Explanations for why my cat is so fat (apart from the obvious)?

The amount to feed per cat/per day should be about 5.5 ounces of wet (high quality grain free canned or Raw Meat/Bones/Organ) food.

The calories in that amount of food are sufficient for most "normal" 8-10 pound cats. Of course a highly energetic cat will need more food to keep it healthy, and a lazy cat will need less food to keep it from getting obese. But 5.5 ounces of wet food per day is a good place to start.

Here is a fantastic site that will help you help your cat lose weight!

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

Let me share with you what I have learned about feline nutrition to help you make an informed decision on what diet you should feed your cats.

Many brands of manufactured cat foods claiming to be "healthy" really are not. In fact they are made of the lowest ingredients possible. I'm not saying that a cat can't live off them... just the same as you could live off hot dogs and Mac and cheese forever, but better choices can and should be made for your feline friends. I would not venture to say that any manufactured food is "best" for a cat but a grain free organic wet food would be a good start. Feeding canned is certainly better than feeding dry in all cases.

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.

In the wild, cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. So they do not drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it need from dry food and are almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it. But it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, stones, urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall, wet is a better all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

It is also bogus that kibble cleans teeth. DRY FOOD DOES NOT CLEAN TEETH. It's an old myth that has been scientifically disproved for years, but old-school vets drilled it into people's heads for so long (and sadly still do) that people still believe it. Cats can not “chew”. They do not have chewing teeth. They have meat ripping pointy carnivorous teeth. They do not have molars. They may “crunch” a piece of food once to crack and break it… but they are absolutely unable to chew a hard piece if food. Want your cat to have clean teeth? Give them an appropriately sized raw bone. :o)

I personally feed a Raw Meat and Bones based diet to my cats and they are very healthy on it. I HIGHLY recommend it. Once I got the hang of it and felt comfortable with it it's a snap to prepare. It's something you might want to consider someday. They are obligate carnivores after all and must derive ALL their nutrients from meat based sources. They are unable to absorb them from any other source. Despite thousands of years of domestication they remain strictly carnivorous. True and honest meat eaters and that is what they need most. Protein from meat!

If you are interested in feeding a raw diet some great places to start learning are http://www.catinfo.org/ , http://www.catnutrition.org/ , and http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/ .

If you would like to try raw with your cats and don’t want to get all technical about it but want to try a trusted, time tested and balanced raw diet you can order from http://www.felinespride.com/products/catfood.aspx . I purchased this myself when I first started and my cats loved it!

If raw is not an option for you please be aware that there are three Categories of Pet Foods:

-"Grocery store" foods – (Generic Brands and cheap name brands) Those foods found in grocery stores and mass-market retailers are made with lower-quality, less-digestible, inexpensive ingredients and are therefore a cheaper alternative. While easy on the pocketbook, "grocery store" foods normally do not provide your cat with the healthiest, most nutrient-dense ingredients.

-Premium foods – (Iams/Eukanuba, Purina One, Hills Science Diet, Nutro and such) Foods often found in grocery stores, pet stores, and veterinarian offices that contain higher-grade ingredients, but still include many elements of "grocery store" food, such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and "filler" ingredients such as corn and wheat products, by-products and even animal digest. Yuck! Premium foods are usually more expensive than "grocery store" foods because their ingredients are sometimes of a higher quality, and are therefore somewhat more beneficial and digestible. But don’t be fooled, some of those same so called Premium brands are sometimes worse than grocery store foods, but they charge prices like they are better. They aren’t!

-Healthy foods – (Wellness, Merrick, Eagle Pack, Drs Foster & Smith) The newest addition to the pet food market - provide pets with the highest quality, healthiest, and most nutritious ingredients. They are typically available for purchase online or direct from the manufacturer. Some better retailers are starting to carry them now. Complete Petmart carries a few healthy brand foods. Foods in the Healthy class contain nutrient-rich ingredients. Formulated to provide optimum health benefits for pets, these foods often use real meat as the primary protein source, carbohydrate-rich whole grains like brown rice and barley and whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. They should not contain artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. They will almost always be fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, and will use the best natural sources for fatty acids to help build healthy skin and a beautiful coat. Because healthy foods use high quality ingredients, you should expect to pay a little more than you would for other types of pet food. Remember, though, with healthy foods you can feed less since healthy foods are more nutrient-dense than other types of food so it often evens out or cost’s les than feeding foods filled with cheap non-nutritional by-products fillers.

