I recently put my cat on a wet food diet after realizing she was pretty fat from dry food free feeding.
Now I'm worried she is losing too much weight. I read something before that an owner should be concerned if there is a loss of weight near the neck/back area. She looks very odd proportionally right now. Does anybody have any clue what I'm referring to?
Pic is said cat. Her name is shakey.
Are you feeding her enough? What brand?
Why aren't you asking the vet if you notice a sudden drop in weight? Too much weight loss is grounds for going to he vet.
What about her litter box behavior? If she has diarrhea that could also contribute.
Also, stop bumping. /an/ is slow, very slow.
>>2061846
Sorry I'll stop bumping.
I haven't taken her to a vet yet because I wanna see if anybody knows if this kind of weight loss is concerning first. She's losing weight but not exercising enough to any skin.
What concerns me is that she is losing muscle mass on her neck and I'm not sure if this is normal.
Litterbox behavior is fine. She poops less and pees more but as I know that's normal. No diarrhea.
>>2061858
How much do you feed a day?
My cat is 15 lbs and eats two 3.3 oz cans a day.
>>2061858
Get some high protein good quality treats, op. Then play with her. Get her moving all over the place. When she's all tuckered out, give her a couple treats.
Do this whenever you have the spare time, as often as you can.
The exercise, plus the extra protein from the treats, should help her retain muscle mass, as well as bulk up a little, plus it's a much healthier way to lose fat rather than just waiting for it to slough off due to a sudden decrease in diet.
Her metabolism probably believes she is physically starving to death, compared to what and how much she was eating earlier.
>>2061865
I feed her two cans. I think she was 12 pounds when I felt like she was overweight. She's a very small cat. This is a picture of what she looked like before I put her on this wet food diet.
>>2061875
I'll stop by petco today to buy those protein treats. How many should I give her a day and what brand should I buy?
Thanks by the way. I can totally see the protein deficiency scenario because she has been trying to get into the treat bag every chance she gets. Pretty damn desperately too. Her body must be convinced it's starving.
Here is a picture of what she looks like right now. I think she's lost a lot of weight in this past two months.
>>2061876
Mix dry and wet food together. Cats need both, wet to hydrate them and dry food is good for their teeth, the brief summer I worked in a vets I seen a lot of animals losing teeth who were on wet food diets all their lives.
I have four cats, I would only use 1 can of wet food and have them mostly on dry food.I don't know how big your cans are but they would be a coke can size.
>>2061920
> dry food is good for their teeth
Not true at all. Cats don't really chew, they just bite down and swallow. There's hardly any friction between the teeth and food.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr7TLXg-vd4
>>2061923
Thats not the only variable there is. Wet food is going to spread food around their mouth and between the teeth causing plaque that wouldn't be there if they were eating dry food.
That anon never claimed dry food acted as a tooth brush.
>>2061931
There is absolutely no reason to advocate dry over wet at all. Your cat is not going to have better teeth, and sure as hell isn't going to have better health or a less chance of kidney/bladder issues or diabetes. So why advocate at all?
True dental care for cats would be letting them eat on raw bones every once in a while and going to the vet for a sedation dental every 2-3 years. I've seen some jerky treats that are pure meat that are also decent chewing material.
>>2061931
And dry food is made up of a lot of starchy carbohydrates which adhere to the teeth much worse than any meat-based (that part is very important) wet food.
My cat switched from a dry food diet to a primary wet food diet and she dropped a lot of weight too. I do keep the dry food out for her to graze between feedings but for the more part she doesn't eat a lot of it. I'm thinking it's all the carbs in dry food that does it.
Post pics OP, one straight-on from the side and one top-down.
>>2061893
It depends on the size, and the brand doesn't really matter, read the ingredients. You want as little plant filler as possible. This includes, corn products, potato products, wheat products and soy products.
If the treats are barely larger than the pieces of dry kibble she was previously eating then I'd say give her one or two after every vigorous exercise. If the treats are larger than that then only give her one but break it up into smaller pieces and feed her one or two of the smaller pieces after each vigorous exercise.
You can also try hiding the treats in places that are safe and easy for her to get to, and teach her how to hunt for them. Sort of like the cat equivalent of hunting for easter eggs. Mix up the hiding places every now and then, and that way you can hide some treats before you leave for a while (like work) so she has something motivating her to be physically active while you are gone.
I would even go so far as to buy toys you can hide treats in, then watch her chase them all over the place.
