I really need to help two of my cats lose weight. But have received conflicting advice from vets...

[Flaxbee]

Two of my female cats - mother and daughter with the exact same (round) body shape could stand to lose about 2 lbs each. One weighs 13 and should be 9 lbs (I figure 10-11 is a happy medium); the other is 12 and should be 8 (so 9-10 would be healthier).

One vet said to cut their kibble back to 1/3 cup a day per cat, period. No moist food, and very few treats.

Another vet said no dry kibble at all, only moist, because that's closer to a cat's natural diet.



I have 5 cats, the other three manage to graze and don't overeat, but Novi and Ingrid seem to be impulse eaters. They look like basketballs.

I have always split one can of Fancy Feast amongst the five of them in the morning and no other canned throughout the day.

Dry food is always available, though I've started to limit what Novi and Ingrid have access to. The dry food I buy is usually a lower calorie / senior cat blend, and I try to buy the 'high quality' stuff like Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, etc. Ingrid, the daughter-kitty, will be 8 in May, and Novi is probably only a year older.

So I guess my question is -- has anyone here successfully put their cat on a diet? What did you do?

Thanks!

[PoliticAverse]

1. We cut back on the food we put out. n/t

[LiberalElite]

2. I had 2 cats

both overweight. The vet told me to mainly feed them canned but cut back dry food to just a handful a day as a treat. They safely lost the weight.

[Flaxbee]

14. One of our cats really doesn't like moist food ... she prefers crunching things, I think.

I'll just need to isolate them from the others and control their portions more strictly.

[madinmaryland]

3. With out two and a half cats, we are back to one can twice a day (Friskies).

Plus we leave dry food out, but that doesn't get eaten much, since the 22lb dry food nazi left.

BTW, Little Sonia really is going to look like Big Sonia. Never thought I would be calling Sonia "big".

We tried a diet with Roosevelt, but it really didn't work, as he would just eat the other kids food. Yeah. Roosevelt was becoming a basketball.

[Flaxbee]

4. I missed something -- where's Roosevelt?

You still have Panda?

Little Sonia and Big Sonia... cute.

[madinmaryland]

6. Roosevelt ran out the door right before Labor Day this year. Kind of like the Paul

Simon song, "50 way to leave your lover". He followed the "slip out the back, Jack" routine, never to be seen again.

Panda and Little Sonia get along great. I think Little Sonia is about 11 weeks old now. The spitting image of Big Sonia. Big Sonia tolerates the little one. They are truly identical.

What is really bizarre is thinking of Sonia as "big". It is also amusing to see what Sonia might have been like as a kitten. Paula and Quinne found Little Sonia out in the parking lot of our condos here in November as a small scared and lost little kitten. I think a week or so before, I had seen what may have been her siblings.

[Flaxbee]

10. aww, so sad about Roo.

Hope he's OK and happy somewhere.

I like that Paul Simon song.

I remember the first photos of LS you posted when you found her; she's a lucky girl.

[madinmaryland]

18. I think I saw Little Sonia's mother back behind our condo here. About 50ft from

our front door in the wooded area. She is a fluffy cat about Sonia's size, though not the same color. If the cat is LS's mother, then LS is going to end up being nearly identical to Sonia!!

LS loves Sonia's big fluffy tail!

We hope that someone has adopted him and his food bill!

[Liberal Veteran]

5. Wish I could help. One of my Siamese is a bit "rotund".

Which is a very odd look for a Siamese cat.

[LancetChick]

7. I've never been able to offer free access food to my cats.

They've all had a tendency to eat way more than they needed. I have two cats now, 8 year old brothers, one 10-ish pounds, one 11-ish pounds, and they each get 1/3 cup of good quality dry food split into two meals. I use a 1/3 cup measure to dish it out, so I have to eyeball filling half of the measuring cup per meal. Occasionally I'll overestimate what a half-filled measuring cup looks like, so they sometimes put on too much weight. When I notice that happening, I'll adjust my assumption of what a half-filled cup looks like by just a tiny bit, and they lose weight that way. Really, it seems like reducing the volume of a meal by just a few morsels of cat food is all it takes. Conversely, overestimating portions by just a few morsels has had the opposite effect, hence my ventures into feline weight loss.

