What To Do With Your Cat’s Overweight
Like humans, our pets must lead a healthy and balanced life, with an appropriate diet, accompanied by physical exercise. Obesity in cats is very common, which affects their quality of life and is very harmful to health.
From Better with Pets we want to give you some advice on what to do with your cat’s overweight, where the most important thing is prevention, but if it already suffers, you have to remedy it as soon as possible.
Detect your cat’s overweight
First of all it is very important to determine if your cat is overweight. According to their breed, size and age, they will have to calculate their ideal weight. For this it is very important that you consult your veterinarian.
The weight of your cat
That is why every so often you should weigh it to check if it gains weight or if it remains stable. The safest thing is that he does not want to get on the scale, so you have to weigh yourself with him in your arms and the result you subtract your weight, there you will know the weight of your pet.
Touch your cat
To find out if your cat is overweight, you can help yourself by touching some places on his body such as the ribs and the spine. Ideally, notice the bony parts, but if not, your cat is overweight.
Observe your cat
You should pay attention to your cat if when he walks his belly hangs or moves too much, that would be an indication that he has a few extra pounds and must be remedied.
Your cat’s overweight
If we have done the previous steps and we realize that our dear friend is overweight, it is time to remedy. The vet can help you a lot, but it’s up to you to get down to business.
Change feeding
The first thing to do is change the type of diet of your cat. Of course, homemade food is forbidden and the best thing would be to eat cat food but low in fat. Since it will provide you with the necessary nutrients, but you will not gain more weight. Your diet should be rich in fiber to help you control the level of sugars in your blood.
Physical exercise
It may be that being overweight is not related to food, but your cat has recently become very sedentary, so he should exercise. For this it is very important that you play with him, but remember that at first he can get tired very quickly, so you have to do it little by little.
Overweight due to illness
It may be the case that your cat is overweight due to some disease, such as diabetes. In that case, you should take him to your veterinarian so that he can undergo a control and decide the type of diet he should take. It may be the case that you even have to inject insulin.
Avoid overweight your cat
As we have already said, prevention is better than cure, that is why it is better not to go to the extreme that your cat is overweight. For this we recommend a series of guidelines:
Adequate food
First you have to decide which cat food is the most suitable for yours. It must be balanced and with all the necessary nutrients. It is very important that the amount is correct, for this you can help yourself from the indications that come in the packages of cat food, in addition to the advice of your veterinarian. Don’t let your cat choose the quantity.
Control whims
Our pets are experts in asking us for whims, it is enough that they put one of their faces on us, so that we fall at their feet. It is not bad to treat yourself once in a while, but you have to avoid that it becomes a common habit.
Physical exercise
It is very important that your cat does physical exercise on a daily basis and above all prevent it from becoming a sedentary cat, as this is detrimental to its health. You just have to spend about 30 minutes a day playing with him, buy him toys that encourage his hunting instinct.
Control your weight
You should weigh your cat regularly, so you can detect the problem early, before it becomes more complicated.
