how do i get one of my two cats to lose weight?
W asked:
i have one cat the is petite and of good size. my other cat is big, and he is overweight. how do i get the one to lose weight without restricting food, because i don’t want the other to be affected.
Kansieo.com
i have one cat the is petite and of good size. my other cat is big, and he is overweight. how do i get the one to lose weight without restricting food, because i don’t want the other to be affected.
Kansieo.com
December 19th, 2009 at 3:33 am
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I think you will have to restrict food…it’s tough when you have two of them and only one is fat. maybe your vet has a better recommendation?
December 21st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
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Don’t free feed. I know that many people say that cats should have food in their bowls at all times…but I have two cats also and when I got the 2nd one my first got obsessed with food even though he gets fed regularly. I now have two separate bowls in two different rooms. I feed them twice a day and at the same time. After awhile they learned who’s bowl was who’s and I was able to monitor their eating so that they stayed healthy.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:28 am
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Exercise/play with both of them.
The overweight one will lose fat and gain muscle while the petite one will gain muscle.
Also ask your vet. Don’t take him on offers about food brands unless you know that they’re good(and no, Science Diet, Pedigree, and other grocery brands are not good).
December 26th, 2009 at 6:54 am
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May i suggest feeding them at different times then you can control the portion you give to each one? The only thing i can think of is giving her less food if she is an indoor cat she will need to be played with also just to get her energy up and so she excersises.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
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It sounds like you free-feed them (they have access to their food 24/7). There isn’t much you can do with the overweight cat (other than try to play/exercise with him more) unless you change the way they are fed. But changing to a specific number of feedings a day does not have to affect your other cat negatively.
Here’s what you do:
1. Make you sure you have two bowls, one for each of them. Keep both of them in the same place and keep them both filled as usual. You only need to do this for a couple of days, until you know that at least one of the cats is eating from the new bowl.
2. Decide how many times you are going to feed your cats. Most people do it twice a day, some do it three or four times, depending on their schedules (don’t just do it once - cats need to eat at least twice per day). Also decide when - most people either do a morning and late afternoon feeding, or a morning and late night feeding.
3. Start taking the bowls up for an hour or so a day, at a time when you can take them up every day at around the same time.
4. Extend the amount of time that the bowls are up a little more each day.
5. When the time is about four hours or so, it is time to put the bowls up overnight, too. Your kitties won’t like it for a couple of days, but they will adjust pretty quickly. Be sure to play with them in the hour before they go to bed - they’ll be tired, will likely sleep most of the night, and won’t get hungry until morning.
6. Once they have adjusted to having no food overnight, you can now start feeding them the number of times a day that you want and at the times you want, AND…start feeding them separately. Feeding them separately over the span of about three-four days, it will likely set in for the cat eating in a new location - it will know where its food is.
7. Now you can start working on getting the overweight cat in shape - you can do it one of two ways - reduce its food intake or feed it a diet cat food (available at most pet stores), or both. The reason I say both - if you go by what is on the back of the food label, chances are you are overfeeding your cat - cat food companies notoriously recommend more food than what is actually needed.
I can’t think of another way to get your overweight cat back into shape unless you separate them completely until he is no longer fat. Sorry.
December 31st, 2009 at 5:04 am
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feed them diet food or get 2 food bowls and dont pu as much in the one
January 1st, 2010 at 4:37 am
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Its really hard to get cats to lose weight - its difficult to make them take more exercise and when you have two cats it is hard to restrict the amount of food they eat.
The first thing to do is to make sure that the cats are fed in separate rooms and that any left over food is removed. Your other cat will soon adjust to the new regime and you can make sure that she is getting her full amount of food without the other cat taking it. Now you have enough control to start adjusting the volume and type of food that your overweight cat is eating.
Never reduce or change the amount of food that your cat is eating suddenly, you should take her to your vets for a full health check before making any changes. Your vet might recommend reducing the volume of her normal food or starting a ‘prescription diet’ that will help her to lose weight.
Encourage her to take more exercise, throw her balls, encourage her to chase a toy, some cats will refuse, but any extra activity will help with her weight loss regime!
January 1st, 2010 at 1:27 pm
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The only option is to restict the food, as the previous poster stated. When you feed the normal weight cat you will have to keep the overwieght cat in a different room with the door closed until he is done eating. You can also seperate them when you leave them during the day and leave the food out for the normal weight kitty to graze on in his room.