Weigh in

Just a rant.....

Wow! I weighed everybody today and I can't believe how heavy some of them have gotten.

Tiddy - 14lbs. (should weigh 12 or 13)
Bean - 17 lbs.!! :shock: (should weigh 12 or 13)
Hoggle - 8 lbs.
Rhiannon - 13 lbs. (should weigh 9 or 10)
Chieve - 9 lbs.
Bella - 13 lbs. (should weigh 7 or 8 )

I've been switching them from Chicken Soup to Wellness over the past few weeks and today I finished up the last of the Chicken Soup so starting tomorrow they will be put on a scheduled feed of Wellness, 2 meals daily. I also need to go out and get a new lazor pointer...mine broke a while ago and it's one of the only toys that really seems to get all of them moving. I'm going to weigh them weekly and increase exercise as much as I can and hopefully I will get some results. Hoggle and Chieve are thin but Hoggle is a little thinner than I would like him to be and I surely don't want him getting any thinner so I think the scheduled feedings will help me adjust the amounts in a way that will better suit all of them. Wish me luck!

 

Hoggle and Chieve do seem to be on the light side. Are some breeds naturally supposed to be smaller than others? How did you determine what their ideal weight should be? My Monty is like your Bean, too heavy. My Milo has been losing weight ever since we switched from Iams to Wellness etc. But he goes outdoors every AM for 1-2 hrs. and gets great exercise. All my other kitties stay home and get too fat. I may have to invest in a lazer pointer as well.
Good luck on your endeavor to get them fit for thinner or for fatter!

 

Yes, I think depending on the breed and/or indvidual cat their sizes do seem to vary. For example, consider the Maine Coon verses the Singapura. All of mine are mixed breeds and there is definately a size difference (length, height and thickness) between them. Hoggle, Chieve and Bella are on the small side. Chieve is small and has a long, thin body and Hoggle is small but has a stockier, shorter body. Rhiannon is medium sized and Bean and Tiddy are large.

At one time they were at their ideal weights (according to my vet at least) so that is what I used to determine what they probably should be. I remember when Bean weighed 12 1/2 lbs....he is a large cat but was not fat then. I could easily feel his ribs and he did'nt have flab. When I first got Bella she was thin and looked good at 7lbs....now she has a giant belly that sticks out on the sides and some flab over her hips. I found a picture of her when I first got her and she looked like a different cat then, even her face...its so wide compared to before.

 

my otis weighed about 9 lbs. i thought that was a good size. maybe once in his early years he weighed 10 lbs.

nern...i noticed you were feeding chicken soup. i feed that to max, but the vet wants to change him to zd or duck and potato...i am thinking that the chicken soup may be too rich for his system, expecially since he has all this intestional stuff going on. i will say, though, that he gained the most weight on chicken soup...and his coat has been very shiney.

vene...why did you switch from iams? i know wellness is very good...but i have heard that iams uses animals in their testing. is that why? or just because wellness is a superior product...

 

That could be...the Chicken Soup has lots of ingredients. One with fewer ingredients might be easier on Max's tummy.
Mine gained on the "Lite" version of the Chicken Soup even though I was measuring it out. I can only blame myself though because I have been slacking on their exercise. #-o

 

Lynn I switched from dry Iams to wet Wellness and other dry premium foods because when I first joined this forum, there was great mention that Iams had fillers and meat -by- products as the main ingredients. Mary and Chessmind and others convinced me to switch. It's not because of the animal testing. I'm not a advocate of animal testing though. I once volunteered to work in a research facility that experimented on skin grafting. They would burn/boil rats and mice and research their cells. I assisted by grwing new usable cells. When they wanted me to kill the little critters either by guillotine or by snapping their necks which was more humane I told them no thanks and worked in a different field. I did not have the stomach to be a researcher. Incidentally, I was a vegetarian for 3 years until I met my husband.

 

that makes sense. i researched alot of the kitten formulas and read comparisons and reviews. i found the same thing. wellness, innova, felidae all seem to be good products. also supermix five which may be wellness if i am not mistaken.

that is a disturbing thought...burning mice/rats. i guess stuff like that has to be done for our benefit ultimately. i was semivegitarian for many years. no red meat at all for about twenty years. now... doesnt really matter. i'll eat just about anything except alot of childhood foods such as meatloaf and salmon patties :mrgreen: