My cat's fat =_="

[Panda4christ:3]

Is there some way of getting him fit? I try playing with him for exercise, but he never wants to, all he does is eat everything, sleep, and poop.
He only just turned 2 yrs. old (valentines day lol). I know this isn't good for his health, but i don't know how to get rid of it >.<

[DaughterOfZion]

The best I can say is don't let him free feed. Give him some food in the morning and night or something so you can limit how much he eats.

[TopazRaven]

That's the thing with cats sadly. It can be pretty difficult getting them to lose weight. Like DaughterOfZion said, don't leave food out. Feed your cat maybe twice a day, in the morning and at night, but don't let him eat whenever he wants. That's the first step. Then keep trying with the exercising. It could be something as simple as him chasing a toy or a laser around the house or running up and down the stairs for a little bit. If you can, make up a schedule for daily exercise. I know, easier said then done. Try to avoid giving him any high-calorie cat treats as well.

[Yuki-Anne]

LASER POINTER LASER POINTER LASER POINTER

lol, anyway, there was an old fat cat my grandma used to have and laser pointers were banned because he'd chase them, get excited, forget himself, and poop on the floor.

[K. Ayato]

Watch the YouTube video "An engineer's guide to cats" .

But yeah, our last cat got pudgy 'cause rather than feed her on a regular set basis (like with the dog), she'd have food available in her bowl and just eat and eat and eat. Later in her life, she stopped wanting to go outside and got lazy. True, cats need over half a day's worth of sleep per day, but she wasn't very active in the end.

[SierraLea]

My advice, make her scared of you. My cat takes off running whenever he sees me, and he's pretty slim. (kidding)

[Panda4christ:3]

Thanks all of you ^.^

I'll try feeding im less, and i think we do have laser pointer lying around.

Thanks so much again >.<

[ashfire]

The thing is what is your cats weight. I had a cat that my father found at the church hiding in the bushes when he was a kitten and he could sit in your hand. My father was feeding him up until it was getting cold so he caught him and brought him home and we named him Charlie. We had another cat who was queen of the house and didn't want anything to do with Charlie. Well Charlie sort of bulked up and gained some weight to fend off our other cat. After the queen cat died, he was king of the house until we took in a cat and 2 of her litters living in our yard. We had 6 cats and Charlie kept getting big because if the other cats didn't finish their food he would. He ended up weighting 28lbs. He died from a tumor on his leg because it kept him from walking and wore him down and poisoned his body system.

[Sheenar]

I went through this with my cat. I feed her twice a day --I had to fiddle with the amount to figure out what amount of kibble she needed to lose weight --and then, once she lost the weight, what amount of kibble she needed to maintain her new, ideal weight. I just used a cup measure and fiddled with amounts --coming from an Animal Science background, I could take her weight and figure out the kcal/cup she needed each day to reach/maintain a set weight--but meh --eyeballing it worked for us.

At first, I had trouble with her crying between meals because she wasn't used to the reduced kibble amount. I added green beans to her kibble ration to help her feel full --my cat is weird and LIKES green beans-but they have to be heated up a little bit in the microwave.

Here is a body condition scoring chart for cats to help you see when your cat has reached an ideal weight. You should see a tuck in the stomach (cat should have a waist) and you should be able to easily feel the ribs -but hip bones should not be protruding. A body condition score of 3 is ideal.

In addition to a laser pointer, don't forget the old flirt pole (pole with toy or feather dangling on a string) --cats LOVE those and will run around and around trying to get it. My cat goes nuts for anything with a bell or with catnip.