It’s hard on their little kitty hearts, or so I’m told.
That’s probably true. Maybe a couple extra pounds will shorten its life by some unknown amount, but that time comes off the end, which ain’t always quality time anyway. However, if you asked the cat, I bet it would vote to stay fat and eat all it wants.
I’m going to agree with Oakminster here. The cat really doesn’t care if it will die a year or two sooner, when it is half-blind and in kidney failure. Unless the cat is having serious problems right now, let it eat what it wants if it’s just a little tubby.
I’d consider serious problems to be things like the cat can’t move easily, it can’t clean itself properly, or has diabetes or something of that nature.
Let the cat be a happy cat. Certainly you don’t have to let it eat butter, or give it other really fatty or high calorie foods, but don’t put it on a starvation diet and make it suffer.
I have a couple Maine Coon mixes too. Daniel the Terrible is 24 pounds while his daintier (and neurotic) sister Miss Minx is 19 pounds.
The vet tells me Daniel needs to lose weight. Unfortunately the super special diet food from the vet also leads to gastric issues in Miss Minx, sigh.
We had a vacuum-eater cat (sadly now gone). The breeder we got him from recommended feeding him green beans in addition to his food. Apparently it is very low calorie and healthy, but fills him up. He absolutely loved them, more than his regular food, and it kept him at a healthy weight.
PS. Tikva is a beautiful cat.
Well, shit, let’s let Uncle Raymond be happy, too. He’s got the sugar, but he wants his groceries (seriously, that’s what he calls it) and the devil take the consequences. Honestly, who cares?
ETA - if it isn’t clear, Uncle Raymond is not a cat. He is a very stubborn human being. You can’t make him give up his groceries, but you can see that he OUGHT TO.
I were dealing with allergic issues in itty bitty Cosmo Kitty, so I switched over to a non-grain food, and all of the tubby kitties in the household lost weight and looked great. I free feed Merrick B.G. (Before Grain). It looks more expensive, but lasts longer than Iams and the like.
Looks like you are starving that kitty to me.
Feed the damn thing.
Yes, let Uncle Raymond (a human) be happy too. YOU might be happy with the thought that you can extend your life a few years, or a decade or so. Maybe Uncle Raymond would rather be happy NOW, rather than live a little longer in misery.
I am not convinced that a longer life is a happier one, for humans or for other animals. In fact, from what I see, people (and animals) tend to suffer greatly if they live very long lives. It’s not pretty, and it’s not pleasant.
If you want to have a cat live the longest life possible, then don’t get one as a pet. Don’t let it think that its happiness matters to you. Just treat it as a scientific subject, and don’t let it become attached to you and think that you love it. I’d rather have a happy cat than have one think that I’m deliberately being mean to it. It’s one thing to get it vaccinated, that happens once a year and is over with, and the cat is able to get on with its life. It’s quite another thing for the cat to be convinced that you are starving it. The cat does not understand that the vet thinks it should lose a pound or two. The cat just knows that the person who it loves, and who it thought loved it, is now not feeding it. Or at least, not feeding it anything that it thinks of as food. That’s just torturing the poor kitty.
Maine coons are naturally pretty huge, I think. To me, 24 lbs doesn’t seem all that huge for that breed.
The rest of my cats are all about 7-8 lbs. They’re dwarfed by Big Domino, but he’s such a marshmallow…they always have the upper hand.
I used to have a 27-pounder. Good luck.
sings Bustofer Jones
is not skin and bones.
In fact, he’s incredibly fat!
“Springtime for Kitler and Germany!”
I had this.
I now have this.
It doesn’t adequately display his barge arse. If I could fit him into a cage and take him to the vet I could get him weighed.
I have found, over the years, that the diet ‘food’ from the vet does diddly-squat in reducing weight in felines. They’re miserable, I’m miserable (because they are), and there is a lot of hate for meal times. If you free feed they’ll just eat more food than normal, and if you don’t they will pester you all the time because they’re hungry!
With my tubby tabby, I got her to lose a few pounds by:
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Switching to a grain-free canned food. Cats are obligate carnivores and don’t need that corn- or rice -filled crap to help them lose weight. A nice, low carb food made of MEAT is perfect.
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Feed on a schedule. Don’t let them gorge all they want.
Well, that’s what worked for me.
With my probably-part Maine Coon cat Zathras(he was a barn cat at my aunt’s, so we don’t know his father, but even living the slightly underfed barn cat life as a kitten he’s structurally large) the easiest way to get him to slim down a bit was to feed him MORE often.
If he complains that he’s hungry- “Really I am look I can’t even knock you over I am so SKINNY” he implies while tripping you into the fridge door- he gets between 2 tablespoons (estimate) and a half-cup of food- he only gets that much for breakfast. His urge to chew is satisfied, but the overall caloric load isn’t too bad. The only reason he’s not as thin as he could be is that my dad is a huge pushover and gives Zathrastons of different treats.
The other thing about his feeding is that he has to jump up to his food shelf before he is given food. If he doesn’t jump, we decide he’s not hungry enough, and if he does jump, it’s a bit of exercise and he gets the food.
Boscibo’s schedule idea is also a good one, but with the way my family works, it’s easier to just feed Zathras more or less on-demand.
Yeah, but Dr. Vet says that if I don’t trim her down, she could get diebetes. Pretty good reason for dieting in my book.
I agree with 1. I don’t disagree with 2 but I haven’t found it necessary.
Maybe you should start getting Lite Beer for him instead of Miller Genuine Draft.
Good call. That’s what the vet recommended, too!