How many cats?
 

In various discussions, it has become apparent that many of us have cats. How many cats do you have? Do you think that cat ownership has anything to do with your being overweight? Does your cat sabotage your eating or exercise plan?

We have three inside cats and a shop cat. One of the indoor cats (the female - are we surprised?) needs to lose a little.

The four cats can be found stationed around my walking area. I keep expecting them to offer me a water bottle or a banana. None of the cats or the dogs, who also watch me walk, have the slightest interest in going with me on a walk.

4 + 2 = 6

I have two male cats - Pepper and Bob. They both find floor exercises very fascinating...ie, I can't do an ab or other floor exercise without them crawling all over me. Literally. All. Over. Me. They just want love, the poor little monkeys.

One of my cats (Pepper) is at the low end of normal weight. The other is quite overweight. He has been on low-calorie diet cat food for 1.5 years, with a moderate feeding schedule (1/2 cup total per day), and in that time he has gained 2 lbs.

I used to hate going to the doctor because I'd hear all the lectures about losing weight and I WANTED to, and was trying, but success kept being out of my reach. Now I'm fine with the doctor, but the VET - he makes me feel like such a bad person and it seems like he doesn't believe me when i say that the cat REALLY is on diet food and only eating that! No treats, none of his brother's food (we lock them in separate rooms to eat...otherwise the skinny cat gets NADA and the fat cat beats him up to get it all), and still he gains.

My husband and I have one cat. We adopted her from the pound. She's a brindled tortie (mostly black with orange flecking and, a cream colored toe on each of three feet, and two small cream patches, one in her arm pit, and one on her belly).

She's really quirky (as many torties are) and quite the talker.

I think the only way that cat ownership might be related to weight, is that overweight people might need or want a lower maintenance pet than a dog. If you are unable (or unwilling) to exercise, a cat is easier to incorporate into your life than an irish wolfhound.

Not all dogs require high maintenance, but a cat is a lazy pet owner's best friend.

On a silly note, many people say that getting a dog and walking it, has helped them keep fit (ok that's not silly, but I'm getting to that). We trained our cat to walk on a leash, so we could take her on trips without worrying as much about her scooting out of the van). Walking her isn't all that good for exercise, because you have to walk at her pace (which is usually slow and cautious, but if she sees a squirrel in the yard and I try to keep up can be very good exercise - a little too much good exercise).

Oh man. I tried walking my cats once. They looked at me like I was nuts, flopped over to one side, and literally refused to walk to the point of letting me drag them a few feet.

Sort of like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGOXNhU2gAY

7+ my 5 = 12

We've collected cats from five states and are working on the full set of 50 (not!)

Mr. Ohio: an gorgeous blond angora/Persian who wandered into DD's college apartment as a starving two-month old. He's named Nattie, after Natural Light beer -- how college is that? :lol: It's hard to run on hard wood floors when you have fur between your toes!

Miss Pennsylvania: Sophie is a miniature dilute tortie (gray with cream and peanut butter spots). She was found abandoned in an apartment that tenants had vacated. All the other cats are afraid of her six pounds of fury. She sleeps on a polar fleece blanket on top of my fax machine to keep an eye on me (like right now!)

Mr. Florida: Charlie is an enormous brown-striped Manx or perhaps American Bobtail, found living between a Winn-Dixie dumpster in Orlando as a tiny, emaciated three-month old. He only has a half-inch stump of a tail, but grew a giant pompom of fur over it in an effort to fit in with the other cats. Kind of a kitty combover. :lol3: He's 2, loves strawberries and salad, and still is growing.

Mr. New Jersey: Stormy is a gray tabby and our senior citizen --he's 16 now. We found him on a sand dune in NJ on a stormy day when he was only 3 weeks old. He couldn't even lap milk, so we hand feed him kitten formula (he sucked it off our fingers). DH was his mom and taught him how to wash himself. He didn't meow for a few years. He has kidney problems and is hyperthyroid, but is the happiest cat ever.

and Miss New Mexico: Aurora, a beautiful red tabby, came from an animal shelter in Albuquerque when she was a very sick 7-month old, weighing only 4 pounds. She now checks in at 15.4 pounds! Sadly, it turns out that she was born with multiple heart defects that aren't repairable so her life won't be very long. On top of that, her kitty cardiologist thinks that she has a (single) heartworm that is dying or dead and is precipitating a HW "crisis" that she may not survive. She's the sweetest and most loving cat ever and sleeps with her paws wrapped around my arm, purring. We just love her for whatever time she has with us.

