Cat Obesity, Don't Have A Fat Cat

Cats are fun pets to have. They can be very affectionate and at the same time they are also very independent and fairly low maintenance when it comes to making sure they are healthy. The one thing that you need to keep a constant watch over is how much your cat eats every day. Cats are creatures that will eat as much as you let them so cat obesity can be a real problem. While they might be finicky about the type of food they are being fed, they don’t do much to keep track of the amount that they are eating. And because pet lovers love to spoil their pets with an abundance of food (making sure that dish is never empty), feline obesity has become a major problem. One of the reasons that feline obesity is so problematic is that it predisposes cats to diabetes, arthritis and even hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver). Of course there are several ways to monitor your cat’s weight and keep them in shape (which will stave off cat obesity).

You should switch from a “free choice” meal plan to a “meal time” plan. Cats are normally able to eat any time they choose, as the owners just keep filling their dishes up. If you change this regime and feed your cat at set meal times and with smaller amounts of food this will certainly help the cat to stay in shape. After all, the recommended daily quantity of food for a cat is only one ounce, not the cupful we give them every time they look at us with those feed me eyes.

Another dietary measure to cat obesity is to feed them a meat-based diet. Cats can’t digest carbohydrates (which are overly present in the preservative filled dry cat food they are often fed). When buying your cat’s food, look at the ingredients. Any food that is higher in sugar and flour than it is in protein and fat should be passed over in favor of a food with the opposite ratio.

To stop cat obesity feed two to four small portions daily and control the amounts fed so that over a period of time the cat does not gain weight. Many pet owners must downsize what they think is a “normal” portion. A meal for a 175-pound human might weigh 16 to 24 ounces. A seven-pound cat weighs 1/25 of the 175-pound human. So a cat’s meal should proportionally be about 1/25 of a human meal. That comes out to between 0.6 and 1.0 ounce of food per meal for a seven-pound cat… about the same weight as a mouse. Cat owners must stop thinking in terms of “cups of food” and start thinking in terms of ounces of food.

Cats like to sleep all day and most people are content to let them do it. But this dearth of activity is one of the major factors in cat obesity. A better way to approach those daytime hours is to play with your cat! Get a few inexpensive cat toys for them to play with, or get down on the floor and play with them. If you aren’t up to running around with your pet, a laser pointer makes a great substitute. You can sit still and they can chase the light from the pointer (just make sure you never shine the pointer into the cat’s eyes). Cat furniture that promotes activities like cat trees can help.

You obviously love your pet or you wouldn’t have one and it is probably hard to realize that by allowing cats to be so independent you are probably doing more harm than good. The good news is that with a little bit of effort and a small change of habit, your cat health will be great for a long long time and you can your cat from a life of obesity.

Article Source: http://www.articles.ask-me-about.com

David Lee is an expert in cat care. For more information about cat health see his site on cat kidney disease , nutrition in cat food and to help your cat get around pet steps.