Weight Loss HELP

soubida

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Hello!
TLDR: My cat is struggling greatly with weight gain issues... Please send help😭

She is about 9 years old, and have been on dehydrated raw for about a year and a half. Around 6.3kg, and gets the 5kg suggested amount of food everyday (i.e. 1 cup) split into 4 meals (she will throw up if she eats too much at once, so we split into 4 meals). She gets primal duck 1x, stella chewys turkey 1x, and northwest naturals rabbit 2x, all mixed with water at a 1:1.5 ratio. Doesn't get a lot of treats, once or twice a day maybe of a fingernail sized amount of freeze dried duck meat/heart or a small anchovy. We have tried to transition her to fresh raw food (many times) and have failed. She is allergic to chicken so that is not an option. She also gets prozyme, slippery elm, and kidney supplements (aventi kidney complete) everyday, along with fresh grass whenever she likes. We did bloodwork in January and it came back clean, besides slightly elevated kidney levels.

Sorry for the long post... Just wanted to include more details😅

Thank you for reading my post! Here is a picture of my cat as a thank you😂
IMG_0676.jpeg
 

neely

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Your cat is adorable. :bicolorcat: TCS has an excellent Article about how to get your cat to gain weight that also discusses several possible health issues:How To Get A Cat To Gain Weight – Cat Articles

Since your kitty had bloodwork two months ago it's possible her kidney levels have become more elevated. Therefore, please contact your vet since they have all her medical history. Best of luck, we'll being keeping our fingers crossed for her. :crossfingers:
 
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soubida

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Your cat is adorable. :bicolorcat: TCS has an excellent Article about how to get your cat to gain weight that also discusses several possible health issues:How To Get A Cat To Gain Weight – Cat Articles

Since your kitty had bloodwork two months ago it's possible her kidney levels have become more elevated. Therefore, please contact your vet since they have all her medical history. Best of luck, we'll being keeping our fingers crossed for her. :crossfingers:
thanks for the reply! my cat is gaining weight, not losing. if her kidney levels have elevated then she should be losing weight, not gaining. she does not need to gain any weight atm.
 

dhammagirl

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What a pretty kitty!
So, you’re wanting to prevent further weight gain, maybe get her to lose some weight, correct?

I got my boy Zeke, the white/black kitty in my avatar pic, to go from over 20 pounds to just over 15 pounds. It took about 3 years. He’s on raw food, including whole prey and chunks. He’s a ravenous, bottomless pit who would weigh 30 pounds if I let him eat as much as he wanted! :redtabby:

But whatever the food, as long as it’s not dry food or something with lots of plant foods,I’d say the biggest thing is to keep track of how much food (I go by weight, not volume), and how much kitty weighs. Reduce the food until kitty starts losing weight. Weigh kitty once a week. You don’t want her losing weight too fast. cat-info.org. is another good source for details about getting kitties to lose weight.

Zeke currently maintains his 15 pounds (he’s a big kitty, but no longer overweight) getting between
3.4 ounces to 4 ounces a day, depending on the food. (I’ve estimated the calories of the various foods, rabbit, chicken, turkey, and mice)

You may need to feed a lot less than what the food manufacturer suggests.
My ginger cat, Bilbo, weighs around 9.5 pounds, and eats more than Zeke. It’s just really variable from cat to cat.
 

LTS3

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Around 6.3kg, and gets the 5kg suggested amount of food everyday (i.e. 1 cup) split into 4 meals (she will throw up if she eats too much at once, so we split into 4 meals).

She gets primal duck 1x, stella chewys turkey 1x, and northwest naturals rabbit 2x, all mixed with water at a 1:1.5 ratio.
It would probably be better to feed by calories than by the suggested amount of food stated on the bag. A 6.3 kg (13 lb) cat would need roughly 260 calories to 325 calories daily to maintain weight. To lose weight, you would need to feed slightly less over time.

One ounce (about 3 nuggets) of Primal duck is 169 calories. A cup of Stella and Chewy's turkey is 208 calories. Northwest Naturals rabbit has 136 calories per ounce. How much of each brand are you feeding at each meal? You might be feeding too many calories daily which means weight gain.
 

kittyluv387

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You just need to feed less. The suggested amounts are over estimated to make you go through the food more quickly. You can probably start doing 1/2 of the amount of food on one of the feedings. And then maybe reduce it to just 3 feedings total if needed.
 
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soubida

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What a pretty kitty!
So, you’re wanting to prevent further weight gain, maybe get her to lose some weight, correct?

