Cats getting too fat.

[jr70895]

2 males 4 years old, mostly inside cats due to outside dangers. Both are overweight 15 lbs. I've tried every food known to man-kind. They don't like wet food and only lick the juice. The only dry food the like is Blue Buffalo Wilderness.
I've cut out their treats and amount of dry the eat. Still gaining weight. I live in a small apartment and they have to room to run around.
I've looked at exercise treadmills but they're $200 plus and hate to pay that much money for them to just look at it.
Any suggestions?

 

[Foldingjeff]

I think it’s really more that your cats don’t get any exercise since you said they don’t have room to run around. I saw a video of this overweight cat that was rescued. His old owners were overfeeding him. What the new owner did was making him have to work for getting the stuff he wants. Like they put his food in a high place and he had to climb small stairs to get there, or when you give him treats go to one end of the room and make him come to you, then go to the other end for the next one. And you should try walking them outside as well if they’re okay with being on a leash.

 

[kittenmittens84]

Are there any toys they really like? If you can find something they’re excited about and willing to chase, even a few minutes a day of getting them to run back and forth chasing something can be helpful. If you need some options, a lot of cats seem to love the cat dancer (it’s like $3 and looks like nothing but cats are obsessed with it for some reason) or da bird (different than a lot of wand toys because the feathers are actual feathers so I guess it’s more bird like to cats?)

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. In addition to more exercise, canned food generally contains a lot less calories than dry, not to mention that dry is typically very high in carbohydrates. What different types of canned food have you tried? You mention they only lick the juice off of the canned, so I am guessing it isn't pate. You might try some pates, and use their dry as a topper (you can crunch some up to mix with the canned food).

The other thing is that unless they appear to be overweight based on their size/shape, using what they weigh as the sole determinant in whether or not they are fat is not necessarily a good indicator. Maybe you can use this chart as your guide to see just how their body shape compares?

 

[pearl99]

I have one kitty who did not like canned food, now will eat it and to get there I put a tablespoon or so of her dry food next to the canned food, I didn't mix it.
She would eat both the dry and canned that way. Then I would give her that amount less of dry food for her feedings. She's very prone to being chubby and this helped.
I also have a DaBird, the toy end is interchangable, and mine go bonkers for the end toy that looks like a worm- they like the feathers well enough but this worm is the bomb-diggity for them!

 

[kittenmittens84]

I have one kitty who did not like canned food, now will eat it and to get there I put a tablespoon or so of her dry food next to the canned food, I didn't mix it.
She would eat both the dry and canned that way. Then I would give her that amount less of dry food for her feedings. She's very prone to being chubby and this helped.
I also have a DaBird, the toy end is interchangable, and mine go bonkers for the end toy that looks like a worm- they like the feathers well enough but this worm is the bomb-diggity for them!

omg my cat is obsessed with that one and also da bee, it’s crazy how much he loves them. To put it away I have to close him in the bedroom and then put the toy away somewhere because if he sees where I store it he’ll just sit in front of the drawer and paw at it for ages.