With all that information in mind, when you are choosing a new cat food, study the ingredients. All ingredients on pet food labels are listed by weight. Meaning whatever ingredients are listed first on the list, there is more in there. The first ingredients listed should be whole meat ingredients, protein sources, such as Chicken or Turkey. NOT just the word “meat”! Who the heck knows what that is? The word Chicken Meal is ok, but it should be a secondary ingredient, not first. Meal is the meat dehydrated and ground into a powder.

The ingredients also should NOT include any by-products or animal digest whatsoever. Those are disgusting left over animal parts that are scraped off the filthy floors of meat and poultry plants. They should just go into the trash but they put them into pet food instead. EW!!!! Also make sure there are no artificial colors or flavors. And make sure there is no BHA and BHT used preservatives. These preservatives have been shown to cause cancer in both cats and dogs. Bad Bad stuff and it’s in almost every cat treat on the market. :(

So, in summery of the ingredients… if you see the words by-products, Animal Digest, the word “meat” alone, Corn, Corn Gluten, Wheat Gluten, or BHA or BHT… stop reading, put down that product and move on to the next.

Be aware that when switching to a Healthy, Holistic or Organic food, you will pay for what you get. Good foods are not cheap. They are pricey and will cost you more than cheaper products, just like steak costs more than hotdogs. But again, you will be feeding a better food and improving the over all health of your pet. This in turn leads to less vet visits for illness now and more importantly later in life in their geriatric years. You will also feed less of this food on a per animal basis because a smaller amount of food contains what your cat needs. Overall healthy foods are well worth it, if only for the piece of mind that the ingredients are better for your cat than cheap crap.

You can start your research for a healthy cat food here if you are not ready to try feeding a Raw diet:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/

If you want to buy in a store, Complete Petmart is a good store and carries quite a few natural, organic, and holistic blends. Also check with your local feed/grain stores.

I highly recommend you take the time to research for yourself, but the information I have given should get you off to a good start. Good luck choosing a new healthy food!

********IMPORTANT*******Don’t forget to switch your Pets food slowly over a period of 10 to 14 days, if you can. Mixing 25% new to 75% old. Then 50/50… then 75% new to 25% old. And finally switch over to 100% new. Take it slow as not to upset their digestive system.

You can rule out a thyroid problem. Dogs can be hypothyroid (slow metabolism) - which causes wt gain, but cats are actually the opposite. They are prone to being HYPERthyroid - which basically causes the metabolism to speed up and cause wt gain. Obviously not what you're dealing with!

Weight loss in cats is pretty much the same as in people. You need to cut calories AND increase exercise. I suspect that its the lack of exercise that is the culprit here. Do whatever it takes to get her moving - even if it means putting her meal at the top of the stairs, throwing her kibble one at a time clear across the kitchen or buying her catnip, LED light etc... Regardless, if she is not losing wt then the bottom line is that she is still getting too many calories. You may have more success with canned food - it is mostly water and will "fill up" her tummy with less calories.

The trip to the Vet is still a good idea. Obesity is quite common, and your Veterinary team will have lots of good ideas for you to try. And don't be too discouraged. Cats should lose wt slowly - even a 1/4lb a month is good. Consider bringing her to the clinic every 4-6wks just for a free weigh in - often a 1/4lb loss goes unnoticed on a home scale.

With many cats, the reason they are overweight is because they are eating a food that's high in corn and too low in protein. Nature made cats to eat meat, not corn. Their bodies crave protein, and they overeat on the corn-filled food so that their bodies get the protein they need. The end result is an overweight cat. She's refusing the weight control food as it's got even more fiber and filler, and it isn't what she wants. It's just not the kind of food that nature intended cats to eat. Many people have had success feeding a grain free diet. Think "Atkins Diet" for cats. With the grain free foods they get all the protein they need with less food, and no carbs! Eating less means losing weight. You'll need to make some phone calls to your local pet stores (not the big chain ones, but the smaller ones). You want to find Innova's EVO (the favorite of all the grain-free foods here), Wellness Core, Serengeti, or Orajin are a few. There are others, you'll just need to ask the clerk or read the ingredients. If you make a transition to one of these rich foods, you'll need to do it gradually over a period of at least a week. Expect some loose stool as her body adjusts to the higher protein and fat content in it. It will pass as she gets used to eating it.

Are you feeding dry food? If so, that's probably the reason. It's so much more fattening. Also, diet foods are not healthy.

