Diet opinions.

[watts300]

As the thread title indicates, I'm looking for more insight.

Garfield is about 6-7 years old. He's a large frame cat, but also a bit thick. I have recently cut down his intake of the Rocky Mountain variety of Taste of the Wild to 1/3 cup per day.

He has always had a one-track mind -- food. He wants food. His behavior is very transparent, too. When he is well fed, I don't see him much. He's laying around where ever he wants minding his own business. However, when he's wanting food, he "appears" to be affectionate. He rubs on me, lays on me... in general he is more dog-like.

So now that I've reduced him to 1/3 cup per day, I'm seeing that a lot more than usual. (Before this drop, he was getting a smidgen less than 2/3 cup.)

What I'm interested in knowing is if there's some way to recognize when a cat is truly hungry versus just wanting to eat because it tastes good. And I DO know he likes this variety a lot more than the other flavor of Taste of the Wild. He really chows down.

Here is a video for illustration of his size (and also for amusement). Last time he was at the doctor's office less than a year ago, he was a little over 17lbs. He had blood work done while there (because I was concerned he was drinking a lot of water) but the doc said there was nothing interesting found. So he's healthy, just.... thick.

YouTube - ‪Pets and animals‬‏

YouTube - ‪Pets and animals‬‏

[MinkaMuffin]

It could be that TOWD dry food is just not enough protein for him and the carbs don't make him feel full. He does have some pudge on him as you can see his skin buckles up on his back.
130 calories (or 1/3 cup) should be enough to get him to loose weight, especially since he seems to run around and what-not.
I say keep it at 1/3 cup and monitor his weight and as long as he's not dropping too fast, then he'll be alright.

He's so cute with the doxie. We had cats and doxies at my mom's when I was growing up. :3

[MinkaMuffin]

Oh, also, did you have his thyroid checked?
I went to your channels to watch more cute videos and noticed that he's a lot thicker than he was back in September of 2010. Rapid weight gain could be a thyroid issue.

[CatsPride]

Dry food isn't good for cats it can lead to a lot of health problems down the road. Drinking water obesssivly is a sign of kidney stones/kidney trouble. I would switch over to canned only.

[doodlebug]

You cut his food in half??? That is not a safe way for him to lose weight and could lead to hepadic lipidosis. You need to reduce the amount he's fed gradually as he loses the weight. Reduce the amount being fed by 10-15% and let him stabilize on that for a few weeks. If he's not losing, then go down 10-15% again...again stabilize for a few weeks and repeat again if he's not losing. Do this until he starts losing...no more than 1/2 to 1 lb per month. If he plateaus, then take the food down by 10-15% again.

But...as CatsPride mentioned...wet food is the best way to achieve weight loss.

[def kitty]

Getting a cat to lose weight can be a hard job. You need to monitor his calories really closely, and also weigh him every couple of days so he doesn't lose too much weight too quickly (this could endanger his health). Feeding him wet food only is a good idea because same amount of calories physically takes up more space, thus making him fuller. Wet food with a high protein content (as opposed to fat content, there should be very little or no carbs in it) is the way to go.

Feline Obesity: An Epidemic of Fat Cats by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM :: cat weight management, obese cat, cat weight loss

[Nan]

I agree with Doodlebug. That seems to be a lot to cut back his food. Initially I probably would just cut it back to 1/2 cup (1/4 each feeding).

[saitenyo]

I second all the recommendations on switching to wet. Every time I see someone talking about all the complicated measurements and restrictions they go through to try to "diet" a cat on dry food, I think, "It really does not need to be that complicated!" Just like with people, restricting calories isn't as effective as replacing less nutritional calories with more nutritional calories. As others have said, he could genuinely be feeling hungry because dry food is not as nutrient-dense.

Even the best dry food will be higher in carb content than top quality wet foods, and it's the carb content that is the biggest cause of weight-gain in cats, because their bodies simply are not designed to process high carb loads (they're carnivores, designed to eat meat, not grains and vegetables).

My cat was chubby on dry food too. Even a top-quality, high-protein, "low-carb" dry food like Wellness CORE. All I had to do to get him to lose weight safely and steadily was transition him over (gradually) to a 100% moist diet. He's now on raw and canned, with no kibble, but even just switching your cat to a grain-free canned food should help.

[doodlebug]

It's amazing what the right diet can do. I have an employee with 2 dogs...one was a bit chunky, the other underweight. She was feeding Newman's Own kibble before she started working for me. Now they get raw for one meal, and half canned/half kibble for their other meal. The overweight one is losing and the underweight one is gaining muscle. Needless to say...she's thrilled. It seems odd to say that the same diet can cause one animal to lose weight and the other to gain...but it really does work.

[watts300]

His intake wasn't exactly cut in half. He was getting right at 2/3 for a while, then like I mentioned it was reduced to a little under that for about 2 months. And then.. now.

I cut it back because he appeared to be over eating. If he was overeating, I don't see the harm. Also, since Taste of the Wild is rated as a high quality food, I knew that he doesn't need as much to get what he needs.

I won't feed him raw. I've read about it and have asked his doctor. Based on what I've read and been told, I choose to not take that route.

As far as him drinking water, turns out that's not an issue as reported by the blood test. I don't recall everything that was checked (it was several months ago) but I chose the more expensive examination so it was pretty thorough. It was something like $200.

Based on what I've read on this forum over the months, I know that there are tons of people in the raw camp, and almost as many in the wet-food camp. My train of thought it that there are also tons of people "in the wild" that feed dry food and have healthy cats. And I feed my cat high quality dry food. It's expensive, but doesn't break the bank as an all-canned food diet can easily do.

That being said, I'm willing to experiment with a mixture of wet-dry meals. Does any one have a recommendation/suggestion on canned food? Maybe 3-5 choices of varying price.

Secondly, is there a rule-of-thumb for daily requirements of calories, like there is the 2000 for people? If there needs to be consideration of his weigh-to-age, I can do that.