Fat Cat

[mistercheddar]

Mister Cheddarwurst is a big orange tabby. I have no idea what he weighs but he's big all around. I didn't think any too much about his eating until I started reading these forums. He gets dry food twice a day 1/3 cup in the morning and at night. Sometimes he gets a can of wet food, sometimes a can of tuna. I haven't ever fed him anything special, but im wondering if I should try to get him something different than the regular stuff you'd get at Walmart.

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• mistercheddar
• Mar 31, 2017

 

[lalagimp]

That may be an appropriate amount of dry to get depending on the amount of calories in a cup. I think I have found different bags that vary up to 100 calories for the same amount of food. When Tom was on dry he was getting about 5/8 cup (60 grams) spread out over 5 feedings a day. He's 13 lbs but can't eat kibble anymore because he has FLUTD so I've got him on 5 oz of raw with rabbit and turkey. I decided when we started dieting that I would not be taking him to the vet to be weighed every month and instead invested in a 30 lb scale on amazon for pets. He used to be 21 lbs.
Now that he's reached his goal weight we adjust his food by a 1/2 ounce or with the kibble it was by adding an additional 5 grams. I'm pretty sure I can maintain his weight on a 5.5 oz can but we've been doing raw since December. I've got two cases of cans in the pantry just for whenever.

 

[orange&white]

Yes.  And you need to buy a scale from WalMart so you can weigh him.  You can buy a "human" scale and weigh yourself while holding him, then subtract your weight.

Actually, WalMart does have some decent foods these days.  I would take away the dry food entirely and replace those calories with all canned wet food (at this point, any canned food).

You'll want to track his weight and measure and track how many calories he's eating.  He may lose weight on the same calories of all-wet food versus the wet/dry combination.  Give him the same number of calories for at least 2 weeks to see what his weight does, then drop 10% of the calories and go another 2-4 weeks.

That picture makes him look like he's over 20 pounds...but pictures can be really deceiving.

My fat orange cat started in September at 16.5 pounds and we're on a long, slow process of getting him to 14 pounds before evaluating whether he needs to lose to 13 pounds.

You do not want a heavy cat to lose weight too fast.  Slow and steady loss is the goal.

Welcome to TCS!  You're at the right place to have a happy healthy cat.

 

[mistercheddar]

His nickname is fat boy slim lol i love him and I just want him to be around for a long time so if I need to buy him some more expensive brands I don't mind at all

 

[orange&white]

I let my orange cat "Butterball Belly" (nickname) get fat over a 4-5 year period when his littermate brother couldn't keep his weight on his bones "Boney Butt" (nickname).  I worried so much about the skinny one not eating enough that I started free feeding while watching Tangent (his real name) slowly get bigger and bigger.  Tangent's other nickname became "My Little Lard Bucket".

When we're affectionately calling our cats "fat" nicknames, they need to go on a diet.

Any canned food is better than any dry food.

My skinny cat died in September and I immediately took away the dry food.  Tangent ate 230 calories, then 215, then 200 of an inexpensive canned food, until I transitioned him back to a raw diet in January.  He was at peak health/weight at 13-13.5 pounds when eating raw from 2008-2012.  Last September, he weighed 16.5.  I wish kibble had never been invented.

Anyway, a lot of members here can give you specific brands of better quality wet canned food you can give to Mister Cheddarwurst.

We'll also cheer you on to help Cheddar get down to a healthy weight so that he can be around a long time.  Maybe Cheddar and Tangent can be diet buddies.  : )

 

[lalagimp]

I had cats on Natural Balance, Nature's Variety, Taste of the Wild, Ideal Balance, Hills prescription Metabolic, back to Nature's Variety. It's not for everyone because let's face it; it's $40 a large bag.
But the girls are on the kibble.  They're 8 and 10 and manage their weight fine. The boys were on their Healthy Weight after I took them off prescription because I felt guilty that their first four ingredients were awful, and I continued to get them to lose weight.

