Kitty Weight Loss Plan

[SabrinaFaire]

Now that Hobbs is OTJ, I wanted to do something to help slim him down. Problem is, what. How do I go about doing that? He's not getting overfed, he rarely gets treats, and only occasionally do I give him something while I'm cooking. Do I need to step down his food? Make him exercise more some how? Getting another cat to play with him is not likely an option.

Here's his deets:

He's currently ~14.8lbs
Vet said he should be closer to 12

Eats: EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey canned 1.6oz 4x/day (total of 6.4oz)
He mostly gets this but I also sometimes mix in some other brands like Merrick or Blue Wilderness to give him some variety. Since they are more expensive, his main food is EVO.

Play: I try to play with him every night but it doesn't always happen. For instance I had an MRI last night after work and I swear that thing is an alien technology built to suck the energy out of you because I was dead on the couch less than an hour after getting home. He also has one of those ball in a circle things that he likes to play with, I got him that to hopefully help keep him entertained while we're gone. We also have a laser and a couple of cat dancers that we play with. I'm also open to suggestions.

Other health: He has CKD but that doesn't seem to affect him too much. He'll be 13 at the end of next month but doesn't seem to be arthritic or have any neuropathy issues. He's not the most graceful cat, he's fallen off of things more than once, poor guy.

So. Any suggestions? Anyone ever use this site: http://www.projectpetslimdown.com/ or something similar?

 

[BJM]

"The solution to polution is dilution"

You might replace a tablespoon of food with water to keep the volume the same but the calories lower.

You might investigate a raw diet, where you can keep both the carbs AND the fats lower than what is typically included in canned food (to reduce costs they either use carbs or fat, which are both cheaper than protein)

Check Dr Pierson's web page Cat Info - Obesity for more information.

 

[Brian]

Eat a little less, exercise a little more, weigh frequently, go slow.

Linus (also 13 years old) went from an extremely famine resistant 23lbs down to a much healthier 14.24lbs in a few years. Mostly by controlling his food intake and frequent monitoring of his weight to see if he's gaining or losing and just how fast, then adjusting his food intake accordingly. His attention span for exercise reduced to about 47 seconds when he first became obese, and I'd throw toys around whenever I thought I could coax those 47 seconds out of him but it was mostly the diet, and we aimed to feed just a little below maintenance for a slow and steady weight loss. Also, motivational posters placed on the walls a few inches from the ground where he can see them will help.

 

[SabrinaFaire]

Brian - You're hilarious. LOL How much were you adjusting his food? I have a food scale and I can do tenths of an ounce on it, should I do 1/10th of an oz per meal? (or 4/10 oz per day - or 2/5 if you reduce the fraction LOL)

BJ - I've considered doing a raw diet, my main issue with that is storage. I know Dr Lisa recommends making a batch and freezing portions. Which would be great (as I hate to cook and would rather do a big one and get it out of the way) unfortunately, we're in an apartment with very little freezer space. If we're ever in a house and can have a chest freezer or something, then I'd try it out.

 

[Brian]

We'd try to cut daily calories by 5-10% when he stopped losing weight at a given food intake and hope he didn' t notice he was getting shortchanged. Dropping .1 oz per meal looks like a good step given what you're feeding now (it will give a 6.25% drop in calories).

You might want to take a few minutes to find out the calories per oz of the foods you usually give so you can compare between them and possibly manipulate daily intake that way. If the merrick has significantly less calories than the evo by weight (to make up an example) you could just regularly swap out an evo meal instead of reducing the weight amount.

Do you have an accurate scale? At the beginning we aimed for a loss of ~1lb per month, but Linus was a major butterball. As he dropped down we aimed for more like 0.5lb per month. Some people use digital baby scales, I like a portable digital luggage scale. Cheap and accurate, I hang the cat from the hook in a basket using some rope- the weigh ins count as fun time (Jelly is the model here, not Linus):

 

[Beth & Atlas]

First you need to talk to your vet about a weight loss plan. The rule of thumb is an 8lb cat needs about 30 calories per pound per day. (may be higher for a 12lb cat...ask your vet). You should be feeding to the ideal weight your vet suggests, not his current weight.

To give you an idea what this might look like at 12lbs x 30 calories=360 calories.

Now how many calories are in a can of EVO? I know EVO is high calorie and you are supposed to feed less.
So...bop on over to http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html and check out the calories per can for different varieties of EVO....209 calories per can (5.5 oz) for the variety you are feeding. You can also check the calories on your 'treat varieties' too.

You said you are feeding 6.4 oz. with some "treats" at unpredictable times. Does he need a food journal to track those treats? Maybe more than you think? So in general it looks like you are feeding correctly.

Cats don't need a lot of exercise, but getting them moving aerobically for about 15 minutes a day helps. It doesn't need to be all at once, most obese cats won't do that. Getting dressed in the morning? Take 5 minutes to play lazer tag on the bed or a play session while you make the bed with what's under the covers. 5 minutes when you first get home...you'll be amazed how he will help you destress too! And a night time came of catch the mouse on the pole before bed.

WARNING: Work with your vet to get his weight down. Cats can be prone to hepatic lipodosis which is life threatening if they lose too much weight too fast.

For inspiration photos you can use the Ottoman cat. When Otto’s so-called caretakers brought him to the Clementon Animal Hospital this January, he weighed almost 36 pounds.

If you are on facebook you can see how he is doing this week: https://www.facebook.com/ClementonAnimalHospital
It has taken them a year to lose 11.5 lbs.

 

[Brian]

First you need to talk to your vet about a weight loss plan. The rule of thumb is an 8lb cat needs about 30 calories per pound per day. (may be higher for a 12lb cat...ask your vet). You should be feeding to the ideal weight your vet suggests, not his current weight.

To give you an idea what this might look like at 12lbs x 30 calories=360 calories.

Just wanted to say that the necessary daily calories per cat seem to vary wildly depending on the cat. Age and activity level seem to be quite important. Linus was able to hold steady at over 16lbs on 280 cal/day. We dropped him down to 260-270 cal/day (we fed the same amount of food, but rotated a few varieties) and he dropped 2 pounds over the last 4.5 months. There were a few days in there he didn't eat his full amount as we did the transition to wet food though. He'd pork back up if he was given 360 cal/day and his ideal weight is probably 13-14lbs, he still has a pudgy chest, but a kinda skinny old man butt at 14.24lbs. He thinks 'active' is something that happens to other cats though. I think it's another case of Know Thy Cat, and why careful monitoring of weight is important.

That's a good point about hepatic lipodosis, and for a reference point Dr Lisa says:

"Hepatic lipidosis can also develop when a cat consumes 50% or less of his daily caloric requirements over a period of many days. "

and

"I have never seen a cat develop hepatic lipidosis when consuming at least 15 calories per pound per day. This number is figured on lean body weight, not fat weight."

She has other handy info on weight loss on her website.

 

[Beth & Atlas]

First you need to talk to your vet about a weight loss plan. The rule of thumb is an 8lb cat needs about 30 calories per pound per day. (may be higher for a 12lb cat...ask your vet). You should be feeding to the ideal weight your vet suggests, not his current weight.

To give you an idea what this might look like at 12lbs x 30 calories=360 calories.

Just wanted to say that the necessary daily calories per cat seem to vary wildly depending on the cat. Age and activity level seem to be quite important.

And that is exactly why I said to first talk to your vet. While there is a "rule of thumb," in the case of weight loss working closely with a vet starting out is highly beneficial.

 

[SabrinaFaire]

Thanks, all. Last I talked to my vet she said we should get Hobbs regulated before working on weight loss. However she was also "freaking out" a little because she didn't like his numbers, she thought he was too low and was going to talk to an internist about that and about the food I switched him to and get back to me. That was three weeks ago. I know she's busy, so am I, and I remember to call people back. Since I flat out thought she was wrong about his BG levels and the food, I haven't gotten too worked up about it. Put perhaps I should call and ask.