quote: Mischief, from Stevenage, lost 38% of his weight, slimming down to 6.3kg (14lb) after his size horrified vets.
"Mischief couldn't fit through the cat flap or even wash himself," Sharon Harding said of her six-year-old cat.
-------------------- I tried to get in touch with my inner child, but she isn't allowed to talk to strangers. Posts: 674 | From: Scotland | Registered: May 2004
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posted
As the human companion of a 26 pound cat that cannot properly wash itself, I'd really like to know *how* this cat lost weight...
Posts: 54 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Feb 2004
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Step 1) Take cat to vet. Step 2) Talk to vet about how to have cat lose weight. Make up detailed plan of how much food and what type of food to feed cat. Step 3) Go to pet store and pick up a cat toy (laser pointers generally work) and play with cat 30 min a day. You don't even have to move! Just sit on the couch and flick it around. Step 4) Go home and throw out kitty treats Step 5) Refuse to feed kitty any table scraps.
Ta da! That is the way to a thinner cat. However, do talk to your vet before dieting your cat. If a cat has too drastic a diet it can die, so you have to slowly reduce the amount you feed it.
-------------------- Whereas as you are dancing happily in the fields of ignorance through which the stream of stupidity bubbles and flows. -BlushingBride My my space. Posts: 656 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I have an 18 pound cat. He needs to lose weight, but no matter what, he will NOT move. Ever. Feathers, laser pointers, string, bits of paper, nothing. For awhile I resorted to squirting him with a water gun to just MAKE him move, but after awhile he didn't care about that either. He would just lay there and close his eyes and get squirted in the face. You chase him around and he leads you right to his bowl. I don't overfeed him at all, he just won't nfbsk'ing MOVE. He gets very few treats and absolutely no table scraps. Do they make a kitty version of the treadmill? Though he'd probably just try to lay down on that and have a nap.
At least he can still wash himself though. That's a plus.
-------------------- Katesune: We still can't find the way to albuquerque, and glisp won't stop to ask for directions. Glisp42: Of course not. I know where I'm going, I just don't know where I am right now
quote:Originally posted by Raven Waift: Easy, I'll even tell you how.
Step 1) Take cat to vet. Step 2) Talk to vet about how to have cat lose weight. Make up detailed plan of how much food and what type of food to feed cat. Step 3) Go to pet store and pick up a cat toy (laser pointers generally work) and play with cat 30 min a day. You don't even have to move! Just sit on the couch and flick it around. Step 4) Go home and throw out kitty treats Step 5) Refuse to feed kitty any table scraps.
1)I have 2)He doesn't eat a lot, and what he does is diet food. 3)I do try to play with him. We even got him a kitten to try to get him to play. He won't move. 4)He doesn't like kitty treats 5)He gets very few table scraps
I'm totally out of ideas...
Posts: 54 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
What is not a lot to you? It is very easy to overfeed a cat. Did the vet tell you how much to feed the cat?
See, the thing is, is it is easy to lose weight. Eat less exercise more.
Now, some owners leave their food out all day for their cats. Generally not a bad idea, as cats are snacky animals. However, if you have an overweight cat, this doesn't work. If you have a self-feeder (or gravity feeder) you need to throw this out. That's what you talk to the vet about. How much to feed them. And when.
I am not a vet. That said, in order for a cat to lose weight you need to monitor exactly how much food your cat is eating. If you have more than 1 cat, start feeding them seperately. Feed them small meals all throughout the day.
There is more than one form of exercise for a cat. You can use feathers, laser pointers, or you can take your cat for a walk. Yes, a walk, on a leash. By the by, a new kitten isn't a great way to get an older cat to exercise.
No table scraps. No, none at all. Think of it this way. You require about 2,000 calories a day. Cats require about 200-400, depending on the size of the cat. Seriously think about what you are feeding your cat when you are feeding it table scraps. Unless you are feeding the cat carrots, you are actually feeding your cat quite a bit of calories.
Say I feed my cat 1/8 of a boneless skinless chicken breast. That's about 25 calories. Now, for most cats, the ideal weight is 8 lbs. For that weight, the cat should have about 250 calories a day. In that little bit of chicken, you have given your cat approximately 10% of what it should be given per day. Now that is for boneless skinless chicken breast with no seasonings.
Now, I had a cat when I was little that loved chicken nuggets. Tyson chicken nuggets have approximately 60 calories per nugget. One chicken nugget is a full quarter of what you should feed your cat per day!
