Exercise for Cats

[Sam613]

I read someone's "Cat of the Day" story that mentioned they helped their cat lose weight through exercise, and I cannot figure out how I could get my chubby cat to exercise if he doesn't want to! He is 12 1/2 years old, and does NOT want to move any more than necessary. We already have him on dry food made for older, less active cats, but he weighs about 14 pounds. How do you "exercise" an unwilling cat? Any suggestions?

[4 feline house]

It takes commitment on your part, but "play" is the same as "exercise" for cats - get a toy and tie it to a length of string and drag it around the house for him to chase. Make sure y'all play often and for about 20-30 minutes a day.

[Freckles]

Freckles doesn't play with toys by herself, but she will chase after a string. So sometimes I tie one end around my ankle while I'm cleaning house, dusting, etc. That way we're both doing what we should!

[Sam613]

Oh, my God! You mean *I* have to exercise *too*???? What if I accidentally lose weight? (Ha! If you could see this couch potato, you'd know why that's a laugh!)

Originally posted by 4 feline house:
It takes commitment on your part, but "play" is the same as "exercise" for cats - get a toy and tie it to a length of string and drag it around the house for him to chase. Make sure y'all play often and for about 20-30 minutes a day.

[Sam613]

I think this laser pointer thing is more my speed. I wouldn't have to move anything but my hand and wrist. That sounds strenuous enough! But I *will* have to climb the stairs...

[Sam613]

Oh, hey, this one about housework is great, except that Hobbes would only get to exercise about once a week. *Unless* I started cleaning house more often. Hmmmm.

[Sam613]

I have been so encouraged by the responses given by people here! You have been *very* helpful, and I was so surprised at how quickly I got answers to my question! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. I'll let you know how Hobbes does with his (and, possibly, MY) new exercise regime!

[wolflady]

Sam, good luck!! I know how it is having a slighly overweight lazy cat. Marius weighed in at 17lbs, and had to get down to about 14.5 or 15. I put him on the Science Diet weight loss (prescription from Vet) and had a lot of play sessions too. The laser pointer sounds like a good idea. I posted this on another forum, but the other day I made a toy that my cat LOVES to push around because of the noise it makes. I had a left over prescription bottle (with child proof twist cap), so I washed it out, and filled it about 1/4 full of dry instant rice. Put the lid on and whalaaaa!!! Noise maker toy for kitty to bat around!! Another fave toy that my cats like is this "string" type toy. I had some left over material, so I cut it in a long strip and tied a newspaper baggie thing on the end(ya know, the plastic bag that newspapers come in when it rains-I folded and refolded until is was pretty small and tied the end of the string around the middle). The movement and sound of the bag being dragged on the floor attracts my kittie's attention, and it's their fave. I only let them play with that under supervision, because Marius tried to swallow the thing before. Tin foil balls are fun too. Anything that moves and can get their attention is worth a shot, right! Good luck with you kitty and let us know if anything works out for ya!

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[Pam]

Sam...My Trevor is 20 1/2 lbs. He was actually 22 lbs. at one time! Let's say he's a BIG guy! Well, I put him on IAMS Less Active and nothing else. That's hard for me because he loves canned food and I like to make him happy.

You could try adding a puppy to your household. That might help! The reason I say that is we adopted a standard poodle puppy and Trevor has never been more active! He plays a lot with the puppy and is not so much of a "couch potato" (actually he was more of a "window potato") and also I have a baby gate across the kitchen which he used to need to go over with the help of a chair positioned on the other side. I guess he is slowly getting himself into some sort of shape because now he sails over it with the greatest of ease!

By the way, Karen your toy ideas a great!!!

[4 feline house]

I don't know why I didn't think of the laser pointer, too, because it is one of the favorite toys in our house. I'm glad Spencer thought to mention it. It may also take diet food, too. My cats are very active, have alot of toys that they frequently play with, sleep far less than the average cat (average being 16-20 hours a day, mine sleep about 12) but three of them are still slightly overweight and they are getting the minimum measurement of a standard, high-quality food and not even eating all of that everyday. The vet has already mentioned reducing; if by the next annual checkup it is mentioned again, I may have to resort to diet food.

[Gio]

I certainly agree with Spencer. My 18 year old male is very thin and he prefers eating small quantities of food several times a day. This apparently helps him to keep food down. One of my female cats is short and quite chubby and adores eating; obviously she tries to take advantage of it.

My male cat also has some age-related health problems and needs to take some medicines (mainly homeopathic remedies) to help him along and stimulate his appetite. The vet suggested to put it in his food. This makes things rather difficult, he eats only when he feels like it and therefore it's not easy for me to track who eats what and the last thing I want it to stimulate the appetite of the wrong cat!

[wolflady]

Spencer, I've noticed that with all the starving stray cats we've taken in...they tend to just gorge themselves. I call it the "starving cat syndrome" because they probably feel that maybe they won't have food later? It definitely is difficult, because Aaron got Scooter from a lady who's cat had kittens and she didn't want them. Scooter was the last one left, and nobody was interested in him, but my husband fell in love at first site. Scooter is the only "non-stray" cat to be in the family, and he is also the only one that would eat only a few kibbles at a time and leave the rest for later. My Marius, on the other hand, turned out to be like my family's cat Socks, that I brought home in starving condition when I was in elementary school. That cat just inhales his food, and still does for that matter! Marius just gobbles food like there's no tomorrow as well! It was difficult for awhile, because we couldn't leave Scooter's food out because Marius would just gobble it down, so poor Scooter didn't have food access until we were home to supervise Marius. Have you noticed this in starving strays as well? Since Scooter has developed a behavioral problem and we have to keep him in his kitty playpen when we're gone, he has access to his food bowl without interferance from my cat. He's gained all his weight back (plus a few), and Marius still gobbles his food down...

[Maresche]

Wolflady, sounds like we are in the same boat. My Terra was a gift from my brother when I left home (and had to leave my other cat behind). She has no problem turning down food and only weighs 6lbs on a "fat day." Misao on other hand is a stray we found last Halloween (she's all white with odd-eyes). She barely weighed 5lbs then and the vet didn't think she had a week left in her. She's now 12-13lbs and definitely overweight. But like most cats with "stray-syndrome" (yep, I call it the same thing), she keeps eating until it is gone. We've tried to cut back, but Terra's the one who ends up losing weight. Exercise is proving our best (and only option). Terra is fond of tin foil too (she actually unwrapped a Cadberry cream egg yesterday just for the foil cover) and paper stuffs. Misao likes fake mice and anything with feathers.

[4 feline house]

I rescued Zebo from the pound before he was even weaned. The problem was, I didn't realize he hadn't been weaned until later that night. The entire rest of his life, he acted like he was starving to death. If I made a move that he interpreted as me going towards the kitchen, he would race me in there. There were many times he nearly killed us both as he raced ahead of me.

Three of the four I have now were weaned naturally, and their mom (my fourth) did not want to give them up. They were well past six months old before she started kicking them away. None of them seem all that interested in food, except for really smell-good stuff like turkey right out of the oven or a freshly opened can of tuna. They are all slightly overweight, but actually eat less than the recommended amount.

Maybe age of weaning is a factor in whether they will develop the "perpetually starved" behavior or not.

[Troy]

The "gorge" mentality is the natural behaviour of many predators. Perhaps the unnatural behaviour we witness in many of our kitties is, in fact, that they don't gorge? They have been brought up to know that they will be fed as opposed to their natural environment where they must take advantage of any kill they make or food they scavenge.

I have also noticed that many runts of the litter also have the gorge behaviour.