My Cat Is Overweight But She Won't Diet!

[Kaitykats2123]

Hello everyone.

My cat is an American Shorthair. She is spayed and is healthy except for one thing: her weight. She is (I think according to my last vet trip... but that number probably has risen since then) 20 pounds. We keep trying diet foods and special meal plans for her, but she won't eat anything but what we first introduced her once me and my parents rescued her from the wild. If she doesn't get what she wants to eat, she'll stop eating all together. I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose her... She's one of the last things I have to remind myself of my parents after they passed away... please help me.

 

[KarenKat]

I had heard that diet foods aren’t tasty for the cats. Would you be able to feed her her normal food but cut out 10% of the calories or so? Then she would already like the food but start eating less.

 

[lutece]

What does she eat now?

 

[Kaitykats2123]

What does she eat now?

Purina

 

[Kaitykats2123]

I had heard that diet foods aren’t tasty for the cats. Would you be able to feed her her normal food but cut out 10% of the calories or so? Then she would already like the food but start eating less.

Interesting. I have tried to scale back how much I give her. But she either is still hungry or something because she constantly bugs me wanting food

 

[KarenKat]

Our cat Trin lost 3 lbs over 3 years when we switched from a corn based dry food (Purina indoor Cat Chow) to a more protein one (natural Balance Green Pea and Chicken). We free-fed dry all day and he immediately became more active and stopped binging. So ingredients obviously matter. That being said we didn’t put a ton of actual effort into his weight loss.

 

[Kaitykats2123]

Really? Wow. I'll try out some other natural corn free foods. But I forgot to add one other thing. My cat doesn't like to play with toys. She sleeps most of the time and won' really do anything that's active.

 

[cheesycats]

Natural balance is just as high carb as cat chow. Have you tried wet food? I would (if you are able) switch to a wet low carb diet. If you have to feed kibble at all a high meat protein food would be best (dr elseys, nature’s variety raw boost, young again) but I would make at least one meal a wet food meal if you can. Then put out the designated amount of calories she has left in kibble for the rest of the night. And ignore the winning. She’s been over fed and doesn’t know what it’s like to be on a healthy schedule. It can take awhile for her to adjust but if you keep ignoring her and keep her on a tight schedule she’ll get over it.
My two indoor cats split a 5.5 oz can of food then share about 1/2 cup of natures variety for dinner. This keeps them in perfect weight .
If your cat absolutely refuses new food (make sure you’re slowly mixing any new food in with the old) then cut back on the food she’s on now and ignore her complaints. Also try the wet food. A good cheaper canned food is fancy feast classics. It’s pretty popular with cats so maybe she would enjoy that.
Also do you play with her? Does she have a toy she absolutely loves? Mine love the laser pointer and I try to keep them active for atleast 20-30 mins with that a few times a week.

Ps. With any food or toys you buy at a petstore, most pet stores will have a 30-60 day return no questions asked. Even on opened foods. Just keep the reciept and bring it back and try the next thing.

 

[Kaitykats2123]

Natural balance is just as high carb as cat chow. Have you tried wet food? I would (if you are able) switch to a wet low carb diet. If you have to feed kibble at all a high meat protein food would be best (dr elseys, nature’s variety raw boost, young again) but I would make at least one meal a wet food meal if you can. Then put out the designated amount of calories she has left in kibble for the rest of the night. And ignore the winning. She’s been over fed and doesn’t know what it’s like to be on a healthy schedule. It can take awhile for her to adjust but if you keep ignoring her and keep her on a tight schedule she’ll get over it.
My two indoor cats split a 5.5 oz can of food then share about 1/2 cup of natures variety for dinner. This keeps them in perfect weight .
If your cat absolutely refuses new food (make sure you’re slowly mixing any new food in with the old) then cut back on the food she’s on now and ignore her complaints. Also try the wet food. A good cheaper canned food is fancy feast classics. It’s pretty popular with cats so maybe she would enjoy that.
Also do you play with her? Does she have a toy she absolutely loves? Mine love the laser pointer and I try to keep them active for atleast 20-30 mins with that a few times a week.

Ps. With any food or toys you buy at a petstore, most pet stores will have a 30-60 day return no questions asked. Even on opened foods. Just keep the reciept and bring it back and try the next thing.

 

[Kaitykats2123]

Natural balance is just as high carb as cat chow. Have you tried wet food? I would (if you are able) switch to a wet low carb diet. If you have to feed kibble at all a high meat protein food would be best (dr elseys, nature’s variety raw boost, young again) but I would make at least one meal a wet food meal if you can. Then put out the designated amount of calories she has left in kibble for the rest of the night. And ignore the winning. She’s been over fed and doesn’t know what it’s like to be on a healthy schedule. It can take awhile for her to adjust but if you keep ignoring her and keep her on a tight schedule she’ll get over it.
My two indoor cats split a 5.5 oz can of food then share about 1/2 cup of natures variety for dinner. This keeps them in perfect weight .
If your cat absolutely refuses new food (make sure you’re slowly mixing any new food in with the old) then cut back on the food she’s on now and ignore her complaints. Also try the wet food. A good cheaper canned food is fancy feast classics. It’s pretty popular with cats so maybe she would enjoy that.
Also do you play with her? Does she have a toy she absolutely loves? Mine love the laser pointer and I try to keep them active for atleast 20-30 mins with that a few times a week.

Ps. With any food or toys you buy at a petstore, most pet stores will have a 30-60 day return no questions asked. Even on opened foods. Just keep the reciept and bring it back and try the next thing.

