When I admitted my cats were fat, years ago, I thought I could fix it and that they would go onto have regular lives again, but life gets in the way.

We had a problem  with Tommy keeping weight on months after his surgery. How can I go from a chronically fat lard bub to a guy that’s getting too skinny? I wanted his weight back up for his teeth cleaning, so we increased his food and gave him egg yolk. After about 6 weeks, he had slowly gotten back up to just under 13 lbs from 12. We had him gaining 1.5-3 oz per week. Where he used to eat 5 ounces of food many months ago, he now eats 6 1/2, and I have to weigh him every week in both pounds and ounces. He’s now 8 years old and has had his diet monitored since 2013. He stopped kibble December 2016 and started on wet with canned, then with commercial raw, then homemade since January 2017. His surgery was in February. His weight started dropping again around April or May.

But now he’s steady. Yesterday it was 13 lbs 3.2 oz.
On the other hand… Because I have two… Yay… Stewart has had his weight monitored since 2014. Vet says 11.8 lbs, but his daddy says at least 12, but I said he better not get over 12 1/2 because of his health and it’s more difficult to manage his asthma. His daddy has been in charge of him all summer. I weighed Stew yesterday and he’s 12 lbs 13.6 oz. 

“How much have you been feeding him?”

“Either 5 or 5 1/2…it varies”

“Well, I need you to pull him back a half ounce”

“Ok. I’ll give him 5 ounces”

There is no magic way to keep their weight in check. Have a good scale and a good routine. Right now we’re looking at feeding brother dude #1 a whole lot more and brother dude #2 a bit less. I will be keeping up with Tom and Stew as a ritual, forever.

And you have to if you love your cats. Food is love. I didn’t want my 21 lb cat to become diabetic and I didn’t want my almost 17 lb baby suffering through asthma attacks every week, or turning into another 21 lb cat. But, you can do it. 

I got lucky with my girls. They are 9 1/2 lbs and 10 1/4 lbs and have always decided to keep it that way.