Overweight cat-Obsessed with food.

On Oct 21, 8:45 am, "Rene S." wrote:
At this time, I can only give you a floating target. It would be 9.5
or 10 lb. When we get there, I will re-evaluate. At present, it is a
little hard for me to find his ribs. Also, he has quite a pot belly,
and because he is bottom-heavy, he is hard to pick up without giving
the necessary support to his hind quarters.

I currently have him on Science Diet Light (Dry). This is NOT a diet
I want to keep him on. (I want to move to grainless wet food.)
However, due to a problem with diarrhea the vet and I are working on,
I am not going to change his diet at the moment. We don't know at
this point if the cause is a pathogen, a parasite, or diet-related.
So now that you know the circumstances, how would you calculate how
much my kitty should eat per day? Do you have a formula? Might just
putting him on 2 meals per day of canned grainless food without
rationing food amounts solve the problem? That apparently doesn't
work for Tucker.

Ok, first, two meals per day of grainfree canned food DOES work for
Tucker. He's maintained his weight for nearly 5 years this way. :-)

Yes, you and Tucker have been very successful at achieving your weight
goals with the 2 *measured* grainfree canned meals. I was asking
about allowing the cat to consume _all_he_wants_ twice a day within
let's say half an hour.

First, you need to stop free feeding. Cats don't need to graze all
day, and will often (like people) eat "just because it's there." Two
meals about 12 hours apart is best.

The general guideline is 15 calories per pound. For weight loss,
slowly shave off amounts of food (you don't want him to lose weight
too quickly), adding a bit of water to "replace" the missing food.

Here's a site with calorie amounts for many wet foods, including
Wellness. I suggest starting with turkey, chicken, turkey & salmon,
and chicken & herring flavors (all are grain free).http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/CanFoodNew.html

Ten pounds sounds like a good starting goal weight. You can re-
evaluate once he's closer to that goal.

As for the diarrhea, my opinion is that (slowly) switching diet can
only help him. I once fed SD light to Tucker, and the ingredient list
is scary. It's also possible he has a grain allergy. You can also give
probiotics to improve the good bacteria in his digestive tract.

I thank you very much for all of the above. Your information will be
useful to me. I will also consider cybercat's 1/4-reduction method.

Your suggestion to give probiotics sounds very good to me, especially
since the antibiotics the vet wants him to take will probably be
killing the good bacteria. Do you have any particular product in
mind? If not, I will probably use Natren's probiotic for cats. I've
used their product for humans, and I think it's a good one.

One other thing... Do you have any thoughts on using EVO vs Wellness?

FirstHit

Your suggestion to give probiotics sounds very good to me, especially
since the antibiotics the vet wants him to take will probably be
killing the good bacteria. *Do you have any particular product in
mind? *If not, I will probably use Natren's probiotic for cats. *I've
used their product for humans, and I think it's a good one.

I really like the products that Only Natural Pet sells
(onlynaturalpet.com). Their "probiotic blend" works well and I've had
good customer service from the company (no affiliation, just a
customer). You can also give human probiotics (sold at health-food
stores), but just make sure they don't contain any milk products,
which may upset a kitty's tummy.

One other thing... *Do you have any thoughts on using EVO vs Wellness?

Both are great foods and I do mix in Evo sometimes with my cats. The
only negative with the wet Evo is that it's higher in calories
compared to the Wellness. You could feed the Evo, but you'd need to
give him a little less quantity (and maybe mix in some water to add
bulk). You could also primarily feed Wellness and give an occasional
can of Evo for variety. It's really up to you.

Rene

You're right. When we got our cat Boo, she was 18 lbs and should have been
8-9 pounds. She got fat being free-fed Diet Iams dry. I switched her to
canned food 12 hours apart, giving her three 3 oz cans a day. To lose weight
the vet said reduce it by 1/4 until she reaches a plateau, then do it again.
I eyeballed it, but did reduce it about 1/4. She lost 9 lbs in about 12
months, and that is about as fast as is safe.

Wow, that's an amazing amount of weight loss! Good for you (and Boo).

On Oct 22, 6:16*am, "Rene S." wrote:
Your suggestion to give probiotics sounds very good to me, especially
since the antibiotics the vet wants him to take will probably be
killing the good bacteria. *Do you have any particular product in
mind? *If not, I will probably use Natren's probiotic for cats. *I've
used their product for humans, and I think it's a good one.

I really like the products that Only Natural Pet sells
(onlynaturalpet.com). Their "probiotic blend" works well and I've had
good customer service from the company (no affiliation, just a
customer). You can also give human probiotics (sold at health-food
stores), but just make sure they don't contain any milk products,
which may upset a kitty's tummy.

One other thing... *Do you have any thoughts on using EVO vs Wellness?

Both are great foods and I do mix in Evo sometimes with my cats. The
only negative with the wet Evo is that it's higher in calories
compared to the Wellness. You could feed the Evo, but you'd need to
give him a little less quantity (and maybe mix in some water to add
bulk). You could also primarily feed Wellness and give an occasional
can of Evo for variety. It's really up to you.

Thank you, Rene!

I picked up the food bowl last night, and put it back down for an hour
this morning, so he's now on a two-meal schedule. I also started his
antibiotics. I am keeping him on the Sci Diet Lite Dry for now though
because I don't want to introduce too many changes at once.

I will be glad when the antibiotics are over with in a week and I can
start moving the guy toward Wellness. Hopefully my scale will arrive
soon. I have an accurate postal scale but it only goes up to 11 lb.

FirstHit

On Oct 21, 8:45*am, "Rene S." wrote:
At this time, I can only give you a floating target. *It would be 9.5
or 10 lb. *When we get there, I will re-evaluate. *At present, it is a
little hard for me to find his ribs. *Also, he has quite a pot belly,
and because he is bottom-heavy, he is hard to pick up without giving
the necessary support to his hind quarters.

I currently have him on Science Diet Light (Dry). *This is NOT a diet
I want to keep him on. *(I want to move to grainless wet food.)
However, due to a problem with diarrhea the vet and I are working on,
I am not going to change his diet at the moment. *We don't know at
this point if the cause is a pathogen, a parasite, or diet-related.
So now that you know the circumstances, how would you calculate how
much my kitty should eat per day? *Do you have a formula? *Might just
putting him on 2 meals per day of canned grainless food without
rationing food amounts solve the problem? *That apparently doesn't
work for Tucker.

Ok, first, two meals per day of grainfree canned food DOES work for
Tucker. He's maintained his weight for nearly 5 years this way. :-)

First, you need to stop free feeding. Cats don't need to graze all
day, and will often (like people) eat "just because it's there." Two
meals about 12 hours apart is best.

The general guideline is 15 calories per pound. For weight loss,
slowly shave off amounts of food (you don't want him to lose weight
too quickly), adding a bit of water to "replace" the missing food.

Here's a site with calorie amounts for many wet foods, including
Wellness. I suggest starting with turkey, chicken, turkey & salmon,
and chicken & herring flavors (all are grain free).http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/CanFoodNew.html

This data has been moved to:
http://web.archive.org/web/200804050...anFoodNew.html
or you can use this shorter url:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ylpvc82

I am saving the info to my computer in case the info disappears.

FirstHit