Now, unless you have a outdoor cat (and cannot control what it eats) having a fat cat is like having a fat baby. The cat/baby can only eat what you give it, and so if you have a fat cat/baby then the only person to blame is yourself. No offense, your cat did not magically get to 26 lbs. (of course I assume that you didn't just get the cat at that weight).
Look, this is a serious problem, and not one you can just give up on. A obese cat is like an obese human... they can get heart disease, diabetes, have liver problems. They will get arthritis sooner because they weigh so much. Proportionally a 26 lb cat is like a 500 lb person.
-------------------- Whereas as you are dancing happily in the fields of ignorance through which the stream of stupidity bubbles and flows. -BlushingBride My my space. Posts: 656 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jul 2003
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We have an overweight (21 lb) cat who developed diabetes. He gets a measured portion of prescription diabetes-control cat food at 6 am and again at 6 pm. No table scraps. Adequate exercise (chasing the other cat around, playing with toys, going up and down stairs to use the cat box, etc. And his weight has remained the same in the three years he's been on this regimen. I suppose we could cut his portion even smaller (he doesn't get much as it is - and he's always looking for more), but we're afraid his blood sugar would go out of whack again.
Our other cat, meanwhile, is very skinny. He's a dainty, picky, slow eater. He was raised as a "browser" but with fatboy around we can't leave his food down for him to browse. So he has to signal to us when he's ready to eat, and we have to lock the fat cat in the bedroom while skinny cat eats.
posted
Ravenwaift, it really is not "just as easy as that". I have been in consultation with my vet numerious times. My fat cat is on a prescription, regulated, measured diet. He gets very few treats, and NO table scraps. He is LAZY. (even with a hyperactive kitten chasing him around) Bottom line. And a lazy cat is like a lazy human. No matter how little you feed it, if it won't excersize, it won't lose weight. The only recourse left to me is to physically chase him around myself, and that doesn't work for two reasons:
1) He leads you directly to his food bowl and just stands there waiting for you to feed him more
2) if I -really- expended the effort, I bet I could get him to move. Unfortunately I would also turn him into a jittering bundle of nerves that jumps at its own shadow, and I refuse to do that. I'd rather have a happy, overweight cat than a skittery, frightened thin one.
I resent the implication, unintentional as it may have been, that we are bad pet owners because we have overweight animals. Pets come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, just like owners. They have their own personalities, as I'm sure you are aware. If a cat does not want to excersize....he's not going to. My vet has told me that for right now, Evad is not in any danger, so I can keep trying what I've been trying and maybe, just maybe one day something will pique his interest and he'll actually MOVE his fat ass. He's 8 years old, and aside from a little extra weight, in perfect health. I am doing the best that I can, and listening to my vet and following what she suggests to the letter. Beyond that, there is nothing I can do, and it rests solely on the cat who won't except to get off the couch to use his box and eat his food.
-------------------- Katesune: We still can't find the way to albuquerque, and glisp won't stop to ask for directions. Glisp42: Of course not. I know where I'm going, I just don't know where I am right now
posted
LadyLockeout, I don't know you, or your cat, and I have never been in your house. It may not apply to you and your cat, but yes the majority of pet owners who have overweight animals have done something wrong, and they are bad pet owners.
If this doesn't apply to you, ignore it. However, every fat cat I have ever met was fat because the owners fed it too much. There were plenty of times where they could've kept the cat from weighing 20-odd pounds if they had cut back a little on the table scraps, or invested in a few more toys.
Look, I don't know your cat. It may have some undiagnosed condition. Sorry, but when I read your post the first thing that comes to mind is that someone is cheating on their diet. No, you really don't have to be active to lose weight, you just have to eat less than the caloric requirements of your body. If your cat requires 250 calories for daily maintence, and you are feeding the cat 200 calories it should lose weight.
I mean, people in comas can lose weight, so a cat who is conscious should be be able to. Unless your kit has some sort of thyroid problem or something like that, it isn't possible that kitty doesn't lose weight unless kitty is cheating somehow.
But yes, I do agree that cats come in a variety of sizes. In order for 18 lbs. to be healthy, it ought to be a bruiser of a cat. Yes there are some giant cats that should weigh 10 or so lbs.
However, I'm not trying to say that every cat that is overweight has a bad owner. I'm saying a high majority are. I mean, when your cat gets to be 10-12 lbs. don't you take it to the doctor? There are a lot of people who don't. And their cats get to be huge, and then they complain that their cat can't lose weight. Then they complain that their cat doesn't eat that much when they've got a gravity feeder in their kitchen.
