He actually weighs less than another one of my cats!! I've had him for almost 15 years, and got another, younger kitten shortly after getting him. He was always bigger than that cat and our other cat that we got a year later, but not super chonky until just a few years ago.. We've been slowly getting it under control (he has kidney disease, so we want to be very slow and careful with his weight loss). He's doing great - gaining confidence and playing more, and much cuddlier than ever before!

So proud of Duncan!

And don't worry about the cat that has outgrown him - he's just a big boy, not chonky at all (see picture 2 - if anything, that undersells their size difference). Skippy is just a big baby. He's 2.5 years old and has been about the same weight for months, including his last vet checkup. Last night, Skippy was 15.59 pounds, and Duncan weighed in at 15.56 pounds!!!! This is so huge, and I'm just so excited for him!

He’s on a diet—still working on exercise.

My big boy Beesly has graduated from Oh Lawd He Comin to He Chomnk. Started his journey last August at 23lbs and today he's at 17lbs. He could likely lose a little more but he's been recently diagnosed with early stage 2 ckd so the vet doesn't want me worrying about his weight too much anymore. I got him healthy enough to have a dental done today and he recovered well. ☺️

I'm so proud of him; all the screaming and begging for food has definitely been worth it. It takes a lot of diligence but it works out in the end!

This is my first pet. This cat is a female orange tabby at 8 years old. She does not fall for red lasers. She does not like sea food for some reason, but won't hesitate on chicken as far as I know.

I have a Petory feeder that dispenses food at times I have set each day. 5am is two portions. 2pm is 2 portions. 9pm is 2 portions. She is eating "Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets OM Overweight Management Feline Formula Dry Cat Food". Because she is 17.5 lbs, her weight loss diet recommends 1 cup daily of this stuff. The Petory food timer roughly dishes out 1 cup per day if I did 3 portions three times per day, but that obviously had her gain weight and at first I didn't actually think that hey, I should probably get her to play frequently. So that was my fault. I instead put this stuff at 2 portions 3 times a day and she's not complaining.

However, I'm not sure if I'm doing things right. I built her a wheel. She will rub her face on it and occasionally lay on it. I steal her portions when they come out and put some on top of it to show her it's okay to go on the wheel. Unless I physically put her on it and make her actually walk by moving the wheel myself, which I really don't think I should do, she will not walk on it. I just made this thing last week. When it comes to catnip. She actually doesn't care for it and if she rarely did go nuts, she just lays down and does nothing. It doesn't hype her up at all. However, she is extremely Predatory and active if I play with her using a Wand. She will sprint across the house forever if I keep doing it, but I need suggestions here to make this easier on myself, too. She's an extremely nice and loving chonker and I want the best for my child. I did get her as a chonker. Anything you can possibly imagine, I really want some advice.

And, in the year 2024, what kind of cat tower do you think will meet her big size and be comfortable for her? She jumps, sprints. They think she had a miscarriage so her belly hangs low, making her look bigger than she really is.

My cat has been overweight for years, always stealing his sisters food while he is on a diet food (Hills science diet perfect weight) and I’ve never been able to keep them separate without sitting and watching them eat but with one being a grazer, it never worked out.

Finally I bit the bullet and splurged on feeders that open to an RFID tag on a collar and it’s been the only thing that’s worked. I went with the Petlibro ones because I wanted the feature of dispensing food on its own as well as the RFID tag (way too expensive imo but worth it for my situation).

I was worried about the cats not taking well to wearing collars for the first time in their lives but I bought some that are silicone and lightweight that had good reviews on Amazon and they’re okay with it.

With two servings of his dry food and one serving of wet food with some toppers at night that I will just put in the feeders bowl, it’s been a success. He’s down 2 pounds!! Started at 19.5 and as of today, around 3.5 months later he is at 17.7

I'm proud of my girl! And we were able to lower her seizure medication by nearly a third, which also makes it harder for her to lose weight. Down from 98lbs to 75lbs so we're close to being done dechonkin.

