It’s tough to help your overweight cat lose weight. A recent study published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research outlines a new diet plan that helped overweight cats get to healthy weights by gradually reducing the cats’ calorie intake over many weeks.
The eight study cats first ate a high-fiber, moderate-protein diet for four weeks as a baseline. Researchers then reduced the amount of food by 20 percent for the first week of the dieting period. In weeks two through eight, the food was reduced more.
For the last 10 weeks, the cats had no further reductions. At the end of the study, the cats had lost significant amounts of weight.
Thumbnail: Photography ©sae1010 | Thinkstock.
Jackie Brown is a freelance writer from Southern California who specializes in the pet industry. Reach her at jackiebrownwriter.wordpress.com.
Editor’s note: This article appeared in Catster magazine. Have you seen the new Catster print magazine in stores? Or in the waiting room of your vet’s office? Subscribe now to get Catster magazine delivered straight to you!
4 thoughts on “A New Diet To Help Your Overweight Cat Get Healthy”
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thanks celeste, for your comment; and so, so sorry about your kitty. I’m sure you miss her terribly, and keep asking yourself what more you could’ve done for her. I too lost a kitty in sept 2017, she had cancer in her jaw, it progressed rapidly. she was 13 and I wasnt going to put her thru chemo/surgery when there werent any guarantees. too harsh. daily I berate myself too, wondering if she wouldve’ lasted longer or been able to be treated had I caught it sooner. we moved from nc to wv, she was fine; sold house and while getting ready to move to fl, I noticed the lump on her jaw. those darn wv vets “couldnt do anything”, watch it, blah blah, when finally in fl, took her to a cat oncologist, well, too far along, surgery/chemo probably wouldnt help. so we loved her, cared for her, and gave her pain meds until she showed signs of pain, then we let her go. miss her still.
I truly wonder if (like us), the manufacturers arent poisoning our pets with chemicals and bad food choices in their foods!!! they arent regulated and held to standards, so anything goes into the pet foods. wish there were strict regulations about what goes into pet foods, who ever heard of putting cellulose (wood ) into food for “fiber”?? or supposedly those long chemical names we cant pronounce – they are chemicals for pete’s sake!!!! our bodies and our pets bodies arent supposed to have those things in our bodies!! well, anyway know my heart with you in your loss, take care and dont blame yourself, most of the time its out of our control. just know she’s happy now. God bless….
Thanks for your information, and I totally agree that canned/ wet food is more appropriate to hopefully prevent diseases. Your comment about mousers was cut, made me laugh!
A cat owner must also be careful at feeding prescription diets even though recommended by the Vet; READ THE LABEL TO SEE THE INGREDIENTS.
At the age of 14/years my Cat died of Lymphoma which is a intestinal Cancer. Initially the Vet recommended Science Diet Y/D, to control her Hyperthyroidism and it did;.. however the food contained a high amount of Cellulose which is a indigestible fiber and it was also dominated by Pig and Pig Liver. Pig is not usually in Pet food but this food I think possibly used it because of the foods unusual ingredients. My Cat also took about 3/hours to eat the food, whereas, I thought it was just a dislike of this unusual food, but after her getting intestinal Lymphoma Cancer I realized it was the hard to digesting of the food that made her take hours, she’d take one small nibble and then have to go lie down like a person with a stomachache. Whereas, previously during all her 13/years of living she’d eat all her food within 15 to 20/minutes, like a dog. And all her life I always fed her canned food and in the same amount as I later fed the prescription food, yet she took hours to eat the prescription food.
During the years after her death I read that Pig meat has larger fat cells then other meats and therefore harder on the digestion and since this prescription food also had the indigestible Cellulose (some people loosely call cellulose “wood”); I feel these ingredients exacerbated her weak intestines (prior to the Hyperthyroidism the Vet diagnosed her to have some degree of Pancreatitis and a little IBD which unfortunately she only gave her Cerenia to prevent vomiting, instead of treating) anyway, this indigestible food certainly further inflammed her weak intestines and increasing her IBD and/or Pancreatitis; IBD especially can develop into Lymphoma when the IBD is not properly treated and I later learned this Vet could have treated her IBD/Pancreatitis with the steroid Prednisolone which is specifically effective for treating that disease and most often used by Vets.
I even took my dear Cat every week to Chemotherapy for three months but she still died, it soon became apparent the Chemo was killing too much of her healthy cells while not really killing the Cancer which continued to progress. So, I also learned why some humans soon refuse to continue their Chemo, it truly is a poison that you only hope might kill the Cancer cells. It would have been better had I not continued the Chemo and instead just continued her on Prednisolone which was part of her treatment, this way she at least would of had a better quality of life for the few months she continued to live as well as been able to eat anything she would want.
I write all this just to give information to anyone whom can use it.
I feed my 7 cats a canned food diet, with little kibbles, and I do not free feed except for two kitties that are nibblers, one being hyperthyroid. They are 5-19 yrs old, excellent health with no other health conditions. My cats live on avg to 20. I’ve learned rescuing cats for 40 years, that wet/canned food is more diet appropriate. Though I’ve tried a raw diet, my rescues were 5+ in age and just wouldn’t accept it unfortunately except my 2-3 occasional mousers.