Cats gained weight despite being on new diet – help?
Hello,
I adopted two female 8-year old cats at the beginning of the summer. The old owner used to feed them one full cup of bad dry food once a day in the morning and the cats were at a decent weight. When I took over the cats, slowly their begging got me to feed them a little extra at night. Then I tried switching to Purina One Healthy Weight dry food and they did that for a while. Then I started reading that I should be feeding them a higher-grade food, so I switched to EVO Core Dry food (which is grain free) and also started giving them some wet food too. But at the recommended amount that they suggested to get the cats to lose some weight. I am only feeding the cats 3 to 4 ounces of food total a day, yet they have ballooned up to 13 or more pounds.
I seriously have a digital scale, and measure out their meals. I am reading literature and listening to all the advice about cat food that I get. Each cat gets one ounce of dry food in the morning, then one ounce of wet food when I come home from work, and then around midnight they get another ounce of dry food, sometimes they get a little more wet food in between. In any case it comes out to 1/2 cup of food or less a day. Meanwhile we play chase the string to burn off calories as well (admittedly I can only play for 20 minutes a day really.)
In any case they just seem to be gaining weight. One cat is fat and feels like she is solid as a rock.
I just want to get these cats under 12 lbs so they arent obese. So what do you suggest I try next?
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Dump the dry, switch to canned. When I adopted Sophie she was 9 years old and 16 lbs! Her previous owners fed her only dry food (mostly carbs). I immediately stopped the dry food and put her on canned like the rest of my cats. She’s now 13 and weighs 10 lbs, which is exactly what the vet wants her to weigh.
It could be all the diet changes. My ferret recently gained weight and my vet told me it was because I switched her between different foods so fast that her body wasnt use to the good foods and she rapidly put on weight.
So it could be because of the food switches and the fact its a high grade food, their bodies could have felt starved for the nutrition and once it got it its just holding onto it all. Stick with their current diet for a while and weigh them every other day to see if they are gaining or maintaining. When they start maintaining, get them to exercise more. If they continue gaining then consult a vet on their diet.
Anything but EVO.
If not fed in the proper amounts, it can severely damage the kidneys because of the protein level.
I don’t care what the company says about this… I know of someone who’s dog died because of EVO related kidney failure.
Have you tried regular Innova, Solid Gold (my cats hated the taste), Natural Balance, or Nutro?
Find something that they like and something not so nutrient-dense.
Unplug the phone. I think the cats are ordering pizza when you’re not home!
Try ditching the dry food. Don’t do it all at once, but gradually increase the canned and decrease the dry until you’re only feeding the canned. Evo is the lowest carbohydrate dry cat food, but a lower carb canned food would be ideal. Here’s a chart that shows the carbohydrate content of various canned food. The lower, the better. Try to stay under 7 percent if you can, which I’m basing on the trouble your cats are having losing weight. It will also give them the water they need to metabolize fat.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html
They should be getting about 3 ounces of canned food twice a day. If they bug you for food, playing chase the string is a great way to distract them. Just don’t leave the string lying around! I’m sure you realize that the cat could eat it and get an abdominal obstruction.
Good luck to you. I hope you get your kitties slimmed down!
are your cats ‘eating out’
if you really do only feed a few ounces theyre getting it elsewhere.
Evo is not a bad food, and cats need more protien then dogs. It has a higher fat content then other foods though, and because of the high quality, your cat will need to eat less because your cat actually ends up using all the nutrients in the food ( unlike food with lots of fillers ) The amount you actually feed your pet depends on your pet, the reccomended amount is just a guideline. If your cat is less active or indoor only it will need less food. Start by reducing the food by 10% every 3 weeks until you see results. If you do not see results, it could be possible your cat has something like worms so you would need to get it checked out by a vet.
Ignore the comment about too much protein
Cats are carnivores and they need plenty of protein. EVO is a great food. They were recently bought out by Procter & Gamble so whether they’ll remain a great food is up for debate. Just keep an eye on the ingredients when you buy it to make sure they aren’t lowering the quality.
Now for the losing weight part, you just have to feed less. The guidelines on the bag are sometimes useful, often not. According to my cat’s food bag he should eat 2/3 to half a cup a day to maintain his weight. He’d balloon up like a whale if he ate that much
He needs a little less than half cup a day to maintain 12 pounds. That’s if he only eats dry food. Otherwise he gets a little less than quarter cup a day of dry food and half a can of wet food a day. But these are irrelevant to you, just giving an example. Ultimately you need to cut back and monitor the cats. Take about a tablespoon of food off what you currently feed and see how they do. If after a few weeks they’ve gained weight or maintained their weight, take another tablespoon out of their food. Weigh in a few weeks, repeat until they get to the weight you think they should be at.
Evo is low carb but it’s high fat so it’s quite high calorie. Cats seem to vary in how they process dietary fat . Some cats lose weight when they switch to the canned Evo only . But some cats gain. I’d try switching them gradually to just the canned, but also consider another food at least some of the time. A low carb canned food that is lower calories , higher protein, lower fat –in fact pretty close to a cat’s natural diet — is Merrick’s Cowboy Cookout. or they have a Surf & Turf or Grammys Pot Pie. (Silly names but it’s good quality food and less fat than most of the other "premium" cat foods)
The Binkys chart someone gave you the link for may be helpful.
and also http://catinfo.org is a vets site with a lot of info on cat nutrition
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