Wow. That's a lot of useful info! Thanks!

 

[Kaitykats2123]

Natural balance is just as high carb as cat chow. Have you tried wet food? I would (if you are able) switch to a wet low carb diet. If you have to feed kibble at all a high meat protein food would be best (dr elseys, nature’s variety raw boost, young again) but I would make at least one meal a wet food meal if you can. Then put out the designated amount of calories she has left in kibble for the rest of the night. And ignore the winning. She’s been over fed and doesn’t know what it’s like to be on a healthy schedule. It can take awhile for her to adjust but if you keep ignoring her and keep her on a tight schedule she’ll get over it.
My two indoor cats split a 5.5 oz can of food then share about 1/2 cup of natures variety for dinner. This keeps them in perfect weight .
If your cat absolutely refuses new food (make sure you’re slowly mixing any new food in with the old) then cut back on the food she’s on now and ignore her complaints. Also try the wet food. A good cheaper canned food is fancy feast classics. It’s pretty popular with cats so maybe she would enjoy that.
Also do you play with her? Does she have a toy she absolutely loves? Mine love the laser pointer and I try to keep them active for atleast 20-30 mins with that a few times a week.

Ps. With any food or toys you buy at a petstore, most pet stores will have a 30-60 day return no questions asked. Even on opened foods. Just keep the reciept and bring it back and try the next thing.

She doesn' really play at all much. She sleeps most of the day

 

[nese]

Are you free feeding her or giving her meal in portions?
If you are free feeding her, it is very hard to make her lose weight no matter what she eats.
2 years ago, we succeeded to make our male cat lose weight from 10 kg to 5 kg, without even changing his food. What we did is to weight the Daily amount of food with kitchen scale and than give it in portions throughout the day.

When he started to lose weight he become more interested in plays, which made even easier to lose weight.

We were using grain free food and giving 50-60 grams a day.

What is important is to not to reduce the amount your cat eats dramatically, this may stress the liver. You can weight the amount she eats now, and than reduce the amount step by step. Fast weight lose is not something recommended and healthy, the goal should be to lose appr. 200 grams a month.

 

[KSV]

She doesn' really play at all much. She sleeps most of the day

The most successful toy is a feather toy called Da Bird on Amazon. You have to imitate a bird. Most cats respond.

Also I hide pellets of food all over my place so my cat has to move around to find it. I don’t feed my cats as much so they have to be active to find foods. They are not starving though, they are of normal weigh.

What did the vet recommend? It is highly unlikely that your cat will never eat if you don’t feed her... it’s just really hard for us to tolerate. She will eventually eat. The hardest part is to learn to tolerate her asking for food without giving in.

 

[KarenKat]

Natural balance is just as high carb as cat chow

Agreed. But way higher in protein and that made the difference for Trin. I should have expounded that if I had to do it over again I would have picked a low carb food that had meat as the first ingredient and didn’t use pea protein since cats have a hard time digesting plant protein vs animal protein. It’s been a journey of discovery for me. We are planning on switching him off of it to something else soon like Orijen or Dr Elsey’s.

When he started to lose weight he become more interested in plays, which made even easier to lose weight.

Same here. In fact once he was off the Cat Chow he got way more active immediately and was jumping up on things he ignored before. It was crazy.

The most successful toy is a feather toy called Da Bird on Amazon. You have to imitate a bird. Most cats respond.

Yes!! This toy is amazing. It mimics the motion and sound of bird feathers in flight and all our cats love it!

 

[ej x]

+1 for Da bird. Awesome toy. Also Go Go cat My cats hate electric toys and love this. Try a Laser toy also, but when using laser, switch for a bit to physical by pointing the laser to the physical toy and then continue with that.

For weight try giving the same food and scaling back, if she is hungry she'll bug you but you have to hold on.

Also making her eat in smaller meals will help.

If you can switch food to a higher protein like Instinct 95% or Orijen or Dr Elseys, but just buy the best you can afford and that would be awesome and if some of it is wet even more so (even if it is Fancy Feast Classics). I know orijen has a new food Fit and trim, haven't tried it but in general my dogs and cats have loved that brand.

Also you could try some low calorie food toppers and see if she will eat diet food.

For the kibble you might want to buy a food dispensing toy such as kong and see if she will work for her meals, and that gives her a bit of excercise and slows down her eating.

Good luck

 

[LTS3]

You'll find weight loss tips and suggestions here:

Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats

Weight loss has been discussed many times here on TCS so read some previous threads for more tips:

Search Results for Query: weight loss fat cat | TheCatSite
Mickey, my 27 lbs foster and his journey back to a healthy weight

If you can feed more canned food than dry food that would be helpful. Feeding the appropriate amount of calories daily will also help. The Catinfo.org link has more detail.

Don't expect to see a noticable loss in weight right away. Weight loss in cats needs to be done slowly to avoid fatty liver disease. It may take several months or longer for your cat to achieve weight loss. Patience is a must

 

[KarenKat]

Another good site is catfooddb.com they list the breakdown of protein-fat-carbs in different foods and highlight ingredients that could be allergens or might be questionable.

 

[Tigerteddy55]

I adopted a 16 lb cat about a month ago - previous owners were definitely feeding him way too much! He had begun losing the weight in the shelter and he now weighs about 15.5 lbs. Nothing about his diet was changed - he eats Purina, but he only gets about 3/4ths of a cup of food per day with no treats. Along with upped activity, he has begun to lose the weight and become more active. I hope this helps!