Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: viking_snail on October 19, 2009, 16:52:13 PM
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Hi - I've come here looking for some advice about our overweight cat. We've been trying to help her lose weight, but so far haven't achieved much.
Our cat is a female moggy called Barry (thought she was a boy when she was a kitten but the name stuck!) and she's 3 years old. She has been spayed and I'd say she'd be a medium-large cat if she weren't overweight. We have two other cats with no weight problems.
She used to eat 'regular' cat food (whiskers, felix etc) - around half a can a day plus biscuits, the same as our other cats. We noticed she was getting quite overweight, and have switched her food to light food. Recently she's been getting a light pouch/can twice a day plus some light biscuits - around 180g of food per day, although at the moment we're trying cutting out the biscuits as they're alot fattier and giving her another small can a day instead.
When we started monitoring her weight she was 6.8kg, and her weight has fluctuated each week by around 100g, the lightest she got was 6.5kg, but at the moment she's at 6.7kg, so we haven't got very far. We've been making an effort to play with her more so she gets more exercise, and she goes out morning and night so she's fairly active.
She seems well in herself, and is still capable of washing, jumping, running etc.
We're taking her to the vets on wednesday to rule out any health issues causing/affecting her weight, but today the nurse reccommended giving her just 80g plus a few biscuits of food per day. Well, we didn't think much to that - cutting her food so dramatically seems cruel and from what I've read putting a cat on a diet must be a gradual thing.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Ooh, and here's a pic of our lovely Barry: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/help_im_a_snail/barry-1.jpg
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I've got a ahem slightly portly cat myself lol! her main problem is that she will only eat biscuits - lots of people here will recommend wet food only to help with weight loss - also toys that make them run around a bit da bird from the purrs shop or the laser pointer go down well
welcome by the way!
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Hi and :welcome: to Purrs! glad you found us ;D
:) Barry is lovely! Ths link has some info which may help:
http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,4832.0.html
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i definately wouldnt slash her food like that and gradually is the best.
i would start reducing the biscuits slowly and then leave some biscuits and reduce rhe wet food.
treats and human food should stop and maybe biscuits used as a treat eventually.
its a hard thing to do and i am trying to reduce my two big cats weight too, one is over 6.5 kgs and the other has reached 6kgs grrrrrrrrrr
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If she will eat just a wet diet she will be better off, she can eat a bigger portion so feel fuller and consume less calories, dry food is high in calories.
If you can change her to a high meat low/no grain wet food that will also help.
Then you need to up exercise, have you a laser pen? Also da bird is fab for getting them moving, both of these can be found in the purrs shop ;)
The vets will probably tell you to feed her just dry and sell you a diet biscuit :innocent:
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:welcome: to Purrs Viking Snail and Barry of course :Luv:
Apart from substituting cat names and "normal" size of cat, I could have written your post and I feel for you. I've been battling to no avail with the weight of my "little" 3 year old female (see said lady in my avatar).
It's no different to humans. People (i.e. vet) will try to sell you diet food (lite this and that) when the only things to help are reduced intake and more exercise. If you're like me you will struggle mightily with the awful cruelty of withdrawing dry food and reducing wet food :) (reducing to 80g a day is a bit OTT though :shocked:)
One things for sure though, exercise can only happen with the best toys and you simply must take a peek at our shop to get the best (Da Bird with various other attachments esp Da Mosey)
No use am I? :sneakin:
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I too have a ginger female of more than ample proportions, who will not eat any fresh meat or fish, and only a very small amount of wet cat food
but show her a dish of biccies and she's in her element, alas :(
in her case the damage was done, I think, while she was a kitten, and didn't get fed regularly - some days nothing, then too much - so she learnt to clear her dish however much was in it in case that was going to be all she got for a few days
I imagine this is true of quite a few rescue cats
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:welcome: to Purrs, viking_snail: glad you found us and decided to join.
Barry is beautiful, although I can see there's a little too much of her. Our Blip is currently on a weight reduction regime, which involves reducing her dried food and increasing her exercise. JaneyK's link will give you a lot of good advice.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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Hi Viking and Barry -
I too am the Mother of a fatty :evillaugh:
I have 8 cats of normal weight and then Lilly who is a tad large !!
Lilly was one of 4 kittens but the other 3 are fine :-[
I have tried alot of things but sadly i have given up now.......I'm no help either am i :rofl:
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I wonder if your Barry is getting fed anywhere else on her morning and afternoon trips out? :sneaky: Does she have a collar, or could you put a note on wrapped in sellotape saying please don't feed me for my health and your phone number?
I have been reading that some cats will tend to put on weight if they eat too many carbohydrates, as cereals (rice/ wheat/ maize) are not a natural part of a cats diet. I know from my work (NHS) that some humans can also tend to gain weight this way. Maybe you could try a high meat/ low grain dry food such as Applaws or Orijen?
