This impressive looking Norwegian Forest Cat, Ulric, is enormous, as enormous as the most enormous Maine Coon cats that you see in America. He caught my eye. He is a ginger-and-white tabby Norwegian Forest Cat with beautiful long fur. He weighed 2 stone 2 lbs at the time the photographs were taken.
And at this time he was participating in a dietary program to lose some weight. His owner, Jan Mitchell, adopted a five-month-old puppy to help him fight the flab through play. That might not be the solution.
Jan said that he is a lovely cat but that he is very greedy and lazy. A combination bound to result in obesity if the owner gives into him. I’m not criticizing Jan. Apparently, he spent years stealing his sister’s food and gorging on cat biscuits (kibble). There might be one of the problems. He appears to have been fed dry cat food with free access. If you feed your cat dry cat food you’ve got to provide it in a controlled way unless the cat self-regulates his diet. This means putting down the food and picking it up at the required moments.
Jan said:
“We couldn’t really work out why Ulric got so fat – his diet only consisted of dry cat food and water, nothing elaborate.”
Like I said, I can see a problem: unregulated provision of dry cat food which is high in carbohydrates. Although he did enter a competition to lose weight but barely lost a pound over six months despite having his food weighed. Perhaps he has a metabolic disorder.
Ulric, who was seven years of age at the time the photographs were taken in 2014 was declared by veterinarians as “morbidly obese“. That is a terrible thing to say about a cat and his owner!
Associated: Read about the Norwegian Forest Cat, one of my favorites.
20 pounds for a Norwegian Forest cat is pretty normal, but a total of 58 pounds like this one? C’mon. I feel sorry for the cat. He could be prone to diabetes, renal failure, heart failure, severe arthritis, cancer – any number of maladies. Hopefully, he’s neutered. Beautiful boy but he needs a diet fast and she needs to make him move, slowly at first until he builds stamina. Wishing both much success. It’s obvious she loves him very much.
Sorry, my math is faulty. Not 58 pounds, but 30 pounds. Sorry, just starting on the first cup of tea, lol.
Agreed. It is sad. Part of the obesity epidemic in the US and UK.
What is the American equivalent to 2 stone? I think I saw a story of this cat on TV, with the owner not getting proper advice from two vets as to why the cat’s so overweight. If this is the same cat, these vets did all kinds of tests with the result being the cat was healthy, but were at a loss as to why it was so big. The minute I saw that I thought ‘DUH!’ the cat’s eating too much! It’s not rocket science. Apparently, the third vet said just that; cut back on the food – no biscuits, and limit the dry – no free-feeding. My own two cats lost considerable weight by feeding measured wet and dry food, with little to no treats. They each get 3-ounces of wet food and 1/4 cup of dry food twice a day. If one doesn’t finish their food, it’s picked up so the other won’t eat it. Simple.
2 stones = 28 pounds. He is a huge cat though who’d weigh around 20 pounds anyway even if he was fit. You’re right. Some people don’t realise how much they are feeding their cats.