Advice on cat dieting please

skipsmum

Ive got a very fat cat too!
Hes on the Vets Fat Pet register. He is big anyway, but weighs 2 stone, which is nearly half as much as my 9 year old.

My lot are
Skip the Dog, age 3, rescue terrier, eats Harringtons Dry dog bics and cat wet food because they all swop around and its easier to put one thing down.
On sundays she gets real chicken at MILs. She gets lots of exercise so no problem there.

FB1 - Parsley - 18 years now and Ive had her since she was a few days old. She has a sort of feline alzheimers and forgets to eat. The others push her out and steal the food as shes eating so Ive solved this with 3 meals a day and biscuits in my bedroom. She weighs hardly anything now, but thats partly her bones. The vet says shes very healthy!

FB2 - Cipher - Cipher came to us at 6 months as a rescue. Hed already been rehomed by the RSPCA twice. He had no understanding of being a cat, & can't jump. Hes fallen out of the window twice, 3 feet, and banged his head each time. He got very big the first year and I had to go round to all the neighbours and ask them to stop feeding him.
It turned out he ate at : no 51 - curry on fridays
no 47 - fish and chips after curry on fridays
no 63 - the Vets house, yes really, any time they were on earlies
next door, every day when they were cooking
next-but-1, where after I knocked she brought round the food she had bought for him! (posh sheba!)
next but 2, where the kids knocked and said "my mum said we have to bring your cat back now cos hes eaten all our cats food"
House behind, where the man had the cheek to knock and ask if they could adopt Cipher because their cat had gone missing and ours looked hungry!
And, worst of all, the school canteen, where he alledgedly caught a mouse and they rewarded him. Well it must have been dead cos Cipher wouldnt know a mouse if it hit him in the face!

FB3&4, the new kittens, 10 weeks now and only eat hills dry and kitten milk from vet as their mum couldn't feed them.
The kittens have been teaching Cipher to play and hes more active now than hes been in years! Theyve tought him to catch the catnip mouse, and climb to platform 1 of the kitten tower!

So I would like to join the Very Fat Cat Club please!

Steel_2

Well some early successes this morning. The alarm woke me up at 7am and fatty was on the bed in an instant with her rattly mouse in mouth. She'd obviously been waiting for me to get up! Quick morning stroke and then I'm downstairs to start the food prep. All three are waiting patiently for breakfast.

I weighed out 50g wet food for fatty, about 65g for normal and 35g for skinny.

Normal had a few mouthfuls and the wanted to go out, so I let him out and took his bowl off the floor. Fatty had a few mouthfuls and looked very downcast, then begged to go out too. Skinny ate almost all of hers and settled down for a nap. Took her bowl off the windowsill.

Fatty and normal were back in the door by 8:30am. I put their respective bowls down and this time both were cleaned.

Normal cat went out but is back in and sitting behind me asking loudly for the canteen to be opened. Nope. Four minute play on the bed with fatty, and then she went out. All bowls are cleaned ready for the next round.

On my list is a variety of new play things for them to amuse themselves with so they don't start begging for food out of boredom.

Hi Firefox - we're out this afternoon and will stop in at a local pet place to see what they have from the various product options you've suggested.

Definitely decided to switch skinny cat to a higher protein wet and dry food as you suggest and see how that works for her. The vet is very impressed by her condition for her age. She has a beautiful soft shiny black coat. He asked us if we wash her and what products we use:D Nope. That's 100% pure natural cat!

Will also buy some raw food this afternoon and start phasing it in slowly for all three of them.

Rita-rabbit - my wish is that mine end up all preferring raw. Less cooking and prep for me!

Lil - what breed is your cat? Are you aiming to get him to lose the 2kg by June? That should be doable, especially when he starts going out.

I found weighing the food I was putting down helpful. I had no idea how much excess food I was putting down for them. Hundreds of extra calories a day...now I'm working on 200-250 calories a day. The smaller cat has the largest amount and the larger cat the smallest!

Paddy - thanks for that. I'll nip across to the website and have a read up this afternoon.

Steel_2

skipsmum wrote: »

Ive got a very fat cat too!
Hes on the Vets Fat Pet register. He is big anyway, but weighs 2 stone, which is nearly half as much as my 9 year old.

