Slim(mer) and Trim(mer) in Scotland!

The cats are all in Scotland! They made the trip safe and sound. I was extremely nervous about sending them through a company, no matter how many great reviews they had. But they did a great job...everything went exactly as planned. I couldn't be happier!

Just before the trip, the cats went in for a vet checkup. Three of the cats are at their ideal weights :). Midnight and Twilight still have a little ways to go...both are 16 lbs. But they are big cats (long, tall) and should be about 14. Two pounds to go! After making it down 5, I think Midnight can be looking good by spring break.

Woo Hoo!

well, it has been awhile since posting.

Marc moved to Columbus with the cats, and frequently the cats would cry hungrily and marc would feed them. then i would find them crying hungrily, and I would feed them. There were so many double meals, I thought Midnight could not possibly be losing weight, so why worry about the blog?

Marc left for Scotland one month ago, and since he has been gone the cats have been on strict diets. I weighed Midnight today, and he is now 16 lbs! that is HUGE progress. 5.5 lbs less, since the beginning of all this.

the cats are leaving for Scotland at the end of this month, I hope I can trim him down to around 15 before the trip :)

Small set back

Midnight gained just a bit since his last weigh in. He is 18 1/2 lbs currently, a few ounces up. This isn't to surprising, because the new area we moved into does not sell his old food for an affordable price. We have had to switch to a new brand, and are currently playing with how much needs to be fed to meet his needs. The new food actually has fewer calories, so we are able to give him a bit more (he likes that) and we are working finding the right balance. But we will get there!

A plus to the new place is there are lots of birds (mostly geese...ug) living just outside. There is a pond and they plod around and swim. Midnight and the others are fascinated. They run around between windows, jump up, and try to swat at the geese through the window. Should help with his exercise routine :)

Fat Cat on the Move!

Midnight as of January: 21.6#
Midnight as of May: 18.2#

3.4 pounds. In human terms, that is roughly 60 pounds. Not to bad over four months! But he still has a way to go.

Midnight will be taking his weight loss endeavors on the road. He will be traveling to Columbus, Ohio for the next few months, and come next fall to Scotland! Many people have trouble maintaining weight loss when traveling, hopefully the same will not prove true with cats! I'm actually hoping that travel will help Midnight; with new places to explore, he will be more active.

New goal: By the time we ship out to Scotland, we would like Midnight to be 16#. The lighter the load the better when moving overseas!

Spring!

Spring!

Spring is here, and Midnight is much closer to bikini ready! Down another 1/2 pound :)

Now that the weather is nice, we are contemplating a new form of exercise...taking Midnight out on walks. Yes, we are crazy cat people. You see a dog walking down the street it isn't at all surprising, but a cat?

We will start by introducing Midnight to a harness and associating it with his favorite foods. Will keep you posted on how that works!

Also, since we have started to feed Midnight on his own, the social balance of the others feeding hierarchy has been disrupted. Twilight, the second in command, is now eating what Midnight was previously stealing. He is growing just a bit, and we are now having to feed him separately to.

Adjusting

Oh no! Midnight's weight loss progress is slowing to just a few ounces. This may be because he still eats with all the other cats, and may be stealing from everyone else. Midnight is now sentenced to solitary meals so we can be sure he is getting the right amount. To up it a little, we are also going to mix some low fat food in with his normal diet. All in all, he has lost about a pound and a half, so he is still doing well.

Progress

A few more ounces are down :) Slowly getting there. Here's a video of a toy found at the dollar store, that kept the entire menagerie busy for a few hours. Cheap entertainment! And helps blow calories to.

Exercise!

Now that Midnight is slowly losing weight, we want to keep it up. Exercise is a key to any weight loss program, but to make a cat exercise it has to be fun! It is always voluntary, so make it worth their while. Midnight enjoys running laps around the apartment (chasing a laser pointer) and doing "jumping jacks" with a dangling feather. Making him work for his food is also a great way to get him moving. Hiding food in tunnels and under or on top of boxes makes him stretch, wiggle, and jump.

Videos to come! There are also some awesome cat exercising articles with plenty of other ideas. Check them out! http://www.catchannel.com/behavior/playtime/article_5361.aspx , http://www.ehow.com/how_2145249_exercise-indoor-cat.html

One step closer!

