Hi, All!

In my fifty-plus years I've always had at least one or two cats as pets. None of them have every been fat. However, I have friends who have cats that are absolutely humongous!

Questions:

Why let a cat get to be that fat?

How to keep them from getting that fat?

Is it some glandular thing that they might become that fat?

Thanks!

Cats are usually fat just plain outright from being over-fed, or from less than par food.

People over-feed their pets all the time. This is for a couple of reasons. One is simply that they're actually following the feeding instructions on the food, which is always way too much. I'm not sure who the heck came up with that, but I feed by calories, it works, and it's always less than what the product says to feed. (Like up to twice what I actually feed!)

Then there's giving into begging. While some people think that is some kind of love, it is very harmful to the pet. It's called tough love. You don't just let your kids have ice cream all day long. Same goes for a pet. Begging will just increase when it's given in to, and tossing table scraps just makes it worse. (Human grade meat is actually good, to an extent, but given from a table or plate is not a good idea.)

But it can also be caused by less than grand food and the owner doesn't always know what to do about it. I'm very familiar with that one cause I went through that. I tried to solve it with low fat food and now know that's the worse thing I could have done.

Dry food contributes towards fat cats. It's all the carbs. Cats need protein, and they utilize protein very well for their energy. They can use a small amount of carbs, but they don't need much. They don't process the extra very well and it just ends up as fat. Low fat foods simply reduce what they should be having (meat/protein) and increase more of what is causing the problem (more carbs/plants). Indoor formulas just increase the carb/plant as well. I hear arguments that they need to have plant stuff -- well, yeah, but the dry food already has 10 times more than it needs, so they don't need even more.

The best solution to many, many cat problems including overweight, is a good quality canned food. The cat might need 2-3 of the small cans a day, an average cat more around 2.5 cans. (That's definitely working with averages since foods vary in calories, cats vary in size and activity level, etc.) You just have to try something, see if the cat is gaining or losing, and adjust from there.

This is not to say that every cat eating a less than optimal food is going to get fat. Most of mine never got fat either, but when I had one who did, going to all canned and monitoring intake would have been the way to solve it. Instead I ended up with a fat cat who got diabetes. (Which is how I became a cat food fanatic.)

But people who let their cats get that fat may not listen real well. It's hard to get people away from the dry sawdust food cause there's so little real education out there, including the vets.

So, are you not a proponent for using dry food, morgaine300?

it's also possible the cats are genetically predisposed to being overweight. I don't know if it would be glandular or hormonal or what.

I've known some cats, that were just fat. They'd always been fat. Some of them, were allowed outside and would hunt. Others were just big. They were usually older cats, though. It seems that cats, just like humans, can hit a middle-aged spread where they gain a few pounds around the middle.

most cats I've known, also put on a little weight after being fixed. Not enough to call them fat, just enough to make them more round than lean.

I know a lot of people that overfeed simply because they don't bother measuring. They get a food dish, and they fill it full of food once or twice a day. They don't pay attention to how much food is actually going into the dish.

my cat eats out of a little dessert saucer thing I got out of my cupboard. It doesn't hold very much food. I usually fill it in the morning, and again before I go to bed. Right now, I'm not really trying to control portions. She's pregnant, and I want to make sure she gets the feed she needs.

I'll probably never bother getting her a real food dish. She's a little cat, she only needs a little dish. The dishes they sell in the stores all tend to be a bit big. I'll probably eventually get her a water dish, though. I kind of want my cereal bowl back ^_^

No, Clough, I'm not a proponent of dry food. I've been hanging around various cat groups (for sick cats) since around 2001, and it just seems to be the culprit of so many things. Plus once I started researching feline nutrition, it just made sense that most dry foods are terrible nutritionally. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat. Dry foods just don't have enough meat (if any really) and are full of stuff that they don't do too well with. The last time I looked at a bag of Friskies I about puked -- there's nothing cat-like about it.

In terms of carbs, there are just a minor few that are not as bad. (Innova EVO for one.) And there are canned foods which are high carb. (Hills prescription being the worst, sadly, followed next by Hills Science Diet, followed next by most things that are pieces, though not all.) High carb not only can make them fat, but it causes diabetes.

But dry is also dry. People are supposed to be drinking water, which most people don't get enough of. Cats are the same, but cats don't have a natural thirst drive and don't drink enough when on dry food. They get their moisture with their prey. So they're basically dehydrated. Leads to urinary tract problems (they don't get flushed well enough), and some of us believe, eventually to kidney problems.

