Best Diet For Over Weight Cat?

[J. A. Vann]

Im having a real problem! I have 3 wonderful cats! Two of these cats are exactly 8 pounds! One is a rescue & could probably stand to gain 1 or 2 ponds,no more! One a Burmese is 8 pounds & we don’t want him any heavier at all! Any more weight on him & he would be fat! Third cat is my 7 year old Siamese & he is about 18 plus pounds!! We were feeding them all grain-free dry food & the rescue & the Siamese were both loosing weight! It was as if they could eat & eat that food & still loose weight! Now we have the addition of the Burmese & he needs to stay where he is as does the rescue! Problem is w/3 cats I just don’t know how to get the heavy one to loose weight! I feed them all the exact same amount of food three times a day...believe me they do not get much food. I split 1/3 of a cup between the 3 of them! Sometimes I catch the heavy one eating the others food & quickly put a stop to it! For some reason this heavy one just doesn’t loose weight. I want to try & feed him seperatly but need to know a good nutritious food to feed him! None of them seem to want the grain free any more plus I’ve heard it’s not very nutritious! I was wondering about the refrigerated types you can get in the pet food stores.
I know this may sound crazy to a lot of people but I’ve had cats all my life & never had an over weight one until now. What also bothers me is that the other 2 aren’t over weight at all. He goes to our vet every year & is healthy...but over weight & needs to loose about 4 or 5 pounds!
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thanks to everyone!
Jill

 

[lalagimp]

We keep the two cats that are able to manage their own weight on a free feeder that only opens for their microchips.
The boys are on a feeding schedule with their own feeders. Even if they break into the girls feeder from time to time *all they have to do is wait for them to eat and then shove them aside and hold it open with their head* and eat 1/4 cup of food- that can end up being around 100 calories at a time, depending on what they eat. So we ended up putting a gate on the kitchen entry with a Sure Flap so they can't get through the gate to get to the feeder.
When I tell people that anecdote, they're stunned. It's not that common for an unauthorized cat to get into the Sure Feed.
You have to isolate the cat with the weight problem. Tommy did it for almost 2 years with a total of four cats in the house. Then Stewart had to diet too, so I managed both the boys on a feeding schedule. It doesn't really matter what you feed them, as long as you're monitoring their calories and adjusting their amount of food accordingly. I've used prescription dry, weight loss over the counter dry, canned, raw. I weigh them every week and if they gain, or need to lose, pull back a little of their food until you see a result.
It's a long process. Your cat isn't supposed to lose more than 1/2 lb per month, and they may only lose a few ounces in a month ( 8 oz = 1/2 lb). Tom had to lose 8 lbs and it was 4 years getting there.

 

[orange&white]

Hi Jill,

My cat Tangent recently went back to a maintenance diet after losing from 16.5 pounds to 12.5 pounds. It took me 14 months to get his weight down, and I adopted a kitten during his diet.

I won't recommend a specific food brand (I feed homemade raw) but I do think that wet food, whether canned or the refrigerated brands are healthier than kibble because they are either carbohydrate free or at least much lower in carbs.

Do you have a food scale? It's very helpful to keep track of ounces of food and calories per day. I bought one that weighs to 1/10th of an ounce (to weigh meals) up to 50 pounds (to weigh cats - and the dog).

Since you've caught your overweight boy eating extra food from the other cats, you'll probably need to arrange separate dining areas, or at least one separate area for him only. My senior eats in the kitchen and the young one eats in the bathroom. Weighed meals are served 3 times a day.

No free feeding; you need to know exactly how many calories he's eating per day. Track how many calories he is eating for 7 days, and the average calories is your starting point. You'll want to cut his current calories back by 20-25 per day.

Weigh at a minimum of once per month (I weigh weekly, but that's probably overkill) and adjust his calories up or down. You do not want him losing more than 1/2 pound per month, so slow and steady loss is the goal.

Good luck! Getting your kitty down to a healthy weight is the very best thing you can do for him.

