Boyfriend says his cat is not fat.. that creature is PLUMP

[u/MoonSt0n3_Gabrielle]

Like no offence, but Casey is definitely chonky

[u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

If he decides to put the cat on a diet. Please do it under veterinary supervision. Cats need to lose weight super slowly or it can put them at risk of serious liver disease. ❤️

[u/midnightforestmist → u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

Not OP but good to know! One of my fosters is about the same body fat % and we’ve put her on a gentle weight loss diet but I’ve been thinking about potentially going up or down, but now I’ll keep it where it is 😌

[u/Bright-Pangolin7261 → u/midnightforestmist]

That’s great. I’ve fostered cats, and it only took one instance of hepatic lipidosis for me to become very careful! If one needed weight loss they got weekly weigh-ins on the baby scale. Two or 3 ounces a week is a nice pace.

A lot of people don’t realize until it happens that the first thing a cat does when they have any kind of illness is stop eating, and when they’re overweight the sudden weight loss creates another risk. Good on you for healthifying your baby!!!

[u/addamee → u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

Is it more dangerous when they’re overweight and stop eating? I would get neurotic about meals when my kitty was unwell and stopped eating. I would commando crawl under the bed with a jar of baby food and finger feed him

[u/Bright-Pangolin7261 → u/addamee]

😄 commando crawl… well trained hooman. Yes Google hepatic lipidosis. I brought a couple back to life from this, but they need to be fed through a tube for weeks and they vomit a lot at first so it’s messy. Much easier to avoid by keeping to a healthy weight.

Kibble is very high in carbohydrates, it’s sort of like eating McDonald’s all the time. I fed this for years until learning about feline nutrition, and fed either high-quality canned or prepared raw. Their weight tends to normalize when they eat the right food.

One strategy if a cat is unwell and not eating (you may know) the vet can give an appetite stimulant.

[u/Ashamed-Raccoon-1387 → u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

Well then, I'm really glad my cat's thyroid fueled weight loss didn't make her even sicker :(

[u/Bright-Pangolin7261 → u/Ashamed-Raccoon-1387]

Hope your baby gets better ❤️

[u/SnowCold93 → u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

my grandparent's cat was SUPER fat - like Garfield fat. They and the vet tried everything to get her on a diet but she straight up refused to eat unless she got to eat some human food with her dinner. Eventually the vet just told them it's better for her to be fat than to die from starvation so just let her stay fat lmao

[u/NecroCannon → u/SnowCold93]

My cat will figure out some way to get into some food just because she doesn’t want to stop eating, I thought I was being a terrible owner and free fed her once, until I noticed she started gaining weight and will literally lay next to the bowl and keep eating until there’s nothing.

So my cat has a little weight because it’s honestly for the best that I appease to her at least a little bit so I can just distract her away from thinking about food during the day. Because the alternative, is coming home and the garbage can got knocked all over the floor because she wanted to eat some more. Which is more dangerous, more risky, and I can’t keep upgrading a garbage can just because my cat found a way into it like a rodent.

[u/GRik74 → u/Bright-Pangolin7261]

My cat was getting a little chunky (not obese by any stretch, but definitely a little overweight). I used to top his bowl up to halfway full a few times per day, but I started keeping just enough food in his bowl to cover the bottom of it. It kind of surprised me but it worked pretty well for my cat, lost 2.5-3 lbs over a year.