How can you tell if a long-haired cat is getting fat?
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 5:00 pm
I have 2 cats: Rocky, my 7-year-old moggie, somewhat overweight at 5.7 kg. Ria, my 8-month-old Norwegian Forest Cat, technically still a kitten, but already as tall and long as Rocky, although slimmer at 4.5kg. She's going to be a big cat; her mother wasn't huge, but the photos I've seen of her father show him as very big.
Each cat gets 2 pouches of wet food, and "some" dry food per day, split into 3 meals. Back in December, I started weighing the dry food, giving Rocky 30 grams and Ria 50 grams per day. Rocky has gained weight slightly on that, so I'll need to cut it back a little. (They have microchip-coded feeders, so neither can steal the other's food.)
But I'm not sure I'm managing Ria's diet properly. Obviously I don't want to underfeed a growing youngster, but equally I don't want her to get overweight, and then have to struggle to get it off again. Over the last 6 weeks since I started weighing food and cats, she has gained 0.9kg. She used to be a picky eater, but lately she has been hoovering up her food and would obviously like more. But she's so fluffy, it's hard to see if she's developing a belly.
If I put my hands either side of Ria's chest, and stroke back along her body, she goes in a very little behind the ribs, and out again at the hips. (Rocky doesn't go in at all!) I'm trying to estimate the "waist measurement" of both cats. Neither will keep still for a tape measure, so I put my hands round the middle, touch my fingers together underneath, and gauge by how much my thumbs fail to meet at the top. On that approximation, Rocky is 21 inches at the waist, Ria is 17.
My feeling is that Ria is beginning to accumulate a bit of fat (she was a skinny little scrap when I first got her, 1.4kg at 3 months and not much interested in food). On that basis, I shouldn't increase her food any, and maybe even cut back slightly. I suppose I'd just like some reassurance that, despite her increased appetite, she doesn't need any more food than I'm giving her.
Mary
Each cat gets 2 pouches of wet food, and "some" dry food per day, split into 3 meals. Back in December, I started weighing the dry food, giving Rocky 30 grams and Ria 50 grams per day. Rocky has gained weight slightly on that, so I'll need to cut it back a little. (They have microchip-coded feeders, so neither can steal the other's food.)
But I'm not sure I'm managing Ria's diet properly. Obviously I don't want to underfeed a growing youngster, but equally I don't want her to get overweight, and then have to struggle to get it off again. Over the last 6 weeks since I started weighing food and cats, she has gained 0.9kg. She used to be a picky eater, but lately she has been hoovering up her food and would obviously like more. But she's so fluffy, it's hard to see if she's developing a belly.
If I put my hands either side of Ria's chest, and stroke back along her body, she goes in a very little behind the ribs, and out again at the hips. (Rocky doesn't go in at all!) I'm trying to estimate the "waist measurement" of both cats. Neither will keep still for a tape measure, so I put my hands round the middle, touch my fingers together underneath, and gauge by how much my thumbs fail to meet at the top. On that approximation, Rocky is 21 inches at the waist, Ria is 17.
My feeling is that Ria is beginning to accumulate a bit of fat (she was a skinny little scrap when I first got her, 1.4kg at 3 months and not much interested in food). On that basis, I shouldn't increase her food any, and maybe even cut back slightly. I suppose I'd just like some reassurance that, despite her increased appetite, she doesn't need any more food than I'm giving her.
Mary