Is Copper too fat?(pic)

OK, I probably know the answer to that question. But I guess I want to know how do I slim him down when he and Sabrina eat out of the same bowl and free feed? She's very tiny and doesn't need to lose an ounce.

Here's my boy--whadda ya think?


I had another one, but I can't figure out how to make it smaller and I don't want to get in trouble again .

 

I hate to say it but...well you know (Ive been called a few nasty names by clients in the past for suggesting their pet go on a diet, one woman threatened to sue one of the vets for 'discrimination' when he said her dog needed to go on a diet... :shock: )


I had a similar situation a couple of years ago, I had 2 overweight cats and one underweight, I had been free feeding them, one of the overweight cats had a sensitive stomach and couldnt eat any of the diets I tried and it got down to a matter of seperating them all and feeding them twice daily, just their regular food, I added a little chicken broth (unsalted) to encourage them to eat as they didnt like the idea of restricted feeding, it took a bit of patience and perseverence but it worked.

 

I think free feeding affects metabolisms differently for different animals. The more reading i've done on this, the more i believe that it may be a better idea to NOT free feed once they reach adulthood. I used to free feed my Vianne as well, but i quit that recently over the last few months. At first it was hard becuz she had become accustomed to grazing, taking a couple bites and walking away, so when i would plop a bowl of food in front of her, she had no real appetite. Plus she started getting a little picky with her food and sometimes just wouldnt even eat at all what i offered her. What eventually wound up working was i fasted her for a day, (removed all accessible foods, including treats, but with available fluids of course), to stimulate her appetite. Then i offered her food in spoonfuls at a time and sat with her while she ate so i could moniter how much she was eating in one sitting. I also started to greatly vary her diet and she suddenly seemed interested in trying just about any food i offered her, including odd things like green beans, cottage cheese and baby spinich leaves. I think the fact of not having food out for whenever she felt like having some, made her appreciate the opportunities to have a meal when it was available. Of course its harder when you have more than one cat. Do you think that maybe your thinner cat is intimidated by Copper at the food dish and maybe isn't eating as much becuz of it? I would try separating them and trying out a morning and night feeding. Then you know exactly how much food each cat is getting everyday. Vianne gets one 3oz can of Blue Spa Select in the morning which she gulps down in one sitting, then about 3/4 cup of dry in the early evening which lasts her til the next morning. She usually takes her time with the dry, but at least i know she is eating regularly every day...sometimes with a snack of yogurt or some other goody inbetween :mrgreen:
Hope that helps! but, yeah uh....Copper looks like he could spare a few lbs :wink:

 

I showed my husband the picture of your cat.... here is his advise.....he said.... lol Take your cat to Subway.... it worked for Jared... :shock: LOL

sorry... that is all the advise we have. :?

 

:m39: TAke my cat to SubwaY! That's really funny!!!

I don't really know if Sabrina is intimidated by him at the food bowl, but she certainly can't fit on the little table while he's up there. (the other pic was of him at the bowl) I usually see them eating at different times. Compared to him, she's tiny. But she's really probably normal.

Geez, I don't know how this happened. I said I'd never have one of those "fat cats". He was raised by dachshunds though...

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will have to separate them and pick the food right back up. He does expect food everytime the dogs eat--morning and night. So he won't be the problem.

 

Is Copper an indoor/outdoor cat? You could try and get him to exercise a bit more (15-30 minutes per day) . Laser pointers are great, as well as those floor to ceiling cat trees (Walmart has them for $30 U.S.) or just anything that gets him to run around a bit. Good luck.

 

Yeah, he really does look overweight and I'm afraid that Booger is getting there too. I free feed her two kinds of dry and one small can of tuna a week (her treat). Her next vet visit is in Aug and I was going to ask about that myself. I think she's packing on the weight because of lack of play. I can't do much other than use interactive toys with her and hubby wrestles with her a couple times/wk. I think that has much to do with it. Lack of exercise.

 

my foster Dixie has gone from 13.5 pounds to 11.2 pounds since being here 2 months I think she's been here. Vet said a pound a month is good.
What have I done with Dixie you ask? Really not much. I'm feeding her and MaiTai Iams active maturity (I know Iams isn't the greatest but MaiTai was tossing up the better quality dry foods - she holds down the Iams fine so that's what they are getting). A can of Fancy Feast they share in the morning and another at night. I free feed them the Iams.
With Dixie I think it's been an increase in her activity level. She went from sitting by a window for a year waiting for her person to come home to following me all around the house!!! We play wand toy for 15 or so minutes every evening and she loves to play with kitty toys. She doesn't sleep at all when I'm home...follows me from room to room. She likes me, and unfortunately I've grown very fond of her.
She still looks chubby cause her skin/fur is so loose but she's developing a waist line :y_the_best:
I like to walk up/down the hallway with the wand toy trailing behind me - that way she's getting exercise, my cats too cause they join in and me too!!!!

 

Well, I picked up the food last night. Copper was following me this morning fussing at me until I put the food down for him. I put a separate bowl down for Sabrina and she ate a few pieces. I had to keep chasing him away from hers. After they wandered off, I picked it all up. I am off to get some small cans of food to try to entice them to eat when it's put down.

Chessmind, he is an indoor only cat. He wants to go out, but I'm too chicken. I may try the harness again. And I have a laser pointer that Sabrina loves and he chases a little. He does like to play with those little socks. I guess I'll up the play time and put the dogs out when I do because they bark at him when he gets wound up and I think he gets irritated with that and will stop playing.

Thanks again guys!

OH and when I asked the vet about his size, he said "he has a little extra gas in his tank" and didn't seem worried. But I should know better because he never addressed the weight with my dogs either and they have disc problems! :roll:

 

Maybe he's been yelled at before or threatened with a lawsuit for discrimination :shock:

 

Hes a little chubby :mrgreen: But still beautiful... Lol! I don't have any advice to offer, but I hope the diet work.

 

lols lols...

well...i cant say "poor little guy"...cause its not really accurate...lols

so..."poor big guy"!! awww...hes adorable, but yes indeed. hes a little chunky :wink:

 

Awwwww. Copper is still so very cute! Harness walking after meals sounds ideal! Very nice floor btw! :y_the_best:

 

i have the opposite prob w/ jazzy..she is looking really thin...anyone have that link to the charts that show if a cat is too thin or too overweight..it was posted here a bit ago

 

I think I have Copper's brother!

I'll have to get some new pics of twinkie but I do believe him and Copper could be brothers. The only exception, Twinkies BIGGER. I have tried the indoor cat formula with both of my chubby kitties. I think they ate more
of it. No weight loss so far we're going on 7 weeks now. Most of the bigger cats that I have seen have been orange tabbys.
Maybe it's in the kitty gene pool :lol:

 

BIGGER than Cop? :shock: Wow! I know he's a big cat, and won't ever be the weight of Sabrina. But that extra wad that swings when he walks is what worries me. Was working on picking up the food but I had to go out of town on an emergency for a few days and I left the auto-feeder thing down. They actually didn't eat it all. Copper gets real upset when we all leave him (me and his "girls"--the dogs) and doesn't eat much. Poor "little" fella--hehe!

And thanks Vene on the floor compliment!