How to Keep Your Cat at a Healthy Weight: Expert Tips & Guidance

“Madam, your cat is overweight.” You will not believe how shocked I was when Dr Kings told me that. I never thought a cat could be overweight. I felt it was only the problem of humans.

After my Vet took some time to explain the dangers of my cat being overweight, I decided it was time I started watching my cat’s weight (LOL). Who would have thought?

If you are a cat owner, you should help your cat maintain an ideal weight. The truth is, an ideal weight means a healthy feline companion.

As you read this article, you will learn what an ideal cat weight is, how to help your cat attain it, and more.

Let’s dive right in!

What Is The Ideal Cat Weight?

The ideal cat weight is the weight at which your cat is the healthiest. I know you want me to say a distinct weight and declare it as ideal for cats. Sorry, that’s not how it works here.

Because there are different breeds of cats, there is no ideal weight for all cats. Also, factors like age and gender can influence what the ideal weight for a cat would be.

It then means that there is no ideal weight for all cats. However, there is a way to know if your cat has an ideal weight. You will use your eyes and your hands.

This is how to check:

• Rub your hands around the sides, can you feel her ribs?
• Look at your cat from the top, does she have a clear waistline? That hourglass figure?
• Lastly, look at her sides, is there a visible tummy tuck? Are her ribs hidden?

A ‘yes’ to these questions shows that your cat has an ideal or healthy weight. And ‘no’ to any of the questions is an indication that you should do something about the weight of your cat (more on that later).

You can also consult your vet to know if your cat has an ideal weight or not.

Factors That Influence Your Cat’s Weight

As we saw earlier, there are different factors that can affect the weight of your cat. These factors are:

Age – cats tend to put on weight as they grow older.

Gender – males are more likely to attain higher weight peaks than females.

Breed – For the purebreds (Siamese, Persian, Himalayan, and Maine Coon), the weight peaks are usually between 6 and 10 years of age.

State Of Reproductive Organ – neutered cats are usually heavier than unaltered cats.

Food quality and quantity – cats that feed more on carbs or eat more food than required will likely become overweight.

Boredom – little or no activity in cats also results in undesired weight gain.

Next, we will see how you can identify if your cat’s weight is ideal or not.

Read on!

Where Does Your Cat Fall? Thin, Underweight, Ideal, Overweight, Or Obese?

In this section, I described the characteristics of thin, underweight, ideal, overweight, and obese cats.

Thin Cat

Visible skeletal structure.

Ribs, vertebrae, and pelvic bones can be felt.

Thin neck.

Narrow waist

Concave abdomen

No obvious fat

Dull fur

Unhealthy look

Underweight Cat

Not very visible ribs

Ribs can be felt

The backbone may be seen and felt

Clearly defined waist

Concave abdomen

Little body fat

Worms’ infestation

Ideal Weight Cat

Ribs are not visible but can be felt

Waist can be seen from the top

The abdomen is slightly concave, creating a smooth curve from the chest.

Healthy appearance

Has the potential to live longer

Overweight Cat

Ribs can be felt, and have an evident layer of fat

Slightly globular abdomen

Folds on the flanks jiggle when the cat walks

Obese Cat

Ribs cannot be felt easily

Fat on the sides is easy to feel.

Rounded abdomen

Flank folds are protrusive, and ripple when the cat moves.

Unwillingness to play and recce.

So, where does your cat fall?

In the next section, you will see why your cat should have an ideal weight.

Keep reading!

Why Is It Important For Your Cat To Have An Ideal Weight?

If you can remember clearly, I mentioned earlier that an ideal weight means a healthy cat. You will understand as we proceed.

Like humans, being underweight or overweight can pose problems for cats. For example, an overweight cat is at risk of:

• Diabetes mellitus
• Urinary problems
• Heart disease
• Joint pain
• Breathing difficulties

The risk increases when the cat is obese. Therefore, a healthy weight will reduce the risk of these medical problems for your cat.

Again, cats are usually very agile but when they become obese, they cannot move as much. This makes them sad and apprehensive. Invariably, their owners will be affected emotionally as well.

Another good reason why you should help your cat maintain an ideal weight is because of the financial implication of your cat’s health. When your cat incurs health problems from weight gain, you will spend a lot of money trying to manage the situation.

Additionally, when your cat cannot breathe or move much due to obesity or being overweight, it creates a lot of discomfort for you both. And I am sure you don’t want that to happen.

So, you want to be careful to monitor what your pet eats. That way, you can help her maintain an ideal weight while avoiding all these negative outcomes.

In the next section, you will learn more about how to help your cat maintain an ideal weight.

