Tortilla Cat is getting Chubby

[Aggie_Ama]

I am a little worried that our cat, Tortilla, has become quite the chunk since we got her. The shelter said she was 9 pounds when we got her in May and the other night I weighed her at 13.5-14 (weighed twice holding her). She has the weird swinging belly chubby cats get. I am feeding her Purina Pro Plan indoor formula which is supposed to be helpful for weight management and hairball control (she is medium fur). I only give her one cup which is the recommended feeding and she is still big. DH keeps saying we should get her a treadmill. How fat it too fat? I don't want her getting in poor health!

[bmccasland]

I have the same problem with Calypso, who at 2 yrs has put on quite the belly. Meal rationing is part of it, but I'm not sure about the rest.

Are there kitty crunches? Little ab machines for kitties?

My problem is limiting the food that Calypso gets, when I have another cat in the house that is clinically underweight. So Bonnie needs all the calories she can get, and C needs hers limited.

Seems with one cat, it would be somewhat easy to limit the amount of food they get daily, thus lowering their total caloric intake. And slowly over time they'd loose weight.

[Biciclista]

The trouble with dry cat food is that it doesn't make them feel full. So they overeat. And they still feel hungry. I give my cats a little dry food, since they've eaten it all their lives, but in the evening they get a raw meat mix that i make for them. My fat cat is no longer fat, my other cats look great too. It took about a year. SInce i changed their diet, they all look a lot better. They have glossy coats !

Bottom line, your cat does not need 1 cup of food a day. She's getting dangerously fat.

[Becky]

...but in the evening they get a raw meat mix that i make for them.

Do you have a recipe or link?

[ehirsch83]

'my vet nicely said that my cat,Izzy, was "tubular". that was her nice word for fat!! She said cats only need about 200 calories a day. Izzy isn't quite so tubular anymore!

[Becky]

She said cats only need about 200 calories a day.

A useful link that I stumbled across when looking for calorie info for my cats' foods: http://www.petobesityprevention.com/food_calories.htm

[Eden]

I haven't gone to a raw diet (I did try....my male was throwing up too much), but I did go as close as possible. My two only get high quality 100% meat canned food. They are slim, well muscled, soft and glossy.

Corn (the largest ingredient in most dry cat foods - especially grocery store brands) is bad for them. They like the taste - its like candy to them, but it makes them fat and is being linked to all sorts of diseases that used to be quite uncommon in cats like hyperthyroid and diabetes. I've also heard that they have no appetite control - they don't feel full the way we do, so freely available food will make most fat.

Cats are what's known as obligate carnivores. They need the nutrients in meat, and specifically organs to survive. In the wild they don't really ever eat grain and usually only eat greens in order to throw up.... Most cat foods are a pretty unnatural diet for them.

(but the little swinging belly often develops on cats that are not overweight - so that alone is not an indicator - their profile from above is better - they should have a waist....)

Oh - and too give their teeth a workout I give them a daily treat of a 1/2 a dog sized "Breathies" - much better than the kitty ones that are just tiny shreds. They love chewing on them. Just avoid the ones with lavender (Mellow Mutt) - many essential oils are toxic to cats. These are pretty much just dried meat strips (I get chicken and duck) - so no bad carbs in them either.

[wackyjacky1]

I highly recommend you check out catinfo.org. It explains pretty much everything you need to know about feline nutrition. My cats are the picture of health after switching them to quality canned food.

[Becky]

I feel your pain. Both of our cats are somewhat overweight, probably from our apartment days. It saddens me a little, but I keep plugging away at reduced portions, more exercise, and regular vet checks.

We switched to wet food about a year ago for the increased protein and decreased carbs compared to dry, and that seems to be slowly helping. Feeding them in separate rooms helps too, as one is on an expensive prescription diet for UT issues, and neither needs to be swiping extra from the other's bowl.

I had an interesting conversation with our vet about portion sizes. I was worried that our female wasn't eating enough, and the vet's comment was that the portion sizes (even the lower ones) are gauged for active cats, and that most cats weren't nearly active enough to justify feeding what the label recommended. She advised slowly cutting back until we reached a portion that they were finishing in about 10-15 minutes, and to make that the new "normal". If they walk away from the food, it gets picked up, and they get a smaller portion at the next meal. We're down to a smaller portion than is listed on the label, but they're both losing weight at a reasonable pace, and seem more happy and playful.

What does your vet say?