Weight Loss Help

[kmbishop111]

First off, shame on me. Now that that's out of the way, here's my situation.

My Izzi, a Russian Blue, has packed on the pounds since spayed a few years ago. She is currently pushing 14 lbs. My main concern is currently I have no way of knowing a starting point for her weight loss and avoiding Fatty Liver Disease as I free feed my 4 cats.

My question, how do I find a starting point for her diet? I would like to cut out dry for her all together, but at what rate can I safely do this? I am going to start feeding her seperately than my other cats. Would I be safe to switch directly to canned for beginners?

Any advice on the switch would be greatly appreciated.

Pics of my Izzi taken tonight, she loves her food just like her momma. I was able to manipulate the pics by holding some FF up above the camera. #DontJudgeMe #OrMyFatCat

 

[duckpond]

She is a cute cat Sometimes we all need to take off a bit of winter weight

I dont like to put cats on diets, stressful for them and us. What i have found works for mine is to feed high protein, less fat, and very little carbs. Then just let them eat, with these foods they normally do not over eat, and the body finds its right weight. Its just hard to find these foods, so many of the wet foods contain higher fats than protein, and dry has so much carbs.

The best i have found for my guys is Most flavors of Weruva, almost all Tiki cat, The almo nature complete foods and their La cucina line. Fussie cat some of the super premiums, like the chicken and beef in pumpkin, and the chicken and liver in pumpkin. Against the grain the chicken and cheese. The nutro minced chicken and the sliced turkey. If im feeding fish i really like Earthborn catalina catch. These are all high protein, low to moderate fat, very low carb. they can also be lower in calories too, so you have to be sure to feed enough. I work around that with kibble, Dr. elseys only. These foods make up the backbone of my pantry. I feed a bit of the american journey minced, and occasional fancy feast classics, but those are both a bit high if fat, but they are low carb, for me to want to feed daily, with the way i do.

The only dry kibble i feed anymore is Dr. Elseys chicken. It is the highest protein i have found, with very low carbs, less than 5% which is better than most wet foods in that respect. And Chewy has a big sale right now My cats all like it, but no one over eats with it. Well after the first week or so which they did, because it was new and they like it I free feed this along with the wet foods i mentioned. Good luck with her, hope it works easy for you guys.

what works for me is two wet meals per day, as much as they want, then i free feed the kibble. normally 1 cup of Dr. elseys will last a day and a half with my 4 nibbling at it, and one of those only eats the dry, she may eat an ounce of wet per day, she is not a wet fan

i work off of this list quite a bit.

http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

 

[kmbishop111]

Excellent, sound advice!! Thank you so much duckpond !! I love that chart as well, so helpful!! I crunched some numbers last night and with the amount of kibble I'm putting out plus the 1-2 cans of wet I see where I can make some changes. For instance the Wellness Core dry is loaded with calories.

I work at PetSmart so in order to be able to feed my 4 plus the 40 ferals I feed I have to exclusively shop from our sales and close to out of dates. I have stock piles of asst GF dry and some Natural Balance LID, Blue Wilderness Rocky Mtn, FF, and Friskies canned. I'm going over the numbers again for what I have on hand to see what I can come up with. It's almost a science. Lolol

Hopefully I'll have some updates of a healthier Izzi over the next 6 months. Slow and easy wins the race here.

 

[duckpond]

a lot of math, and science It is easier to find wet food that fits the high protein, moderate fat, low carb plan than it is dry the Catkins diet

Just watch her calories, and feed as high protein as possible. I like to keep the fat lower than a lot of wet foods have, but i dont worry as much about fat as i do carbs. In my opinion carbs cause more weight issues for cats than fat.

core is high calorie, but fairly low carb, for a dry food. Sometimes people have reported good results with feeding only wet, and just a bit of dry for a snack.

at petsmart some of the good natured wet foods might be ok? some of the Muse foods in the little plastic cups, my guys like the nutro minced chicken and sliced turkey, and the Nulo minced food. and some of the simply nourish foods? fancy feast is good too There are quite a few foods you can work with at petsmart

to calculate carbs in wet food i use the below link. some foods dont list ash, and that can make a difference. if i cant find out i will usually use 2.5 for ash.

Cat Food Nutrition Calculator | Elizabeth C Scheyder

Best of luck on the weight loss adventure, do keep us updated. and i think Petsmart would be an awesome place to work. my husband hates when we go in one, i can look for hours

 

[lalagimp]

You said free-feeding.
This is where I got an RFID feeder for the cats that are not on a diet; either a GateFeeder or a SureFeed (I have both).
The girls use the tag feeder, and the boys are on scheduled feeding, because they will always have a problem with food. I accepted this years ago. Stewburger was over 16 and his asthma was acting up all the time. Tommy was up to 21. Both guys were kibble eaters. I got them measured at the vet's office for free and they gave me an ideal weight. Stewart was to be 11.8 lbs and Tom at 13.1 . We started them on Hill's Metabolic, as they had a pretty strict and straight-forward program to get used to. At time went on, I got the boys off that formula and kept feeding them Nature's Variety Healthy Weight based on how many calories they were allowed per day on the old program. Ever since we started the boys on a diet, we placed them on five feedings per day. They lost all their weight on kibble. Tommy took four years, Stewart took 2 years, and Stew's asthma is so well managed that he hardly needs albuterol during the month.
Tom did run into a problem where we can't feed him dry, so both boys were finally moved to canned food.
I can't afford canned food for 25 lbs of cat, at least not what I want to feed, so I make their food each month. I still weigh them at least twice a month, and still have to make adjustments either up .5 oz or down .5 oz to maintain their weight.
If you want to monitor her weight more accurately, then you can invest in a pet scale, infant scale, luggage scale, or postal scale. Any loss over 1/2 lb per month is usually too much, so you want to be able to view it in lb/oz.
I weigh my boys during the same time of day every time, so it's approximate to their bathroom habits and whether they have went or not. I grab them during nap time around 1:30-2:30pm.