Midnight weighed in today...and is now 1 pound less! An ideal speed to lose weight, right on track. He is now a 20 pounder.

Vacation Dieting?

Marc and I are out of town, and the kids are being taken care of by one of the vets Marc works with, Dr. Buckingham. It is hard to arrange to maintain a diet when you go on vacation, but I think we figured things out well. We switched to feeding once a day to make things easier on the catsitter, but are still feeding restricted amounts. And we devised a way to lock the door out on the cats, so hopefully they cannot break in and cheat on their diets. Fingers crossed!!!

Cheaters!

We came home today from work only to find that our little cats have broken into the food! Before we had started this blog and diet, we purchased a large Tupperware container to keep the cats out of the food. It looked as if our chubby buddy had sat on top of the container, and it collapsed in on itself. Thus the cats had free access to food today.

I guess everybody cheats on their diet every now and again.

Video! You can see swaying under his belly...that is not his tail, it's all fat. For size comparison two of our other cats are in the video, Hemingway and Comet. Midnight is huge next to them! It shows how food motivated he is to; he shoves poor Comet out of the way to get treats.

The First Step: What goes in

What weight loss blog would be complete without before and after shots? Check out the fat ripples! Stay tuned for videos…when Midnight walks/run his tummy fat sways up almost halfway up his back.

The first step to any weight loss program is nutritional management. We looked up the daily energy requirements (DER) for the average cat, and based on body weight Midnight needs 428 kcal to maintain his current weight. We feed our cats Iam’s Proactive food currently, and are already feeding him under the recommended amount. We were giving him roughly 360 kcal daily, which shows how the average recommendation doesn’t work for everyone.

For a cat diet, nutritionist recommended to reduce the diet by 20% for safe gradual weight loss. So to meet his weight loss goals, Midnight is receiving ½ cup per day.

We also had to change the way we feed the cats. Previously we fed all of the cats a measured amount once a day, and they grazed on it over time. This was a problem in a group of cats; Midnight was taking advantage and eating more than his share! So now when we are feeding everyone we take away food after the cats have finished. Midnight can’t graze throughout the day on everyone else’s chow anymore.

Also we are feeding the cats 2-3 times a day instead of once a day. Digesting the food takes energy, so by multiplying the number of feeds, we are increasing the energy needed to process the food. We are boosting the amount of calories he is burning without any change in behavior. Multiple meals also boost the metabolism.

If you are interested in looking up energy requirements for your pets, here are some good resources: A very good (and very dense academic resource!) book is Hand & Novotny’s Pocket Companion to Small Animal Clinical Nutrition. Easier to use are http://www.talktothevet.com/ARTICLES/CATS/feedadultcat.HTM to find out the number of calories to feed a cat and http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html to calculate how many calories are in the cat food. While they are not perfect, they are good resources to get you started. Any weight loss plans should also include guidance from a veterinarian to avoid any health complications.

New Year's Resolutions

We are the owners of six wonderful cats. To some this may seem excessive, but we have reached a balance that is good for both the people and the cats. Both of us work at vet clinics and recently brought in our menagerie for vaccines. Along with their shots, we weighed all the cats. We have a group of healthy felines with little stomach pudges, normal for housecats, with the exception of Midnight.

Midnight is a 2 year old black, domestic short hair cat. He is a polydactyl, coming in with 20 toes (a normal cat should have 14). On December 21^st he weighed in at 21 pounds and 7 ounces. While Midnight is a stocky cat, big boned and long, this is about 7 pounds more than he should be. 7 pounds on this cat is comparable to being 90-100 pounds overweight on a human.

Of course, there are benefits to having a fat cat. Extra cat = more heating on your lap on cold days. Marc and I live in the Midwest making this is a definite benefit. But being so large, Midnight doesn't play like the other cats. He lies on his back, and bats at toys while the other cats jump and run around him. He sleeps more than the others do. Being overweight is not in Midnight’s current best interest, and can pose health problems later down the road.

What better time to get Midnight on track than at New Year’s? It isn’t going to be easy; in a multi-pet household, trying to diet one is very difficult. But for Midnight, we can do it!