Anyone trying to get a pet to lose weight?

BlueSkyShoal

I've been trying for sooo long to get my fat cat down a few pounds. He's naturally big to begin with, but he's at 18 pounds when he should be more like 14 or 15 to be at a healthy weight. The most challenging part is that I have another cat, who is a slow eater. So of course the fat cat eats his food, given half a chance.

I finally got skinny cat a sort of mechanical food bowl that will only open for him. I feel like a spy.

Sha1911

My cat usually gets some good excercise when there's a toddler in the house lol
I guess you could just keep feeding them seperately and make sure the fat one gets less food.
Can I ask what, and how much he eats?

Lounmoun

We had inherited an overweight dog. She was a cute little bottomless pit who had been fed tons of people food. We fed her less food than she had been fed and she got more exercise. She got to a healthy weight again.

BlueSkyShoal

Lounmoun wrote: »

We had inherited an overweight dog. She was a cute little bottomless pit who had been fed tons of people food. We fed her less food than she had been fed and she got more exercise. She got to a healthy weight again.

That's great that you got her to a better weight! Was she a small dog? I think they're the most expert at looking cute for people food, lol.

Sha1911 wrote: »

My cat usually gets some good excercise when there's a toddler in the house lol
I guess you could just keep feeding them seperately and make sure the fat one gets less food.
Can I ask what, and how much he eats?

I tried feeding them separately the past year, putting down set amounts of food for each and taking the dish up after fifteen minutes But Skinny Cat is a grazer (eats food in small portions over the entire day) and he got unhealthily skinny. But if I leave food down all day, Fat Cat will eat more than his share. Separating them all day would upset them and probably result in scratch marks on both sides of the door.

The cats have been on all kinds of food over the last six years, as Fat Cat has a mystery allergy and I was trying various limited ingredient foods trying to narrow down what it could be. Never did find out, but eventually the vet found a medication that alleviates the worst of his itchiness.

Right now Fat Cat is on high-protein wet food (Core Wellness) and Skinny Cat, who doesn't like wet food, is on a high-quality dry food (Pure Vita I think). A few months ago I got a cat bowl that you can set to read a pet's microchip, and it will only open for the "right" pet. Happily it seems to be doing the trick . . . Fat Cat started at 18.8 pounds and this morning he's down to 17.4 pounds. And Skinny Cat is getting up to a healthy weight.



^ Here's Fat Cat. (The bare patch on his stomach is because, even with the medication, he chews the fur off his stomach due to his allergy.)



^ Skinny Cat and Fat Cat.