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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Unhappy cat on a diet!

13 replies

mumsnit · 03/02/2016 21:31

Has anyone successfully put their cat on a diet? How long did it take for them to lose weight and stop begging for food? Tubby cat is 'almost' obese according to the vet Blush and so we've started her on Satiety dry food as was recommended.

Problem is she's starving and clearly unhappy. Waking me up early every morning for food and hanging around the house under my feet all day. DH thinks it's mean to keep her hungry but am worried that she'll do a runner to a neighbours house (who has been feeding her which hasn't helped with the weight gain!)

Help!

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 03/02/2016 23:05

The trouble is that it has to be a longish slowish process to make sure their health isn't impaired. Are you acting under vet supervision? And what are her activity levels like? (You should probably be thinking about upping those eg with games or by use of a food ball type toy if she eats any dried.)

cozietoesie · 03/02/2016 23:06

PS - have you spoken to the neighbour?

Neverpolishghillies · 03/02/2016 23:11

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_p_72_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A340840031%2Cn%3A451109031%2Ck%3Acat+toys%2Cp_72%3A419153031&keywords=cat+toys&ie=UTF8&qid=1454540814&rnid=419152031

Lots of distracting excise fun toys, something else to think about until his stomach shrinks a bit, he needs to learn to be active and play again.

Catzpyjamas · 03/02/2016 23:11

You could make her rations last longer and give her exercise by feeding her the satiety food in a catmosphere or cat feeding maze.
Better to be hungry (greedy?) than risk diabetes, heart issues and lifelong medication unfortunately...

Original poster
mumsnit · 04/02/2016 08:36

Thanks all. Yes am following vet guidelines for reducing her food slowly. Have ordered the feeding toy which might help - forgot that the vet had suggested this too! We did speak to neighbour but she's of the opinion that vets will always tell you your cat is overweight - she feeds all the local cats Hmm

She's much less active than she used to be as there are now a lot more cats around in the street which I think stops her going out as much. She sleeps a lot!! Will try to get her up and about a bit more Smile

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 04/02/2016 09:35

Well done - but your neighbour sounds like a bit of liability. (Although well meaning, perhaps.) Maybe see if you can get her to read this by printing it out or sending her a link if you know her email?

If your cat wears a collar, is there any chance of putting a 'Don't Feed Me' message on it? (Or something similar.)

RubbishMantra · 04/02/2016 11:22

Try the Flying Frenzy cat toy to getting her moving about.

It comes with 3 feather clip-on lures, but the website has about a million different lures. Mine can't resist the wiggly worm.

They also donate a large amount of their profits to cat rescues.

LittleLionHeart · 04/02/2016 11:30

We had the same problem and I don't know the answer. He eventually did find another house (or houses) to eat at and now if we don't feed him he goes straight out the cat flap and goes MENTAL if we lock it. He did lose a bit, but he's still obese. The only way he'll lose weight is if I keep him in, and if I do all he does it sit at the catflap and pull the door. So I suspect he will always be fat. He was a stray, and is a scavenger. Sigh.

Unhappy cat on a diet!
Original poster
mumsnit · 04/02/2016 19:25

I saw those collars but she wouldn't wear one unfortunately! The info was really useful and I'll show it to DH too as I'm sure he caves in when she turns her feminine wiles on 🐱

Love the toy and we do definitely need to get her moving more.

They are so cheeky aren't they and he looks like butter wouldn't melt in the photo LittleLionHeart!!

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 04/02/2016 19:55

Good luck. Smile

IShouldBeSoLurky · 04/02/2016 20:07

We're going through this with our cat. She's v petite but got up over 4kg so the vet said she needed to lose some weight. We weigh her food out into bags once a week and feed her little and often in a feeding ball. If we just put half of it out for her she would devour it in seconds, probably be sick and then demand more! But we work from home so can do that easily. It's quite tough TBH - she does get under foot and shout a lot Sad Fortunately she is mostly (through choice) an indoor cat and quite timid so no need to worry about her scrounging off the neighbours! It's been three months now and she is definitely looking slimmer!

bertsdinner · 04/02/2016 20:39

Going through a similar problem with my cat at the moment. He's an ex stray and loves being fed. He's a big, stocky lad, but he's put a lot of weight on. He's not very outdoorsy so I'm trying to get him more active. He loves his bouncy ball so I'm trying to get him running round after it.
I can see a vet visit/diet looming.

cozietoesie · 04/02/2016 21:05

I have quite the opposite situation - trying to get as many worthwhile calories as possible into an elderly and picky cat.

It's still a problem though.

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