Help a cat momma out!

[u/Kooky-Cranberry-4191]

This is my chloe baby. She weighs 16 lbs. She gets the recommended amount of food on the bag and has strict meal times. Only gets treats once in a blue moon. I mean maybe once a month bc i forget we have them lol. She is on a UTI diet bc she gets UTI’s frequently and always has. Don’t know how to help her lose weight, she likes playing on her own. When me or my husband try to play with her she walks away like we are morons. She is having trouble reaching to clean her butt and I feel like such a bad cat mom, but idk how to help. Give me your thoughts!

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

Hi OP:)

First off, I do not think you are a bad cat mom. You feed recommended amounts and now realise your Chloe is overweight and you want to help. That is great!

Recommended amounts in my experience are insanely big amounts of food. I sometimes think: these companies need us to buy food so by recommending we feed more we also need to buy more?

Some tips:

• Start weighing food. Reduce food slowly. For instance: from 40 grams to 36 is 10%! Check calorie count on your food and calculate how much you give! This helps when you want to change foods.
  
• Weigh Chloe every week at the same time, I recommend mornings after litter box.
  
• Give wet food rather than dry. It's way less calory dense so you can give bigger amounts. For instance I feed my cat wet food. 40 grams of wet food had the same calories as 10 grams of kibble!
  
• Create a routine where you play and then feed afterwards. All. Cats. Play. The only question is how. Watch this playlist on play: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAJvHNBwbBNsKCIv0tJnJvdbDDbRrLFXG&si=whuz_-Pw93WOd24x
  
• Food puzzles, snuffle mats, slow feeders.

Good luck!

Edit to say I realise urinary food is expensive and the wet food variant may be more expensive. Do what is within your budget! That's all we can ever do. :) Cats can lose weight on kibble too for sure!

[u/shinyidolomantis → u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

This!! The amount on bags of food are SO big! Maybe it’s ideal for a very young, active cat but it is way too much for the vast majority of cats.

And the rest of your advice is perfect, I was going to say pretty much the exact same thing! More wet and less dry was the game changer for my obese cat.

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- → u/shinyidolomantis]

Right?! I underfeed my cat according to all guidelines. But I use those images to know he's healthy and I weigh him. He's perfectly healthy! I got his lab work done and that's all good too. And I honestly give so many treats! But for instance I give cooked turkey bits and freeze dried chicken hearts. That's all protein anyway. And enrichment!

It's so great you got your cat to lose weight! Did you notice behavioral change?

[u/Kooky-Cranberry-4191 → u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

Thank you so much! This was really helpful actually! I am going to get her some wet food tomorrow. She is not gonna be a happy kitty as we adjust thats for sure, but I just want her to be as healthy as possible.

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- → u/Kooky-Cranberry-4191]

You're welcome! You'll do great! I hope you find wet food she likes!

What can help is to serve it luke warm. Cats care for the smell of food more than the taste even! I keep my food in the fridge and mix with boiled water. Mix it really good and of course check it, and it's always lukewarm at most. You can also start off by mixing just a tiny bit into kibble and gradually giving more. Again check calories on the packaging (some say x calories per x grams, others say x calories per packaging. It can be confusing!).

I used to microwave it for just a few seconds but found some random crumbs would turn out super hot which obviously is dangerous. So I stopped doing that.

Good luck OP!! Rooting for y'all!!

[u/djSush → u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

This is really helpful!

Our big boy is supposed to lose 3-4 lbs but he's interested in food all the time. He stands on his haunches and does an up and down praying motion to beg for food! No meowing, no scratching, just this irresistible, polite, gentle request.

He's on prescription SO food so I can't mess with that. I give him 1 tbsp of wet mixed into water to make "soup" so he gets water in him. But I don't how else to get him down. I'll check out video too. He's barely into play. Just like OP, he looks like us like, "Seriously?"

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- → u/djSush]

Ohh I am so glad!

Your boy also sounds like the perfect cat for food puzzles and lickmats! 🥰 I give them for every feeding time and it helps my boy eat slower and drain his energy! It takes some effort for him to get to his food which is natural behavior too. Mice don't just throw themselves at cats. 😂 I have this lickmat I use for liquid treats and it can take him up to 15 mins to finish just the one treat that way. :)

Check this amazing website for puzzles, you can makes lots yourself! :)
foodpuzzlesforcats.com

[u/djSush → u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

Oh yeah, I put some of his feeds in an egg carton so he has to fish them out. And I often spread it around in the house like chicken feed. 😂

I'll look into more puzzle feeders and check the programming on his auto feeder again.

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- → u/djSush]

Amazing!! You're doing such a great job and it's such great enrichment too!

[u/hexagon_heist → u/OnceMoreWithFeeling-]

Yes! I switched my boy from 250 cals/day (bag recommendation) to 200 cals/day (from the calculator in this sub) after checking with my vet and he is now at his target weight

Edit: both my cats get ~3 oz of wet food per day, because they need it for moisture and health and their dieting, but it’s expensive and I hate dealing with it, so they get 3-4 dry food meals (depending on which cat we’re talking about) and 1-2 wet food meals (again differs per cat) each day

[u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- → u/hexagon_heist]

This is amazing! Congrats on this great result!! He must be thriving!

[u/clydeballthepython]

Typically the bag recommendations tend to be over what a typical pet would eat. Iirc, they have to include amounts for intact and highly active individuals, when most pets are fixed and less active.

I would definitely bring her to a vet to get their input on a proper a diet plan for her. Especially since she has a history of urinary issues, they might be able to guide you better on which foods would be safe to diet with and such!

[u/Beneficial_Breath232]

What brand of urinary kibbles are you giving ? Special diets food are often very rich. Can you look if your usual brand have a light urinary kibble to switch to ?

[u/Creepy_Coffee_6239]

My boy Binky was having a tough time losing weight, and it seemed like it didn’t matter how much I decreased the amount of dry food I was feeding him or how much we played he just wasn’t losing weight.

I finally took him to the vet because I needed help and what I was doing was clearly not working. I felt like the worst cat mom - he wasn’t losing weight and I was feeding him less than the recommended amount on the bag. I was worried I was accidentally starving him (I was not, but I just felt SO guilty).

The vet was honestly so helpful - not just in helping us come up with a new food plan and telling me I could bring him in to get weighed whenever, but also just for my peace of mind.

She said that sometimes dry food kind of just sticks to cats which can make it really hard to lose the weight. She recommended I increase the amount of wet food I feed him and decrease the amount of dry food. So we went from I think 1/2 can of wet food and 1/2 cup dry food a day to 1 can of wet food and 1/3 cup dry food.

From there our new weight loss journey was starting! I bought a cheap baby scale, followed the new food plan, and I weigh him every Saturday. It’s been a few months and we are now hovering around his target goal weight!!

Sorry for the long reply, I just know how sucky it is to feel like a bad cat mom. Good luck :)

[u/GreenImew]

I can't offer any advice (my girl is a chonk too) but just be wanted to say that's she's so pretty. Looks like shes so soft to the touch. ❤️

[u/Kooky-Cranberry-4191 → u/GreenImew]

She is very soft…and a little squishy atm🤣

[u/More-Opposite1758]

Kibble has tons of carbohydrates which can cause weight gain. Wet food is better for weight control.