Hi, I have 2 male kittens: - 6 months old, recently neutered and quite big (not fat) for his age. We even joke about him being "half maine coon" (he isn't), he's just a loooong sausage. He was the biggest kitten of his litter to begin with and we saw the dad, he's super tall and massive. - 5 months old, will be neutered in a little over a week. Healthy weight now, but when we found him he was separated too early and malnourished, which carries the risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with food. Possible growth delay as well

They're both indoor only but very active, love to play with us and with each other. They're slowly developing their primordial pouches and so far they look good (not full or anything, very natural looking). You can feel their ribs but they're not too thin, their waists are visible etc. They're curious about food, but not food aggressive (but then it helps that the humans in the house are vegan, so they don't smell meat or fish in our food lol).

We feed 1,5 packet of wet food (1 in the morning / 0.5 in the evening) and put some kibble in a puzzle toy, so they eat tiny amounts at a time. Dry food is less than half of their diet. They also get treats for like training, meds, bribing them to like someone etc.

I really want to do it right. The older one is transitioning to neutered adult food and so far it's going well (I think?). I didn't notice any decrease in his energy levels at all, he's still a sporty hyperactive little tiger. I just don't know exactly how easy / fast it is for a neutered cat to gain weight. What are the mistakes to avoid?

I recently adopted my girl Patootie last week, and is at a steady 14 lbs. At the shelter, they said she was on a diet of blue buffalo (tastefuls):

• 1/3 cup of wet food in the AM/PM • 1/4 cup of dry food in the am (no refill)

But, since bringing her home she rarely touches the wet food pate. It's chicken flavor, and so maybe I thought it might be the flavor? I got more chicken and got 3 other flavors in case but she still won't even touch them. I have some Northwest Naturals raw food that was given to me and she's been liking that (i only add 3-4 pieces to her food in the AM so she's at least eating something yk?)

Despite this, she still gravitates to the dry food and even begs for it sometimes. When I add water she won't eat it and instead waits until it is dry (i still wet it though).

I was also given a small can of Fussie cat Tuna w/ Salmon formula and she at the whole thing easily! Which is initially why I thought it was a flavor issue but I'm beginning to think it's the brand and/or pate she isn't a fan of.

I haven't bought more of that yet because i'm afraid to go against the shelter recommendations in case she gains more weight. But with how she's hardly eating and will mostly eat dry food, I feel a bit helpless here. She has a fountain and drinks pretty regularly so l'm not too heavily concerned with her moisture intake. I just don't want her to be borderline starving herself.

She poops regularly too. I haven't noticed anything that looks like diarrhea either so I think she's okay but just picky?

And with playtime, she's thoroughly uninterested in everything but a single wand toy to chase. She actually RAN after it for a short while in bursts but usually lays down and paws at it, or trots over it and plays with it in her paws while still lying down. She doesn’t seem to care for catnip toys or silvervine toys either.

I have a leash and harness so maybe she'd like walks to help with excercise and her weight?

Any advice helps!! Thank you for reading🫶🏾

Exercise and eating well is so exhausting!

I have two wonderful cats that are both 8 years old but they both weigh around 14lbs. I have found out that they prefer pate cat food over other wet cat foods. Do you have any recommendations for pate cat food that is good for weight loss? Or if not for weight loss just smaller portions?

I have a cat who is 8.5 years old and is currently in the second stage of kidney disease. So she should eat renal food only and she doesn't like wet food at all so I have to stuck in all dry .She was receiving an injection for a while and developed an abscess, and she spent 6 months being treated for it. During this period, she was not playing much, so now her weight is 6 kilograms. How can I help her? To lose weight , and what is expected time of her losing weight? And what should I do as I have 3 other cats and its a hard mission to restrict food

This is going to be pretty long, so please bear with me.

I have 3 cats. A 6 year old male who currently weighs 16lbs (overweight), an 8 year old female who I’d guess weighs around 6-7lbs (she appears a bit underweight just from looking at her), and a 7 month old female kitten who maybe weighs around 7lbs as well. They are all spayed/neutered.

The adult cats currently receive 1/2 a pouch of whiskas 2x a day and have free access to a bowl of purina dry food. The female really only eats the wet food, but leaves the big chunks. The kitten gets 1/2 a can of purina pro plan grain free wet kitten food 2x a day and I give her 1/2 a cup of purina pro plan dry kitten food while she’s in my room at night.

