Cat signal!

katiewhompus

Demon is a fat cat, and she needs to lose weight. She currently weighs 12 pounds and the last vet I saw said she needs to be at an 8-10 pound range, with 10 being the absolute highest. She doesn't slim in at the waist, and her pooch swings when she walks. She's still adorable.

When I talked to her last vet about a weight loss plan she said "Oh, just put her on a light or weight loss food and free feed her. She'll make her own decisions."
Um, no. Free feeding is what made her fat in the first place, and most of the weight loss foods are crap. She's also very picky about what she eats which complicates it.

I've read cat vet articles saying a regular house cat should get about 30 calories/ pound of weight and that losing weight too quickly can result in renal failure.

Does it make sense to feed her the calories needed for a cat .5 pounds lighter to get her lose weight safety? So right now I would feed her about 330 calories (aiming at 11.5), then when she drops to 11.5 feed her for 11, 10.5, etc?

ricksang

I have no idea.  A ll my animals are a little overweight.

JenGin74

Kind of like Weight Watchers points? That makes sense to me.

scoetto

Roscoe is a large cat, but not overweight (so they say, at 22 lbs).
Otto is a tiny bird of a cat (at 15 lbs) who binges & purges.

Both are free range eaters but don't eat 24/7. I have no clue what you should do. Roscoe isn't picky where Otto is.

katiewhompus

Oh my goodness, 22 pounds?

I'm convinced Demon is a boredom eater. She also refuses to play with her toys by herself so she gets bored a lot.

jasmineh7777

It sounds logical to me.
My cat has also gotten a bit chubby. It could be the free feeding, or the fact that she gets treats several times a day.

anna.oskar

i have no clue but that makes sense to me.

vegasgroom

She'll only be picky for so long, hunger has a way of motivating. :-)

katiewhompus

You would think that Vegas, but she's stubborn. When she was sick and on her Turkey diet she went for a good 36 hours refusing food (after a 24 hour fast, vets order) until I broke and gave her some of her dry food.

zippityb

For the low, low price of $312, you can get your cat a "treadmill," which just looks like a giant hamster wheel. Maybe you could pipe in some Jock Jams or something to get her pumped up.

formerlymeowmeow

Or put her on a regular treadmill and give her Hell!

katiewhompus

I had one of those wheels for the rats and chinchilla. All of my animals are lazy bums lol. I am currently the only person in my house awake. S is asleep in his chair, Katie on her bed, Diamond in her house, and Demon on the computer chair. The mean part of me wants to get an airhorn or something and have some fun.

mocha beans

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_cat-signal?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:b2100da2-0629-42c1-8312-4dcd4dba7312Post:643d3807-64fb-40f4-84f1-a0567c9102a2">Re: Cat signal!</a>:
[QUOTE]I had one of those wheels for the rats and chinchilla. All of my animals are lazy bums lol. I am currently the only person in my house awake. S is asleep in his chair, Katie on her bed, Diamond in her house, and Demon on the computer chair. <strong>The mean part of me wants to get an airhorn or something and have some fun</strong>.
Posted by katiewhompus[/QUOTE]

Do eeeiiiittt!

My cat is fat too.  We've cut out the dry food except for a small snack amount, which she doesn't eat much of anymore.  We've been cutting her diet down a little bit at a time, but it's not really having much effect it seems.  She seems to have gained weight on a raw chicken diet, which I heard made cats lose weight, so who knows.  Maybe she has a gland problem.

But your calorie logic seems to make sense to me.  I'd give it a shot, see what happens.

[Deleted User]

Whisky gets free food and is about 10 pounds. We give him wet food at night, and he howls like he's starving when it's dinnertime. I know what you mean by refusing to eat the food you give her, cats an be super stubborn. However, Whisky will eventually eat what's there. If she'll eat it, I'd try a low-calorie food.

I'd say try to get her active as much as possible. With Whisky, we got a child's fishing pole and tied a toy mouse on the end, and used that as a toy by casting out the line and he'd go running after it, then attack as we reel it in. I also taped together a shoebox and cut out a couple holes, then filled it with toys that make noise. he loves batting that thing around.

kimheartsscott

My cats have always been free fed and we have never had one that was over weight.  It's kind of weird, really.

I can't say a definitive "yes!" but your plan sounds good to me!

trinalo

Our cats are free fed. One of them is fat and one of them isn't, but Lucy (the fat one) doesn't eat any more than Buck (skinny one) does. As far as I can tell, she actually eats less. I do know she gained all the weight in the few months when she was the only cat.

I think your idea sounds like it could work. Just slowly reduce her intake. It's not like she'll starve.

randikins

FI and my cat, Mickey, used to weigh 19lbs, after a year of dieting we got him down to about 15lbs. Our vet told us to feed him a 1/2 cup of food a day and we would spread it out so he got 4 portions a day. The poor thing only has 5 teeth so sometimes when he ate, he would eat so fast and barely chew that he would throw it back up. So now we only feed him a can of soft food per day, portioning it out 4 times, and he's still doing well losing weight. With feeding Mickey on a schedule we have to feed our other cat Sweeney on a schedule too, since Mickey will go after the other's food.

Be prepared for a hungry and loud kitty, atleast Mickey is.

katiewhompus

Oh what's another loud animal. The dog has been on a diet for the last 2 months and is obnoxious about it, so let's throw another one in the mix.

Maybe it's a good thing I'm going back to work. Now Scott gets to deal with the whiney butts

gottahavashorti

That doesn't sound too unreasonable.  My family's cats were/are overweight and have been losing weight slowly but steadily for the last couple years.  The girl wasn't overweight when she was free fed, but since the boys showed up they are all on morning and evening feedings because my cat's brother hogs on the food.  Somewhere along the line the girl gained weight and the boys have always been big cats.

They got switched to a diet food very slowly - sprinking it on top, 1/4 diet 3/4 regular, then 1/2 diet 1/2 regular and were losing some weight but the vet recommended that they transition to all diet food.  They weren't a fan of it at first - mine would eat only the regular food, but eventually they got used to it

randikins

I forgot to mention that the food we feed Mickey is high in protein. We use Prescription diet. He seems to really like it.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Our vet suggested putting the food out for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night and the cats will get used to feeding themselves appropriately.

Of course, now they wake us up at first light, begging for breakfast.