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Thanks for everyone's help!
Well, we've just discovered that the 'light' biscuits she's had are actually fattier than the regular ones! So that can't have been helping :-: But I think cutting out or at least reducing the biscuits is a way to go.
At the moment she eats mainly Encore, Almo Nature and Science plan stuff - most of the stuff she gets is high meat content and low in carbs so we're already on to that one! :)
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the vets just try to sell stuff to us - the main reason we're going is to rule out any underlying health issues, of course we'll take on board any diet advice of theirs, but if what the nurse said is anything to go by I don't hold out much hope!
Yes we have a laser pen, unfortunately she lost interest in that! Not that I don't keep trying though! I'll make a point of getting her to exercise at least once a day though, her favourites at the moment are a foil ball, some toy which resembles a feather boa on some string attatched to a stick (there are some crazy toys out there! :D ) and a simple piece of string - I'll drag it along the garden floor and get her running.
Hmm, I'm pretty sure she doesn't eat anywhere else - she doesn't like to leave the comfort of her garden really, so I would doubt she would stray much further than our street, and none of our neighbours have cats. She's more in and out than out for long periods too, plus she's always asking for food when she gets in!
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I was told that the best dry food is RC obesity but you have to be firm about not feeding too much
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Misa has to sample every dish he walks past!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Definitely agree with MM - dry food is the problem, too many carbs which are not needed - even prescription and so called 'light' diets. :) I'd also stick to wet food, like the ones you are already giving her - others which are high meat and no carb are Hi Life real meat pouches and Natures Menu. There are a couple of low carb dry if you still wanted her to have a few biscuits (although I'd still limit those and go for 2-3 wet food meals a day) - such as Applaws dry and Orijen dry.
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How important is it to watch the amount of fat in her food? We've just been going for the lower ones as you'd assume they're the best - the highest she gets is 2.2%, the lowest 0.3%. Some of the Hi Life ones are a fair bit more - are they still ok or should we stick to the lightest available?
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My understanding is that cats need much more protein and more fat than we do in our diets. In humans it's actually the combination of excess fats and excess carbs than lead to weight gain, not fats alone - if you think about Atkins Diet you lose weight eating high fat foods (tho in a very unhealthy way for a human). In cats it seems to be all about the carbs, their bodies are just not set up to use them for energy as we are.
When you say you were feeding Light, do you mean the Hills Light? Looking at the ingredients that seems to be higher in carbs and lower in meat than the standard Hills, lots of maize and rice. These are high glycaemic index carbs in humans, causing a lot of insulin to be produced which can cause weight gain around the waist. Can't say for sure it's the same in cats, as I'm just a beginner on feline nutrition, it's Gillian (Ambercats) who knows her stuff.
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She will generally have a pouch/can of wet food twice a day - either Applaws, Encore, Almo Nature, Royal Canin light or Hills Science Plan light. She also has Hills Science plan light biscuits - although we've just started reducing the biscuits and replacing them with more wet food.
Most of her food seems to have a high meat/low carb content - haven't got any of the Hills pouches in to check the ingredients at the moment. Should we be avoiding these ones then?
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viking snail,
Get her to the vets! I thought Orbit was putting on weight but later found out it was actually fluid accumulating around his heart due to early life liver(?) failiure.I'm sure the firt vet I took him to misdiagnosed him because it was'nt until I took him to a closer vet than the one I originly used,they found out what was really wrong.
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She will generally have a pouch/can of wet food twice a day - either Applaws, Encore, Almo Nature, Royal Canin light or Hills Science Plan light. She also has Hills Science plan light biscuits - although we've just started reducing the biscuits and replacing them with more wet food.
Most of her food seems to have a high meat/low carb content - haven't got any of the Hills pouches in to check the ingredients at the moment. Should we be avoiding these ones then?
Hills Science wet contains meat derivatives and cereals, as does Royal Canin (ingredients on Pets at Home website) so I'd just use up what you have. The Science Plan Light biscuits are primarily rice, again a carbohydrate/ cereal. Applaws, Almo and Encore are all great if memory serves me correctly - alternatives include Bozita wet, Pets at Home Purely and Feline Fayre, all high meat and no cereals.
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Abby our lovely girl (Inside only cat) has been on hills r/d wet and dry food diet from the vet for nearly a year she has gone from 6.6 kilos to 4.9 with a few blips along the way
The key i have found is YOU have to be firm don't give in to please can i have some more
Measure out a set amount of food per day and spread the meals out accross the day
we also have a treat ball into which i put some of her daily allowance of dried food, so she has to work for it
Abby always tries to finish Zak's dinner so when he leaves it it gets put away for later
She has turned into a bin raider will steal packets of meat and make holes in if i don't put them away
But then she does realise that she is not goona get anymore eventually lol
Everytime i go to the kitchen she is there to see if i will give her anything lol
good luck and persevere
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Thanks for everyone's replies - you've been so helpful! I'll be sure to avoid any foods with high carbs from now on. I just have to work on my mum now - she's terrible at being firm and not giving any extra food so I shall be monitoring her as well as Barry! :P
@mervyn7451 - that's terrible! :( Was Orbit ok in the end? We're off to the vets tomorrow, fingers crossed she's ok!