I've heard and read many times that it's dangerous for cats to lose weight too quickly because it has a deleterious effect on the liver, which can actually be fatal. I'm not knowledgeable enough to be specific, but I just wanted to alert you to that as something to beware of in case you hadn't heard about that. Here's a link, actually: HERE

Reducing my cats' food by tiny little bits at a time to lose weight actually goes unnoticed by them (meaning they don't seem any hungrier), and yet the results are visible within a few days. Mind you, they've never actually been really overweight, just not an ideal weight. But I thought I'd let you know what my experience was. Hope you get their weight down without either the cats or you suffering too much!

[Flaxbee]

11. thanks for the alert ... I was aware of it, but it never hurts to

post a warning about it! I'll make sure it is gradual. No creature really ever does well on a crash diet, I don't think...

I think I'll go to the 1/3 cup per day per cat total with a teeny tiny morsel of moist for them in the mornings.

[NV Whino]

8. Canned green beans for the two problem kitties

Lots of bulk and fiber, few calories. A vet recommended this for a cat several years ago. It worked. She loved it.

Dry food — adult light (for everybody). Most manufacturers make a lite version.

[Flaxbee]

12. Interesting. I assume low/no salt ... stopping by the grocery store later today and

will buy a can. One of the girls, Ingrid, LOVES grass/green stuff so maybe she'll go for it. Not so sure about her mom, Novi, but I'll give it a try.

Thanks!

[Flaxbee]

15. wow, I typed "green beans for cats" into google and the site FelineConstipation.org

came up on the first page. lol.

A serious issue, I know, but still. What a domain name.

[Flaxbee]

16. MORE cats and green beans

http://www.5acresandadream.com/2010/06/cats-green-beans.html

[NV Whino]

19. The vet didn't specify no or low salt

Not sure they even had that designation when this happened. But I would go with low salt.

By the way, I use Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul for dry food. Awful name but good quality food and less expensive than Wellness and other like brands.

[AngryOldDem]

9. Here's what we do.

The cat's bowl gets filled with 1/4 cup of dry food (she won't eat moist; we tried) twice a day. That's it. We used to fill it every time we saw that it was empty, but that led to grazing, and hence, to weight. She eats no special dietary kibble (except for sensitive skin because she is prone to skin issues). We limited the treats -- although, I'm ashamed to say, we've been kind of bad about giving them to her too often again here lately.

She lost weight under that plan, but we do need to watch the treats. She sees them, I think, as a food substitute, which ain't good, but then, that's on us.

Try simple portion control. Just like with humans, sometimes animals need it, too.

[Flaxbee]

13. Yeah, that's the plan, I think. I just need to isolate their food from the other cats' food...

and right now, that's easy enough to do since the heaviest of the two can't get to the other cats' food up on a table ...

Once they shed some pounds, though, I'm going to have to arrange feeding locations so the other cats have access to food regularly but Novi and Ingrid don't/can't graze.

[Arugula Latte]

17. I cut out all dry food for my lil' porker -- just give him wet.

He definitely lost weight and he looks much healthier now.

I've heard that most dry food is like feeding cats a lot of bread -- too many carbs.

[antiquie]

20. NO kibble, raw meat, few treats for our cat.

What cats are designed to eat by Kate Solisti
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat. They are descended from the African Wildcat, a savannah-dwelling wild cat that eats only the following:

Rodents--mice, rats
Reptiles--snakes, lizards
Birds
Eggs
Insects
Cats have long, sharp, pointy teeth designed to puncture, tear and swallow, not to chew. Because this African Wildcat lived in the desert, it evolved to get most of its moisture from its food, not from drinking water. To feed our cats as Nature intended means:

A variety of fresh (preferably raw) meat (canned food is second best)
Bone to balance muscle and organ meat
Fatty acids (fish oil) and vitamins
Enzymes and probiotics
No dry, hard food (kibble)
No free feeding (that's for herbivores!)

http://www.optimumchoices.com/Vet_Nutrition_Seminar.htm