Maintaining a healthy cat weight is essential to avoid certain obesity related diseases such as heart conditions, diabetes, arthritis, frequent skin infections or hormonal imbalances. It is important to determine the ideal weight for your cat and maintain it through diet and workout.
Determine the Healthy Weight for Your Cat
Generally speaking, a cat is considered overweight if he has over 20% of his total body weight made up of fat. However, determining the exact fat amount your cat has is difficult, so you must look for different criteria. You should consider your cat’s sex, age, size and breed when determining the healthy weight for your cat. Females should be lighter than males.
If you take a look at your cat from sides, behind and above, you should be able to tell if your cat is obese. The back of your cat should have a natural curve and the cat should also have the hour glass look when looking from the sides. By looking from the above, the lumbar vertebrae should be visible for a normal weight cat.
Healthy Diet
A healthy diet for cats should include all the essential ingredients: protein, fat and fibers. Please note that cats don’t need carbohydrates, which may be present in most commercial food for felines.
In case your cat is overweight, you should cut down on carbohydrates and your cat will surely lose some weight.
Wet food is healthier and has fewer calories, being considered a better choice for weight management.
Talk to your vet to establish the right amount of daily calories your cat needs. If on a diet, your cat should eat fewer calories.
Also, if you neuter your cat, you should reduce the amount of food; the cat will be less active after neutering, so he will gain weight if he eats the same amount of food as before.
To avoid your cat from getting obese, you should not leave food out for your cat and allow him eat whenever he wants to have a snack. Establish when your cat should eat and feed him his daily portion.
Workout
Every cat needs to workout to maintain a healthy weight and to maintain his muscle mass.
Even if it is difficult to make your cat exercise, you should choose a few activities that will engage your cat; opt for interactive games or get a pet treadmill.
There are also other less conventional exercise options such as pet yoga.
The amount of exercise needed by your pet will be determined by his energy level and whether he needs to lose weight or only maintain his weight. A cat that needs to lose weight should exercise more, in order to burn extra calories and fat.
A daily workout will also prevent depression and insomnia.
Obesity and Health Problems
Obesity in cats is among the main reasons for the following medical conditions:
- Arthritis
- Heart disease
- Hepatic lipidosis
- Diabetes
An overweight cat will live less, so maintain a healthy weight and you will ensure your cat will be around for much longer.