Mickey is my newest foster kitty. He is 7 1/2 years old and weights 27 lbs. This is the first of hopefully many posts chronicling Mickey's journey back to a healthy weight.
He is with me solely for the purpose of losing weight. He is actually in pretty good shape other than his weight. His rear end has been cared for and he is in good spirits. He doesn't seem to be in pain when he moves. He has no known health issues other than his weight.
He was an owner relinquish to the shelter where I volunteer. I don't know what reason they gave for dumping him at the shelter. I don't usually ask that about my fosters because it is usually some bs reason anyway.
Before coming to me he was in another foster home for a couple of months. He wasn't losing weight there so I volunteered to take him on. His former foster parent was feeding him a dry food, Iams Proactive Health Indoor Weight and Hairball Control. She was feeding him 1 2/3 cups a day as per the Iams instructions. She said he rarely finished it all. Thank Goodness! I calculated that the full 1 2/3 cups would have been over 500 calories! She was instructed by the shelter to put him on an all wet diet and although he has no problem with eating wet food she switched him to dry because it was "easier". Sigh.
The vet at the shelter said to feed him the amount he should eat if he were at a healthy weight. So I'm starting him at 6 oz of Fancy
Feast Classics. That is what I usually have on hand for my fosters because it is well liked and I usually get fosters when they are sick so it is important that they eat. I feed my cats a raw diet and since I'm going to have Mickey for a long time I'll be trying to get him on raw also. The FF is low carb and although the protein quality may be questionable it is, IMO, a decent food and a good one to start Mickey on.
I also add 1/2 oz of raw, minced duck heart to his FF to add a bit more protein. That with the FF should be about 230 calories a day.
Eventually I'll weight him once a week but until I know for sure that the amount I'm feeding him is OK I'll weight him about every 3 days. A safe rate of weight loss is 1-2% of current body weight per week. Weight loss at any faster rate than that risks hepatic lipidosis. I'm shooting for 1.5% per week.
I picked him up last Sunday (6-10-2012) and he weighted 26 lbs 14 oz by my scale. I weighted him tonight and he weights 26 lbs 10 oz. That's a bit faster than I would like but he squirms on the scale quite a bit so his weight might be closer to 26 lbs 11 oz. I'll wait until the next weight in before I make any changes to his diet.
Here are a couple of pictures of him:
He is with me solely for the purpose of losing weight. He is actually in pretty good shape other than his weight. His rear end has been cared for and he is in good spirits. He doesn't seem to be in pain when he moves. He has no known health issues other than his weight.
He was an owner relinquish to the shelter where I volunteer. I don't know what reason they gave for dumping him at the shelter. I don't usually ask that about my fosters because it is usually some bs reason anyway.
Before coming to me he was in another foster home for a couple of months. He wasn't losing weight there so I volunteered to take him on. His former foster parent was feeding him a dry food, Iams Proactive Health Indoor Weight and Hairball Control. She was feeding him 1 2/3 cups a day as per the Iams instructions. She said he rarely finished it all. Thank Goodness! I calculated that the full 1 2/3 cups would have been over 500 calories! She was instructed by the shelter to put him on an all wet diet and although he has no problem with eating wet food she switched him to dry because it was "easier". Sigh.
The vet at the shelter said to feed him the amount he should eat if he were at a healthy weight. So I'm starting him at 6 oz of Fancy
Feast Classics. That is what I usually have on hand for my fosters because it is well liked and I usually get fosters when they are sick so it is important that they eat. I feed my cats a raw diet and since I'm going to have Mickey for a long time I'll be trying to get him on raw also. The FF is low carb and although the protein quality may be questionable it is, IMO, a decent food and a good one to start Mickey on.
I also add 1/2 oz of raw, minced duck heart to his FF to add a bit more protein. That with the FF should be about 230 calories a day.
Eventually I'll weight him once a week but until I know for sure that the amount I'm feeding him is OK I'll weight him about every 3 days. A safe rate of weight loss is 1-2% of current body weight per week. Weight loss at any faster rate than that risks hepatic lipidosis. I'm shooting for 1.5% per week.
I picked him up last Sunday (6-10-2012) and he weighted 26 lbs 14 oz by my scale. I weighted him tonight and he weights 26 lbs 10 oz. That's a bit faster than I would like but he squirms on the scale quite a bit so his weight might be closer to 26 lbs 11 oz. I'll wait until the next weight in before I make any changes to his diet.
Here are a couple of pictures of him:
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Thanks for sharing his journey with us, I'm sure it will help a lot of people with their kitties. :rub:
