What if my cat is eating too much?

Question

I have a cat who is 4 years old and about 16 pounds but the vet says she should no more than 12 pounds. I buy weight control dry food and wet food. I try to give her the wet food only once or twice a week but when she does not get wet food she meows like crazy and over time does not seem as happy. Even with the dry food she seems to want more than the recommended amount.

I am worried about her overall health. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Take away the wet food and try a couple of tablespoons of canned chicken broth mixed with the dry food.

Answer 2

It's great to know that you realize that you cat has gotten more weight than she could handle and needs help. However, this has to be done slowly and gradually. There are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind and one of the most important is to never cut out his food too much, too soon. With an overweight cat, weight loss has to happen gradually to prevent fatty liver disease.

Here's a great website with well researched info and guide on how to properly create a diet plan:-

http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/catwei...

A Short summary:-

To get a cat to lose weight, do the following after consulting with your veterinarian:

1.) Have a thorough physical exam, lab tests, and accurate weigh recorded. Be sure to rule out hypothyroidism or other metabolic disorders.

2.) Feed less food than you have been

3.) Feed foods high in protein and fat and low in carbohydrate

4.) Feed small portions at intervals (2x to 4x per day) rather than continuous free access/ free choice

5.) Increase the cat’s activity/exercise by enriching the cat’s environment

6.) Reweigh the cat at three to four week intervals to assess your weight loss diet’s progress

7.) Reconsider the total daily amount fed if weight gain or no weight loss is noted

8.) Once the cat is at an idea weight, adjust the total amount fed so that the cat’s body weight remains stable.

Kindly read through the important tips and you can start him on the road to a better body and healthier life!

Answer 3

I would say he needs attention, as he is not stopping at eating. He needs attention and many toys. I use string.

Answer 4

You have things backwards. Stop feeding kitty crack. get rid of it.

Weight control ice cream won't work

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or is it meal or other things? Learn what meal and other things mean here.

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms of food allergies probably from the grains. Constipation? Dry food, not enough moisture. Blockages? Again not enough moisture in the food and you are risking something serious. People on this board say feed fiber but this is a cat not a dog and cats are obligate carnivores unlike dogs an they don't eat cereal and don't need fiber.

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food (Cats are not naturally big drinkers) but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at all or grains  at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food as it uses a muscle meat as the first ingrediant. 9lives, friskies whiskas are lower grade canned but still better then dry and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.

Many foods are not mentioned here but if you read the labels you wiull know if it is qualaty. The price offers no guideline.

The optimum food to feed cats has no grains whatsoever, cats have no use for them and many have trouble processing them as well as the carbs. IBD is another disease that is rapidly becoming common amoung cats because of the inappropriate diets being fed.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? Why do people constantly repeat this old wives tale and put teeth over the organs like the kidneys?? (I have no clue)   http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...

Answer 5

I could give you a saga, but a long story short, answer...Wet food is better than dry. Dry food is one of the main causes of obesity and urinary tract infections and crystal formation. Keep feeding her the recommended amount, but try spacing it out into twice or three times a day, i am suppose to give my cat 1 cup per day so i give half cup in morning half cup at night. get her a pet fountain and provide her with fresh water. Get some interactive toys like a wand with a string and toy at the end so she can have playtime and bonding time at the same time. they have vet food that is wet canned food. ask about royal canin wet food.weight control. the cat needs excersise too or it wont lose any weight. if your cat wont stop bothering you give her 2 cat treats and play with her.

Answer 6

feed her only once a day and cut down on the portions u usually give her

Answer 7

Well the cat may not have enough toys to play with so then the cat eats more. try to get plasic balls with a bell in them and get your cat more active.

Answer 8

You choke it to death.

No I'm kidding. Just get it more excercise and reduce its food or get weight control food.

Answer 9

If she's accustomed to eating too much then it's going to take a while for her to get used to the idea of eating a reasonable amount. Don't get worried that she seems to want more - chances are, she's not really hungry, she just thinks she is. After a while she'll adjust to the new routine and hopefully shed some pounds.