Advice Needed Over Diet for Overweight Cat

jenny-wren

StaffieTerrier wrote: »

I have a cat that used to be fat. She also has no teeth and is incredibly lazy. I bought her one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Company-of-Animals-NGC-Interactive/dp/B00EB4IV2A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468582490&sr=8-5&keywords=cat+bowl+slow+feeder

All her dry food and odd treats go in there. She has to work a bit for her food now. I did start off putting her wet food in there but she was ending up with soggy paws then insisting on sitting on my lap :rotfl:

We bought one of those for her. She would poke a bit of dry food out and then stomp off in disgust and stare at her empty food dish. We persisted but she's one stubborn and very vocal cat.

We also had a ball that we put dry food in. She learned very quickly to kick it against the wall to make the food come out quicker. She's far too clever!

tesuhoha

Thank you for all the advice. Lots of valuable information. I will sift through it at leisure.

The Orjen dry food has come so she is now on a carb free diet at least. She still has her Cosma Thai for breakfast so far. I bought her Animonda Carny salmon and sardine but only the bengal will eat it. I should have bought tuna. She eats little bits and then asks for biscuits.

Next order I will try her on Nature's Menu and I will research raw. Basically she is having 40g Cosma Thai for breakfast, then 3 meals which either consist of 10g Orjen (the recommended vet diet but swapping the biscuits) or a small amount of wet food each meal if I can get her to eat it. The bengal hoovers up whatever wet food she won't eat!

I've ordered a cat lazer toy from Amazon but its taking ages to come and I am encouraging her to go out more even though she only goes to sit on the fence to watch the birds! I have an interactive treat box but she hasn't managed to figure it out.

jenny-wren

tesuhoha wrote: »

I bought her Animonda Carny salmon and sardine but only the bengal will eat it. I should have bought tuna. She eats little bits and then asks for biscuits.

I tried our chubby lump on a variety of Animonda Carny flavours (200g tins) and the Animonda kangaroo and buffalo (pouches). She would tear your arm off for a piece of fresh salmon but turned her nose up at all of the fishy flavours. The three she likes the best are beef, chicken & duck hearts, meat saucer and beef, turkey & rabbit. The meat saucer contains a lot more jelly than the other two. If I had to choose, the rabbit one would be best to try. She'll eat the kangaroo pouches ... but only when she's in the mood.

endlessdreamz

pinkteapot wrote: »

Just to reiterate what GwylimT said for anyone else who may read, raw/homemade etc does *not* mean buying meat from the supermarket (the same meat you'd buy for yourself) and feeding that to your kitties. Cats need certain substances - most notably taurine - that are not present in high enough quantities in your average meat. In wild prey, taurine is found in muscle and organs - precisely what you don't buy from Tesco.

True raw cat food that you can buy will have appropriate supplements. You can also buy supplements to add to normal meat so you can make your own raw feed, but do your research on recipes first.

Plain chicken/turkey is sometimes recommended when kitty has an upset tum but only for short-term use (1-2 days) as it's not a complete food.

In Morrison's you can get offal (hearts, kidneys, liver) from the fridge and counters. The only human grade food that are suitable for cats are the lean poultry mince and offal, not any other as they'll be too high in fat content and not enough taurine/minerals. Morrison's even separate them into turkey breast (3% fat) and turkey thighs (7% fat). My little one likes liver but you need to be careful when feeding cats liver as it contains a high amount of Vitamin A which can cause toxicity.

Haffiana

endlessdreamz wrote: »

In Morrison's you can get offal (hearts, kidneys, liver) from the fridge and counters. The only human grade food that are suitable for cats are the lean poultry mince and offal, not any other as they'll be too high in fat content and not enough taurine/minerals. Morrison's even separate them into turkey breast (3% fat) and turkey thighs (7% fat). My little one likes liver but you need to be careful when feeding cats liver as it contains a high amount of Vitamin A which can cause toxicity.