 

[J. A. Vann]

We keep the two cats that are able to manage their own weight on a free feeder that only opens for their microchips.
The boys are on a feeding schedule with their own feeders. Even if they break into the girls feeder from time to time *all they have to do is wait for them to eat and then shove them aside and hold it open with their head* and eat 1/4 cup of food- that can end up being around 100 calories at a time, depending on what they eat. So we ended up putting a gate on the kitchen entry with a Sure Flap so they can't get through the gate to get to the feeder.
When I tell people that anecdote, they're stunned. It's not that common for an unauthorized cat to get into the Sure Feed.
You have to isolate the cat with the weight problem. Tommy did it for almost 2 years with a total of four cats in the house. Then Stewart had to diet too, so I managed both the boys on a feeding schedule. It doesn't really matter what you feed them, as long as you're monitoring their calories and adjusting their amount of food accordingly. I've used prescription dry, weight loss over the counter dry, canned, raw. I weigh them every week and if they gain, or need to lose, pull back a little of their food until you see a result.
It's a long process. Your cat isn't supposed to lose more than 1/2 lb per month, and they may only lose a few ounces in a month ( 8 oz = 1/2 lb). Tom had to lose 8 lbs and it was 4 years getting there.

Thanks so much! My big boy, Rocky is not going to be happy but

We keep the two cats that are able to manage their own weight on a free feeder that only opens for their microchips.
The boys are on a feeding schedule with their own feeders. Even if they break into the girls feeder from time to time *all they have to do is wait for them to eat and then shove them aside and hold it open with their head* and eat 1/4 cup of food- that can end up being around 100 calories at a time, depending on what they eat. So we ended up putting a gate on the kitchen entry with a Sure Flap so they can't get through the gate to get to the feeder.
When I tell people that anecdote, they're stunned. It's not that common for an unauthorized cat to get into the Sure Feed.
You have to isolate the cat with the weight problem. Tommy did it for almost 2 years with a total of four cats in the house. Then Stewart had to diet too, so I managed both the boys on a feeding schedule. It doesn't really matter what you feed them, as long as you're monitoring their calories and adjusting their amount of food accordingly. I've used prescription dry, weight loss over the counter dry, canned, raw. I weigh them every week and if they gain, or need to lose, pull back a little of their food until you see a result.
It's a long process. Your cat isn't supposed to lose more than 1/2 lb per month, and they may only lose a few ounces in a month ( 8 oz = 1/2 lb). Tom had to lose 8 lbs and it was 4 years getting there.

Thanks so much! Our big boy, Rocky is not going to be happy but that seems to be the only way to do it, feed him seperatly! At least the other two will be able to eat their food in peace!! LOL!!

 

[LTS3]

An all canned food diet will help. More canned food than dry food would also help if you can't feed only canned food. Canned foods are much lower in calories than any dry food. Feeding the appropriate amount of calories daily along with excercise will help cats lose weight, kind of like it does in people. The general recommendation is to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. If a cat nees to lose more than a few pounds, the calorie reduction needs to be done very slowly over at least a couple of weeks if not longer to avoid fatty liver disease. There are weight loss tips here: Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats

 

[lisahe]

To pick up on orange&white 's point on carbohydrates: lowering carbs is usually a good approach when choosing wet foods. Watch out for ingredients with any form of wheat, corn, rice, potato, peas, chickpeas, and other starchy vegetables: they just add calories that cats don't digest well. Lots of people seem to find good success with Fancy Feast Classics, the pates so those might be a good start.

The charts on Catinfo.org are a little overwhelming at first but they're a good way to compare carbs in various foods. For example, you can see there that Fancy Feast Classics come in at just 0-3% of calories coming from carbs. But their grilled or sliced in gravy foods are all about 10+ points higher because of vegetable-based ingredients. (A lot of FF foods have wheat gluten in them; it's best to avoid that.)

Good luck, particularly with the separate meals -- we have to do that to keep our piggier cat (a Siamese mix, a snowshoe) from gaining weight, so I know it's not always easy to get started! Do you have a picture of your cats?

 

[milky07]

I agree if u can seperade the neavy cat and just feed him wet food, but ma,e sure u take the other cats kibbel away if they leave some behind