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I just have to work on my mum now - she's terrible at being firm and not giving any extra food so I shall be monitoring her as well as Barry! :P
:) My mum was the same. Korky knew it and would pester her until she gave him something. If she had nothing else she would give him butter :Crazy:
Not everyone agrees with 'diet' foods but we had some success with the Royal Canin Obesity Management pouches which the vet recommended. If you live anywhere near Bolton or the M62 between Bolton and Leeds I have some going spare (no charge) if you choose to go down that route.
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That's interesting we have two people who the diet foods have been successful for, as of course it's human nature for us to be more vocal when something isn't successful! May I ask you both if the type of food was the only thing you changed? What I mean is did you also start exercising portion control and/ or change from wet to dry or dry to wet and/ or more wet or dry and/ or more physical activity? Hope that makes sense. :-[
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I know of someone who still fed dry but weighed out portions and they managed to get their cat to the correct weight eventually.
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Thanks for everyone's replies - you've been so helpful! I'll be sure to avoid any foods with high carbs from now on. I just have to work on my mum now - she's terrible at being firm and not giving any extra food so I shall be monitoring her as well as Barry! :P
@mervyn7451 - that's terrible! :( Was Orbit ok in the end? We're off to the vets tomorrow, fingers crossed she's ok!
He was for a few months but sadly passed away in September. :(
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Abby has been more active we have been more helpful with things like Da bird and a laser but she runs and scales the doors here anyway but she def seems more agile now lol
all best at the vets we have a weigh in tomorrow once every 4 weeks
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May I ask you both if the type of food was the only thing you changed? What I mean is did you also start exercising portion control and/ or change from wet to dry or dry to wet and/ or more wet or dry and/ or more physical activity? Hope that makes sense. :-[
Korky was always already overweight on 'normal' wet food but he really piled it on when he was diagnosed with kidney problems and the vet put him on DRY renal food, so I suppose you could say that when he went on the O/M wet pouches he was changing from dry to wet. The O/M was considered to be the best option for him because it was lower in phosphate content than a lot of 'normal' foods so better for his kidneys. We followed the recommended portion sizes which in fact were the same as the portion sizes he had been used to when he ate 'normal' wet food (just lower in calories) which I think was a huge advantage because he didn't feel deprived. Did we increase physical exercise? We tried but Korky's idea of physical exercise was to chew more vigorously :rofl: :rofl: Any attempts to get him to work harder left us exhausted and Korky bemused but defiant.
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CarolM: That's really kind of you! Unfortunately I live in Northampton so not very close! But thanks! :)
Mervyn7451: I'm sorry to hear that :(
The treat ball is a good idea - whenever Barry is hassling us for food, we put a tiny amount of biscuits in there which keeps her amused for a while and stops the begging! Sometimes we can even get her to run for it! :P
She's done good with exercising today, managed to spark some more interest in the laser pen and had her running up and down the stairs!
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A strict amount of diet dry will work but i dont think its nice for the cat to be hungry, they will raid outside food sources if they get the chance.
If Lola was presented with 60g bix for the day she would be mortified :( thats why i think using wet is better, they can eat that much more for the same calories
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Update on Abby she weighs 4.83kg today her lowest weight yet way to go Abby :yayyy: :yayyy: :yayyy:
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Update on Abby she weighs 4.83kg today her lowest weight yet way to go Abby :yayyy: :yayyy: :yayyy:
:wow: well done Abby! and you x
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I was listening from bed to Tiffany raiding the JWB I put down in the bedroom for Trigger, who won't eat if Tosker is around (and he usually is :innocent:)
it was quite alarming listening to the rhymatic crunching, which went on and on and on, and which reminded me so much of kids in the cinema with big bags of popcorn :shify:
no wonder she's fat, but it just reinforces my belief that this is a behavioural thing rather than a physical one
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You might try a raw skinless chicken wing? They are low fat, low carb, high protein and not at all expensive. My Noah was going at his first ever (with me anyway!) for well over half an hour, absolutely loved it and really slowed his eating! :Luv:
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Tiffany won't eat any fresh meat or fish, cooked or raw, and only a few mouthfuls of wet food
but at least she is starting to run around more with Tosker, mostly away from him ;D
I suppose cats are like people really - if the diet can't be modified much more exercise might do the trick - and that has other health benefits too, of course
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Congrats on Abby losing that weight! :)
Barry went to the vets yesterday and the vet doesn't think she has any kind of underlying health problems so that's good :) She weighed her at 6.6kg and said we should aim to get her to 5kg, and we've got another appointment in a month to see how she's doing. She was a really nice vet - didn't give us a lecture about it and didn't try to force their dry food onto us! She said the most important thing is to take it slowly and even if Barry is only at 6.5kg next time then it's a step in the right direction. She reckons what we're feeding her is the right stuff and to keep up the exercise.
