Podgy moggy!

Fire_Fox

Lilith1980 wrote: »

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!

Weight management is a simple equation of calories in (diet) and calories out (exercise). So absolutely you should aim for your cat to be more physically active, but often that it easier said than done as some seem to be very lazy! :rolleyes: Exercise is natural and healthy for all animals, in fact the lymphatic and digestive systems don't function properly without exercise.

I always explain to my fitness clients that it takes a lot longer to burn off 500 calories in the gym (an hour) than it does to eat 500 calories (ten minutes), so healthy eating is critical. You can buy 'light' food if you want, but then you also need to be strict with portion control, so is it the eating less or the light food that leads to weight loss?

I would aim for more wet than dry food as it contains more water, less carbs and less overall calories so the cat won't feel starved. Secondly portion control on the dry food, just reduce a little at a time until you feel he is losing weight very slowly. Try to get him to eat slower so maybe put the dry in a SlimCat ball, and sometimes feed skinless raw chicken wings as PaddyPaws suggested as they will occupy his time.

I would avoid carbs (maize, rice, wheat, cereals) as much as possible: don't chuck food out as you will need to change his diet slowly anyway. I can't find any scientific evidence that cats need carbs in their diet - humans do so I never advocate Atkins diet for my human clients!

High meat, reasonably priced wet foods include Hi-Life, Pets at Home Purely, Bozita from Zooplus and Feline Fayre from Asda. No grain dry foods include Orijen, Applaws, Fish4Cats, and possibly PAH Purely More Meat (check the ingredients). :j

Please do check this with your vet, but there shouldn't be anything majorly controversial. Bear in mind that Hills Science do a lot of vet nutrition training and sponsor weight classes, and Hills would only do that if it sold products .... I wouldn't buy the Hills diet food, the dry is very expensive for something that is mainly rice and the wet contains derivatives which are a cheap alternative to meat!

loulou123

Fire_Fox wrote: »

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?

Just to clarify- my cat has the dry hills science plan food (most of which is put in the ball thing) and also ordinarly wet food-non diet version (hi-life) so that she hopefully gets abit of everything from her diet.

To be fair our vet didnt recommend any particular brands, she had been fed the hills light since before we got her (from a rescue centre) and she just said to use any good quality, high meat content wet. We then took the food into the vet and using the cats weight, age, size etc, as a guide she told us the exact amount to feed each day, without risking health problems from a sudden decrease.

Im planning to perservere for a while longer (desperately trying to encourage her to play) as im not keen to swop the foods over, as she is a "sicky" cat and even a small dietry change makes her unwell.

Fire_Fox

loulou123 wrote: »

Just to clarify- my cat has the dry hills science plan food (most of which is put in the ball thing) and also ordinarly wet food-non diet version (hi-life) so that she hopefully gets abit of everything from her diet.

To be fair our vet didnt recommend any particular brands, she had been fed the hills light since before we got her (from a rescue centre) and she just said to use any good quality, high meat content wet. We then took the food into the vet and using the cats weight, age, size etc, as a guide she told us the exact amount to feed each day, without risking health problems from a sudden decrease.

Im planning to perservere for a while longer (desperately trying to encourage her to play) as im not keen to swop the foods over, as she is a "sicky" cat and even a small dietry change makes her unwell.

It's totally up to you: IIRC Hi-Life only contains tapioca which pets are never allergic to, so that should not be causing the sicky problems. Cats should have a very strong constitution as they will eat raw meat in the wild and obviously don't want to be getting salmonella or E.coli every five minutes! :eek: Their gut is shorter than ours and they have much stronger stomach acids, this means the food should digest and pass out quickly. Plant foods take much longer to digest, hence why humans have a longer gut and cows have two stomachs.

rita-rabbit

Burns is v low in calories - I feed mine dry - although i do mix with JWB. Use a measuring cup & don't free feed

Prescription Hills contains rubbish & is not worth spending all that extra cash on it.