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How To Get Your Overweight Cat To Lose Weight

Pet Care Tips 3 min read
How To Get Your Overweight Cat To Lose Weight

Got an overweight cat? Understanding how to get your cat to lose weight is critical in managing and preventing serious diseases (such as heart disease and arthritis) and for improving their overall wellbeing. In this blog, our NHV experts share some tips and tricks on helping your cat lose weight and achieve optimal health.

Tip 1: Feed Your Cat Frequent Smaller Meals

Most cat parents feed their cats once a day. However, in a recent article published in the Journal of Animal Sciences, researchers at the University of Illinois found that feeding your cat frequent meals that are smaller in size versus one big meal was more effective in helping cats lose weight.

The reason it helps cats lose weight is due to the spike in activity levels that is seen after meal times.

Tip 2: Schedule Feeding Times for Your Cat

Even doing two meals a day can help cats become more active and lose those extra pounds.

Ideally, pet parents should be feeding their cats 4 times daily. When assessing the activity of cats two hours before they ate, researchers found that cats who were fed four times per day were more active before mealtimes than those who were fed a random number of meals per day.

Keeping a schedule helps cats anticipate feeding times, and when they anticipate feeding, they become more active—which helps them lose weight.

However, if your schedule doesn’t permit you to maintain routine feeding times for your kitty —that’s okay. Researchers say that even doing two meals a day can help cats become more active and lose those extra pounds.

Tip 3: Just add water

If you’re feeding your cat dry food, try adding water to a few of the pellets to help increase the sensation of being full. (You will still want some pellets to be dry to help with teeth and gums).

Remember, access to water should never be restricted unless specified by your veterinarian for a particular case.

Tip 4: Play, Play, Play!

Have fun with your kitty. Select toys, especially interactive toys such as teasers (basically a long pole with a feather or other item at the end), which encourage intense activity and bonding time with the kitty.

Tip 5: Adding Supplements

To help your furry companion get as much nutritional value from their diet, we recommend the following natural supplements.

NHV Multi Essentials – contains nutritive herbs for your cat like dandelion, Oregon grape, alfalfa, marshmallow, and yucca. NHV Multi-Essentials helps reduce feline fatigue, increase energy levels, and help with filling the nutritional voids.

NHV PetOmega 3 – Many times, processed pet foods have increased omega-6 fatty acids and decreased omega-3 fatty acids. It is very important to maintain a balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in pet diets. Your cat’s body cannot easily make these essential fatty acids, so it is vital to provide them as an added supplement.

NHV Turmeric – This superfood is an excellent antioxidant that will help support heart and circulatory functions.

If you have any questions about cat or dog health, please feel free to contact our NHV Pet Experts – we’re here to help!


Sources:

“Study shows that smaller portions, more frequent meals could help cats slim down.” NewStat – Veterinary Breaking News. 28 Feb. 2015. Web. 8 May 2015.

“Feeding cats more frequent, smaller meals keeps them healthier: Study.” Newsmax Health. 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 8 May 2015.

“Effects of feeding frequency and dietary water content on voluntary physical activity in healthy adult cats.” Journal of Animal Sciences (2014): 1271-7. Web. 8 May. 2015.

NHV Pet Experts

NHV Pet Experts

We have a dedicated group of pet expert professionals, including veterinarians, vet techs, and other pet professionals to guide you through any questions. We’re committed to your pet’s wellness and can offer additional tips, resources, nutritional advice, and more.

Published: May 11, 2015

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