Your cat’s weight is an important benchmark to set the tone for your cat’s health in the long run.
It is crucial that you monitor your cat’s weight periodically. The easiest way to find out, is to weigh yourself whilst holding your cat, then weigh yourself again without your cat, the difference is your cat’s weight
Doing this will help you control any deviations from their ideal weight and see progress when you’re trying to reach a target weight. Do not trust on solely using your eyes as small changes to weight are hard to see until it is too late.
Let’s embark on this dieting journey together. I’m going to use my personal experience with Lilo as an example.
You first need to know your cat’s body condition score (BCS). If you don’t know, then find out.
My Lilo is a 6 verging on a 7...I know, I know, we are fixing this.
Knowing your cats BSC lets you know where you are and allows you to plan to where you want to be.
Where Are We?
You will need to know:
-How many grams of food you give your cat a day.
Remember it is all about CALORIES and nutrients not ingredients.
I feed my cat currently 90g of dry food per day. Again, grams are not very useful; we want CALORIES so check the pack of food to see how many calories this equates to. My food (Purina One Plan Urinary Tract) did not contain this information so I had to call them to get it.
Now I know that I am giving my cat 327.6 calories per day. To get this number I used the following equation.
(Amount of calories in 100g / 100) X by how many grams of that food you give your cat daily.
(364 / 100) X 90 = 327.6
Now we know where we are – 327.6 calories per day.
From Lilo's BCS these amount of calories are clearly not the right amount to give him, though I’m sure he isn’t complaining.
For now though, keep your number in the back pocket – we’ll need it later.
Where we want to be?
For this part you will need to know:
- Your cat’s current weight (use method above)
- Your cat’s current BCS
With these two pieces of information use the calculator below to FIRST find out your cat's ideal weight and THEN the ideal number of daily calories you should aim for to stay at their desired weight. This will be essential for your personalized diet plan.
Follow the instructions below (2 parts). In my case, my cat is trying to lose weight but the method works the same for one putting on weight.
Put your cat's weight in Kg or Lbs
I put 7.3kg
Select your cat’s body condition score
My cat is a 6 verging on 7 so I’m going to choose 7.
It now tells me my cat’s ideal weight which is 5.9kgs
Only focus on this number, ignore the calories stated at the bottom.
Now that we have you cat’s ideal weight. Do the process again this time inserting your cat’s ideal weight as its current weight and then select the BCS as 5.
Now we can see that the amount of calories here is what I need daily in order to maintain my cat at its desired weight (5.9kg) and this number here is going to be the gold medal we work for; the jump at the top of the Philly Museum steps, our eye of the tiger, the dragon we’re chasing.
Lets review what we have:
My cats current weight – 7.3kg
My cats ideal weight – 5.9kg
The number of current daily calories – 327.6
The number of ideal daily calories - 265
This tells me that to get from 7.3kg to 5.9kg I have to go from feeding 327.6 calories a day to 265 calories.
Interactive play with the Dental Wand cleans teeth and also helps your cat lose weight.
Now, I cannot just drop 62.6 calories from one day to another; unless if you want to start sleeping with one eye open cause you would be signing a death wish!
In case you didn’t know if you did this, you’d also be signing your cat a death wish. Rapid weight loss or fasting to a cat can cause hepatic lipidosis, a potentially fatal liver disease.
Therefore, cats should aim to lose or gain 0.5% to 2% per month. The weight-loss process usually takes between 6 – 12 months.
So download your own diet planner below.
Fill in the yellow sections with:
The number of calories per 100g of food
How many grams you feed your cat a day and
The change % for each month (0.5% - 2%) and the planner automatically fills in the rest.
Remember to use this planner as your guide that compliments the vet’s recommendations.
In cases where your cat’s BCS is 1 or 2; 8-9 please speak to a vet immediately.
Best of luck on your weight control journey. With love, patience and consistency I am sure you will achieve it!
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