They're all strictly indoor cats and try as I might, I can't figure out a way to blame my weight problems on them (darn it!)

I loved the video clip. Yeah, if you want to leash train a cat, you can't just clip on the leash and expect anything (productive) to happen. First we had to train her to accept the harness. You would have thought it weighed 30 lbs the way she flattened herself to the floor and wouldn't move. Once she got used to the harness, we added the leash - another 30 lbs apparently. Then we took her outside - well what do you know the gravity is different outside too. She'd lay flat on the grass and wouldn't move an inch.

It took about two weeks to get her to like sitting outside with us on the leash, and other week to walk, mostly with my husband walking in front and calling to her. She likes to walk around the outside walls of the house, and spends way too much time exploring the window wells.

The bad thing though is that we don't take her outside in the winter, and she loses all her leash skills, and has to be taught all over every spring. This spring and summer she hasn't been out all that much. She'll beg to go out, and will sit still for the harness to be put on, but she gets outside and that darned increase in gravity hits her and she falls to the ground, and every noise starts to frighten her and she wants to come right inside.

The two cats on my avatar are Missy and Simon. Missy is the chubby one. Missy is also a bob tail kitty. She also has lots of fur on her tail - like enough fur to cover an entire tail. She is a small cat and fairly timid, but she has figured out that she can intimidate the dogs and loves doing it. She puffs up (which covers her stub of a tail) hisses and shows her teeth. She looks like a large burr with teeth. The dogs hang their heads and look away. She always inspects the dogs' dinner before they eat to see if there is anything she might want to sample. They let her do it, too.

Our third house cat and the shop cat are black. Roger has two white toes and a small white spot on his chest that moves like a locket when he runs . Roger is very siamese looking in body. Blackie is very domestic shorthair.

Kaplods, I sort of had the same idea about cat ownership. It really doesn't require much movement, except for stroking while seated in the recliner - doing aerobic reclining?

I can't believe I am sitting here reading about everyone's cats like it was the Great American Novel! :lol:

I tried putting a leash on Missy. Instant maniac cat. I gave up that idea pretty quickly. I thought she would like the little red harness. Hah!

The most exercise I usually get with my cat is getting her out of my recliner or the middle of my bed. She is clearly "in love," with my husband and makes it very clear that I am her rival (as much as she may love me), and that while she may be second female for the moment, she wants to make it clear she hasn't given up on being top female in my husband's life or in the household. She takes every opportunity to sit or lie in my places. If I get out of bed or out of my recliner, she'll jump into my spot, and not in a way that we can share. If I'm headed toward the chair or the bed, she will often race ahead of me to jump into the spot, and tries to make herself difficult to move. Silly kitty.

Great thread!

Ok, I have 6 in the house and about 18 outside. Yes, that is 24 total!! LOL

The ones outside are mostly part of a feral cat colony that I take care of. Most are now tame. Some used to be pretty wild but I tamed them. Some are drop offs (people dumped them cause they didn't want them anymore). Some are rescues that have joined my colony. We go through a 20 lb bag of cat food about every 4-5 days. I love sitting out on the porch and brushing them. They are so funny. When I sit down, I get about 6-8 cats all trying to climb on my lap at one time.

Believe it or not, some of my outside cats LOVE going for walks with me. I absolutely cannot go outside, and walk anywhere, in the road, around the yard, down the street, anywhere, without at least 5 cats walking with me. My husband took a picture one time and I looked like the pied piper with a cat following! LOL

The inside kitties are great too. They loved to be held and petted. I normally don't have a problem with them interfering with my exercising. Sometimes I have to move them off the recombant bike seat though. They love laying there.

I also have three dogs.They get in the way much more than the cats.Two German Shepherds and one lab/chow mix puppy.

Fun topic!
Kathy

Oh, an FYI:

All the cats are spayed or neutered and have had their shots. I make sure that I vet them as needed. Any new cat that arrives goes to the vet and gets a check up, fixed as needed, ear tipped, then returned to the colony.