99.9% of dry food is bad on both counts: it's dry of course, and most is high carb.

I don't have any issue with them getting just a tiny bit of dry, just like the kids can have ice cream occasionally. Well, the cats can have ice cream occasionally too. :p

Hheath, in all the research I've done, I've never seen anything about genetics making a cat fat. (Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I've never seen it.) Some are more likely to be prone to problems, but those are probably the ones you have to watch it with more. Some breeds are prone to different things, but I don't think genetics by itself is going to cause a cat to be fat. Maybe that cat just needs to eat less or get more exercise.

Speaking of exercise, some cats can't lose weight on just lower calories cause they lose muscle mass, so they have to exercise. Older cats can gain weight due to becoming more sedate. They don't necessarily need a "senior" food. (And they certainly don't need it at 7 years old. Some day I'm going to find a video camera and get movies of my 9 year old going wild over his mouse, just to prove that a 9 year old isn't "old" and isn't ready to die by one account I just heard.) Er, sidetrack... it's theorized that older cats may in fact need higher levels of protein, the exact opposite of what senior foods are. (I'm not sure of that - it's been theorized.)

Cats can get a bit of a pooch on their belly. That isn't necessarily fat. But they should have a bit of a waist and definitely not rounded, or even totally straight.

As for cat dishes, those are for our convenience. The cats don't care. ;) I use regular bowls when I've gotten lazy and haven't washed the cat bowls. And the one cat always grabs a bit and puts it on the floor to eat anyway. .

But yes, many people do just fill them and let the cats eat whatever they want. Many maintain their weight OK that way, but some don't. That's also how they learn to nibble off and on all day, which is not natural to them. It also gives them an expectation that they get whatever they want whenever they want it. Though that's still not always true. The 9 year old got dry like that when he was younger, and he'd eat right after I went to bed, right after I got up (after saying good night and good morning to me), and once during the day. He did not nibble all day. He also drinks more than most cats. And he's a klutz instead of graceful. He's afraid of heighths. I think actually that he's not really a cat...

Oh well, a little cheesecake never hurt anyone. :-)

it's really hard to say what is and is not genetic with cats. There's been almost no research into the matter. There's been more research into dog genetics, which isn't saying much.

I figure that cats, like humans, are probably just as likely to have a genetic predisposition to be overweight as anything else. They haven't even been able narrow down the gene, or group of genes, in humans. I know there's not an exact parallel between feline and human genetics, but a lot of the general basics are the same. There's a strongly likelihood of several illnesses if one or both of the parents had them, so why not feline obesity?

I see nothing wrong with letting a cat 'graze' if it wants to. Most cats I've known, will do most of their eating right after the dish is filled and then eat in spurts for the rest of the day. My kitty prefers to eat when I'm in the room. The first thing she does when I get home is greet me and wait for me to walk into the kitchen so she can show me that she knows how to eat ^_^

I almost always make sure the bowl is completely empty before refilling it. The only exception is when I'm expecting to be gone for several hours and her bowl is almost empty. When that happens, I just top it off and make sure she empties it before I refill it that night.

out of curiosity: do you have any idea why dry cat food always has pieces shaped like an 'X?' it doesn't matter the brand or flavor or whatever. They just always have those pieces. Dog food has pieces shaped like bones. Is it just so you can tell the difference between cat food and dog food on sight?

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it's really hard to say what is and is not genetic with cats. There's been almost no research into the matter. There's been more research into dog genetics, which isn't saying much.

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Well, I'll agree that there's been more studies done on dogs than cats, a gripe of mine. Cat studies have only started fairly recently and cats for too long have been treated like small dogs when they are not.

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i figure that cats, like humans, are probably just as likely to have a genetic predisposition to be overweight as anything else. They haven't even been able narrow down the gene, or group of genes, in humans. I know there's not an exact parallel between feline and human genetics, but a lot of the general basics are the same. There's a strongly likelihood of several illnesses if one or both of the parents had them, so why not feline obesity?

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I can only repeat that in the research I've done, I've never seen such a thing. Not seeing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. However, I've also seen doing it with food work too many times, and that includes some research vets who go through tons of cats-- I'm talking about vets either doing nutrition research, or specific-disease research (such as diabetes), and they solve these problems with food. I'm not a geneticist (or whatever the word is), so I can't give any better answer than that. I can't say it doesn't exist, just that I've not heard of it. Again, I'm sure some are more prone, but that means sticking to the plan better.

