Weight Control Cat Food Diet

Marie’s cat Lilly is obese…very obese, and Marie acknowledges that fact. But the cat doesn’t seem to eat much and Marie was feeding her a dry food.

Marie was under the impression that because canned food typically was higher in calorie, that it would make Lilly more fat.

So she then switched Lilly to a diet dry food. Lilly didn’t lose weight. In fact, she seemed to have gotten fatter!

Lilly’s diet program failed for several reasons:

1. Marie leaves Lilly’s food out all day so she can free feed. She fills up a food bowl so Lilly has food until Marie gets home late at night.

2. Marie is just reading the marketing claims on cat food and she isn’t studying the ingredient lists. If she reviewed the ingredients, she would find that dry food tends to be higher in carbohydrates than wet food. And the protein sources in dry food (sometimes more often by-products) may not be as high quality as whole protein sources like chicken.

3. Many dry formulas have a tasty coating to entice cats to eat, and sometimes it entices them to eat far too much.

What Marie needs to do to help Lilly lose weight:

1. Stop free-feeding and feed Lilly twice a day.

2. Pay attention to the directions as to how much to feed at a time and stop giving her too much food.

3. Gradually change her diet over from dry to canned. Lilly needs a high protein, low carbohydrate diet with less grain products, and canned food will provide that.

4. Marie needs to read the ingredient labels and watch the protein/carbohydrate ratio.

5. Marie needs to understand that a more healthy diet program doesn’t mean she has to feed Lilly a “diet” formula, just a high protein formula. Lilly’s veterinarian may suggest a therapeutic weight management cat food.

6. Regardless of what Marie decides to feed Lilly, the cat needs to be seen by a veterinarian. Marie can confer with him or her as to what Lilly’s diet should entail.

7. If Lilly is home alone all day, she’s probably sleeping just a little more than she is eating. Lilly needs more exercise. Marie needs to play with Lilly each day or consider adopting another cat to keep Lilly company.

8. If such changes still do not work, Lilly’s veterinarian needs to run some tests to see if there is something else wrong with Lilly that is making her obese.

9. Recurring weigh ins, like Weight Watchers for cats, at the veterinary clinic will let you know how well the diet is going.

Keep careful eye on your cat’s overall health as you change diets and take note of changes in weight. It could take up to a year for an obese cat to reach a healthier weight.

Next article: Vegetarian Cat Food Diet