Kitty fit club

[Maxy24]

Neko's been gaining weight and I have not been exercising the two of them like I should be so I've decided to begin their kitty fit club (check my final note, I want YOUR kitties to join too!) after being inspired by beautiful in shape dog photos. I don't have a dog so all dog things I see are being channeled into my cats. I talked about building muscle on my cats in a cat forum and kinda got laughed at so I'm posting here instead for this. I weighed them and was very embarrassed by what I've let happen with Neko.

As of now:
Neko: 13 pounds-about 3 more than he should
Willie: 10 pounds, might be able to loose a pound, maybe not, he's pretty good.

My main goal with Willie is to build muscle, he's pretty good as it is but if I worked at it I know he could look stunning. My goal for Neko is to be at a healthy weight, he gained that quickly, he has been at 11 pounds for a long time, I was shocked to see 13. Once he looses weight I'll focus more on muscle, or perhaps it will come with the weight loss.

I'm not cutting any food, I don't think it would be healthy for me to feed them less than I am (1/2 cup dry total a day per cat or on other days 1/4 cup dry and 3 oz wet total a day per cat) so exercise is going to be my main focus. Here are their pics from today:

Neko:

**MORE**

 

[Maxy24]

Willie:

On a final note:
EVERYONE WHO WANTS THEIR KITTIES IN SHAPE JOIN THE EFFORT! POST WEIGHTS, PICS AND GOALS IF YOU HAVE THEM!!

 

[noludoru]

Not to be a jerk.. but I think it's silly not to cut food. Cut the dry and increase the wet, or if you can't get your parents to buy more wet, add water to it (the wet). The dry packs calories on like crazy. It will help you a lot if you decrease it by even a little.

And, btw - both of them look fantastic to me. Chili looks about the same as Neko, and she's my healthiest cat, so I'd be ashamed to post pictures. Emma's a little chub, but I've come to the conclusion that trying to get her down to a so-called "healthy weight" is futile and silly - she's healthy and happy, and her chubbieness won't hurt her a bit. She can clean herself all over and is athetic and agile, so I think it's silly to worry about her "health" when what I am actually worrying about is the weight of a healthy cat.

As far as muscle... Middie has developed a lot by using the flirt pole (jumping around) so I should think just playing with them will do the trick! Tossing toys around the house and a feather toy or something should do the trick.

 

[maxfox426]

I am still trying to mess with the food proportions that my boys get... Ticheli is 12lbs, Whitty is ~14lbs. They are currently each getting a little less than a half-cup of dry per day, plus 2oz wet per day. I am intending to adjust the dry down and the wet up just as soon as I can guarantee myself that I can afford to continue feeding that much wet.

I'll try to get some good pictures of them and post them later.

Sidenotes: I think that the daily feeding guidlines on catfood are bogus. On the 13oz Innova cans it says that I should feed 1/2 a can per 6-8 lbs of cat! I don't think my cats could physically eat an entire can of food per day!! They barely finish the small amount that I give them, which is why I keep trying to adjust the balance.

 

[Maxy24]

The main reason I'm not dropping the food amount is because on Felidae at the same amount they were both perfect, but I was exercising them much more. Now the food I'm feeding and the food I'm switching to have less Kcals then the felidae. Yet I'm still feeding Neko less than the bag says I should (which I understand is how it usually works) Willie gets the "correct" amount according to the bag. I want to see what the exercise will do first at least, If I can't get him down at all I'll consider cutting food for Neko. Perhaps 10 pounds is too small for Neko, maybe he actually grew in size, but I definitely think he should go down to 11 pounds again.

This was Neko at his ideal weight IMO, My brother says he looks more like Happy Cat everyday :

Can you believe my family thought he was fat in THOSE?

 

[Boemy]

Shadow - 7 pounds
Remy - 12 pounds
Booster - 13 pounds

Booster and Remy could probably stand to lose some weight, although Booster in particular is a naturally solidly built cat. His body structure is kind of like a tiny labrador, or a pug.

As far as exercise goes, they cannot resist a kitty wand.

How old is Neko in that last post? Could it be he just filled out as he got older? Both your cats look in good shape to me.

 

[Maxy24]

He was about 3 months away from turning 3 in that picture, he is just over 4 now. the reason i consider him in need of weight loss is mainly because of how quickly he gained the weight, i mean a few months ago he was 11 pounds. When do cats stop filling out?

Willie is loving the new exercise program, Neko loves watching Willie enjoy the new exercise program lol. He's a little bum. He sits there and ignores it for the most part. If you swing it right over his head he'll stand up and grab it or roll around and smack it so long as he does not have to move from his general area. Lazy guy. I got him to chase it quite a bit the first night and he gives it a few good charges each session but then just sits there, he never attempts to actually catch it, he almost looks embarrassed after chasing it lol. Eventually I think he'll get into it. He loved playing until we got Willie, then he grew up wicked fast and got some aversion to toys, it was weird.

Willie thinks this is great though, he is so prey driven, he does not catch it either though, he chases and then turns swiftly or jumps the toy when he is about to catch it, he finds a new stalking location and starts up again he's in for the chase!

I'd like to see what I can do though, I know they are healthy, not obese by any means, in fact Willie is a perfect weight, I just know they could be in better shape altogether. Exercise is good! Even if I'm just building muscle it will help them stay healthier into their old age won't it, they might not be frail old kitties, but nice strong active kitties in their elder years.

 

[vanillasugar]

I can safely say Nya will NOT be joining this club. I feed her enough for a 12lb cat, and no matter what, she stays under 7lbs.

Buddy on the other hand, could probably use a bit of a diet... he hasn't been weighed in a while, but I'd put him around the same size as Neko.

 

[PWCorgi]

Inky wants to join! He's really blown up since recovering from his HL, thanks to my sister who will sneak in my room and give him a whole can of wet food or fill his bowl with dry food

My solution, I'm switching him to raw because she won't touch it.

I'm really not sure what he weighs. He's just fat, lol, and I'm not hauling him to the vets to find out. I'm just going to guesstimate his ideal weight at about 8 pounds and start by feeding him according to that. I'll fix it as needed.

The only exercise he gets is when he has catnip, so I'll mostly be relying on intake.