Holy moly! 28lbs or 12.7kg. What has your vet been suggesting you do to start bringing his weight down?

skipsmum wrote: »

It turned out he ate at : no 51 - curry on fridays
no 47 - fish and chips after curry on fridays
no 63 - the Vets house, yes really, any time they were on earlies
next door, every day when they were cooking
next-but-1, where after I knocked she brought round the food she had bought for him! (posh sheba!)
next but 2, where the kids knocked and said "my mum said we have to bring your cat back now cos hes eaten all our cats food"
House behind, where the man had the cheek to knock and ask if they could adopt Cipher because their cat had gone missing and ours looked hungry!
And, worst of all, the school canteen, where he alledgedly caught a mouse and they rewarded him. Well it must have been dead cos Cipher wouldnt know a mouse if it hit him in the face!

I gobsmacked that your neighbours would do this. Have you successfully sorted the problem now or is someone still feeding him? Firefox suggested a tag on the cats explaining they are ill and must not be fed any food outside the home. Would that help frighten your neighbours into stopping? What about a polite letter as well explaining the cat now has health problems and must not be fed anything outside the home as it could interfere with the drugs he is given (perhaps not through the vets door as they will probably want to know all the details :rolleyes:)

Does your fatty cat wear a collar?

Steel_2

Sorry skipsmum, I've just had a little giggle at the image of your cat running around finding already dead rodents to present at the back door of the canteen for treats!

I wonder if he's a 'Rodent Rustler' and kidnaps other cats' kills to take the canteen...

Cats are so clever I wouldn't put it past them.

cally6008

Dont know if this will help and I know it's a faff but have you tried scraping all the jelly off the wet food so fat cat is just getting the meat chunks and not the jelly ?

paddypaws101

cally6008 wrote: »

Dont know if this will help and I know it's a faff but have you tried scraping all the jelly off the wet food so fat cat is just getting the meat chunks and not the jelly ?

Cally, Cally, Cally.....life is just too short! Most of us are already tied up in knots trying to get the food right without resorting to these measures. ( Had to laugh though!)

Re. neighbours feeding cats....Paddy has a Red and white tag labelling him as Diabetic- DO NOT FEED ( He is diabetic ) and I have backed this up by notes through all relevant doors notifying them of his health issues and asking for them not even to leave food where he might get to it. One stubborn neighbour got a personal visit from me promising that she would be getting the vet bill and possibly the body of a dead cat delivered to her door if she chose to ignore this request.
It is his sister Peggy though who is the real porker at 15 lbs!

Steel_2

cally6008 wrote: »

Dont know if this will help and I know it's a faff but have you tried scraping all the jelly off the wet food so fat cat is just getting the meat chunks and not the jelly ?

I take out the really big lumps of jelly but do leave some in to mash up the meat chunks.

I've noticed there seems to be an awful lots of jelly in Kitekat now - there is usually a ring of about 5-7mm around the edge of the tin and chunks of meat and jelly are in the middle.

Steel_2

paddypaws101 wrote: »

Re. neighbours feeding cats....Paddy has a Red and white tag labelling him as Diabetic- DO NOT FEED

Is it on the back of his collar or the front? And where did you get the tag? Is it a similar one to keyfobs?

Normal cat is till in the house and sticking to me like glue. If I go to the loo, he comes with me. Downstairs for a cup of tea? He's round my ankles making trilling noises.

I will resist.

I. Will. Resist.

paddypaws101

http://s630.photobucket.com/albums/uu28/clairesmith56/Cats%202010/?action=view&current=GetAttachment.jpg

I think you can see the item in question being modelled by the Padster himself. I got it from www.collarsandtags.co.uk

The jelly eating syndrome seems to be very common...try the pate style foods and/or add a splash of hot water to melt the jelly and warm food up nicely to mouse temperature and release all the delicious meaty aromas ( barf )
Dry food is coated with huge amounts of flavour enhancers to entice the cat, otherwise they would not eat cereal.

Fire_Fox

Go Steel! :j I'd let fat cat eat all the jelly, but I'd mash it in. Should be low in calories and there may be vitamins and minerals in the jelly, certainly homemade stock is very nutritious.

It's soooooo hard ignoring that plaintive miaow; Noah follows me to the kitchen every time I go and likes to sniff each meal to ensure he isn't missing out. Bearing in mind I eat mostly veggie food at home ...