r/dechonkers

literally just the title i need fresh eyes. for context i can feel her ribs easily but not spine!

Hello everyone, This is my 11-year-old cat, Super.

She has gained quite a bit of weight in her older years and has been really struggling to lose it. I’ve tried put her on a diet, but so far we haven’t had much success. (I'm afraid of doing it wrong and causing more harm than good)

I took her to the vet when she started getting particularly stinky and her rear started looking... less than ideal. The vet confirmed that she is obese and having trouble grooming herself properly, so I have officially been promoted to sanitary trim & butt-cleaning duty.

She is extremely lazy, which I think is contributing to the problem. I buy her toys, laser pointers, and all sorts of things to encourage her to move around, but she’ll play for a few seconds before deciding she's done.

She gets no treats, not even occasionally, so unfortunately I can't even blame the chonk on snacks.

I’d love any advice for helping this stubborn loaf safely lose weight. (The vet did not help at all)

Hi everyone! My sweet girl Willow is 7 years old and 12lbs exactly, and I was told by her vet at her checkup in August that they want her to get down to about 10-10.5lbs.

I was advised back at that appointment to give her 180 calories every day, which is what i did for about 4-5 weeks or so with no progress. I decided to bring it down to about 170kcal about 2 weeks ago now, and she is still sitting at exactly 12lbs.

She’s been getting 20g of dry food from her automatic feeder for breakfast, half a 2.8oz can of wet food for lunch, and a full can of that same wet food for dinner.

I called her vet’s office because I’m hesitant to cut her calories down any further without their guidance, and I spoke with another doctor who said I should be giving her 200 calories a day, which doesn’t really make sense when she hasn’t made any progress on 180-170?

She is a bit of a couch potato, so I honestly just think she doesn’t use much energy, so she prob just requires a smaller amount of food than the average, but I don’t know forsure. I just want my girl to be healthy and to be with me for as long as possible lol. I’m probably going to give it about another week on her current amount and see if any progress is made, but if it’s still the same, what would you guys do?

She has been to the vet, and the vet did not mention anything too concerning. He did call her round though and to keep an eye on her. Her brother is healthy weight, maybe on the lighter end of healthy weight but we are monitoring him.

She is now 14 months old, and has been at this same weight since she was 9 months.

My cats are free fed and given wet food once a day. The vet said to try to keep free feeding them as long as we can. Her ribs are pretty easy to feel.

My friend has had this cat (Mogwli) for a few years now. He's around 5 years old and only has 3 legs. When they got him he was skinnier, but he's up to around 14 pounds now.

She feds him a quarter of a wet food can in the morning. She also keeps a bowl with around a cup of cat food in the cupboard and puts it down when he screams (around 3 times day). He mostly sits around on the catio, but they have a 6 month old kitten who he plays with throughout the day which does give him some exercise. Even when they do play, Mowgli hops around fast as he cant run. Is there anything my friend can do to help him get more meaningful activity? Should she feed him less or maybe in a more structured way?

They also have a cat wheel but he just sits on it lol