Does anyone else have a pet with weight issues?

seadoug

seadoug

Well-known Member
Location
Texas
We have two male cats. Andy is at a normal weight for a neutered male cat. However, Bugsy is overweight. We adopted him at 6 y/o at 15 pounds. He is now 8 y/o and 16.5 pounds. Bombay cats tend to be lazy, and he is happy to sleep or snuggle all day. He is not very interested in playing with toys anymore. Our vet told us we need to put him on a strict diet because he could develop Diabetes. I literally have to watch him when I feed them both to make sure he doesn't eat Andy's food. We have now restricted his diet because we want to keep him around for a long time. Hoping for the best.

Is anyone else struggling with weight issues with either a cat or a dog? What steps have you taken?
 

Yes, we had a cat who was fat and lazy until we adopted a 6 mo old who seems to have reminded her how to be a cat and play. Our vet also has weight management food which helps but a challenge has been to keep my loving husband from feeding them four times a day. The young cat will eat very fast and then go looking for the older ones food so we bought a special dish to make her work for her food while the other eats in peace in a separate room. Another feeding trick is to make holes in the sides of a small box, close it, then drop food into the holes so that they have to work for it. I think you can also buy the cat boxes online but we just make our own.
I don't want my cats to develop diabetes since that would require shots and I can't stand the idea of doing that.
 
No weight problem with my cat, but I feel for you. It seems to be nearly impossible when you have two cats. Even if you started to use weigh management formula food, Bugsy may still eat Andy's portions. Good luck, hope you can work it out.
 

Two suggestions: You should feed the cats seperated and you should force Bugsy to run. How? Use dry food and throw every time a single small piece some 15 feet away from the cat.
 
All my cats wound up at 16.5 pounds. Don't know why. All lived good, long years. I wouldn't treat a diabetic cat with insulin. Never heard of one who didn't die soon after, probably from low glucose, the killer of diabetes, whether human or animal.
 
I've never had a cat or a dog with a weight problem, and I used to set out a weeks worth of food in a dishpan for my dog, who was always fit and trim. I had a smaller dish for my cats, but again, they could eat whenever they felt like it, and they remained fit too. I don't know why some dogs, cats, or people eat more than they need while other's don't. But I would definitely restrict food intake for a pet that was overweight.
 
From my experiences, cats or dogs get too hungry waiting on you to feed them. So, when you give them food, they just scoff the lot too fast and suffer from indigestion.

My father had all kinds of pets from a very early age, including a horse (which he used to bring in his bed during winter lol). He passed on his feeding knowledge to me. So, give them highly digestible aka "For Sensitive Stomach" dry food. My current kitten has a feeder half full 24/7. He then gets two pouches a day. Slim kitty.

I've seen dogs being overweight (so was the owner). Poor doggy was given a large can of food plus 2 cups of dry. Way too much food for size of dog... Sadly, it passed away.

My two previous dogs, who lived to both 14 & 12 years old respectively, were free fed dry and had two regular meals a day. They were between their normal weight range throughout their lives. Their vet wanted to know our secrets but we never told as they say that it's wrong. So, I ignore lol!

The two previous cats we had were both healthy and in good shape, just didn't get along. Fed the same way, they were happy with us not each other. We had to re-home as they were both rescued and had issues. That was sad...

It's up to you how you feed, but think if yourself having to fend for you... When you'll get your hands in food, you'll gorge, then weight happens.

Over 50 years of pets and never one with weight issues. Sorry!
 
I put Buffy & Max on a lower food diet. They both lost weight. Max lost too much weight. He died of cancer, last year March 13. It happened so fast. We thought he lost weight from his diet. Buffy had a cancerous tumor on her foot, which was removed, so all attention was on her and poor Max was the one actually dying šŸ˜­
 
I have heard that if you can still easily feel the cats ribs they are fine weight wise. Riley is clocking in at 15 pounds but the vet is not concerned. He is just a big cat.
 

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