“Fat” rescue cat

[bettydraper31]

I’m wondering if some of you can help!

We rescued our cat from Battersea last January so had him a year now. When we rescued him he was 4kg, took him to the vets back in Oct last year and they said his weight had increased to 4.3kg and we should try and get it back down. So we cut his dreamies and also a lot of dry food as well (realised we were over feeding him). Still 2 pouches per day.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago follow up appt he’s put on another 0.2kg! Vet said he’s probably helping himself to another cat’s food so I put a msg on our villages fb page asking people (kindly) not to feed him if they were.

We have also reduced his wet food to 1.5 pouches per day instead of 2. My problem is now he just pesters me for food all day!!! Constant meowing and running around at my feet all day. I’m a stay at home parent and 7 months pregnant so we’re home with him most of the day and it’s starting to drive me mad bless him. He even tries to eat any food my daughter drops at mealtimes, jumps up at the counter/table and will even lick anything from the kitchen floor that could be food. He’s worse than our old dog!!

Sorry for the ramble! Any advice anyone?

Thinking I may have to take him back to the vet and get him checked over to make sure there’s nothing more sinister. He is nuetured and does go outdoors but he’s an ex stray so doesn’t venture too far.

No idea but my 2 year old is 4.7 and I haven’t been told to cut down. Is 0.3 really that horrific? I can’t stand being begged for food it upsets me are you feeding him grain free? It’s supposed to fill them up for longer.

Thank you for your reply, I’m also a bit confused as to why my vet has told us he needs to lose weight as I didn’t think this was an excessive weight for a cat.

He eats whiskas, what do you feed yours?

Do you use Zooplus? It’s worth it if you want to buy good quality European Brands. I buy Puritzon dry on there. They say cats need a high meat content and not fillers. An expert on here will come along soon I’m sure. If you have a Sainsbury’s I noticed they have started doing their own grain free dry food and it’s a good price their wet in the range is good as well it looks like proper chicken.

4.3 KG isnt big.
I'd give him a bit more to eat and you could try some dried food for those cats with a large appetite/ tend to beg. You can get it as Pets at Home.
Mine really is big over 6KG and he s being cut down at present.

My big boy cat who died last year, spent a lot of his life at around 10kg. A lot of vets said he was overweight and he should be put on a diet. I gave him weight loss food from vets, but to be honest, he actually wasn't a big eater so, didn't lose any weight. I finally saw a vet who told me not to worry about his size and that yes, he was a big lad, but he was fit and healthy. He slimmed down as the years went by, not because I put him on a diet but just through aging, I think. Not questioning what vets are telling you, but 4.3kg seems positively slim compared to my old lad.

Cats come in different sizes and builds so I'd go with the vet's opinion. My cat is a healthy weight for him at 6.5kg (he was 7.4kg when he came from rescue) but my last cat was more healthy at around 3.5kg.

The advice I was given was to feed to his ideal weight and to increase exercise. I would move to a better quality food that might keep him full longer.

My cat is also a rescue cat and a bit like this . We try and restrict what he eats ( a bit) but he will often go to neighbours houses and help himself to their cats' food we have moved house and I'm pretty sure he has worked out which houses he can get into now that have cats and food . I think when they have had to scavenge they never really get over it ( however loved and well fed they are at home )

One of mine was 4.3 when I got her and went up to 5kg . Which I thought was an ok weight for a cat. I discovered during a 3am phone call from the vet that she was actually obese. She was so ill she lost 500g and is now 4.5. The vet is ok with that as long as she doesn't gain any more. Her sister is quite skinny.

Both Persians so very solid and chunky build and stumpy legs. Those charts the vets have on how to tell if they are a good weight by their shape just doesn't fit them.

Different cats are different sizes. Your cat may be supposed to be 4kg - adding 1/2 a kilo on 4kg is a lot.

I speak as someone you spent most of her cat's life trying to get weight off it

You've idenitfied the problem - cats don't need Dreamies and you feed her too much. Plus she has too little to do so just comes around whinging after you.

More play, more entertainment, no snacks. Weighing out cat food not handfuls. And Zooplus for grain-free food. No Whiskas.