We have two cats.
One, was left by the neighbors when they moved ten years ago - so he is really the neighborhood cat. He only comes in on occasion until winter. He is at least 17 years old (no one in the neighborhood knows exactly). He is a rag doll, with a very sweet disposition.

Cat # 2 is a calico who is 2 years old. She loves to hunt, but brings almost everything in the house ALIVE! Yesterday it was a gold finch. Last week it was butterflies. A couple months ago we found an entire family of baby mice living in her catbox. It has high walls, and they couldn't get out.
I have mixed feelings about her sabotaging my diet and exercise. She loves to eat my yoga blocks and wedge, she chases the gazelle until I am afraid I am going to hurt her. She loves to sneak under my feet during dance workouts - to the point of distraction. One saving grace - she is a mooch - worse than the dog. If I have cheese on anything, they both want to share - so they keep me from eating a significant number of calories.

The clincher for me - reducing stress helps make weight loss easier (so says the research) and the TLC they give me is certainly a positive thing!!!!

2 cats...and a dog. One cat is a 15 yr old torti and the other is a 11 yr old siamese mix, flame point color. My torti is afraid of her own shadow..and my meser mix is a talker (her name is gabby for a reason). Both cats are unbelievably healthy for their age...not overweight. But i aslo am a vet and paranoid...so bloodwork 2 x yr and xrays and ekg once a year...so far its kept them healthy

oh and mandalin...we vets just worry about overwt cats. I know it get annoying..but we really do worry.

I have one cat that eats me out of house and home. lol, not really but 3 cans of food a day and more if you will give it to him.

Last time I took him to the vet, I was a bit worried, he is fat. The vet laughed and said he weighs 15lbs and there isn't a bit of fat on him. He is a BIG cat. I said no. he is 3 cats inside one cat coat lol.

He is a mix between one persons Manx and another persons Persian. I thought because of his plain old black and white coloring he was just an old alley cat lol. I asked the vet when we got him and she said nope, what the Manx owner said looks about right. He is a nice mix of both and because of that doesn't have a lot of the problems that either might have.

He is now 11 years old, don't know what I will do when his time with me is over.

There was a documentary on TLC not too long ago about overweight pets. One of the couples had an overweight cat that just wouldn't lose weight. Their vet kept accusing the couple of overfeeding, and while they kept reducing her food, further and further, she just wasn't losing. Finally, a veterinary school got involved, and boarded her for several weeks. Her calorie content was monitored daily, as was her energy and activity level. Surprisingly to the vet students (but not the couple), the cat didn't lose any weight. The less they fed her, the more she slept and less activity she would engage in (sounds like some of us, I think). By combining an extra low calorie diet with daily games to promote exercise, they were able to get her to reach a healthy weight (if they weren't retired, though I wonder if they would have been able to put the time in to keep her exercised).

I think it just shows weight loss isn't always a simple problem, even for pets.

Gatorsgal - Trust me, I worry too! I worry like crazy about my overweight cat, and really am trying!

Speaking of which, as a vet, how do you force a cat to exercise? No, seriously. He won't play with toys unless they are right in front of his face and he can lay on his back to bat at them...otherwise he ignores them totally. He will watch a laser pointer bounce around the room, but won't chase after it. The only exercise he gets is chasing after (and, regrettably, pouncing on and irritating) the other cat, who then hisses and hits him and so we try to prevent this as much as possible. Catnip on toys does not induce him to exercise. Interaction (and I try for at least 15-30 min a day with toys) does not induce him to exercise.

I am scared to death of him getting diabetes or heart disease from the weight, but I really can't fathom cutting his food back any more (the vet gave us a number of calories he should be eating, and we've already cut to almost 100 calories under that, he is eating high quality dry food because on the high quality wet food he gained even faster...).

Okay I think that makes 46.

12 + Gail's 3 + Kathy's 24 + Countingdown's 2 + Gator gal's 2 + Shy Moment's 1 + my 2 = 46. Winnie and Tiddles. I can't blame them on my obesity as we have only had them for about a year and a half. Although I do suspect that the cats ruined 3 different exercise balls.