In a nutshell, most cats are fat because they've been fed too much (free-feeding or indulging them) and because they're fed dry food which is NOT appropriate food for them due to the grain/carb/sugar content. Cats are obligate carnivores who need to eat a high meat-based protein diet, which is also high in fats and low in carbs.

Many vets, who are sadly ignorant on the topic of proper cat nutrition, will recommend prescription diet foods (usually dry). Cats are expected to lose weight on a starvation diet of 1/4 or 1/3 cup of food per day. Everyone is miserable in these situations.

The solution is to switch the fat cat (and any others in the household as well) to a good quality canned food. Because these foods are species appropriate, the cat will lose weight at a safe, slow pace (no more than 1 pound per month). Switching foods needs to occur slowly, and if you're trying to get a kibble junkie to eat canned food, that will happen naturally.

How much should cats eat?

This varies. Average cats may eat between 20-30 calories per pound per day. But note that that is IDEAL pounds. Using 25 calories per day for example, an 8 pound cat could eat 200 calories per day. By the same token, a cat who weighs 20 pounds but should weigh 10 could eat 250 calories per day. You multiply the ideal weight by the calories to arrive at that figure. When working toward weight loss, it's perhaps best to start at the lower end of the scale (20).

How do I find out how many calories are in cat food? See the link "Values in canned food." If it's not listed there, you'd need to contact the manufacturer.....I believe that link provides some help there as well.

That's it. Easy as pie. Not only will fat cats lose weight, but it and any others in the home will reap many benefits of eating a speciies appropriate diet.

See the links below for detailed information on this topic.

UPDATE: Poppy lost 5 pounds and Sophie lost 2 following this plan (from October to October). Each cat gets one can (5.5oz) of Nature's Variety Instincts per day. No one is starving or miserable. My vet is happy with her progress and so am I. Only 4 pounds to go!

SORRY - LINKS BROKEN - Yahoo being cranky about links again.

What cat food are you using? Some brands include items such as corn meal, wheat gluten, soy, etc. that cats do not need and their bodies do not break down very well. Check the label of the food you use and try to avoid these items. Make sure chicken or turkey or fish is the first ingredient. An excellent food called Evo is grain free and made mostly from fresh meat with no by-products. I have been using this and my cats have started to loose all the excess weight that they have been carrying around.

Cats sometimes get fat after being "Fixed". It is not really healthy for them. There are diet cat foods. The big thing, as in humans, is exercise. try to play with the fat cat and with that exercise buring off calories it will start losing weight.

It is difficult to change a cat's lifestyle, especially if we are busy. But some quality play time is fun and good training for humans as well as healthy for Cat.

You cat needs a high protein / low carb diet. Usually feeding a good quality canned food in portioned meals is best. Dry food tends to have too many carbs in it.

It would be VERY rare for a cat to have hypothyroidism (low thyroid level) leading to obesity. But being obese will predispose your cat to diabetes, liver problems and other health threats so you are right to be concerned. Some cats are a little insulin resistant and have slow metabolism though which makes them prone to obesity (vs. your other cat who is probably normal), you manage this through diet.

Try meal feeding a good quality canned cat food high in protein for 2 daily meals to your cat. Do NOT allow her to go more than a day without eating though as this can cause liver problems in fat cats. Change foods gradually. Call your vet for more advice. Some cats need a prescription diet to help them loose weight.

Also try to encourge more exercise - toys, play time, etc.

I think your vet may be able to help you with these questions. The vet will give you the names of the best type of cat food for your cat and probably do some blood work to see what is happening.

I wouldn't buy different cat foods because changing foods is not good for their system, too. Just go to the vet.

The thyroid gland is situated at the front of the throat, below the Adam’s apple. It comprises two lobes that lie on either side of the windpipe, joined in front by an isthmus. The thyroid gland secretes hormones to regulate many metabolic processes, including growth and energy expenditure. Hypothyroidism means the thyroid gland is underactive and fails to secrete enough hormones into the bloodstream. This causes the person’s metabolism to slow down.

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you forgot to mention if she is neutered, if that's the case then it would be one good reason for her to keep gaining so much weight, plus the fact that she doesn't do any exercise help a lot too. but you should still have the vet take a look at her and provably run a blood test to see if she has thyroid problems. healthy diet, daily exercise, lots of water and a blood test by the vet will help you keep your cat in great health. good luck.