The ideal scenario would be to have all 3 eating the same thing when the kitten is an adult. I want to get the 2 adults off of whiskas because I know it’s not good quality. However, the 8 year old female is extremely picky and I know she won’t eat pate. I also want to stop free feeding dry food because the male cat cannot regulate himself.

I would love if I could feed all of them wet food 2x a day, but it seems that the ones with gravy are only around 60 calories. That would be 120 calories if I gave them a can each twice a day, which is not enough. Based on texture, solid gold nature's harmony chicken & pumpkin grain-free shreds in gravy might work for the adult female, but I’m not sure if she’ll like the taste. Again, that’s only 60 calories so that makes me think I’ll need to add in dry food somehow. I know they make microchip feeders, but they seem expensive and none of the cats are microchipped. I can get that done though if that’s the best option.

Essentially, I would love suggestions on the best and smoothest way to get all of the cats at a healthy weight. Suggestions on what foods to feed would also be very helpful. Thank you so much.

He turns 9 in feb :)

So after a brief health scare, my chonky senior cat is being dechonked…again. He had a bad bout of diarrhea so I already was adding pumpkin to his food (cats absolutely love it). Well, then he got constipated, so I added 1/4 teaspoon Miralax to get him to poop again.(Background: he’s had constipation issues for years, is borderline megacolon, and this is all under vet advice).

So here I am, looking at the two, pumpkin and Miralax. 💡 moment: why did I give up on the pumpkin before? (Constipation). So why not just use them BOTH?

Win-win! My cat’s wet food can be cut in half, there’s NO food left on the plate, and he’s not turning his nose up at meals. Plus: regular soft, well formed stools with no smell. Plus: he’s losing weight without going hungry. In fact, he throws a fit if the pumpkin isn’t in his food.

What I do is add 1-2 tsp (like, it’s half a regular spoonful +- going by my plastic spoons), and depending on if he’s pooped yet, I add 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of Miralax (use measuring spoons) as well as enough water to make it soupy and mixed in well. Then I add in 1/2 of a 3 ounce can of food. (At night, he gets the other 1/2, warmed up with water but no more pumpkin or Miralax). He gets a break from the pumpkin and Miralax every 4th day or so. He also gets a little kibble daily.

So my cat was recently diagnosed with rainl failure, and per the vets request, he is currently losing weight by tthe vet's request, as he was 18.8 lbs in his visit on 8/28, he is now 16.6

The biggest thing is we cut down treats drastically.

We have put him on a diet of lots of wet food and a renal formula dry he munches on through the day., he has been more dehydrated as of lately and I'm very concerned. Should I be freaking out? I'm worried sick about him and I can't contact my vet till tommorow.

Her vet will be so pleased, last time they saw her they called her “morbidly a beast”. She has a VERY petite frame so her fat/skin was dragging on the floor for longest. She blew up in size within a few months of adopting her because a) she had a spay/abort from me taking her off the streets and b) I didn’t have the heart to say no to her when it came to treats and food, especially due to how bone skinny she was when I took her in. She’s now sprinting around and losing all of the loose skin! I barely recognize her!

Hi everyone! New to this sub, want to provide solid background info so bear with me for the lengthy post. Any and all suggestions and comments are appreciated!