I think there's a toy available for cats and dogs that you actually put the food in, and they have to work kind of hard to get the food out. I've seen these in a petstore once, but they weren't really aimed at weight loss, but to keep home-alone-pets occupied so they didn't do damage. I would think for weight loss, you'd actually have to buy enough toys so that their entire alottment of calories would fit inside. Otherwise, I think a fat animal would just eat out of the bowl and ignore the food puzzle. Putting in a tempting treat would sort of defeat the purpose.

I know on the documentary, it looked like the couple was getting as much exercise trying to get the cat to play, as the cat was.

Recap . . .

4 for Gail
2 for Mandalinn
1 for Kaplods
5 for Meg
24 for Kathy -- definitely think you are the winner (so far)
2 for Countingdown
2 for Gatorgal
1 for Shy
2 for Tammy
6 for Meowee (me)

49 Total so far

So . . . who have I got

JAZZ who is 13, a black Burmese (think they are called Bombays), he weighs about 9 pounds and has diabetes - I give him insulin twice a day. We share the disease, but not the needles - I have my own. :lol:

MOUSE who is 11, a great big hairy, totally grey, 15 pounder (but not fat) with a definite 'cattitude'. I have a friend who says it's because he knows he is named after a prey animal.

PURRECIOUS who is almost two and weighed about 7 pounds not that long ago, but has been packing on the weight since she was spayed. Must be a good 9 by now . . . haven't weighed her recently. She's a dilute calico and busy, busy, busy.

Then we have the triplets . . . six months old . . . Bengal Leopard Cats. FRECKLE (the male) is pushing 9 pounds; FRICK is about 7.5; FRACK is just a little over 5 (you'd think she was from a different litter from a size point of view). They all look so much alike I still have difficulty telling them apart unless I see them all together. They had a few nasty little problems at first, but since they've all been 'fixed' now, they finally seem to have the kitty litter figured out. :rolleyes:

Never a dull moment, that's for sure . . . :love: 'em all.

kaplods is right...there is a toy...and i recommend it. You put food in it...feed your cat in this instead of a bowl it will make him work for his food. Or place his food up high in multiple different areas so he has to work for them. also what food are you feeding. I highly recommend a diet food called m/d by hills or royal canin's high fiber. Its much better than otc weight control foods...can only get them thr a vet. Also, have your vet calculate what he should be eating, it will probably seem like an insanely small amount of food. And laser pointer his butt away. Anything for exercise. Another thing, if you have other cats that have regular food, sometimes you can cut holes out of boxes that are smaller than the fat cats head..that way, only the little guys can eat out of it.

We have one for our dog, it's called a Buster Cube. It took a bit for him to get the idea, but he digs it now.

+1

I have my 10 year old cat, Puck. After spending the first part of her life as an outdoor cat with lots of land, she is now an apartment cat... she is fat and happy. We put her on a diet and she actually dropped a little weight, but now her belly hangs to and fro:lol:

It's been funny watching the new dog and her together. She is constantly trying to bait him so that he will cross into her "territory" and he loves "tattling" on her when she gets on the kitchen counter.

Gatorsgal - he is on m/d purchased from the vet, and we feed him about 75% of the calories our vet calculated with no weight loss to date. We feed them in separate rooms now so that he can't sneak any of his brother's (also vet diet urinary health because kitty #2 had a blocking problem once) food. The food we're giving him works out to 1/2 cup total daily, split into two 1/4 cup meals (AM and PM).

The other cat gets lots of exercise when we break out the laser pointer, anyway, so it can't be all bad. I'll keep going on it, and investigate the toy/cat food trap (actually, we're going - right now - to the pet store to look for it).

I swear I'm a responsible pet parent!

Hmmmm, let's see.... 2+2=4 + 1= 5 + 1= 6-1 = 5

OK, we now have 5 cats. I just had to put my 12 year old Molly cat down last week Wednesday, it was heartbreaking. I think she was hit by a car but don't know for sure, we found her in our garden planters before she died. We rushed her to the vet but we chose to euthanise since she was in so much pain. RIP Molly!

Other than that, we acquired "Evil Kitty" back in June, a now six-month old female calico, so-named because she was the only kitten in the house and therefore practiced her normal kitten behavior on us i.e. stalking and jumping on our legs, trying to bite, kick and wrestle with our passing feet or hands. Luckily she is growing out of that stage. On her good-behavior days her nickname is Evie.

