Gaining Too Much Weight On Raw

[orange&white]

This thread fell off my notifications, so I searched to see how Saipha is doing. She really is right on track, isn't she? That's fabulous!

As long as Mishka feels boney to you, I'd keep feeding her all the food she wants. You may be lucky to have at least one cat who self-regulates her calories.

Farrell was 8.78 at 10 months and didn't grow much more, but every cat is different. The large breeds keep growing 2-3 years. 9 pounds is where I'd like to maintain Farrell's weight. She got up to 9.3 pounds and seemed a little too pudgy. She looks just right at 9 pounds.

 

[Ardina]

Saipha is now 12 lbs 2 oz. She has lost a total of 1 lb 1 oz and is officially halfway to her goal weight!

 

[Ardina]

So Saipha's been stuck at 11 lbs 15 oz - 12 lbs 0 oz for more than a month. She's been on the same 4 oz of low-calorie mix this whole time. At this point, I'm not sure quite what to do. She definitely has a good waist tuck now, and I can feel her ribs more easily, but I'm not sure if I should go to extra efforts to get her to lose any more weight. I'm considering taking her to the vet just to get her opinion about whether I should keep pushing to get Saipha to lose more. If the vet says that this is a good weight, do I need to keep her on 4 oz of low calorie mixes forever? I was hoping that I could eventually increase the amount I feed her and/or make the same mixes for Saipha and Mishka when she hit her ideal weight.

And if the vet says she should lose more, what exactly should I do? I know Saipha does get a little hungry with only 4 oz, so I don't want to go below that. Plus I don't want to drop the protein content too low. I'm already using the leanest meats - primarily rabbit and chicken breast mixes. Anyone have some suggestions?

Edited to add: Mishka is now feeling much less boney. I can still feel her ribs easily, but she's fairly muscular all over. Maybe she was still growing then? In any case, she's just over a year old now and still has a kitten's hyperactive energy, but her weight does seem to have stabilized at 11.5 lbs.

 

[orange&white]

You wanted Saipha at 11 to 11.5? She is pretty close, so you've done well. I did take Tangents calories down to around 130 per day to get him through a long plateau. With his goal weight at 13lbs, that was only 10 kcals per pound of his goal weight. (My chicken breast mixes were coming in around 30-33 kcals per ounce.)

I agree that you don't want her to eat such a small volume of food that she doesn't get enough protein, but you might try a two-week cut to 3.8 ounces to see if that will get the last few ounces of extra weight off her.

Once Tangent hit 13 lbs, I slowly started increasing the fat in his diet and upping his serving sizes too. For a few weeks, he kept losing weight to 12.5. He is now eating around 40 kcals/ounce and eating 5 ounces a day. He's at 12.8 lbs as of yesterday's weigh in.

I think it is reasonable that you will be able to make the same food for Saipha and Mishka once Saipha goes on a maintenance diet. Once my young kitties were over a year old, I cut the fat in their mix and increased Tangent's fat content, so all 3 cat are on the same mix now.

 

[lalagimp]

We decided not to take Stewburger's food lower than 4 oz of raw. He's "supposed" to be about 1 lb less, but we'd rather not give him so little food. His dad never wanted him quite skinny anyways, so we've always given him an extra half pound allowance. Original vet in AZ said Stewart's ideal with his body measurements is 11.8 lbs. He got to 11.8 lbs and his father was not thrilled, so we let him slide up to 12 1/4- 12 1/2. Right now he's actually 12 3/4.
He recently had a vet visit in VA and they gave him a really good body score.

 

[kittyluv387]

If she has a waist then she should be good. I dont like focusing too much on a number. 12 pounds looks different on my 3 cats. On one 12 would look anorexic, on another she would be chubby. But for the 3rd he looks really good at 12. Its really individual cat dependent.

 

[Ardina]

If she has a waist then she should be good. I dont like focusing too much on a number. 12 pounds looks different on my 3 cats. On one 12 would look anorexic, on another she would be chubby. But for the 3rd he looks really good at 12. Its really individual cat dependent.

I wish I could just go by the waist tuck, but I caught Saipha's weight gain early (she hit 13.3 lbs max before I put her on a diet), so she's always had a waist tuck, just different degrees of it. But she was definitely overweight at 13 lbs, and my vet gave me a stern talking to...

 

[kittyluv387]

I wish I could just go by the waist tuck, but I caught Saipha's weight gain early (she hit 13.3 lbs max before I put her on a diet), so she's always had a waist tuck, just different degrees of it. But she was definitely overweight at 13 lbs, and my vet gave me a stern talking to...

True but how does she look overall? 4 oz of raw food isnt that much.

 

[Ardina]

True but how does she look overall? 4 oz of raw food isnt that much.

No, it isn't much. But with anything greater, she wasn't losing weight. It's kind of hard for me what's a good weight for her because she has really loose skin, so if she sits curled up, I can't feel any ribs. But if she's more stretched out, I can feel them. This is why I thought I'd take her to the vet, just to get a sense of where she's at right now.