Fat cat - just can’t get her weight down

[Plipplops]

Got a gorgeous 2 year old rescue cat in the summer, she was a slightly chubby 4.5kg then but had just had babies. Over the next few months she increased to 6kg (she doesn’t really like to go outside so gets v little exercise, and possibly we overfed her but not by much).

She’s been on reduced food for a couple of months, and on special diet food for the last three weeks. Isn’t being fed elsewhere, and does a bit of chasing toys round the floor so gets a little exercise but not much. She ignores all types of toys on string/laser pointer etc so I can’t see how we can encourage more exercise.

If we just stick with the diet food will she lose weight at some point? Are there any medical things to consider (she’s otherwise happy and well and beautiful, just very fat...)

What food is she eating and how much?

Do you weigh out the food and are you feeding the cat the amount for the cat you want her to be 4.5kg.
A very common mistake is to ad-lib feed diet food - must measure it or it will not work.

Are you weighing her dry food?

If she is indoor only/sedentary she needs to being fed the lower end or less than any packet feeding amounts.

Do you give her any wet food/treats/human food.? If so you need to feed even less dry food.

I would start with a vet visit to rule out a physical cause.

Have you been to the vet to check underlying health issues?

Agree with weighing the food, it’s loads less than you think it will be!

Our old cat was a BIG girl. She was huge when I rehomed her age 4. We had great success on Hill Metabolic tinned food. She always went to a twice monthly weigh in at the vets who wete excellent at advising me on portion control. This was a free service at the vets and while they recommended the Hills food I didn't need to buy it from them so got it cheaper else where. See if your vets offer something similar.

Mine is like this - indoor cat and lazy.
She is on 3×25g of encore dry food and has lost a bit but now has plateaued. I really don't want to feed her less because life is miserable if you are hungry. OTOH, I don't want her to be unhealthy and she's relying on me to take care of her properly. I'm not sure what to do either. We try to play with her lots but once she's had enough she just sits down and won't budge.
She also dislikes most toys apart from the laser pointer. She used to love shoe laces being dangled but is now bored of them.
What do people do with lazy cats who CBA to play?

You could try a raw diet. It won't have any hidden sugar or carbs in. Most cat food contains too much of either or both, even the special diet stuff.

Definitely always measure/weigh the portion especially if you're feeding dry food - it's really easy to overfeed. The diet portions really should be quite tiny.

Also cat weight loss needs to be at a slow rate anyway so it may take a while before you notice a change. Do you have baby scales? They are really useful for accurately weighing a cat.

fatty cat is on a diet. Has an appetite like a labrador.... if there is food out he eats it.

you have to be ruthless with the weighing of food. We work out how many treats he has on top and they are measured out per day. He is slowly losing weight.

our vet allows you to bring your cat in to be weighted for free.

i also recommend puzzle feeders.... you can get ones where you put dry food in a ball, and they have to bat it to get the food out. Make her work for the food.

Hi, I feel your pain. I got my rescue in September 2018, she weighed in at 7Kgs then... She’s now 4.5Kgs.

As others have said, weigh the food. Every time. And no treats. I feed four times a day with an automatic timer. Currently she gets 1 pouch of James Wellbeloved grain free turkey (85g) and 29g of James Wellbeloved complete balanced light dry food a day. Weighing it out it looks like hardly anything, but as the vet pointed out, to a cat a mouse is a meal, a bird is a Sunday roast and a rabbit is full Christmas dinner.

It’s maybe also worth pointing out that she should only be losing 50 - 100g a week, as it’s. It good for them to lose a lot of weight quickly. Patience (and a heart of stone) will get you there! Good luck!

Sorry for the slow reply, puking DD got in the way...

I’m weighing all her food and she doesn’t get anything extra. She’s 6kg but I’m feeding her the amount on the pack for a 4kg cat - she gets 80g of wet (it says to give her a punch which i think is 85g but we use tins so I weigh that out) plus 40g of diet dry food (Science something).

I'd look at the ingredients of the dry food. If it has cereals, grains, rice etc then I'd choose something else that is high meat and grain free. In fact check the wet food too

My previously 8kg big boy is on a strict (supervised by vet) diet of the royal canin satiety food. 41g of the dry food per day and then one pouch of wet food at night. I split it into 21g morning, 20g lunch and then the pouch at might. He's down to 7.5kg now

He also used to refuse to chase and play but we got a 'da bird' thingy and he loves that and gets some exercise that way

You have to do it slowly with cats or they get fatty liver disease, so see the vet if you haven't already and get her on a supervised diet with their guidelines

It is hard. he seems so hungry very often even though the food is meant to help fill them up more (the satiety one) but I know it's the absolute maximum he can have while still managing to lose some weight. So yeah it's hard on my heartstrings but we are getting there