Food tips on how to prevent obesity in your cat
Wild cats eat 10-20 times of small meals a day. They spend several hours a day searching for and hunting for food. If you as an animal owner try to imitate these eating behaviors, you increase the cat’s exercise and reduce the risk of stress and unwanted behavior that is associated with cats that receive too little stimulation of problem solving.
Foods that prevent and treat obesity in cats
At your veterinarian you will find food for neutered cats that prevents weight gain. Sometimes cats can gain weight even though they buy food for neutered cats. Then you can provide feed with lower energy content such as Specific Weight Reduction and Royal Canin Satiety. There are also good options in wet food to keep down. Here we want to take the opportunity to recommend Specific Adult Wet and Royal Canin Obesity Wet which are 2 good foods that you can give an overweight cat.
Sometimes you have to test yourself to see which diet suits the cat. Just because a diet does not give any weight loss, you should not give up. First check that you are giving the correct daily dose. Then think about whether you give “candy” to the cat. If you reward your cat with sweets, the nutrition that the cat gets through this must also be included in the daily dose. It is best to use regular foods such as sweets.
For cats that wake up during the night and want food, you should try to make sure to give the largest portion of food before bedtime.
Stimulate your cat to a more normal eating behavior
There are simple tricks to use to stimulate a cat’s normal eating behavior. Here are some tips to get you started.
- Throw small pieces of dry food so the cat can catch them, like how it can hunt food in the wild
- Build your own hiding places in which you can hide food inside. Good hiding places are old toilet rolls, a cardboard box with a small hole so that the cat can pick out the dry ice with the paw.
- Hiding places are available for purchase. Place part of the food ration in an activation ball or cat pyramid.
- Use food bowls that activate and force the cat to eat a little slower. This prevents the cat from throwing in the food and it does not have time to get a feeling of satiety before it has eaten.