Podgy moggy!

Fire_Fox

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Hi, thanks for all your replies

Da Bird sounds great, I have been on You Tube and the cats seem to love it. I hope mine will too - he is seriously averse to playing so this might be what we need! Can I buy it on Purrs? I saw the "shop" part of the forum but could not find a section to buy?

edit: I just found the shop and purchase Da Bird!

Purrs shop is well worth checking every couple of months: their policy is to buy toys from the states that are not available here, and Tan tests 'candidates' on her own cats! The shop is run from her home with all profits to charity, so you will only find quality products, not simply the money makers. I've only made one purchase but very happy with the service, got a personal e-mail informing me something was out of stock and the parcel was carefully packed.

RacyRed

nanokitten wrote: »

My overweight kitten (11 months now) would only eat wet food (felix) until I tried her on Royal canin pure feline No2 (slimness) which she really likes (much better than even the other royal canin ones or arden grange). Now she has 2/3 dry food and 1 pouch a day which is much better as I never really liked her eating felix but she wouldn't eat anything else. I too worry about the wet versus dry food so hedge my bets with a bit of both and a water fountain to encourage drinking (though she has started standing on my head and drinking out my water galss at 4 am).

My fusspots love this too, and it has really helped with weight control. The girls share a pouch of wet twice a day and have RC Slimness the rest of the time (one girl has to have food available at all times for health reasons and the others just don't listen when I tell them not to eat it :rotfl: so the RC Slimness is heaven sent)

I'm also a major fan of the very helpful Tan and her toys, as well as Da Bird, try the Yeowww stinkies All my three love them.

Lilith1980

Thanks, I checked out the Yeowww stinkies but unfortunately our cat seems totally unphased by catnip! We bought some and put it in a sock and he showed no interest! Trust us to get a cat that doesn't like cat nip! :rolleyes:

I'll eagerly await Da Bird and see if we can get him moving

Jonesy_McJones

Try these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cat-Toys-Zanies-Mylar-Balls-Soo-Cute-Pack-of-3_W0QQitemZ220493495148QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_Supplies_Dogs?hash=item33566fbb6c

We have two cats, one of which is overweight - most of the toys we have she just ignores but she loves these and will play with them on her own. We often hear her racing around the kitchen at night chasing them!

robert_harper_2000

I know the tracks are good I've got the Catit version but much the same thing. I would also say that the best cat toy I've ever used is Cat Dancer I've never seen my cat play with a toy so much. Spud actually holds one end in his mouth and paws the wire to make the other end move then hunts it in circles and plays with it for hours every day. It is soaked in saliva at the moment, I promise it would be the best toy you have ever bought!
Zooplus http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_toys/cat_dangler/109379
Pet Planet have discontinued them but read the reviews
Mad Cats http://www.madcats.co.uk/products.php?itemCategory=Cat+Dancers
Coombs http://www.acoombs.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CAT100

Fire_Fox

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Thanks, I checked out the Yeowww stinkies but unfortunately our cat seems totally unphased by catnip! We bought some and put it in a sock and he showed no interest! Trust us to get a cat that doesn't like cat nip! :rolleyes:

I'll eagerly await Da Bird and see if we can get him moving

Some cats who don't like Catnip like either toys with either Honeysuckle (one strain only) or Valerian extract. They sell a pack of dried in the Purrs shop, but I'd imagine you can get toys as well. Apparently the Purrs shop orders are going crazy at the moment so hopefully that's down to MSE!! All profits to charity.

loulou123

As a owner of a fat cat myself, i sympathise with you. My cat is definately overweight, and has even been to fat pet club at the vets. We feed her exactly the amount the vet says (she has a combintion of wet light food and dry light food) every day and emcourage her to play and she hasnt lost any weight!

She is truely the laziest cat i have ever known, cat nip works, but all she does is lay on the floor wih big eyes! The newest thing the vet recommended for us, is one of those balls which food drops out of, so know her dry food goes into this, but she has learnt to wedge it under the sofa and bat it with her foot whilst laying down!

I'd recommend getting the vets opinion, and they can also tell you exactly how much food she needs per day based on her weight and size.

Good luck!

Fire_Fox

loulou123 wrote: »

As a owner of a fat cat myself, i sympathise with you. My cat is definately overweight, and has even been to fat pet club at the vets. We feed her exactly the amount the vet says (she has a combintion of wet light food and dry light food) every day and emcourage her to play and she hasnt lost any weight!

I'd recommend getting the vets opinion, and they can also tell you exactly how much food she needs per day based on her weight and size.

Good luck!

Vets will almost always recommend Hills Science, as Hills sponsor a lot of their nutrition training and 'fat pet club' sessions. If you read the ingredients on most light products you will see they have removed essential protein and substituted cheap carbohydrates (listed as maize, rice, wheat or cereals). In humans carbs are used for energy, eat more than you burn off and the excess will be stored as fat. Cats use fat and protein for energy so what is a lazy cat going to do with a diet composed mainly of carbs?

Cats are obligate carnivores (they must eat meat) and many struggle to process grains; if a cat suffers with obesity or diabetes chances are they are sensitive to carbs. If your cat hasn't lost any weight on the diet your vet has recommended then perhaps you could try a natural high protein low carb diet?

robert_harper_2000

Hills light uses fibre to reduce a cats weight, this is done by fibre absorbing water as it does. So you feed a low mositure (8% moisture) food which is poor for a pet that has very little thirst, and the food then removes water! Yeah ... no thanks

Lilith1980

So do you think I would be better skipping the diet food and feeding my cat something with high meat content?

I have heard that Hi-Life foods have a high percentage of meat - their tuna is a minimum of 60%-70% tuna apparently.

The fact that our cat doesn't move much may be the cause of his tummy rather than the food so it might be a case of just getting him to move more?? The vet said we should feed him for a target weight of 5kg which we are doing so we might just need to get him off his butt more!