My cats, an 18 lb norwegian forest cat (King Solomon) and a 13 calico (Millicent) are OBESE. I have them on diet food on a restricted amount, but they're both quite the chubs!
Solomon was a lot thinner when he was indoor-outdoor, but Fatty McFatterson keeps getting into fights as well as jumping into storm drains that he then can't get back out of, so he's firmly indoors now.
Today, I caught Solomon stealing food out of the puppy's food bowl (which is elevated, but apparently not so much he can't reach it on his hind legs).
The puppy isn't fat...yet. Spartacus is a 7 month old lab/possibly newfoundland mix who weighs about 55 lbs.
I give up. They're all going to have to be fat forever, LOL!
It's very hard with the indoor kitties (all my kitties are indoors). I have two big male cats that have what my vet kindly calls "excess tissue" but they're otherwise healthy, so I don't get too stressed about it. Part of the problem with my herd is that my old girl is hyper-thryoid and has trouble keeping weight on, so I have to feed her often. And how can I feed her and not the boys? That would be cruel!
My two cats are free-fed, and all my mom's cats are free-fed, and none of those are fat, they are all indoors. I also feed mine with 1/4 of can each of wet food everyday/every two days and they are staying super slim. In my opinion, all this vet food thing/regulated portions is bullshit and is what causing cats to get fat, as they are afraid they will run out of food so they eat more than they would usually do. Now yours are already fat so they need your help to lose the weight, but I would try free feeding when they'll get thin!
(my female cat weight 7.4lbs and my male cat weights 13lbs, he's a gigantic boy and she's tiny! )
Our Brittany Spaniel has all of a sudden gotten real chunky. I finally realized the problems. One is we got a new 7 year old weenie dog to go with the 6 year old one we already had. Neither of them finishes their food so Belle (the Brittany) is cleaning their bowls. Then our daughter and two of the grandbabies moved in with us in November when she and SIL split up and are going through a nasty divorce. We caught the 14 month old feeding Belle at least 1/2 of his food to Belle. If I put her out while feeding him, he refuses to eat. When I bring her back in, he then wants to eat and we catch him slipping her food again. Boy, babies are smarter than I remember. He and she are sly.
i had issues with a fat indoor cat too, however she is now 1.5kg lighter and much more active than she was. when i took her the vets she joined the pet slimming club and was put on obesity plan biscuits that really bulk out when they drink water etc, she even won slimmer of the month two months in a row! i have to be very strick with the cat as i cant just leave food down for her or she would eat none stop! so this was a few years ago now and she still has to have a low fat food and strict portions. its anoying as the food company i use allways charges more for the low fat food but worth it for the cats health.
A lot of the diet foods for pets are actually more harmful than good. They are often filled with corn and other such carb based fillers that are unnatural for cats and dogs to eat. Look into an all natural, grain free food and portion control that. You will also have to pick up the dog food and feed him at set times as well, my cats love dog food, too. Given a choice they would probably sit and crunch on dog food.
They also make toys for cats where you put the kibble in a ball that they have to roll around to get the food out, this stretches the meal out and gives them mental and physical exercise. Of course, if your puppy is anything like mine, the toy would be stolen and demolished rather quickly. haha
I have two indoor cats who need to lose weight. Having worked in vet medicine I had one of the reps donate me a free bag of food to start the cats on a weight loss diet.....needless to say I dont see a difference. This rep claimed the product worked, yeah right. We are pretty pushy in the vet field when it comes to the vet recommended diets and yes, I agree they are expensive and I wonder if it is bs to be honest. Even with employee discount the food is still so expensive. There is a new product out there courtesy of Hill's called Metabolic and apparently if you buy the first bag, you get the second free. Not sure on the current price as I was fired two weeks ago out of the blue but it may be something to look into.
I don;t have cats now, but we had them my entire childhhood. And I wanted to share Rosie's story. We always had healthy weight cats until Rosie. We had her through my teen years and after I moved out. At the time we had several other cats. I couldn't tell you her weight, but she was huge! And not that she was a big cat, no, her frame was petite, she was just the most obese cat.
Sadlly enough she earned the name "fat Rosie". She would wait in the kitchen for food, eat hers at breakneck speed, try to eat from the other cats dishes while they were eating, and eat the dog's food. My mother used to leave out dry dog food and found that Rosie was eating it. We took her to the vet about it and apparently there were no medical issues...she was a feline food addict?? We even noticed if she got stressed (like another cat and her had a unpleasant moment) she'd run to the food dish and bed for food. Actually we saw on many occasions that when she got stressed she ran to the food dish. I had never seen a cat like that before.
Poor thing ate EVERYTHING remotely food like, and I think my mom (I had moved out by then) had to watch her to be sure she wasn't eating everyone else's food. Then after about 18 years of morbid obesity, she lost an interest in food and she lost all her weight, which we knew meant the end. SHe did end up passing away shortly after.
But she was the only cat we ever had that was over weight. Can animals have food addictions like people? After Rosie, I seriously believe so!
Freefeeding isn't always the answer, especially once the cat is already obese. Our cat weighed 18 lbs when we got her. She is a long and tall cat, but even so her healthy weight would be no more than 12 lbs.
We initially freefed and tried to get her to exercise, by playing active games with her (which was a bit of exercise for me as well, because I'd throw her toy, she'd chase and then I had to get it from her to throw again.
She lost a little weight, so we cut back on her rations and she'd eat it all quickly and then be starving and very vocally begging for food.
We tried breaking her portion into three small meals, and that worked for a while, but the less we fed her, the less she moved (I can relate).
We tried to change her food to a weight loss foodf (initially mixing) and she just picked out her preferred kibble. When we ran out of her food, we figured she'd eat the food when she got hungy enough. Instead, she stopped eating and got quite ill (this is common in cats our vet told us.
The vet told us that it's much easier to get excess weight off dogs than cats, because dogs are usually less choosy, and because cat's are so prone to severe and even deadly reaction to drastic diet changes or refusal to eat.
He said what we were doing was about all we could do.
We tried to return her to freefeeding, but she would bolt her food and eat so rapidly that she'd vomit. It took months of gradually increasing her meal size and decreasing her meal numbers. Now, her bowl is full all day, and her weight is unchanged.
She's been freefeeding for about a year I think. She's not getting any bigger, but she's not getting any smaller either.
I free feed my cat too. I keep dry food out all day and then at night give her 1/4 can of wet food. And treats daily. She is not over weight and she is an indoor cat. I think the dog and her play a lot so that might be one reason, and I try to play with her before bed. But she eats till full and leaves the rest for later. I have never seen a cat eat dog food. lol Rune (my cat) thinks it is fun to pul dog food out of the bowl so the dog will run and eat the food she pulls out. It is amusing.
My cats are obese
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