had eaten from 2008-2012 and into 2013 - the last time he could eat all he wanted and looked healthy and muscular. The first 30-days on raw, he got down to 14 pounds (January 25th).
February 3rd, I brought a new kitten home and Tangent went off his food. I brought home several types of canned, plus a bag of kibble
to get him eating "anything" and laid out a kitty smorgasbord buffet. He started eating on the fourth day after I syringe-fed him egg yolks on the day before he started eating again and got his full appetite back. For two weeks I let him eat anything he wanted, and his weight bounced back up to 15.4 pounds by the next weigh-in March 5th.
End History
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Current:
Early March I bought a very accurate scale that weighs food and pets to from 1/10 ounce up to 55 lbs and started keeping weekly records.
Tangent is still at a plateau though I cut his food back a little on March 26th. I'm going to keep him on 2.0% - 2.15% of his body weight for another couple weeks, then will cut his ounces per day back a little if his weight doesn't come down a bit.
I think he has gained some muscle mass from being a little more active with the kitten. His belly, which was "full of butter" in September, now had quite a bit of loose skin (his "swag"), but still too much fat. I like to think of excess weight in terms of sticks of butter in 1/4 pounds...so I imagine him with about 8 sticks of butter duct-taped on him and making him carry that around (or 2 - 1lb boxes, one on each side in a saddle-bag). Except, of course, the "butter" is really soft-spread on his insides and needs to go. For lean muscle-mass though, I think he has picked up one or two boneless beef ribs...all protein.
Like I said, I'm not asking for advice on "how to diet", but would appreciate any comments or observations...and mainly would like to have a cheering section for Tangent as we go along through his diet process.
Thank you to anyone who took time to read this long post.
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History: Tangent's brother, Cosine, had some eating disorders and was too thin. In early 2013, I stopped feeding raw food exclusively and started offering canned and kibble to try to keep Cosine's weight up. Between 2013 and September 2016 when Cosine crossed the bridge, Tangent got quite chunky from the free-feeding, particularly from kibble.
He was 16.5 pounds of chunky in September. His healthy weight is 13-13.5 pounds. I immediately removed the kibble and Tangent lost 1.5 pounds in 2 weeks eating all the canned food he wanted, and then quickly hit plateau at 15 pounds. I started cutting his calories, but at December 29th he was still at 15 pounds.
In January, I transitioned him back to the all-raw diet he had eaten from 2008-2012 and into 2013 - the last time he could eat all he wanted and looked healthy and muscular. The first 30-days on raw, he got down to 14 pounds (January 25th).
February 3rd, I brought a new kitten home and Tangent went off his food. I brought home several types of canned, plus a bag of kibble
End History
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Current:
Early March I bought a very accurate scale that weighs food and pets to from 1/10 ounce up to 55 lbs and started keeping weekly records.
Tangent Weight | Ounces Food | % of Body Weight | |
03/05/17 | 15.40 | 5.63 | 2.28 |
03/12/17 | 15.38 | 5.64 | 2.29 |
03/19/17 | 15.40 | 5.60 | 2.27 |
03/26/17 | 15.38 | 5.27 | 2.14 |
04/02/17 | 15.28 | 5.15 | 2.11 |
04/09/17 | 15.53 |
I think he has gained some muscle mass from being a little more active with the kitten. His belly, which was "full of butter" in September, now had quite a bit of loose skin (his "swag"), but still too much fat. I like to think of excess weight in terms of sticks of butter in 1/4 pounds...so I imagine him with about 8 sticks of butter duct-taped on him and making him carry that around (or 2 - 1lb boxes, one on each side in a saddle-bag). Except, of course, the "butter" is really soft-spread on his insides and needs to go. For lean muscle-mass though, I think he has picked up one or two boneless beef ribs...all protein.
Like I said, I'm not asking for advice on "how to diet", but would appreciate any comments or observations...and mainly would like to have a cheering section for Tangent as we go along through his diet process.
Thank you to anyone who took time to read this long post.
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