You seriously need to do some reading about this. What you say here is almost entirely incorrect.

There is a very good pet forum http://www.petforums.co.uk/forums/cat-health-and-nutrition.9/ where you can get good advice.

GwylimT

endlessdreamz wrote: »

In Morrison's you can get offal (hearts, kidneys, liver) from the fridge and counters. The only human grade food that are suitable for cats are the lean poultry mince and offal, not any other as they'll be too high in fat content and not enough taurine/minerals. Morrison's even separate them into turkey breast (3% fat) and turkey thighs (7% fat). My little one likes liver but you need to be careful when feeding cats liver as it contains a high amount of Vitamin A which can cause toxicity.

All human grade meat that isn't smoked, cooked or cured is fantastic for cats. They need a diet of 83% muscle meat (including heart) 10% organs (5% being liver and 5% being kidney) with around 7% bone. Poultry doesn't contain enough fat or taurine for a feline, unless you exclusively use thigh meat and heart.

WeAreGhosts

jenny-wren wrote: »

. She has the attention span of a goldfish and gets bored with playing after 5 minutes even if you offer a variety of play things (including scratching tree, balls, flying frenzy, kickaroo, squeaky mouse, feathers, string, fingers and toes). Our house looks like a Zooplus advert.

I've found with my cat that if there's too many toys around she won't bother with anything. Putting most of the toys away and rotating them is a better idea. You'll also get a better idea of what she likes then too. My cat is v. fussy with her toys and loves certain ones, so we rotate them for a bit of variety.

My cat recently went bonkers over a rolled up piece of tin foil, and she's one lazy cat! I have to watch her like a hawk though or she tries to eat it :doh:

Savvy_Sue

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, some cats will tell anyone and everyone who will listen (and even those who can't) that they are completely starved, haven't been fed for weeks, and are in dire need of nourishment. They usually do this while winding themselves around your feet, making the job of getting their food into the bowl much harder.

My mum had one of these. Mum was almost completely deaf, so was oblivious to the cat's cries, although she could see that it was 'talking' to her, and winding itself around her feet.

I'd hear Mum get up and feed the cat, come down myself and there would be a loud tale of woe from the cat, "please feed me, that awful woman never feeds me, please feed me, I need food so badly, you don't understand how hungry I am."

If one of my siblings came over, the same sorry tale would be repeated, "look, neither of these awful women will feed me, please feed me, I need food now!"

I'm afraid it didn't work, although the cat lived to a ripe and loud old age despite never being fed ...

tesuhoha

GwylimT wrote: »

All human grade meat that isn't smoked, cooked or cured is fantastic for cats. They need a diet of 83% muscle meat (including heart) 10% organs (5% being liver and 5% being kidney) with around 7% bone. Poultry doesn't contain enough fat or taurine for a feline, unless you exclusively use thigh meat and heart.

What about salmonella in chicken? Are they not affected by it?

tesuhoha

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, some cats will tell anyone and everyone who will listen (and even those who can't) that they are completely starved, haven't been fed for weeks, and are in dire need of nourishment. They usually do this while winding themselves around your feet, making the job of getting their food into the bowl much harder.

My mum had one of these. Mum was almost completely deaf, so was oblivious to the cat's cries, although she could see that it was 'talking' to her, and winding itself around her feet.

I'd hear Mum get up and feed the cat, come down myself and there would be a loud tale of woe from the cat, "please feed me, that awful woman never feeds me, please feed me, I need food so badly, you don't understand how hungry I am."

If one of my siblings came over, the same sorry tale would be repeated, "look, neither of these awful women will feed me, please feed me, I need food now!"

I'm afraid it didn't work, although the cat lived to a ripe and loud old age despite never being fed ...

Ha ha. I gave her a large breakfast today and a smallish lunch and while I was cooking our lunch (sausages and bacon) she appeared at my feet and started crying beseechingly. I said to her I just don't know what to do with you. Luckily she's been asleep all afternoon and is lasleep.