My cat Aymi is a whopping 14 and a half pounds and five years old.
Now that I'm shaping up and trying to get healthy I want to help my cat get back in shape too.. unfortunately its not like I can take her on the treadmill. And when I try to cut her food down to half a cup a day she steals the other cat's food. What can I do?

I used to feed my little cat up on a shelf because the pudgy girl couldn't get her fat butt up there After Shelby turned 10 she developed diabetes due to her weight (she was 16 pounds ). Please do whatever you can to help your poor kitty out. Good luck.

I agree with Shelby, maybe move the other ones food up so the "Pudgy" one can't get it. Also to get her more active, just try playing with her. Just get a string and have her follow you around.

We adopted our cat in May. She was over 17 lbs and 8 years old. We think her previous owners fed her junk, because she has a very weird love of fries and potato chips. Neither of which we have in the house, normally. But right after we got her, hubby brought home fast food and she saw the bag, got excited and darted past, snagging two large french fries and running off with them. She definitely knew what those were.

Hubby and I recently visited my family for a couple weeks and our friend and neighbor came over and cat sat in the evenings (he doesn't have television, so he came in the evenings and sat and watched tv and played with the cat and fed her and such). As a bachelor and junk food addict, he told us about her begging for fries and chips (but he did keep her to our diet plan for her).

She has lost at least two pounds since we brought her home. We've got her on a senior care formula cat food (lower calorie and easier to digest), glucosamine treats for her joints and bonito flakes (a dried tuna that is very low calorie and fat because it's shaved paper thin). And we play string and yarn with her alot (at first, she ignored the string completely).

We feed our cats in separate rooms at the same time - they don't get to free feed anymore, because we needed to feed our obese cat less and he was a food-stealer.

Thats a good idea too. My cat that has passed away, used to be a food stealer too.

I work part time as a vet tech - and hopefully GatorGal will mosey on in here for her suggestions - she's a vet....

In any case, the first thing to know is that it is okay to leave dry food out all day long for your cat to free feed. Cats are not like dogs. They will eat a little here and there. Just put it out and let them munch. Secondly, try feeding a can of wet food each day. Wet food (my doc recommends any of the pate style without gravy) is lower in carbs than dry food is (substantially so) and also much higher in water content. Feeding this can of food daily should decrease the amount of dry food your kitty is eating and therefore also cause some weight reduction.

That's just what we usually recommend for overweight cat owners. Good Luck!

I disagree. With tons of respect, of course.

First off, overweight cats are much more prone to diabetes and heart disease and other diseases later in life, so it is very important to get the weight off. That being said, you want them to lose it very slowly. Try googling "Hepatic Lipidosis". I'll give you a quick run down of the disease, but you should still look it up because I'm not the best at explaining it.

When overweight cats have their caloric intake cut by too much too fast, and they start to break down all that fat, it gets all clogged up being metabolized by the liver, and the liver shuts down. And they die. Within hours, usually.

Anyway, feeding your cat ad lib (free choice) is not the way to go. Even if you are only giving her a certain amount in the morning that has to last her all day, she might eat it all in one sitting, consume no more calories for almost 24 hours, and go into hepatic lipidosis. So you have to divide it between two or three meals in one day.

Also, many quality cat food companies make a light version of the food. I feed my chubby cat Royal Canin Slim Cat. He has went from about 18 pounds to 14 in a year and a half, and my boss says this is a great rate for him to lose the weight.

And I have 3 other cats and a dog, so they have gotten used to what time is feeding time, and who eats out of which bowl. I still stand with them the whole time they eat, but they have learned since I stopped feeding them ad lib. Like, the dog gets dog food, Sampsonite my big fat baby gets his Slim Cat, Mika and Etna get Royal Canin Adult, and Ava gets Royal Canin Baby Cat, because that's what she is! hahaha!

Anyway, good luck with this, and I'm glad that you realize an overweight cat is not a healthy cat. We have clients at work that, you know, we tell them they need to put their cat on a diet or it's going to have problems later in life, and they think it's just hilarious that they have such a fat cat. It's just sad.

I'm having the same problem one of my kitties is getting a little to hefty. Hes gained at least 6 lbs since I got him 4 months ago. Hes 3 1/2 yrs old.
I think his previous owner must have barely fed him so now all he does is eat
...
he takes after mommmy
LOL...

I used to have a really fat cat.... and I had no clue what to do as I had a really skinny little kitty as well

I remember years ago (they have both gone to the bridge now) but I remember the vet telling me to put the food for her somewhere that he couldnt get to it being the big guy that he was..... so I put it behind this corner cupboard that I had and left just enough room for her to walk on the electric thing to get in there to it....

I went to work and came home only to find that he had moved the piece of furniture....

what worked for me was to put her food up high where she could get to it.... but where he couldn't drag his big ole butt.....

he lost like 8 pounds....

they were great kids.... lived to be almost 19/ both of them..... my first pets as an adult..... makes me sad even now to think about them.... and its been a couple years that they are gone....

EXERCISE your cat! YUP! find something he likes. a catnipped mouse? a feather on a pole? a few mins in morning before leaving for work, a few mins when you return and again at night before bed!

Just like dogs and people, cats need exercise!

I had two cats that I had to put down this year. Gideon was 19, Noah was 17. Gideon had a tumor and Noah was having seizures. Putting them down was the hardest thing for me, but Iknow it should of been done long before it was.

Anyway, Noah was a whopping 14 lbs. And yes, they played all the time! I watched what he ate and when he died he was 10lbs.

I had the big kitty/little kitty problem too, I solved it with a weighted cardboard box. There is a little hole in it my girl can get through easily but Mr chubby cant get in past his head (oh how he tried - so funny!).
It's also her refuge when he decides he wants to bully her
Weighting it with a book or something (I use the cat carrier) is essential ... He knocked it right over and all over the room the first chance he got.

It's been about a year since we adopted him (he was stray) and he's stopped overeating now that he knows he won't starve. They eat together now, but she still has her box refuge.

Just to throw my 2 cents in ...

The type of food seems to have made the big difference in my cat.

Switching from the cheap corn-filled food to a healthier food really made a difference. I changed his dry food from store bought dry (Fancy Feast) to Grain-Free Wellness Core, and while he still free-feeds, it's made a huge difference. He also gets a 1/2 a can of wet food every morning & evening (Weruva).

His bladder problems have also cleared up, which I'm very thankful for!

He used to be 16 pounds, and he's got down to 14. He'd lost a little more, but when I got a pair of new kittens he started stealing their kitten food and made it up to 14 Now they all eat Wellness Core dry food (it's for cats & kittens), and they get their wet food in separate rooms at the same time. I take the plates away as soon as their done. If I don't, you know that big cat will just come in there and find the kittens plate and finish it off!

I have 5 cats and I free feed them all, 3 are okay two of those 3 are a little stocky but not "obese" the other two are pretty chunky. I should stop free feeding but it's hard to feed 5 cats without free feeding them.

14 lbs. 18 lbs......our kitty is 30 lbs. He's a freakin' behemoth Maine Coon, though.

My advice....get a toddler to chase them around. Our kitty has lost 2 lbs. in about a year since being chased all the time by our two year old. He also eats weight management food and is on a limited amount every day. He has a small bowl, so it gets refilled a few times a day.