Hey there,
we've got a problem with my mum's cat - as the title says already, she's fat and won't exercise. She's further on a special diet because of bladder stones and hardly gets any food. We presume she must have been in pain before (but those buggers have the habit of not showing it), so there's that; it's in our estimation unlikely that she's still in pain. There are no issues with diabetes or her thyroid. At any rate, she hardly ever moves around; most of the time she's going Garfield, lying on her blanket in my parents' office. The only exercise she gets is sometimes going downstairs into the living room. There, she (at a slow pace) checks out the place, sometimes walks away when the dog gets too excited trying to sniff her butt, though mostly she either lies under her cat tree, on the stairs, or on the couch.
Problems we've encountered getting her to exercise: She isn't playful; getting her to play with any toy happens once in a blue moon, she doesn't react to catnip, she simply sits down when trying to get her to move on a harness (she accepts it, but won't move), she doesn't steal any food, hence placing her bowl on a table won't do anything other than starve her (she CAN jump on and over stuff, she jumps onto the couch for instance - she just doesn't do it when it's not necessary), she doesn't come when you call her (she's certainly not deaf though).
She's so lazy, she won't even put up a fight when we pick her up; she tries to get away (then she even runs) but doesn't scratch or anything. She only complains through hissing and wiggles a bit. So, yeah, all advice on the internet we've encountered so far doesn't work that we can see. Bit of a headscratcher. Most of the time, she isn't afraid or anything when we try to get her to do something, simply plain annoyed and angered. She tends to take a dump then, so she is stressed but not to the point of being frantic or anything; that happens relatively quickly when you do something she doesn't like.
Looking forward to any replies :-)
we've got a problem with my mum's cat - as the title says already, she's fat and won't exercise. She's further on a special diet because of bladder stones and hardly gets any food. We presume she must have been in pain before (but those buggers have the habit of not showing it), so there's that; it's in our estimation unlikely that she's still in pain. There are no issues with diabetes or her thyroid. At any rate, she hardly ever moves around; most of the time she's going Garfield, lying on her blanket in my parents' office. The only exercise she gets is sometimes going downstairs into the living room. There, she (at a slow pace) checks out the place, sometimes walks away when the dog gets too excited trying to sniff her butt, though mostly she either lies under her cat tree, on the stairs, or on the couch.
Problems we've encountered getting her to exercise: She isn't playful; getting her to play with any toy happens once in a blue moon, she doesn't react to catnip, she simply sits down when trying to get her to move on a harness (she accepts it, but won't move), she doesn't steal any food, hence placing her bowl on a table won't do anything other than starve her (she CAN jump on and over stuff, she jumps onto the couch for instance - she just doesn't do it when it's not necessary), she doesn't come when you call her (she's certainly not deaf though).
She's so lazy, she won't even put up a fight when we pick her up; she tries to get away (then she even runs) but doesn't scratch or anything. She only complains through hissing and wiggles a bit. So, yeah, all advice on the internet we've encountered so far doesn't work that we can see. Bit of a headscratcher. Most of the time, she isn't afraid or anything when we try to get her to do something, simply plain annoyed and angered. She tends to take a dump then, so she is stressed but not to the point of being frantic or anything; that happens relatively quickly when you do something she doesn't like.
Looking forward to any replies :-)
), when we got Neko, she was of an alright weight though she did have a bloated tummy because of worms and being post-pregnancy. So, any excessive weight she acquired occurred at our place. We didn't know about the bladder stone issue until the beginning of this year; we've had her for a bit over two years. Now, I don't know how those two things factor in; she had to deal with a scarce food situation (duh) outside and dogs chasing her. Though that's not too out of the ordinary for stray cats. I don't know much about cat psychology other than that when they've established routines and habits, it takes a while to break them. So, no idea how that factors in. It took Neko quite some time to be comfortable; in brief, we first had her with Momo in my girlfriend's and my flat (same house; top floor) - that turned into Fight Club. Then, she was with my parents and the dogs, first downstairs in the living room where she didn't move at all, then in the office, which is still her "safe room." Initially, she was scared though now she's just plain annoyed and happy to be left alone, i.e. not a very "social" cat. She does wander around and explore, but at a stroll; she doesn't take to playing or play herself. Perhaps that illustrates her general character a bit better.