If you stay on kibble I can vouch for NV Healthy Weight, but the feeding directions are wrong. They overfeed. Stubs is supposed to be 12 lbs so we did 55 grams per day to bring his weight down. Tom is supposed to be 13 lbs so we did 60 grams per day to bring his weight down. After they reach their weight you can raise the daily up by 5-10 grams and then just weigh them every month or so to check how they are doing and if you need to adjust it again.

If you don't want to do kibble they say any cans are better than dry. 

The fat mook wasn't really getting fat because I let him eat dry but he was getting fat because I let him free feed and he lives for food. For a few years now he and Stubs get 5 small meals a day. 
My big lard lost 8 lbs by portion control and Stubby boy lost 4 lbs as well. 

 

[rascalshadownj2]

And you need to buy a scale from WalMart so you can weigh him.  You can buy a "human" scale and weigh yourself while holding him, then subtract your weight.

That's how I weigh my cats. I get on a scale and weigh myself first, then I hold them and weigh them, then subtract that weight from mine. My big cat Shadow weighs, a little over 12 lbs. and his brother Rascal weighs about 10. According to this cat quiz I took, it said a cat's weight should be between 7-10 pounds. So I guess Shadow is two pounds overweight. I try not to give them treats all the time. Just two or three treats once a night before bedtime. But no treats during the day. I too feed them canned wet food, and a little dry food too. I've been buying that dry food that says, gluten-free, and grain-free when I get coupons for it. It's a little more than the "commercial" food. But I give them the dry food after they eat most of their wet food. I even found some grain-free treats too. That was good. They are about 5 years old now. So hopefully as they get older, they won't gain too much weight. I don't want them to get overweight. I take them on walks with their harnesses and leashes too so that helps.

 

[orange&white]

 
According to this cat quiz I took, it said a cat's weight should be between 7-10 pounds. So I guess Shadow is two pounds overweight.

Not necessarily.  My cat looked great and well-muscled at 13 - 13.5 pounds.  His skinny brother looked boney at anything under 12 pounds.

You should be able to feel your cat's ribs, but not see its ribs.  There should be a thin layer of muscle/fat in between the ribs and skin.  Your cat should also have a waist when looking at him from above.

I think the 7-10 pounds may be an "average cat" weight.

 

[abyeb]

It depends on the cat's frame (length, boning, etc.,). Similar to what Orange&White said, the ideal weight range varies from cat to cat. An 8 pound Singapura could be overweight, while a 25 pound Maine Coon could be very fit. The best way to assess a cat's condition is to refer to an fbmi/fbfi chart.

 

[lalagimp]

I want to see this quiz. 
I have a petite girl that's about 9.5 lbs. She could probably lose a pound but she doesn't gain so i haven't pressed her, and the vet didn't note anything on her exam a few months ago.
What we did was take the boys in specifically for a weight loss program so they used a tape measure over several points of their body and gave us a goal. Stubs at 12. Tom at 13. Depending on your vet it may be a complimentary visit because it's not an exam it's just the tech taking notes.
7-10 lbs would be a little kitty unless they were very fine boned.

 

[ReallySleepy]

 
That's how I weigh my cats. I get on a scale and weigh myself first, then I hold them and weigh them, then subtract that weight from mine.

I have done that myself, and I find it a very inaccurate method. I have to try several times and pick an average of the weights I get. Maybe your scale is better than mine.

For the past 1.5 years I have used a luggage weight. I put Turbo in the carrier and weigh him with the carrier. Then I subtract the weight of the carrier. This is still not ideal because he will often move, which disturbs the weighing. At least this is a very affordable option (a few dollars) and a fairly accurate one. I would like to hear of other affordable options.

 According to this cat quiz I took, it said a cat's weight should be between 7-10 pounds.

That's a meaningless generalization. Any big cat will weigh far more, even if it's skinny.

 

[lalagimp]

For the past 1.5 years I have used a luggage weight. I put Turbo in the carrier and weigh him with the carrier. Then I subtract the weight of the carrier. This is still not ideal because he will often move, which disturbs the weighing. At least this is a very affordable option (a few dollars) and a fairly accurate one. I would like to hear of other affordable options.

 but it was only $65 when I bought it. He was 20 lbs and we lived 20 minutes from the vet's office. The thing about  mine is you have to get them to sit still for 3-5 seconds without moving or the reading just keeps fluctuating but it's easy to see how many oz they have lost and not just pounds.
There are others and some people have said they use an infant scales. 
I spend too much money on my cats.
 

