Fat kitty

seaner

hi all,
my cat has a problem. She's got a really big belly - so much so that people think she's pregnant! I don't overfeed her, if anything I think i underfeed her! (well I give her food twice a day, GO CAT complete once in the morning and once in the evening).
See attached pic....and some i photoshopped just to show off how darn cute she is.








BUt anyway....does anyone have any advice for me? I've tried cutting back her food but it doesn't seem to work and I don't want to be cruel.
she's an indoor cat (got her when she was 6 mths old, and she basically went bizerk when I tried to put her outside). SO she's permanently in the house . We got her neutered about a year ago...she's about 2 and half years old.

She also doesn't like being picked up. She'll wail if I try to. SO i'll sit there and she comes over to me no problem and allows me to pet her but there's no way I can pick her up with out her cracking up. Which is weird cuz my other little kitty lets me hold her no prob.

Also i play with her regularly. She has a mouse toy thats attached to a string and she'll run after this and play with it no bother. I play with her nearly every evening. also I have a little kitty (about 10mths old) and they play together too. Sometimes they will run up and down the stairs chasing each other for like 10 mins so she seems to get a good bit of exercise.

I really wanna know how I can get her trim (like she was when we first had her) CUZ I'm afraid i'm endangering her having her with the wobbly belly. I dont want her to develop complications due to this.

SMK

I think it's something some cats develop when they've been neurtered. I read somewhere once that they develop this belly as extra padding cos they're not as aggressive when neurtered so if they get into a fight the belly protects them a bit. Don't know how true this is and I can't find the article. But if you do a Google search on "spay sway" or "spay belly" and you'll see that it's quite common.

The Artist

how about this
http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nwpimports.com/content/cat-wheels/images/cat-exercise-wheel2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nwpimports.com/content/cat-wheels/cat-wheels.htm&h=381&w=300&sz=30&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=HHEPvua6zi46WM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcat%2Bexercise%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
or for a joke
http://blogigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/cat-exercise.jpg

seaner

SMK wrote: »

Don't know how true this is and I can't find the article. But if you do a Google search on "spay sway" or "spay belly" and you'll see that it's quite common.

cool thanks. Did a bit of googling there and yeah it seems to be fairly common. I'll just keep my eye on it and make sure it stays 'smooth and floppy with no bumps'.

poor kitty though; she's been called everything from 'Fat Kitty' to 'Michelle McManus'.

And thats not nice for anyone.

hadook

Royal Canin do a food called Sterilised. I put my Horde on it because some of them were becoming obese but some of them need to eat little and often or they vomit :rolleyes: so I couldn't restrict the fat cats food.

This is Bob before I switched to the Sterilised food:



and Bob after:



She gets free access to the food all day along with the others and eats when she pleases. The weight loss was gradual over a few months and they're all now at a healthy weight. The skinnier cats all bulked up a little too strangely.

SMK

I see the diet caused Bob to turn to the drink:D

doctor evil

Could it be worms OP?

MsFifers

My male neutered cat got v. pudgy a couple of months ago, and I changed his food to Science Plan Neutered Cat formula - and he's lovely and sleek again now.

Like your kitty - he was exclusively indoors. I tried to get him walking on a leash outside - that did not go down well!

He still gets the odd treat/snack and isn't putting any extra weight back on.

Just take a look at the Go Cat nutritional breakdown - see if you can find one with lower fat levels.

seaner

thanks all.
No doctor evil i don't think its worms, least I hope not!
msFifers, i'm going to try and get this cat food you talk of, only thing is...my kitties are very fussy when it comes to food. I mean they won't eat anything other than dry food (which is great) but even if i change the flavour they (especially Tipsy, my neutered queen) is likely to get sick. She'll eat it alright, but then we'll find sick a couple of hours later!
I'll give it a try and see how we get on.

Thanks all