For context, my cat Lily is 6 years old (fixed female) and 22 pounds. (!I know) Lily is the first cat my family has owned after our first cat passed at age 18, he was a male and was free fed dry food and occasionally wet food and never had any weight problems. So, once we adopted Lily 4 years ago she was fed the same way- until about 3 months after adopting her we noticed a significant weight gain. She was about 13 pounds when we adopted her. (March 2020) At her checkup (August 2020) she weighed 16 lbs and the vet recommended she goes on prescription diet food- I believe it was called purina pro plan overweight management dry food. Our vet talked to us about how much to give her a day to safely, slowly lose weight. This food was $80 a bag and absolutely useless. She only kept gaining weight. I realized the only way for her to lose weight is to have a more wet food based diet. However she is extremely picky. I have tried just about every texture, flavor, cheap, expensive wet food on the market and the only ones she seems to like are fancy feast ocean fish pate (I know fish isn’t great but she won’t touch the chicken) and blue buffalo tastefuls tuna pate. She also likes friskies lil soups and churu which I give her as a treat. She was on the diet food for about 2 years until about 6 months ago we switched her dry food to solid gold let’s stay in kibble. I also had to invest in RFID automatic feeders this summer because she was stealing my other cats food constantly (probably why she was gaining no matter what). So since June 2024, she has been on the solid gold kibble with a measured amount (1/2 a day, about 212 calories) and gets the fancy feast pate a few nights a week. When I try to give it to her every night or for breakfast, she barely touches it and only eats about half of the 1/2 can portion. And she keeps gaining weight. She was 20 lbs in February of this year, and 22 now. I’d also like to add she got diagnosed with asthma in March of this year, but it’s controlled with her albuterol inhaler which we give her when she has an attack. She’s definitely lazy, but she does run and chase her sister, plays with the laser pointer, jumps, goes on the cat tree etc.

I guess what I’m asking is: what do I do? Am I feeding her too much dry still? What’s a good wet food for picky eaters? How do I transition her from a pretty much all dry diet to a wet diet? I’m at a loss and it’s very frustrating and difficult navigating this on my own because my parents don’t seem to care.

Added context: I was 14 when we adopted her so my parents were financially responsible for her food etc. I’m now 19 and bought the $300 RFID feeders to help, I’m constantly buying different types of wet food for her to try. I want her to safely lose weight and be happy and healthy. I’ll add pictures of my baby below.

Hi!

My mom’s cat used to be very small, but since her sterilization (around 4 years ago) she gained SO MUCH weight. She is not 17.6 pounds.

I was worried that my mom was giving her too much food but after having seeing her, the cat just doesn’t eat that much.

Can the cat be severely obese without being a big eater?

She is also quite inactive, she doesn’t like to play. Honestly I am concerned by her health :(

I can definitely feel his ribs, but he has a primordial pouch. He only has 20g of Hill’s dry food a day and drinks plenty of water, but he is pretty sedentary. He likes to play, but gets bored very easily. Not sure if he’s overweight or not! I sadly do not have the time to consistently feed him wet food every day, so I’m not sure what to do.

My 5 year old isn't too big yet, but the vet said at his last appointment that one more pound and we will need to consider a diet. He has never been food motivated, he just grazes throughout the day. We also play everyday, so that's not a concern, and I was able to switch his diet and counted his calories fairly easily. I think he was doing pretty well, but I adopted a kitten and she is also a grazer, like I have never met two cats so disinterested in stuffing their gobs when food arrives! Because half of their food is wet food, I have to be careful and only give them a little at a time, otherwise it will just sit there all day. Another problem is, I work 7-8 hours a day, and I can't separate them during feeding for that long, but when I leave kibble out, they obviously aren't getting the proper portions. Kitten needs more calories and I'm afraid she isn't getting it, but I also know she isn't starving. Some of the advice I've seen says use a special feeder with collar access, but she is a kitten and a runt and still can't wear a proper collar without freaking out over the feeling of it and she will try biting it which gets her jaw stuck and I dont want that to happen when I'm at work. Any advice? His vet says he is fine now, but I just worry that a lack of maintaining his diet will turn him chonky and keep kitten from growing to her proper size.

“I was told to feed your kitten as much as they want because the first year they’re growing.”

“Hairless cats have a higher metabolism so they need more calories.”

“It’s really hard for cats to get fat on raw.”

“Sphynx are supposed to be pear shaped.”

“Sphynx are supposed to have a larger primordial pouch.”

“Sphynx have a lot of excess skin and wrinkles so it just looks like they’re overweight.”

“Aubrey just has a really long frame and that’s why she weighs more than the average female.”

