Need to regain weight

[sarah430]

My exclusively indoor cat got outside and was out for 26 days. She mostly hid in the bushes but I put out food and she ate some of it so she didn’t totally starve the whole time. She didn’t look too bad on the surveillance camera or the few times I saw her in person. But now that she’s back in I can see and feel that she’s lost a lot of weight. Maybe 2 lbs loss when normally she’s about 10 lbs.

is there a recommended way to put the weight back on her? I don’t normally free feed - my cats get two meals of commercial raw or high quality canned plus a freeze dried treat or two. I have a bag of good quality dry that I bought to feed her outside which I intend to use up. But otherwise I don’t feed them dry food (aside from the treat). Should I just give her some extra small meals? Thanks!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi! I am glad you have your girl back home inside!

If she maintained her old weight on a certain amount of food/calories, I would imagine she will slowly gain weight back as she resumes her old eating schedule. Sure, you can throw in some extra treats, but I would just watch her weight over the next couple of weeks and see if she starts to gain any with her old eating routines.

Just like it isn't good to lose weight too quickly (which there is nothing you could have done about that!), it can't be any healthier to gain back weight too rapidly.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

You could try adding in an egg yolk or two per week. This is very good protein and added calories. Very healthy and if she already eats raw, she should actually take to it. You can just crack open an egg, separate it and whip up the yolk a little before adding it to her food. No need to cook it, but you can if you want. Now that I think about it, you might want to cook it and then just give her part of the egg at a time ad it might be too rich to give her an entire yolk at once since she's been off her food. If you cook it, you can cook the entire egg, not just the yolk. The whites are full of protein too, but have few calories.

 

[sarah430]

That’s a great idea....Thanks mrsgreenjeens

 

[abyeb]

I’m glad that your kitty returned safely! You’ve gotten excellent advice already, but one more thing I thought of is that you could also try a small amount (like a spoonful) of plain yogurt as a treat. Charlie’s vet told me that it’s fine to give yogurt to cats, because it has less lactose than milk. Just be sure that the yogurt doesn’t contain any xylitol (which is poisonous to cats).

 

[sarah430]

Thank you abyeb ! That reminds me I’ve given them goats milk in the past as a treat. I think I’ll pick some up.