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i see nothing wrong with letting a cat 'graze' if it wants to.

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I don't know that there's anything wrong with a cat eating that way in and of itself. I think the problem comes in the other stuff that happens because of the grazing. If that makes any sense. A cat who is not overweight, is not prone to being overweight, and is eating a good food -- might not be a problem. But it can lead towards cats overeating and expecting food any time they like. And... fast-forwarding... sometimes when people try to switch their cats over to canned, that nibbling habit gets in the way. It can also cause issues in a multi-cat household. If I did nothing but leave dry out, I know who would eat it all.

Dumping food and letting the cat eat when they want is nothing but a convenience. And trust me, I understand. Feeding meals is rather a hassle and sometimes I'd just rather not. (I just fed a meal in the middle of writing this - it's an inconvenience, yes.)

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out of curiosity: do you have any idea why dry cat food always has pieces shaped like an 'X?' it doesn't matter the brand or flavor or whatever. They just always have those pieces. Dog food has pieces shaped like bones. Is it just so you can tell the difference between cat food and dog food on sight?

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Most of any dry food I ever get isn't shaped like that. So obviously not all of it is, and obviously it's not to tell the difference between dog and cat food. Most of anything I get (which is a pretty small variety) is little disks or mound sorts of things. I think the only thing I've gotten that's an X is... um, is it byNature? Apparently it is a choice of the manufacturer and nothing more. Maybe they think people expect an X, who knows.

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Originally Posted by morgaine300

I don't know that there's anything wrong with a cat eating that way in and of itself. I think the problem comes in the other stuff that happens because of the grazing. If that makes any sense. A cat who is not overweight, is not prone to being overweight, and is eating a good food -- might not be a problem. But it can lead towards cats overeating and expecting food any time they like. And... fast-forwarding... sometimes when people try to switch their cats over to canned, that nibbling habit gets in the way. It can also cause issues in a multi-cat household. If I did nothing but leave dry out, I know who would eat it all.

Dumping food and letting the cat eat when they want is nothing but a convenience. And trust me, I understand. Feeding meals is rather a hassle and sometimes I'd just rather not. (I just fed a meal in the middle of writing this - it's an inconvenience, yes.)

Most of any dry food I ever get isn't shaped like that. So obviously not all of it is, and obviously it's not to tell the difference between dog and cat food. Most of anything I get (which is a pretty small variety) is little disks or mound sorts of things. I think the only thing I've gotten that's an X is... um, is it byNature? Apparently it is a choice of the manufacturer and nothing more. Maybe they think people expect an X, who knows.

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that makes sense. I wouldn't want a wet food lying around for several hours while the cat just nibbled off it until it got gross and hard and they refused to eat anymore.

my cat eats dry food. However, once she (finally) gives birth, I'm going to be giving her canned food once a day until the kittens are weaned. Hopefully, she'll be willing to eat it right after I put it out. I don't think it'll be a problem, though, since at that point wet food will be a treat for her.

I was just wondering about the shapes in cat food. I recently switched brands, and both brands have the little x's in them, as do several other brands I'm familiar with. It was just one of those 'huh, I wonder why that is... ' questions I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Okay. Dry food, wet food...

I've only occasionally given my cats wet food. It's usually when I've run out of the dry stuff.

Present cat is about 17 years old. You wouldn't know that he was that old by looking at him. Seems to thrive pretty well on the cheap dry stuff that has a lot of corn in it.

Just some additional thoughts here...

I've known a cat that was 21 years old and did just fine on dry food. He was just starting to get a little white around the muzzle, and he had arthritis in his hind legs which made it harder for him to jump.

He was overweight, but it didn't impact his health. He could still move faster than any cat his size should have been able to. He had been a stray before he found a home, and was big then. He was more doglike than catlike, and went outside instead of in the litter box.

Sometimes, when he was outside, he'd hunt. He would also occasionally eat roadkill, which made his breathe smell HORRIBLE! There was really no way to ration his food intake, but he was just fat and happy.

When I lived on a small farm, I had a cat that used to be a female. She would sit in the same spot for hours waiting for prey to catch and kill. She would actually eat whole rabbits! Don't know how she did that. Wouldn't eat the entrails or legs, though. Picky eater... She was small.

Usually left me the remains on my back porch! :eek:

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originally posted by hheath541
I read the phrase 'used to be a female' and wondered when she became male ^_^

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lol! :D

Only one comment: some people smoke their whole lives and never get cancer or even seem to have other problems.. Doesn't mean it's OK to smoke.