Fat cat on Royal Canin obesity diet-putting weight ON!!!HELP!!!

babyangel10

Hi there,

I have a l'il fat male tabby who I'm trying to get to lose weight, but without much success.

In November he weighed roughly 5.5-6kg and the vet suggested he go onto the dry obesity diet as mentioned above. He went on that in December but seems to have gaining weight ever since!

In January he weighed 6.6kg, in March 7.6kg, and when he was last weighed a fortnight ago he had gone down to 7.4kg but that must have been a temporary blip cos he now weighs 8kg!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

He goes to cat-fat fighters every month and the vet nurse just keeps reducing his amount (currently 35g a day) but neither she nor I can explain this weight gain. She doesn't yet know about the 8kg bit though.....I'm sure she thinks I'm feeding him titbits or something - which I'm not, none of them get treats apart from the VERY occasional bit of ham/chicken/tuna etc No milk given either, just purely the above food.

This food is all he eats - I have other cats but they are fed high up out of his reach (he's too fat to jump...) so he cannot get to it. He's too fat to jump the fence on the rare occasion that he does venture out, so can't be getting fed elsewhere. I am at a loss as to what to do.

I am trying desperately to get him to exercise too. I have a harness and lead which he will not move when put on - he just sinks his claws into the ground and I'd have to drag him to move him...he has dangly toys, spinning mouse toys, I run around the garden with bits of ham dangling on a stick (:o) etc etc but he just will not budge.

He's a happy little (well, big...) thing but obviously this weight isn't good for him, so I don't know what to do.

All the other cats aren't fat but Tubby Tabby is just a lazy fat cat!

HELP!!!!!

spookylukey

Has he been checked for any other medical conditions that cause weight gain? My immediate thought was that a neighbour must be feeding him but if he hardly goes out it can't be that. There are other obesity diets to try so maybe you should ask the vet about trying a different brand, you don't have to buy prescription foods from the vet as they're not really a prescription item . You can buy them online - I use https://www.vetuk.co.uk

As regards the exercise I have one word, well two really... da bird! If I describe it as feathers on a stick that move like a real bird I can hear you thinking yeah right tried that type of toy. I know lots of people that have one and all of their cats wiothout fail go MENTAL for it! Here's a youtube vid of one in action (not mine by the way!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1U0WHig_F4&feature=related

It's a toy from the US but I got mine from http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/catalog/ which is a cat rescue site where all proceeds go to cat rescues

It's £7.49 including postage - http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/catalog/product_reviews.php?cPath=23&products_id=38&osCsid=v6ba4veaqfakg65ia229rb9ql3 Every review on there has given it 5 out of 5.

Good luck with the weight loss!

babyangel10

Thanks for the tip Spookylukey - I'll deffo be buying one of those asap - the links are a great help too! :beer:

Sorry for slow reply too - P.C being a divvy lately! :rolleyes:

Gribbo_2

I know this is an old post but did you ever sort your fat cat out? I had exactly the same problem and in the end took him off the obesity biscuits and moved him on to good quality wet food. Worked out the calories he needed and stuck to it and he has lost a kilo.
Think the problem was all the wheat in the dry food - not exactly a natural ingedient for a cat. Interesting link here about dry food
http://www.catinfo.org/

1sue23

Hi,

If you are not overfeeding him and no one else is have you had him checked out for any other illnesses. Cats can get under active thyroids which can cause them to gain weight even when they are eating very little. I think its a blood test to get it checked, you might want to discuss it with the vet. Just a thought really.

Hintza

1sue23 wrote: »

Hi,

If you are not overfeeding him and no one else is have you had him checked out for any other illnesses. Cats can get under active thyroids which can cause them to gain weight even when they are eating very little. I think its a blood test to get it checked, you might want to discuss it with the vet. Just a thought really.

Just to add to that thought. It might be worth checking for Cushings Disease (thyroid). We have a Border Terrier that has that.

babyangel10

Hi there, thanks for all the ideas and stuff guys- unfortunately fat cat is still a fat cat and yes, we are going to have him checked by the vet within in the next couple of weeks, just in case there is a reason for the non-weight loss.

He still goes to fatcat fighters! and has lost a couple of hundred grams but that's all. Although the down side to him losing that small amount of weight is that he now can jump on the worktop where I feed the others!!! :rolleyes:

So it's a battle at feeding times, trying to get him upstairs out of the way of the others, but then when he is upstairs I then also have to keep him away from another cat's food! Kizi, who lives up there (housecat) and is on an (EXPENSIVE!!!) sensitive stomach diet! And I also have fatty's mum living upstairs recuperating from an ear operation, so he has to be kept away from her food too!!! Bl00dy madhouse or what!!!

I did buy one the the aforementioned 'Da Bird' toys, but Tubs isn't interested in it!!! Must be the only bl00dy cat that isn't! Grrrr! He just will not play whatever I try - he just sleeps and eats, but is such a happy furry ball of fluff too!

Thanks again for the input, vet has said that there isn't any urgency in the tests as he is otherwise fit (fat?!) and well, but will sort it asap.

babyangel10

Oh, meant to add too, that for financial reasons I had to take him off the Royal Canin, plus as I said I didn't feel that it was doing any good. He is now on the new Go-Cat Weight Control dry food so we'll see if that changes things at all, but I am also tempted to go back to the wet food if no joy.

He does have some dental issues though, so the dry food is better for his teeth.

twinklefish

I have a porky puss too! Buffy did weigh about 6kg at one point but she managed to lose over a kilo in about a year. It does take a long time to get a cat's weight down. I fed her on James Wellbeloved Light/Older cat dry food and Felix wet food. I just reduced the amount of food she got over a period of time and upped her exercise as much as possible. Everything was weighed out. Oh, an absolutely no treats. The vet told me that giving the cat a small piece of chicken/bacon etc was like giving an adult an extra meal!

I'd be suprised if your cat cannot jump up at all. Even when at her heaviest, The Buff could still jump up to kitchen worktop height (where the cat flap was) and it was higher on the outside to get back in...and she has a gammy leg too!

Unfortunately, since the beginning of the year she's put some more weight back on as she did not get on with the new cats in our building and spent too much time looking out the cat flap and less actually out playing! I didn't realise at first how little she was going out but, we've moved, she's back on the diet and now has stairs to run up and down!

Best toys I found for getting her running around in the house is a laser pointer or, a toy I picked up at Pets At Home - it's a stick, with a length of greeny gold velvety fabric with feathers on the end. She can't resist it! She seems to prefer this to similar toys with string as she can get her claws into the fabric and pull it. It also doesn't get tangled up in it's self and it doesn't matter if she gets tangled in it, it's not going to hurt her.

Good luck with dieting!

Tx

babyangel10

Thanks for your kind words of advice twinklefish, I'll deffo give the laser pointer a go I think - he's actually sat on my knee now as I type - chasing my tapping fingers!!! If only he would chase around the garden so eagerly!!! :rolleyes:

Thanks again - it's nice not to have someone slate my questions like they did recently on the Argos thread!!! I seemingly asked the worlds most stupid question and got the worlds nastiest replies too.

Welcome to MSE BTW!!! :wave:

hotcookie101

Hintza wrote: »

Just to add to that thought. It might be worth checking for Cushings Disease (thyroid). We have a Border Terrier that has that.

Just to mention-Cushings is not thyroid disease-it is adrenal gland (or pituitary affecting the adrenals)-is a pretty different disease to either over or underactive thyroid

My fat cat gets thin on Obesity dry, FAT on hills light etc (its all in the carbs :rolleyes:) He is obviously an Atkin's devotee. However I just can't quit the pasta :rotfl: