Two Rescue Kitties Are Extremely Over Weight

[Caseydaun4]

I recently adopted two more cats from a shelter . They are siblings and were transferred to my local shelter from a rural shelter where they had spent four years! They are extremely over weight and i am concerned if i don't help them lose the weight it will negatively affect their health. The male is the largest, he has a hard time attempting to jump on the furniture . I have all of my cats on nulo indoor grain free duck & cod. It contains no poatato or starchy ingredients, it's low calorie, and is highly digestable. I'm hoping this alone will help them lose? I also was told replacing part of their diet with wet food would help them lose weight, but i was always under the assumption it would cause them to gain. Any one heard of this? I don't give treats very often, in fact i rarely buy them and perfer to buy them toys & things. Any weight loss advice would be appreciated

 

[Furballsmom]

Wet food is a much better diet, but you still have to watch the analysis of carbs, protein kcals and of course the ingredient list overall.

Also, they, (bless your heart by the way) need exercise, as you can guess.

Instinct Raw boost grain free kibble and raw could possibly be a dry choice.

18 Awesome Cat Feeding Tips By Thecatsite Staff Members
Cat Food & Feline Nutrition With Pet Nutritionist Dr. Martha Cline
How To Compare Cat Foods & Calculate Carbs: Dry Matter Basis

8 Superb Automated Cat Toys That You're Going To Love!
Choosing The Right Cat Toy For Your Kitten

 

[duckpond]

One thing i would suggest is have a vet visit first thing. Work with the vet on their weight loss. It is very important that they loose weight, but it can be deadly if they loose it to fast. It must be a slow process, or they will end up with fatty liver. I know my vet has said you never want to reduce the calories a cat is eating by more than 20% for weight loss. It may be hard to figure out how many they get right now?

Wet food is often the preferred food for weight loss. We want to feed all cats high protein, moderate fat, and low carbs. this is especially important for over weight cats. It is easier to find this in wet foods... somewhat. Calories count, but where the calories come from counts for cats as well. we want the majority of the calories to be from protein, then fat, and little from carbs.

Two places i like to check out foods.

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Best of luck with your journey, and i am thankful that you have adopted them, it sounds like they need you! Do keep us updated on them.

 

[LTS3]

Dry food is too high in calories which causes weight gain. Some dry foods contain as much as 600 calories per cup No cat needs that many calories daily. The Nulo dry food you have contains 439 calories per cup, still too much for a cat.

Canned foods are much lower in calories, typically less than 100 calories for a 3 oz can or a pouch and around 150 calories for a 5.5 oz can.

Typical weight loss program is to first figure out how much your cat needs to lose. Then start feeding enough calories daily to maintain the current weight and to get the cat used to it. That might take a week or so. Then slooowwwlly decrease the amount of calories until the cat starts to lose weight. I'd reduce calories by 50 at a time. So if the cat is currently eating 500 calories, the first reduction should be to 450 calories then 400 then 350, etc. Aim for no more than a 1 pound loss with each calorie reduction. This will take time depending on the cat so have plenty of patience It may take a few weeks or more for a cat to achieve a 1 pound weight loss. Weight loss in cats needs to be slowly to avoid fatty liver disease.

Weight loss tips and suggestions:

Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats
Mickey, my 27 lbs foster and his journey back to a healthy weight
Search Results for Query: weight loss fat cat | TheCatSite