Hi, this is my cat Bongo. He is a 20 pounds and about 3 years old. I have no clue what the average weight is for this type of cat and i am trying to get him to lose weight but every thing ive tried hasn’t worked. Any avice?
Samantha
I’ll give you my short answer and then refer to some page on PoC 😉
Bongo – great name by the way and it suits him – needs to eat less and exercise more! That sounds a bit patronising or silly but it is the solution.
No criticism intended but Bongo would be described as “obese” by a veterinarian. He should be nearer 10 pounds if he is a standard sized cat. He looks like a fairly large cat, actually, so 12-15 pounds might be acceptable.
There are diet cat foods on the market. However, some of them are dry cat foods and I think dry cat foods can make cats fat because they encourage eating.
I’d fed a high quality wet cat food and regulate intake. The change should be gentle but the program should be tough. “Cruel to be Kind” is the motto. And much less in the way of treats such as human food, which I presume he gets some of.
The problem of Bongo being obese is really about you and not him. You dictate what he eats and how much he eats. You’ll have to try and be more disciplined. Bongo will moan and ask for more but when you don’t give it to him he won’t hold a grudge or hate you for it. He’ll just lose weight and be healthier.
Diets and change of food should be a gentle process so he can adjust. If he goes out make sure he is not time sharing at other places and eating food put down for other cats.
Here are some pages on the subject:
Cat Obesity – lots of links to stuff of various kinds.
Why is it hard to slim an overweight cat? – this page may be helpful.
Dr Gaskin suggested cutting carbs to no more than 5% of Monty’s diet. Wild cats have about 2% carbs in their diets. I responded that Monty is getting low carb food, but too much of it, thanks to his ability to imitate the meow of a starving baby kitten and wrap me right around his paw. But it could be the crisps. I suppose Dr Gaskin also saw my post about Monty and I sharing potato chips. I think that has to stop, because even a tiny bit of something like that is probably too much for a cat’s system. He gets so happy when we have them though! My aunt and uncle used to feed their dog a Happy Meal (kid’s meal) from McDonald’s just to see her go into ecstasy over it. They would buy the happy meal, take the toy out for their granddaughter, and give the burger and fries to their dog. The dog ended up looking like a barrel and the vet said to stop doing that, because even “just once in awhile” was too often for garbage food like that. “But she gets so happy!” they responded. The vet glared at them in a way that said, “You will stop doing this NOW,” and they obeyed. I guess any amount of junk food is too much for our animals. Maybe this is also true for ourselves!
Our late mother used to say ‘sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind’
Oh but it’s hard denying cats anything they desire isn’t it!