Tiger, a gray tabby and Scully, Tiger's sister is a bobtail calico are our indoor cats along with Evil Kitty. Both are around 11 years old. Outside cats are Whiska's and Kitty Boy. Whiska's is Kitty Boy, Tiger and Scully's mom, but from different litters. Whiska's was abandoned by my neighbor when she was pregnant, so we basially took over care for her until she had a litter of 5. We got them all fixed then gave away 3 kittens. The other two stayed with us. **Tiger has a sleek, muscular body type while her littermate Scully is like a big fat saggy, baggy elephant. They eat the same food and stay in the same room. I always joke with my sister (the annoyingly slim one) that she is Tiger, and I am Scully, in reference to their weight and body size :lol:

We also have 2 dogs (Kai and Lucky) , 1 New Zealand white rabbit "Jimmy", because he was found at a neigborhood gym :rolleyes:, and Ginny Weasley, a guinea pig who we found around 2.5 months ago. She gave birth to 6 babies on Saturday.... suprise! :lol: Oh, and two beta fish. So yeah, my house has quite a menagerie.

Our cat is 16 - 24 oz overweight. She's still slim compared to my MIL's cat (nicknamed ChunkaLunka). She's a big-boned cat given the size of her paws, but still she shouldn't weigh twice what our cat does or more. Our cat weighs about 12 lbs, and ChunkaLunka has to weigh 25 lbs. She looks like Jabba the Cat.

I've been able to get about 1/2 lb off of our cat just by changing her treats (from meaty treats to a piece or two of dry cat food. She still considers it a treat because it's different than her regular food. We also give her a styrofoam textured cat treat designed to clean teeths, that is also supposed to be fairly low calorie). Hubby didn't want to switch her to a low cal food, or stop freefeeding her, but I at least got him to stop giving her treats on command (her command, she'd look at the treat jar and meow). Now she gets three snack times (exactly on the dot), and only gets 2 or 3 tiny pieces of dry food at each snack. Since she's lost a little weight, he's a little more open to changing her food.

By the way, I have no idea how the cat can tell time, but she knows when it is 11:00 pm, her last snack time. The first treat is when we get up (and if we oversleep too long, we'll hear about it). The second is after our afternoon nap (same thing), and her third and last is at 11:00 pm sharp. At about 10:45, she's assumed the sit and beg position in front of my husband's feet. He'll tell her "no, it's not time yet," and she'll come back somewhere between 10:58 and 11:01. Once in a great while she'll half-heartedly start begging an hour or more early, I think hoping hubby will relax and go back to the "old" rules.

To get our cat to play, we have to put in nearly as much work as she does, except for a few minutes with the laser pointer, or when my wedding ring catches the light and I can get her to chase the prism reflection around the room.

I have 1! My kitten Spencer, he is 3 months old. He's a blond tabby, with rings all around his tail and the cutest little crook.

My parents babysat their "grandkitty" when I spent a weekend at the beach. They live in the country, so would let Spence outside sometimes, now he can't get enough!!! He stares out the balcony window like it is the most interesting thing in the world. And loves to go out on it and watch the people go by. I haven't taken him out on a leash yet because I want him to get his last kitty shot first, but I think he's going to love it!

I worry about my kitty getting overweight too. He had a little smidge of a belly and I asked the vet if that was fine or if he was too big. She said he's ok now, but absolutely don't let him get any fatter. I'm worried I don't feed him enough, he gets one can a day.

O, and kitty LOVES bourbon. We can sit anything on the coffee table, water, milk, soda, tea and he won't touch it. But set a Jack and coke down and he does every thing he can to try to get it! If you turn your back for a second his head is plunged down into the glass. He is such a bad kitty :)....

I have five. Skitty, who is 18, Albondigas and Jeeves, who are about 8 each, Gem and Bruce, about 2 and half each.

Albondigas and Bruce get along swell.

http://webpages.charter.net/lenny13/catfightsept06.jpg

I am laughing myself silly over the Buster feeding tool. :lol: :lol: Do you think they could design one for me? And DH can put it up on top of the refrigerator, so I get a little bit of exercise getting my meals.