Read on!

How You Can Help Your Cat Attain An Ideal Weight

We have established that maintaining an ideal weight is one sure way your cat can be healthy.  There are different approaches you can take to help your cat achieve this. They are:

1. Alter dry food with wet (canned) food

Wet food has 2 advantages over dry food. The first one is that it will help you regulate the quantity of food your cat eats and at what time.

Since it is wet food (or canned), you will only feed your pet a portion and store the rest in the refrigerator. Unlike dry food, which you can pour large quantities into your cat’s food bowl and set it for the whole day. This is an easy way for your cat to eat more than is required. Worse still, she might even ear all at once.

Secondly, wet food is rich in animal protein which is a healthy option for your cat. Dry food is more of a plant matter and full of carbohydrates. Your cat is a carnivore so canned food offers more natural food. Plus, carbohydrates lead to weight gain more than protein.

You can read our article on the 17 Best Wet Cat Food to learn more.

2. Reduce Treats

If you are used to giving your cat treats now and then, you may want to cut that down. Cheesy bits, spoons of milk, chewy bars, fried meat bits, all contribute to the total amount of calories your cat consumes in a day. Oftentimes, you get carried away and give her more than is appropriate. It only leads to weight gain in the long run.

Instead of treats, you can reward your cat with playtime with you.

3. Increase Activity

By intentionally increasing your cat’s activities, you will help her shed some unneeded weight. Here are a few trips you can try:

• Use food puzzles – get your cat to roll or jump or climb to access treats or food. Another option is to hide your cat’s food in the chambers of a wine box or one or more small holes in a plastic bottle. You can also use a clean muffin. This will slow down your cat’s eating. It will also stir up her instincts to hunt and forage.
• Add to your playtime – playing with your cat encourages movement in your cat, which is needed to burn calories.  Just like we saw earlier, you can reward your cat’s good behaviour with more playtime.
• Exercise your cat – in addition to more playtime, you should engage your cat in fat burning exercises. For example, when you are going for a walk, take your cat.

Other ideas are:

• Using toys like a feather wand to encourage movement.
• Stimulating your cat into different zoomies with catnip or silver vine
• Placing your cat’s food and water on a floor different from the litter box.
• Acquire another cat so that they will chase each other around the house

You can also watch this video to learn more exercises for your cat to help her attain a healthy weight.

4. Place Your Cat On A Diet

This is another way to help your cat maintain an ideal or healthy weight. It involves making some adjustments to your cat’s diet.

You can start by replacing all-day grazing on kibble with defined meals. If your cat is heavier, switch to canned diet food or a special prescription diet that contains more protein, vitamins, and minerals per calorie.

Note: You should take your cat for a physical exam before placing her on a diet. The essence is to be sure that there is no underlying medical problem.

While placing your cat on a diet, you are not permitted to starve your cat. When your cat does not eat for 2 days, she can go into liver failure. I’m pretty sure that’s not the plan.

5. Serve Little Portions

The idea here is to feed your cat for what she should weigh, and not her present weight. Look out for pet food packages that include charts for how much to feed your cat daily. You can also reduce the amount of kibble you feed your cat by at least 30%.

6. Choose Lower-Calorie Food

This is a very relevant approach. You want to feed your cat with lower-calorie cat foods to help her maintain an ideal weight. You can ask your Vet for lower-calorie cat food suggestions.

Again, be careful not to feed your adult cat with kitten food, as it has more calories.

7. Invest In An Automatic Feeder

Using an automatic cat feeder will help you schedule smaller meals for a day. It also deals with the urge to keep filling up the bowl.

Thus you don’t have to free-feed your cat or give her the daily portion of food all at once.

Get more info on the automatic cat feeder here.

Take Away

It is good that you want to take steps to help your cat maintain an ideal weight. However, you should alert your Vet if you notice any unusual changes in your cat.

Changes like sudden weight loss or gain; digestive problems like diarrhoea; alterations in skin/coat quality, or differences in behaviour.

Furthermore, you have to be patient with your cat. Losing weight takes time. Be sure you are applying the right approaches and give your cat some time.

Summary

In this article, you learned that maintaining an ideal weight means a healthy and happy cat. Therefore, it is important to watch your cat’s weight. Also, let your Vet know when you observe any sudden changes in her eating habits/ general behaviour.

Now we want to hear from you:

Did you know before now that a cat can be obese?

Where does your cat fall? Underweight or overweight?

Do you have better ideas on how to help cats lose weight?

Please share your thoughts in the comments sections right now. Also, share this article with other cat owners. Thank you!