It's funny though that the people with fat cats make the same excuses about their cats weight that fat people make about their own. I should know, I am a fat person. Maybe it's me, but when someone tells me that their cat is fat but healthy, big-boned, doesn't eat that much, etc. I just think of how many fat people have made the same excuse.
LadyLockeout, I was not targeting you by my post. I wish I could adequately explain what I mean over the internet. You may be one of the few pet owners whose cat really can't lose weight; a high majority of owners with fat cats really aren't helping their cat lose weight. They say their cat isn't eating that much, but they don't know that their cat goes to every member of the household for feedings. Or they say that their cat doesn't get any treats or table scraps when their spouse/children are always feeding the cat under the table.
-------------------- Whereas as you are dancing happily in the fields of ignorance through which the stream of stupidity bubbles and flows. -BlushingBride My my space. Posts: 656 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
My mom's little cat could never gain weight. I think I mentioned elsewhere that she had kidney problems. She was never more than 5 pounds.
My three cats always have food out. They are all under 10 pounds. Anyway, I think I'm trying to say is that the metabolism of cats can vary just as much as humans. When Whiskers lost two pounds in a couple months time we were worried and had all sorts of tests done. Nothing conclusive was determined and at her next appointment she was back at her normal weight.
Posts: 2655 | From: MO USA | Registered: Jul 2003
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-He's been to the vet many times. -He doesn't eat a lot. He's given a cup of diet food a day and usually won't eat it all. -You try to play with him. He bites and bites hard. There is no way he's going to lower himself to play with a cat toy. He is inactive and lazy and there isn't much I can do that will make him move. -I don't feed him chicken nuggets. I don't even eat chicken nuggets. By occasional table scraps, I mean something like a bite of tuna every now and then (like, every few weeks if i'm making a sandwich and he's around). -He is an outdoor cat. He's never been known to hunt anything. He tries once in a while, but I've never seen him catch anything. He mostly just lies on the steps.
He's just a fat cat. My other cats are perfectly healthy (and they eat more than he does). I really don't think it's my fault that he is the way he is. He doesn't move. I've tried to make him get exercise. If I try to play with him, he sees it as a nuisance and will try to bite me, and then run away and find a new place to sleep. I can't really do much about his laziness.
Posts: 54 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Feb 2004
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Moosedog
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
Our cat was a really Tubby Tabby. I don't know how much he weighed, but he looked like a furry watermelon with legs. We tried to get him to exercise, but he didn't want to. We had a gravity feeder for him, so we took that away and started feeding him twice a day in measured amounts. The weight began to peel off, and now that he's down to only slightly chubby he's become active again. Sometimes he acts like those cats in the Friskies commercials. Father & I theorize that he didn't exercise before because he was carrying around too much extra weight--now that he's lighter, he can move more easily, so he does.
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quote:Originally posted by Raven Waift: I wish I could adequately explain what I mean over the internet. You may be one of the few pet owners whose cat really can't lose weight; a high majority of owners with fat cats really aren't helping their cat lose weight. They say their cat isn't eating that much, but they don't know that their cat goes to every member of the household for feedings. Or they say that their cat doesn't get any treats or table scraps when their spouse/children are always feeding the cat under the table.
It may be your experience that this is why cats remain fat, but the fact of the matter is that you are making a huge generalization. Not all fat cats can be helped by the 'simple' formula that you posted earlier because as Slainey said cats can have a wide range of metabolisms just like people. Out of eight I have two that could stand to lose a few pounds but the rest are just fine. The two that could lose some weight eat less than the rest and are quite active and don't even happen to be the ones who beg for table scraps. My parents have a 23 pound cat who is on a very restricted diet, has never had any treats or table scraps and up until a year or so ago was pretty active and still used to hunt mice and gophers. (Granted, she was a couple of pounds lighter then but still that was a fat cat who hunted and was sucessful.) The vet is just as confused as the rest of us as to why she's so fat because he's done tests and nothing has come back as being wrong. You can't just jump to the conclusion that a cat is fat becuase the owner is not doing all the right things.
Noemi
-------------------- Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult. My blog, no guarantees about witty or intelligent content. My current projects. Coveted Beads <---- our eBay store, new items being added somewhat regularly Posts: 8418 | From: Wyoming | Registered: Feb 2002
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