Reduction of Feline BMI

Several years ago, through a series of fouled up plans, we aquired a lovely siamese-like kitten. His name is Bob. We went to a scarey apartment complex in Memphis to get him. There was a Bob Marley beach towel hanging over the window like a curtain. Much was going on there. But they were nice and the cats were sweet, so we took him. And fled.

Here he is as a lean and gorgeous teenager. Over the years, like all of us, he matured. And grew. And spread. Then, suddenly one day, he was this........

Twenty-one pounds of feline deliciousness. I decided that he really needed to be on a diet when he came and sat on my chest in bed one morning and I was nearly suffocated. Bob has a huge frame, so I was prepared to see that he was maybe 17 lbs or so, but 21? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I am not sayin that big cats aren't beautiful, but shoot, he near killed me. Plus I don't want him to end up diabetic and having to have shots and all, which is where he is headed.

Then I grabbed up little Poopie and popped her on the scale and she was tipping it at 14 lbs. Not awful, but still a bit over optimum considering she is average frame and a female.

Ok, so I go to my trusty Veterinary Information Network and start reading. It is current belief that cats don't metabolize grains very well and should be fed a species appropriate diet that is high protein, low carb, moderate fat, high MOISTURE. That means either mice or canned food. Mice are out of the question unless they can catch one in here on their own, ( which I strongly encourage should one have the guts to get in here), so we made the switch to all canned, all the time. They are in cat HEAVEN! Thankfully, they were already accustomed to having canned food from way back in the day when we had the old cats who had health issues, so the switch was no problem. Some cats get so addicted to dry that they won't readily accept any change . Until recently, "diet" dry foods were made so by the addition of loads of fiber and decreasing fat. I can't tell you how many cats I see that are fat as little pigs and are on diet food. ( sound familiar?)

So far, we have tried several brands of canned food. The experts don't recommend any particular brand, but say that in general, any canned is better than dry. Right now, they are eating Pet Promise which is sold at Petco, but I recently found ( thru a friend alert on Facebook) that all the Big Lots stores in our area had it, so I went and stocked up. So far, they are eating it very well. We have a stockpile of other brands too, and I sort of switch it up meal to meal just to make it interesting.

I am happy to report that Bob has lost about 1.5 lbs since this experiment started. Poopie has probably lost about a half pound. They are both more active and alert, and they have been tumbling around together like they did when they were kittens.

Just to make things interesting, we started our clinic cat, Smudge, on our little "Catkins" experiment too. She has been chronically overweight for years and has been on a nationally well known reducing diet. Her claim to fame was that she would tear open bags of food if she didn't have a full bowl all the time. The diet food didn't make her lose weight, but she sure was able to fill up her litter box, and she was starving all the time. So far after one week on the diet, she is faring well.

Poopie says that she would love to be the svelte kitten in this picture.....though I doubt that she would be too interested in California rolls........but then, you just never know.