Toddler the charts don't work for my stocky cat either, he still looks like a fat sod but he isn't at all.

That really isn’t big. Our ‘small’ cat is 5kg and the ‘larger ‘ one is over 8kg. Vet is not concerned with the weight of either.

No one who hasn’t seen the cat can say whether he’s overweight or not. My cat has a healthy weight of 6.5kg. The tiny cat we used to have would have been like a rugby ball on legs at that weight - her healthy weight was a little under 4kg.

If your cat wears a collar, try putting on a “do not feed me” one. Mine used to remove them at the rate of one a week so I bought cheap collars and wrote on them with a sharpie.

Definitely weigh the food. It can make a huge difference (for ease I bought a lad of small clip lock boxes from Poundland so I can weigh out about a fortnight’s food in daily portions).

My parents told their cat that his collar said"very handsome cat" rather than do not feed me. In an attempt to stop him taking them off.

We had a fat cat problem! We actually reduced the dry food, and added a pouch of wet food every morning. She definitely grazes less with a belly-full of wet food.

That weight gain doesn’t seem too bad, but it depends what he looks like. Our vet uses a visual chart as well as weight as all cats
are different shapes and sizes, can you google and see where you think he fits on a visual chart? Have a look from the side and from the top.

You might find he loses weight as it gets warmer and lighter, one of my previous outdoor cats always gained in winter but was a skinny minnie by July!

I would cut the dry before cutting the wet as the wet food is mainly moisture. What dry food is it? Ideally you want high meat and no cereals.

This is the chart

If it's whiskas dry food then that is not a good food at all as the first ingredient is cereals whereas the majority of it should be meat. I have been giving AVA dry food from pets ay home which is 60% chicken and recently bought some Thrive food from zooplus thst is 90% chicken. Both of these are grain free

The wet food I give is Sheba fine flakes/select slices, gourmet perle and more recently a whiskas one that has no cereals or sugars added

Thanks everyone for your help and ideas! He’s a long haired cat so to me he looks like fine, but I’m sure once winter goes and he looses a lot of his fur he will look quite skinny as he’s just all fur at the moment!

The pestering for food is reaching an all time high, to the point where he just gets ignored all day because he just follows me around all day where he nearly trips me up! It’s such a shame because he can’t be happy. I sat in the garden yesterday whilst my little girl played in the sand pit and he wouldn’t leave me alone in the garden either, clawing at my coat and jumping up at my lap. Poor sod.

Try changing his food - Whiskas is pretty shoddy quality, tbh.

The best diet for cats is a high protein diet with no grains or cereals - I feed ours Lily's Kitchens, Applaws, Nature's Menu and Wainrights (I buy whatever is on offer) - they're all grain free, and the cats also get treats of tuna or fresh chicken a couple of times a week. Both very healthy and the best bit - no stinky poos!

We have two - our girl is tiny - she's only just 6lbs, and the boy is part Maine Coon and weighs a whopping 18lbs. He's not overweight, just a big breed. But they both eat the same diet and manage to regulate fairly well.

That doesn't sound too big. My big ragdoll is 7.5kg, was 7 when we got her from battersea. She doesn't like going outside though so not much exercise.

Do you know how he ended up in rescue? We had a rescue cat and we know that he was semi-neglected as a kitten / young cat, no regular meals, owner disappearing for a day or so before coming back to feed him. Our rescue is obsessed with food, steals from people's plates, scavenges in bins, cons other people into thinking he is a poor, starving stray despite being overweight.

We've never found an answer. Putting food out constantly - he ate until he got ill, he does not have an off switch. Restricting food - he either becomes even more of a pain with the stealing and pestering, or buggers off to someone who will feed him.

So no help really, other than maybe some understanding of why he is like that.

User- this sounds very familiar. He definitely has the “I’m starving and nobody loves me” look down to a tee. He was a stray, his owner moved and left him behind so he’s probably very used to scavenging like you say!

Ive always had rescue cats and vets have told me they lean towards over eating as they are programmed to not know when the next meal is coming from. Having said that none of them has batted an eyelid until the 5kg mark, especially for a tom cat.