cat getting lazy and fat

Hi there

As happy as I am that both of my cats are now back in good health and both eating (nothing worse than an ill cat who won’t eat!), it’s now time to tackle the next problem—weight control.

My two gals are, well, getting fat. At around 4kilos it’s not extreme but if I don’t manage it now it will only get worse.

I have reduced their food intake, especially for the slightly portlier one, and now feed them a ratio of 2 to 1 wet vs dry, and have been pretty successful at getting them to eat quality complete wet foods along with as low carb/no grain dry food as appears to be commercially available.

I have also got some new toys, trees and cat tunnels which they do play with.

They are always hungry and begging for food but I have learned to deal with that and try to make them exercise a bit before I feed them.

One of the cats though, the one who’s 22 months old now, seems to have reduced her activity level to compensate for the reduced food.

She’s not listless but less inclined to chase after toys, preferring the relatively low intensity string grabbing, as long as I don’t move the string too far away.

She’s so lazy that she waits at the bottom of the cat tree in the hopes that I’ll pick her up so she doesn’t have to jump. (I used to do this to build trust). And no, it’s not so extreme that I think she’s in discomfort. She will still run around after food and for short bits with toys but it’s more difficult to engage her since cutting back her food intake.

Not sure if it’s related but whilst she lazes about all day she rarely deep sleeps. The more active, petite younger cat has hard core power sleeps. You can even stroke her and move her whilst sleeping and she won’t wake up right away. The older one always has half an eye open.

This isn’t new behaviour for either of them, but I would be interested to know if others here have seen a link between sleep, activity, and weight.

I suppose it’s also true that she’s graduating from a teenager to an adult so maybe I’ll have to work harder to make her want to play.

On the plus side, she’s become more affectionate in a ploy to keep the food coming!