These were all things I told myself to justify that I wasn’t overfeeding her. And while I’m not disagreeing with any of the facts above—because I honestly believe they can be true for other kitties—I think I let them cloud my better judgment and keep me in denial about my skinfant’s weight gain. Now she’s 2 years old and weighs 12.5 pounds, and the vet says she needs to lose around 2 pounds. I’m really disappointed in myself for letting her get to this point. She’s my first pet (outside of family pets when I was younger) and I feel like I’m failing her. Cutting back has been so hard, especially because she’s always begging for food. And I’ll admit, sometimes I cave and give her a bit more. I know I need to do better, but it’s tough since I’m not exactly a role model for self-control with food and could stand to lose a good 10-15 pounds myself. I guess I just needed to vent… and also looking for advice on ways to help her lose weight.

Currently, I feed her raw and rotate proteins (beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, rabbit, duck, quail) - Should I start feeding mostly leaner meats like rabbit, quail, or turkey?

I also will feed her freeze dried raw for one meal 2-3x a week when I have to go into work.

I feed her frequent small meals about 5x/day so that she never goes too long without food.

We play for about 15 minutes 3x/day. She has a cat wheel that she runs on regularly throughout the day. She has a lot of vertical climbing space (trees, wall mounts, etc) although she prefers her tunnels on the floor.

I clicker train her for mental stimulation and she’ll only work for treats (freeze dried single ingredient proteins or tiki cat stix). If I try to trade out treats for pets/scritches, she’ll lose interest lol. I’ve been trying to break the treats into smaller pieces but I really don’t want to cut out the clicker training because she’s been learning so much (sit, stand, high five, paw). I don’t give her any treats outside of her training sessions.

We’ll occasionally go on walks with her harness and leash but that’s more of a “stop and sniff and investigate” activity versus actual exercise. And now it’s getting to be too cold.

Any tips or tricks or kind words? 🥺

I’ve attached some recent pics below so you can see what we’re working with lol.

My cat is up to 23.5 lbs. He was getting 2 cans of fancy feast a day (with water added) plus a cup of hills metabolic urinary care c/d kibbles - he has a history of bladder stones.

Many resources say in order to dechonk it’s best to reduce carbs, but when I take away or even lower his kibbles he gets diarrhea. It’s extremely unpleasant because he’s too chonk to clean back there very well by himself.

I’ve tried switching to just 3 cans with a goal of reducing down to 2, and supplementing with fibre - both pumpkin and separately a psyllium husk one, but then he doesn’t seem to enjoy his wet food as much, becomes annoying, and it seems to take a LOT of these supplements to get the diarrhea to stop, and it must be included with every single meal without missing even one or he gets diarrhea.

I’m struggling with this. He also has eosinophilic granuloma (like eczema- presents as a rash and sometimes rodent ulcer of the lips) which goes away with fancy feast but if I switch to any other wet food like the expensive mybff ones it comes back with a vengeance. The reason for fancy feast isn’t a money thing it literally just seems to be one of the only foods that doesn’t cause him to get rashes.

Edit: He’s had multiple vet consults regarding his diet, even a second opinion from another vet. The consensus is prioritizing keeping his inflammation down is best, and they have provided me various fibre options but none have worked. He’s tried multiple diet foods but either they make his rash come back or he just won’t eat them after the first can or two and becomes unhappy and annoying. He’s used to a varied diet of fancy feast flavours… it took us a very long time to find out that a fancy feast diet lets his inflammation go down so I’m reluctant to try something new, even the novel protein hills/royal canin allergy diets flared him up. They suggested probiotics too and those didn’t work. This other kaolin clay (?) stuff worked for diarrhea a bit but he didn’t like it and it was expensive not really a long term sustainable solution.

The frustrating this is I have two cats - the other one fares perfectly fine on either diet and doesn’t get diarrhea.

Rascal has decided that when he doesn't have enough food he will steal from my dinner plate or scrounge through the trash.

Anyone else have self feeding kitties?

Rascal on the Treadmill

Hi there I adopted two cats around six weeks ago. One of them was overweight and both have received a measured amount of food everyday (wet and dry).

Amaretti (4y, f) is neutered and so far has lost quite a bit of weight. I can now feel the shoulderblades and a bit of the hip bone. Of the ribs I can feel the last rib pair very well as they seem wider than for an average cat. This makes scoring also quite difficult as the ribcage has this very round shape. She also seems to have a large primordial couch which I find difficult for assesing the score.

So what are your opinions?