Hey I've thought about it. Can you imagine putting every food item in the house in a complicated puzzle box. Or hooking the fridge up to DDR, and only a complicated set of dance moves would allow you to open the fridge door. Sure would make serving refreshments to last minute guests interesting.

Me: "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

Guest: "That would be great."

Me (gets up and starts dancing, and then runs to the fridge when the tone sounds).

Haha, no doubt. I giant ball I have to chase around to get my food. Or a pizza on a stick right in front of me as I run on the treadmill.

Oh yeah, cats. We have 5 cats 3 dogs. One of the cats, Ty, is really over weight, his belly almost touches the ground. But he is 13 years old at this point, figure he lived this long and he's ok. Besides how do you regulate food for 5 cats? 2 of the other cats have slight sag in the belly and they are the youngins. Cole is 3 and and Simmone is 4 years. The other 3 year old Cat, Pixel and the other 13 year old, Rascal are healthy bird catchers. garrr. All cats go in and out as they please.

:rofl: It's guerilla kitty!!!

mandalin...i know you're a good kitty owner...sometimes however, kitties don't cooperate. Hang in there (:

And a MEOWEE good morning to everyone . . .

I'm a little late getting started around here this morning. Had to drop Jazz at the Vet for his regular blood curve. Although I have no problem with his insulin shots (and he really doesn't mind them), I wuss right out when it comes to the lancet in the ear vein routine to check his BGL. :shrug: I know that those lancets hurt more than the really fine gauge insulin needles.

Got a real kick out of the Bourbon-drinking cat story. I don't have any drinkers; but Mouse definitely loves romaine lettuce. Steals it right out of the bag before I can even get it into the fridge.

Have a great kitty-kuddling day everybody . . . see you later . . . :wave:

What a bunch of cat lovers we are!!!

I have one in the house, Baby. She's solid white and almost 7 years old. She got REALLY sick about a year ago and I found out she has diabetes. She gets two units of insulin/day (one in a.m. and one in p.m.) and is on a special diet of Feline DM. She's worth every penny I spend on her.

My outside cats--the REGULARS--are Possum Kitty, Sissy, Thomas, Wild Kitty, Marla, Momma, Wolf Kitty, and Striped Kitty. Did I forget anyone?.......Hmmmmm........No, I think that's all. I figure at some point Wolf Kitty and Striped Kitty will hit the road (Thomas is VERY territorial!). Anyway, that's 8 outside cats. I didn't count the baby kitten(s).

Oh!! Almost forgot!

Do any of y'all have a self-cleaning litter box? Baby drinks about a quart of water/day, which, of course, goes in her litter box!! :doh: Since I've been pregnant, changing that box makes me SICK :barf: like you wouldn't believe!

I'd like some feedback on if it's worth the $$ to buy a self-cleaning box. The one I'm considering is a Litter Maid that costs about $80.

4myself, it has been a while - like I am expecting the 4th grandchild soon, but isn't there some reason you aren't supposed to change the litter box while pregnant? Some microorganism that affects the fetus? I was thinking about an electric litter box and I think there are some reviews online. Just google something like "electric litter box reviews".

When Angel had her eleven puppies, I ordered the vaccine material online and gave the puppies their shots myself. It turned out to be pretty easy. The puppies acted like they didn't even feel it. I got a bit over confident, and was yakking and injecting at the same time and ran the needle right through the puppy and into my finger. My DH volunteered to take me to the vet for treatment if I started barking.

Yes . . . I've also heard that pregnant women should stay away from litter boxes. Get DH to take over those chores for the time being.

With only one indoor cat, the automatic litter pan might work well. they are fairly small though and with my six, the cost becomes prohibitive. Jazz leaves awfully large urine deposits in the litter as well. It's part of being diabetic, unfortunately. Luckily I use the toilet. :lol:

Actually, when I found out I was pregnant, I called my vet before I called my OB/GYN to make sure I could keep my cat.

I've had Baby (inside) since she was around 4 weeks old. She was barely weaned when I got her. She's a fully-inside cat.

Plus, I'm 31 and have been around cats all my life. Both the vet and the dr assured me that if I were going to be exposed to toxoplasmosis, I already have been and am probably immune to it at this point.

No worries about the cat litter from that angle. It just makes me :barf:

:) :)

Glad to hear that . . . still sounds like a good enough reason for DH to take over litter duty.