 

[ReallySleepy]

 
 but it was only $65 when I bought it. He was 20 lbs and we lived 20 minutes from the vet's office. The thing about  mine is you have to get them to sit still for 3-5 seconds without moving or the reading just keeps fluctuating but it's easy to see how many oz they have lost and not just pounds.
There are others and some people have said they use an infant scales. 
I spend too much money on my cats.
 

Thank you, lalagimp. It's not exactly what I call affordable, but at least it has an accuracy that matches the price.

 

[orange&white]

 
I have done that myself, and I find it a very inaccurate method. I have to try several times and pick an average of the weights I get. Maybe your scale is better than mine.

For the past 1.5 years I have used a luggage weight. I put Turbo in the carrier and weigh him with the carrier. Then I subtract the weight of the carrier. This is still not ideal because he will often move, which disturbs the weighing. At least this is a very affordable option (a few dollars) and a fairly accurate one. I would like to hear of other affordable options.

I have an old, ok ancient, analog bath scale.  It worked great for decades, but stopped holding its calibration about a year ago.  I was also picking an average, until I decided that I wanted a more accurate weight for my pets.  I thought about just getting a new bath scale, but ended up buying a more expensive "postage scale" which weighs up to 55 pounds within a fraction of an ounce accuracy.  (Brand:  Ultraship 55 - $40.00)

It has a small platform, so I have to center a thin sheet of wood so the carrier won't teeter-totter, and put the carrier on top of that.  It has a tare/zero function that subtracts the weight of the wood and carrier and starts at "zero".  The display read-out pulls out on a curled cord, so it's easy to read.  Very pleased with it.  I spent more on it than I would have liked, but it has a 30 year warranty and I'm using it a lot as a kitchen scale for cooking too.

The weights I recorded for Tangent from September-February I don't trust 100% because of the quirky analog scale, but it was better than nothing.

 

[lalagimp]

 

[orange&white]

 
"postage scale" which weighs up to 55 pounds within a fraction of an ounce accuracy.  (Brand:  Ultraship 55 - $40.00)

Extra note:  The scale is $28-$30 without the A/C power adapter and will run on Size C batteries....but sheesh....have you seen the price of batteries????  lol

 

[louche]

agreed. sassy weighed in at 5-6 lbs. she was a tiny cat at her perfect weight range. grimmy is larger, 8 would be her starting to become underweight.

 

[cindycrna]

We MAY be adopting a 2 year old that is a little overweight to be a buddy for my 6 month old who is high energy and needs a lot of calories. Then there is big orange boy. We are doing Stella and Chewys freeze dry raw but I also keep a bowel of Blue Buffalo Wilderness for the young one to nibble on in between the raw. I guess my goal will be to get them on 100% freeze dried raw and hopefully the orange boy will slim down. It's hard when you have 2 different calorie requirements.

 

[orange&white]

It's hard when you have 2 different calorie requirements.

It is.  I tried multiple times in vain to take my kibble-addicted skinny cat back to a separate room to eat more food, so that my fat Tangent wouldn't have access to kibble.  He (skinny) hated to be isolated from the cat crew and refused to eat alone.  I'm currently feeding Tangent in the kitchen and the 6-month old kitten in the bathroom.  I'm planning to keep feeding them separately, now that I know better.  Poor Tangent keeps watching me carry saucer after saucer of food to the kitten, sitting by his empty plate in the kitchen looking at me like, "Where's mine?"

 

[mistercheddar]

Good news! I tried a harness and leash on cheddarwurst and he loves it! We went outside and I kept him in the grass because I didn't know if a sidewalk would hurt his little Feets. Anyway he was running and jumping and playing and getting good exercise! He's had a sensitive stomach for a few days so I figure in about a week I'll try some canned foods for him. It's more expensive but what's a few dollars vs all the love he gives me!

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• mistercheddar
• Apr 1, 2017