I got my boy Zeke, the white/black kitty in my avatar pic, to go from over 20 pounds to just over 15 pounds. It took about 3 years. He’s on raw food, including whole prey and chunks. He’s a ravenous, bottomless pit who would weigh 30 pounds if I let him eat as much as he wanted! :redtabby:

But whatever the food, as long as it’s not dry food or something with lots of plant foods,I’d say the biggest thing is to keep track of how much food (I go by weight, not volume), and how much kitty weighs. Reduce the food until kitty starts losing weight. Weigh kitty once a week. You don’t want her losing weight too fast. cat-info.org. is another good source for details about getting kitties to lose weight.

Zeke currently maintains his 15 pounds (he’s a big kitty, but no longer overweight) getting between
3.4 ounces to 4 ounces a day, depending on the food. (I’ve estimated the calories of the various foods, rabbit, chicken, turkey, and mice)

You may need to feed a lot less than what the food manufacturer suggests.
My ginger cat, Bilbo, weighs around 9.5 pounds, and eats more than Zeke. It’s just really variable from cat to cat.
thanks! i think for now we'll just let her eat only as much as she wants, and not try to get her to finish her food.. cuz she usually needs to be begged to finish everything lol. we're also kinda :/ about decreasing her food intake because essentially that would also decrease her water intake.. which might be bad for her kidneys given the current situation :(
 
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soubida

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It would probably be better to feed by calories than by the suggested amount of food stated on the bag. A 6.3 kg (13 lb) cat would need roughly 260 calories to 325 calories daily to maintain weight. To lose weight, you would need to feed slightly less over time.

One ounce (about 3 nuggets) of Primal duck is 169 calories. A cup of Stella and Chewy's turkey is 208 calories. Northwest Naturals rabbit has 136 calories per ounce. How much of each brand are you feeding at each meal? You might be feeding too many calories daily which means weight gain.
thanks for the info! i did that math and given that she gets 1/4 cup of duck/rabbit, and 1 nugget of duck, it works out to only about 176.3cal/day?? which def is under what she should be getting?? im so confused. or maybe my conversion is off of how to go from ounces to cups?
 
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soubida

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You just need to feed less. The suggested amounts are over estimated to make you go through the food more quickly. You can probably start doing 1/2 of the amount of food on one of the feedings. And then maybe reduce it to just 3 feedings total if needed.
if we fed less then essentially we would be decreasing her water intake as well.. which may affect her kidneys negatively😭 but i guess there really is no other option
 

kittyluv387

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if we fed less then essentially we would be decreasing her water intake as well.. which may affect her kidneys negatively😭 but i guess there really is no other option
Can you just add a little more water to her other meals?
 

LTS3

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Can you just add a little more water to her other meals?
:yeah:

Try the tips here, too:


thanks for the info! i did that math and given that she gets 1/4 cup of duck/rabbit, and 1 nugget of duck, it works out to only about 176.3cal/day?? which def is under what she should be getting?? im so confused. or maybe my conversion is off of how to go from ounces to cups?
One ounce of Primal duck equals about 3 nuggets. One nugget is about 53 calories.

Stella and Chewy's turkey is 208 calories per cup. 1/4 cup is about 52 calories.

Northwest Naturals rabbit is 136 calories per ounce. You'll need to weigh the food to see how many ounces are in a 1/4 cup measure and then calculate. It might be one ounce or it may be less or more than an ounce in a 1/4 cup measure. If you don't have a kitchen scale, then just call Northwest Naturals and ask for how many calories are in a cup.
 
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soubida

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:yeah:

Try the tips here, too:




One ounce of Primal duck equals about 3 nuggets. One nugget is about 53 calories.

Stella and Chewy's turkey is 208 calories per cup. 1/4 cup is about 52 calories.

Northwest Naturals rabbit is 136 calories per ounce. You'll need to weigh the food to see how many ounces are in a 1/4 cup measure and then calculate. It might be one ounce or it may be less or more than an ounce in a 1/4 cup measure. If you don't have a kitchen scale, then just call Northwest Naturals and ask for how many calories are in a cup.
thanks a lot! maybe i'll try weighing it later to see exactly how much there is in 1/4 cup... tried feeding her less last night and she was so hungry in the morning she scoffed down everything and threw up immediately after.......
 

kittyluv387

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i add so much water to her food already that it looks like more of a soup than food...
Then that should be fine. If she eats less there is less for her kidneys to process as well.
 

cataholic07

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Have you looked into feeding premade raw? raw is great for losing weight and has high moisture content :)
 
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