Dieting For Cats

[Cheyennesmom19]

I have 3 cats that could stand to loose some weight along with their momma but that's another topic/forum lol.

What is the best way to put a cat or multiple cats on a diet?

 

[LTS3]

Feed the appropriate number of calories for each cat. It's generally recommended to feed around 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. You may need to feed the cats separately at meal times and not leave food out so they're not eating more than they need. Dry foods are very calorie dense per cup and not very filing. It's preferred to feed mostly or only canned food for weight loss.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I have two cats. One is on the pudgy side and the other is quite thin. The only way I keep the pudge at a decent weight is to monitor every single thing that goes into his mouth, including treats. I do feed them separately and the pudge hurriedly gobbles his up and then runs into the room where his brother eats, but I'm always there "waiting" and shoo him away . (he never learns) Also, I feed high protein, very low carb wet food (often raw) so he feels more full. I actually got him to lose 4 pounds this way and keep it off, but if I don't continue to monitor him, he could quickly put th weight right back on. I also toss any treats that he gets (also high protein, NO carb) down the hall so he has to exercise to get them. The quickest one gets the treats, and he's learned to be like an outfielder to get them. He actually jumps up high and catches them in his paw.

Oh yes, one more thing, I raised his bowl to make him slow down in his eating, which helps a little. You can also get those dishes where they actually have an impediment in them to make them slow down their eating. Something like is shown in this thread: Slow Feed Bowls

 

[Cheyennesmom19]

So cats will be alright health wise if they don't have food down in front of them all the time?

What can foods do you recommend?

For dry foods I am seeing these foods are recommended:
Instinct by Nature's Variety Ultimate Protein Grain-Free Cage-Free Chicken Recipe Dry Cat Food

Blue Buffalo Wilderness Weight Control Chicken Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food

Nutro Max Indoor Weight Control Formula Dry Cat Food

And of course Royal Canin and Science Diet which I am not really a fan of either on of those brands of cat food.

 

[molly92]

Cats absolutely do not need a bowl of dry food out at all times. If your schedule permits, cats usually like to have multiple small meals a day, but I'm not home during the day so mine get breakfast and dinner and they're fine.

I found that my cat does much better on a high protein food in small portions than a weight control or even a food with just too much carbs. The carbs and fiber don't really keep her full like protein does. She was on Whole Food's brand wet food when I originally adopted her, which is full of potato so she would be crying in hunger and still not losing weight. Weight management foods rely a lot of fiber to bulk up food without adding calories. That's a great tool for human weight loss, but cats aren't designed to digest a lot of cellulose, so adding so much fiber is just asking for digestive issues in my opinion. Easier to do portion control with high meat foods.

I do only wet. Right now she gets Dr. Elsey's canned, but I have gone through a few different brands over the years. Holistic Select in the 13 ounce cans was really cost effective but still low on fillers. We used a lot of that and Wellness Core during her most intense dieting phase.

As a general rule, wet food is going to have less starch than dry foods, and pates are going to have less starch than gravy/chunky wet foods.

I pretty much followed catinfo.org's guide for weight loss, keeping an excel sheet of her weekly weight. I taped a lightweight plastic tub to a kitchen scale to weigh her, and if she wasn't losing weight, I cut back her food further, and made sure she wasn't losing more than 2% of her weight each week (drastic weight loss can cause fatty liver disease), although I don't think we ever got close to dangerous territory even with pretty restricted calories. 170 calories a day was about where she needed to be for weight loss (she was 14 pounds and got down to about 12.5.)

With multiple cats, an absolute godsend for me has been a microchip feeder. Totally worth the investment to know exactly what each cat has been eating. I have 2 cats on opposite ends of the spectrum though-one tends to gain too much weight and the other loses too much weight, and the big one would steal from the other's bowl in a second.

 

[MissClouseau]

I can't recommend this enough: weigh them on the same digital scale the same day every week. If they don't hold still you can put a few treats on the scale. It's so much easier to control weight when you learn the difference early.

I also think the best methods depend on the cat but granted it's more complicated when there is more than one cat in the house. I have only one and for Hima she absolutely needs food out all the time. I think she gets into the "Who knows when I will find food next" mode if she doesn't and demands more food AND overeats. A wet-only or a dry-only diet also doesn't work for her but I try to make dry the smaller portion of her diet currently. (Basically I use it to figure out when she gets hungry. When I'm home when she starts to eat the dry, I offer wet food instead. She also likes to eat late at night if she wakes up.)

I am not very strict about the amount of food as their calorie need are not the same every day (same for humans after all.) Some days she eats more than her average, some days she eats less than her average. Some days she's way too physically active and sleeps hours less, some days she's a couch potato. With the weighing the same day every week method I have never had a weight problem with her more than like 200 grams more or less than her ideal.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

When looking for canned foods, it's hard to make specific recommendation not knowing your budget, but look at the ingredients and try to get something that does NOT include any wheat, corn, soy, potatoes, that type of thing. Preferable you want the first five ingredients to be some type of meat protein. And as molly92 said, pates are typically lower in carbs than other canned foods, so that means more protein, which is good. If you are on a tight budget, even the Sheba pates are pretty good as far as low carb. Many folks here feed Nutro Chicken Pate, however, I'm upset with them right now because they have gone to all "single serve" packaging (as many manufacturers) which is SO inconvenient as 1.3 oz is NOT a practical size IMHO. I DO feed it to one of my guys, but I'm just not going to recommend it anymore because I'm stubborn

Maybe something in this article will help you out though: What Makes The Best Canned Cat Food?