Diet/exercise advise for fat cat

[Mad Scientist]

My cat is fat. And lazy. I love my fat Buddy and want to have him for many more years, but he needs to drop a few pounds. He weighs about 20 lbs and should be about 16 lbs or so. He is an indoor only cat due to living on a second floor apartment and is our only pet. We do measure his food and we're feeding him the recommended amount of food for a 5-10 lb cat, but he has been at the same weight for two years. Apparently, he is 5-10 lbs of cat with 10-15 lbs of lazy! I was hoping someone would have some ideas on how to slim him down to a healthy weight.

[Skippy]

Start by confusing your cat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Je1CEPkUM) That should animate it.

[ZombieRockStar]

There is a number of brands with "weight control" formula varieties (usually dry food—Purina, for instance) that might work, but I'm only sure they have an effect if they're carefully measured and not even really sure about it then. I'm sceptical, really.

[Kitya]

I have two cats that are overweight and somewhat lazy. They were in the correct weight area until I switched their dry food. My wholesale place stopped carrying Iams. *mutters* Who knew changing the food would make them blow up like a blimp and get lazy! But that's what happened. They ate more, and stopped chasing each other. I am now buying Iams Weight and hairball control food, and I have noticed a difference. Weight control food is supposed to help them burn their calories more efficiently. They aren't eating as much, and they are much more active again. The thing about Weight control, or Elderly cat food, is that it is designed differently to give the cat the nutrients they need. Older cats aren't as active, so they need a different diet.

I don't know how old your Buddy is, but talking to your vet about different food options would be a really good idea. Iams and Science Diet both are highly recommended by most vets as having less "junk food" filler, and therefore more healthy for them. Those two brands also have special formulas for different needs.

BTW... Meow Mix ... not such a good brand... *sighs* Not for middle aged cats anyway.

[Don Julio Anejo]

We fed our cat 9 Lives (she seemed to like it more than Whiskas, Meow Mix and Purina). She was gaining weight like crazy, despite being an outdoorsy cat that goes out for a walk with my dad every night. Literally. Like a puppy.

And for some reason she only started losing weight when we also started feeding her 9 Lives canned food (originally we wanted to make it a treat, but the cans were on sale so we bought a lot at the same time). I'm by no means a vet, and this is just our personal experience with our cat.

[Crow]

I don't know how well it would work for a cat, but our dog was really fat at one time.

He couldn't keep up for long when I would go running, and I couldn't spend the time it would take to walk him. We ended up cutting down his food, but it didn't really help. What really helped was when we got a puppy (now a dog). He pestered the heck out of the fat dog and they played a lot. Since we've had the new dog, our lab has gone from 91 lbs. to about 65.

I know when we got a kitten he played with the older cat a lot, but the older cat wasn't fat, so I don't know how much it would help.

[Eldred]

This website (http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/catweight.html) may be able to help - it has a lot of info on what is causing cats to become obese and what should be done.

Personally, I'd get the cat to do a lot more exercise, which is quite easy if their playful. If they're lazy, tempting them with treats can help them get up and moving about.

[geek_2049]

Indoor cats tend to be a bit heavier than outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats.

Try a laser pointer, some cats respond to them like they are crack.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Personally, I'd get the cat to do a lot more exercise, which is quite easy if their playful. If they're lazy, tempting them with treats can help them get up and moving about.

Oooh... making cats jump up and down to get cat treats is both fun for you and exercise for the cat :biggrin:

[Mad Scientist]

Thanks for the good advice. The only problem with switching food is that he has to be on a special low mineral content food due to a urinary track problem. So, other than measuring and not giving him table scraps I can't do much about the food issue. Glad to hear that other people have had the same problem. He is a very lazy cat, but does get interested in novel objects. I think I will try the lazer pointer idea to see if that gets him moving. Right now, the only things that get him to run are the sound of food hitting his dish and the vacuum!

[StupidFatHobbit]

Two low-cost items that were voted "outstanding" by my former cat, an otherwise lazy little bugger who would play with these for literally hours at a time and loudly demand a replacement as soon as it got destroyed or knocked under the refrigerator.

1) The springy elastic things that people use to hold their ponytails. I don't know what they're called. Get a packet of the thicker ones so they don't get caught in the cat's teeth.

2) The small plastic circle that you pull off the top of a plastic milk jug or other screw-top container the first time you open it. I dropped one of these on the floor by accident once when opening the container, and that was that. Hours of entertainment. This one only works on a smooth floor, not carpet.

[phoenixineohp]

Have you tired the classic ball of yarn?

If you know about the urinary problems, I'm guessing that a vet is familiar with the cat. Why not ask their advice?