Cat food for overweight cats is not terribly difficult to find. Education on why your cat could be overweight is the real issue.
For years, the pet community has thought that dry food was the best choice for a healthy diet for your pet. However, as unusual health problems spring up for our pets, health professionals and vets have come to realize that dry food may not be the best answer (or the easiest) and therefore that is why there is now cat food for overweight cats on the market.
Factors that could be contributing to your cat’s obesity
- Dry Food
- Canned Food High in Carbohydrates
- Being Overfed
- Food Being Left Out 24/7
Dry food typically has a lot of byproducts and fillers and is also high in carbohydrates. Since cats are carnivores they need to have a diet that is high in animal proteins. This is best accomplished through a raw food diet.
However, not all canned foods are low in carbohydrates and this is certainly something that you want to keep an eye out for especially when looking for cat food for overweight cats. Some canned foods have grains or byproducts in them. Therefore, always be sure to read the labels of your canned cat food to make sure you are getting a cat food for overweight cats.
- By Nature – 95% Meats
- By Nature Organics
- Blue Spa (Wilderness Line Only)
- Nature’s Variety Instinct
- Wellness
- Weruva (good too if your cat doesn’t like pate & will only eat chunky food)
- Natural Balance
- Canine Caviar (its for dogs & cats so works well if you want all pets eating the same food)
Since raw food has no grains or byproducts, it can help prevent obesity in adult cats. Here is a list of companies that sell pre-packaged raw food:
- Bravo (usually cheapest)
- Nature’s Variety (easiest to find)
- Primal (usually most expensive)
- Rad Cat (Higher priced, use free range meat)
- Stella & Chewy’s (each batch tested for bacteria and salmonella)
If you have an obese kitty, then you will want to stop leaving food down 24/7. If your cat has food available to it that often, more than likely she or he will be more inclined to eat poorly. Whereas if you have scheduled eating times, then your cat will be hungry and more inclined to eat a meal that is good for him. Certainly, you will want to have your scheduled eating times scheduled so that they work with your routine. Usually twice/day is enough, but be sure to check with your cat’s vet to make sure.
On another note, if you are changing your cat’s diet based on the information in this article, be sure to check with a vet before doing so. Cats are finicky animals and need to be switched from foods very slowly. Usually it’s between a 2-week and 2 month process of switching. You’ll want to start mixing in 10% of their new food with 90% of their old food. And from there, you will gradually move it to 90% of their new food to 10% of their old food, until you get to 100% new food.
If your kitty has loose stools in the process of switching, you might consider adding a small amount of canned pumpkin to their food. Just mix in a small (1/4 to ½ teaspoon) amount of the canned pumpkin into the canned or raw food or let them eat it plain if they like it – the fiber will firm up their stool.
There are cat food manufacturers that make cat food for overweight cats, but the formula of dry food is not what matters, but rather getting them off the dry food diet to begin with. Yes, dry food might be easier to feed, since you can rip open the bag and give it to them, however the vet bills and health issues that come along with feeding dry food will not be easier in the long run.
