Help! My Cat Needs To Go On A Diet!

gldustwm

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Hi,
I have a 16lb orange tabby who is pretty overweight. He is a big cat but this he is too heavy now. When he was ideal I would say he weight 12-13 lbs. On the weight charts I would say he is between 7-8 on a weight scale chart. I recently changed his food to help him lose weight but I feel like he is getting heavier. I went from just 1.32oz of wet per day and unlimited dry science diet adult dry to what is listed below:

Now I feed him what equals out to 2.64 oz of wet food usually Nutro Perfect Portions (different variety) of wet food per day. I also feed him 1/4 cup of Wellness Core Grain Free Dry (Turkey/Chicken) and 1/4 cup Hills Science Diet Adult Light dry food. He usually has eaten all his dry food up by mid day and I will feed at night. I feed one portion wet in the morning and one portion we at night. He will beg for more food when his dry runs out.

I am unable to make his food and cannot cut out dry completely due to my schedule. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, I wouldn't say he is crazy about the Wellness Core Grain Free dry food. Does anyone have any other suggestions for a dry food that is healthy? Thank you.
 

Wile

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I am unable to make his food and cannot cut out dry completely due to my schedule. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, I wouldn't say he is crazy about the Wellness Core Grain Free dry food. Does anyone have any other suggestions for a dry food that is healthy? Thank you.
Hello! Years ago when I had a cat who needed to lose 4 pounds I had a lot of success by changing his diet to a wet food only diet. My vet suggested it because for some reason cats just naturally manage their weight better on canned food. It worked for me. At the time I was feeding the canned science diet light food.

I know you think that you can't cut out dry food, but from what I can see of your schedule it is very doable. Just feed him once in the morning, and once at night when you are home. It took about 8 months to a year for my cat to lose those 4 pounds on the science diet canned food. Other posters on this site might have other options they can suggest to you. To lose the extra weight slowly you will probably want to feed your cat around 240 calories a day.
 

Furballsmom

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Hi!
Slowly is the key, definitely.
Can you gently introduce more, and then even more, activity?
 
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gldustwm

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I guess I should have mentioned I can't feed full wet food because I travel alot and just need to leave food out as I there are times I don't have someone to come over.
 

Wile

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You'll need to figure out some way of managing your cat's calorie intake on the days when you aren't home. Ideally you would hire someone, but if that is not an option you can also look into timed feeders.
 

1 bruce 1

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I would vote for the timed feeders, and personally ditch the low fat dry food if you're not seeing results.
If he hasn't seen a vet for this, I would recommend that first. It could be weight gain from a health problem, or the weight could be fluid, etc.
Furballsmom Furballsmom mentioned toys, there are some food puzzle toys that are good for getting cats to slow down on food intake, and make them move a little to actually earn that food. :)
There are expensive toys that are complicated, but you could use something like an old plastic water bottle with holes cut in it, fill 'er up, and let him work at it. (The holes have to be big enough to let the kibble out of course.)
Ours love the laser light. They go crazy and we enjoy their acrobatics. If he's heavy, limit it a little until he builds stamina (just like I wouldn't attempt the Boston marathon and bench pressing 600 pounds as a celebration. Unless I trained for it and worked up my stamina...for about 300 years...I'd fall over. :eek3:)
 

lalagimp

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When Stewart needed to go from 16 1/2 to 12, he was put on a 200 calorie per day diet. I think he lost the weight in about a year and a half.
 

Ardina

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When Saipha hit 13 lbs, I didn't have any success getting her back down to her normal 11 lbs until I restricted her intake. She is on a raw food diet, so what I did is slowly decrease her daily portion until I was seeing approximately half a pound of weight loss per month. Any faster is dangerous. But you have to weigh weekly and make sure you have an accurate scale to monitor the rate of loss. A baby scale worked well for me. Only then will you know if the changes you're making are actually working.

I would also recommend wet food over dry because wet food tends to be higher in protein and fats that help cats feel full. Dry food tends to be carbs, which contribute to weight gain.
 

riley1

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Hi,
I have a 16lb orange tabby who is pretty overweight. He is a big cat but this he is too heavy now. When he was ideal I would say he weight 12-13 lbs. On the weight charts I would say he is between 7-8 on a weight scale chart. I recently changed his food to help him lose weight but I feel like he is getting heavier. I went from just 1.32oz of wet per day and unlimited dry science diet adult dry to what is listed below:

Now I feed him what equals out to 2.64 oz of wet food usually Nutro Perfect Portions (different variety) of wet food per day. I also feed him 1/4 cup of Wellness Core Grain Free Dry (Turkey/Chicken) and 1/4 cup Hills Science Diet Adult Light dry food. He usually has eaten all his dry food up by mid day and I will feed at night. I feed one portion wet in the morning and one portion we at night. He will beg for more food when his dry runs out.

I am unable to make his food and cannot cut out dry completely due to my schedule. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, I wouldn't say he is crazy about the Wellness Core Grain Free dry food. Does anyone have any other suggestions for a dry food that is healthy? Thank you.
I use an a Petsafe automatic feeder so my girl can have her raw food four times per day at the same times whether I am here or not. It is about $35 on Amazon!
 

Kflowers

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different wet foods have different calorie counts. Weruva is the lowest. Different dry foods have different calorie and carb counts. We were using orijen and SG got pudgy on it free feeding. We continued to free feed, but switched to Fromm and she lost a pound in a year.

She has now gained that pound back because we found a dog which means the stairway is temporarily closed. (Okay, getting to know each other is taking waaaaaaaay to long and the dog has gained weight too.) This means you might want to make you kit a little agility course in your living room. It may take him awhile to decide to use it, our kit won't touch a new toy, even catnip, until it's been on the floor for 9 months.
 
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