Are You Over Feeding Your Fat Cat?

Are you overfeeding your fat cat? Feline obesity is a growing epidemic for pets in industrialized countries. Interestingly, it seems to mirror the obesity epidemic among people in the United States, having become a big problem for some of the same reasons. As Americans are increasingly eating extra large portions themselves, they have begun overfeeding their cats to similar proportions. Forty percent of cats in the United States are obese and five to ten percent are overweight-figures that appear to still be rising. Is your cat among them?

THE PROBLEM OF FREE CHOICE FEEDING

Many, if not most, household cats today are given a bowl of food to eat from as they please. This is often called "free choice feeding". People assume that their feline will eat when it's hungry and regulate itself, but this is not necessarily true. Just as it's usually not a good idea to give a child unlimited access to unhealthy foods, it's risky to allow a cat to eat as much as it wants. A cat does not have the ability to regulate its diet when there is a "neverending" supply of food, or to understand the consequences of obesity and being overweight that will result from overeating.

In the wild, cats were and are carnivores. As hunters, they didn't have many chances to overeat because there simply wasn't an abundance of calories available, so they are not used to or biologically prepared for free choice feeding. Cats may seem active when running through the house, but this is not nearly the amount of energy they would have had to expend to catch their food in the wild. Thus, their intake of calories exceeds what is expended.

HOW MUCH SHOULD A CAT EAT?

Remember that you, as the pet owner, have complete control over how much food your household feline has access to. It is recommended that a cat be fed two to four small meals every day. A meal for a seven-pound cat consists of two-thirds to one ounce of food (interesting, approximately the same weight as a mouse). Many pet owners will need to change their habits and alter what they think of as enough food for a cat in order to follow these guidelines.

HEALTH RISKS OF FELINE OBESITY