Fat cat

Ghetofarmulous

6.80 kg



This is Syd. Syd is a 7 year old female house cat. She is a fat cat. According to the previous owners she is a cross bread of a domestic cat and Scottish wild cat (not sure if I am to believe this).



I will be documenting her weight loss progress and what I am doing in order to achieve her target weight of 5.5 kg for people that are interested.

We adopted Syd when she was 5 years from a lovely couple in Scotland who had decided to add a Jug (Pug/Jackrussel mix) to their family. Unfortunately the dog had a very strong prey drive and this resulted in the cat living on top of the cupboards for about 11 months. The owners did the right thing and held out until they could find a suitable homes for their two cats. We adopted Syd. Our first pet.

Syd weighed 7.2 Kg when we got her. By nature she doesn't move around much. Hard to get going and uninterested in the outdoors. She has access to a back garden but tends to look from the back door and that's about it.
I watched a mouse actually run into her side and she hoped up on her back legs and didn't know what to do. Talk about sheltered.

This is a chart that I have been maintaining to track her weight loss. When her weight stabilized I would reduce her intake by a small bit and wait until it flat-lines again. The bit when it shoots up this year is a when I was moving from Scotland and the people she was staying with were free feeding. A great example of what happens when not managed.

When we first got the cat we overfed and under exercised her. Total Noobs but we caught on quick. I have made it my goal to give her a healthy long life.

Food:

Hills metabolic diet. 50 grams/day reducing as she loses weight in accordance with pack guidelines.
Raw Turkey fillet as a treat.


Preparation is Key


Weighing:
The cat gets weighed in every week at the local vets on a calibrated scales but sometimes I use a household scales.


I think this shows the amount of weight she is carrying. My poor legs.

A video just for fun. That belly!


If anybody has any questions feel free to ask. I encourage all suggestions from people who have had a similar experience. If this type of thread is not appropriate let me know. Im new to boards.ie. Thanks for reading!!

kathleen37

Oh man, she's a beauty!! I'd say she's a bit too long in the legs and her tail isn't stocky enough to be a wild cat, but who know's? She's from the right location to be a bit of mix.

She does need to lose quite a bit, doesn't she? (Don't we all!!!) She'll be much happier though - as that much weight for a cat is quite debilitating. As she loses, she should become more active.

Some of the other guys may be able to give some views on the Hills, but if she's eating it and it's working then all should be good.

Thanks for posting. I love seeing people's animals

Ooh I've never seen a thread like this here but I'll definitely pop in and out for updates. Should be a very satisfying journey for you both. She's definitely a very fat cat but she's gorgeous!!
My cat is huge (not fat just very big, or much bigger than any cat my parents ever had). He's just turning one shortly and I'm still trying to perfect the right level of adult food to keep him fulfilled without getting too fat.

aonb

Poor old Syd - a long and very boring and hard road ahead of her
But it will be definitely worth it when shes down to a healthier weight. I too will follow this thread with interest

NamelessPhil

My previous female had to go on a special diet, she ended up on Hills Light and I had to space out her meals. She was an absolute gannet and would anything and everything, she'd even try and stick her face in your dinner if there was something she particularly fancied. She would visit the neighbours too. We had to measure out her food and her weight did reduce over time and was manageable. We divided up her food and she would be fed with the other cats twice a day and then we'd keep a portion for later in the evening. We must have had the only cat that knew when it was 10pm! It worked, she thought she was getting an extra treat that the other cats didn't get

Your Syd is gorgeous and I hope her weight loss journey goes well.

Ghetofarmulous

6.80 kg

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the thread. Really encouraging for us to get Syd where she needs to be.

I think the best chance of successful weight loss is to make it fun and set goals that are achievable in the short term with a longer term plan in place. I think this is true in all walks of life really..

• Recording weight on a weekly basis gives you a good understanding of how quickly weight is lost/gained.
• Seeing a history in a chart shows the general progress. Good if immediate result are not encouraging.
• Making notes on condition and when reducing food is always nice to reflect on and builds a reference guide.

Our first recordings
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[IMG][/img]
Recorded on Excell with a chart (first post) + observations

We really didn't know what we were doing when we started. It was trial and error. Incorrect food. Bad routine, no playing. It was all a learning curve. Im still learning.

This is the way she gets fed most of the time.

kathleen37

That's fantastic how she's exercising getting her food! If you keep that up, the pounds and ounces will keep falling off her.

NamelessPhil

Once we did manage to get our cats weight down, it stayed down until she died from other health complications at 15.

Ghetofarmulous

kathleen37 wrote: »

That's fantastic how she's exercising getting her food! If you keep that up, the pounds and ounces will keep falling off her.

Later tonight she will get her treat! Low fat Turkey fillets.

Prepared in small portions and frozen for easy feeding

taytobreath

fair play to u for the effort u put in, the weight is going in the right direction albeit slowly.

she looks like a right little spoiled character with that furious tail wagging, definitely the boss of u.

thread followed in earnest lovein your updates, keep them coming

Themadhouse

This is great!
It's such a slow process to get weight off a cat.
We found grain free food helped and things like boiled chicken breast for treats.

We ran one of our girls up and down the stairs for her food too lol.

Also da bird is a great exercise tool.

One of those treat balls or treat games is also good from time to time, makes them work for their food.

We also feed twice a day.

intheclouds

Ill be following with interest!!

My girl needs to lose about 3/4 of a kg, she just seems a lot less active now that she has turned 2 and has gained about half a kilo since xmas. Wasnt really paying attention and then suddenly noticed it so she is on lighter rations!