Barry won't eat anything other than cat food it seems - she's never been one to hassle us for our food, and isn't interested in fresh meat atall. We thought about getting her some fresh fish but all that would achieve is our other cats trying to steal it!
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onwards and upwards then Viking snail or should that be downwards lol
Good luck and keep us informed
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*waves*
My Geoffrey has lost 1kg in the past 8 months. Contrary to some other suggestions, I was feeding nature's menu/bozita and swapped to the Royal Canin Ultra light pouches and light biscuits. To start with, I gave him one pouch each, morning and evening and half a pouch at lunchtime and a small pinch of biscuits at bedtime. As he lost weight and I wanted to stabilise him I started swapping the lunchtime half pouch into a small pinch of biscuits, and he is now nicely stable at 6.3kg - which still sounds a lot but my vet says he is a big cat and it's about the right weight. I was already playing with him a lot, but the other thing I started doing was removing Milly's food when she walked away from it - previously he was just hoovering up her leftovers so I was quite strict to stop him doing that.
So I guess although RC may not 'technically' be the best food, having tried lots of options over the past couple of years, it's the thing that's worked best for me! Good luck with yours...it does seem painstakingly slow, but I'm sure you'll get there in the end.
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Congrats on all the cats who have lost weight. Depending on the age of the cat, senior food can help, and I always feed senior/light dry to the cats who are a bit overweight.
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Just found this on a US Forum, might be of interest
The Winn Feline Foundation blogs about a study done on the impact protein and carbs have on kitty weight loss.
http://winnfelinehealth.blogspot.com...t-in-cats.html
Basically, it boils down to....a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet (wet food or, even better, raw food) means the cats will/can lose weight even if they eat more than a cat on a higher carb, lower protein diet (any kind of kibble, including prescription).
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Well, we're persevering with the diet and exercise - we haven't cut out the dry food completely, but she now only gets it in her treat ball (and only when she's done lots of exercise!) and occaisionally one of her meals will be dry food when money is tight. Hopefully it is helping :)
The exercise is getting tricky though! She can get quite angry when we get her to run about (I don't know if she just really gets into wanting to kill that string/ball/laser etc, or if she just doesn't like it!) and will growl a fair bit, occaisionally taking it out on our other cats :( Any advice on that one?
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I remember reading somewhere that they should be allowed to kill something at the end otherwise they get frustrated
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Hmm, well I always try to let her have a good go at whatever it is we're playing with before starting again, but that's a bit tricky with a laser pen! :doh:
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I think with those you have to give them something like a toy mouse or something that they can kill at the end of the game
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Ok, thanks! I'll give it a go and see if it helps :)
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Well, unfortunately the losing weight isn't going very well :(
We've been feeding her the same stuff (Encore etc) - she has been getting 3 70g cans a day and while I tried to not give her any dry food, my mum had other ideas! Admittedly the exercise hasn't gone to plan as we've been ill recently, but I'm picking that up again now.
In the past couple of weeks she has gained weight and is now roughly 6.9kg :( We're thinking about giving her 2 cans a day - and I will be strictly monitoring my mum and the dry food!
We've been told to feed her for a 5kg cat - just how much should a 5kg cat be eating?
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If she eats encore and very limted dry she wont have enough complete food in her diet, is there another brand she can eat that is complete to balance that out?
Hopefully when her exercise is increased you will see results ;D
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She doesn't just eat Encore - well, we have a multi pack of it at the moment so she's getting quite a bit - but usually she'll get Applaws, Almo Nature and Royal Canin. She probably gets the other stuff more often - it's just that Encore is on sale at the moment!
We were wondering whether little cans of tuna (in springwater) would be ok for a meal for her?
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We were wondering whether little cans of tuna (in springwater) would be ok for a meal for her?
they should be fine occasionally :)
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Asda sell the large tins of Feline Fayre, including the tuna variety for 60p which is absolutely packed with fish! Still not a complete food but perhaps more balanced (and cheaper) than tuna in water? ;D
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3 out of those 4 are complementary so i would still be wary. Tuna can be addictive to some cats so would keep that as a treat for her
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I'd emphasise tuna as a treat only. I'm pretty sure our Tom and Gandolf developed fatty lumps as a result of too much tuna over the years and they can be quite uncomfortable.