Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello everyone! New member here as well as new cat owner and I need some advice. I adopted Princess a week ago and she needs a bit of weight loss. She's 16 pounds and isn't very active, front leg amputee and is eating Science Diet Optimal Care dry food twice a day at the moment. I have a limited budget so I'd like to switch to a different food if possible. Thank you very much for any help!
Hi and Welcome and Princess is a doll! Thank you for adopting Princess. She will be a wonderful first cat. Tripawds are special in every way!
We are currently on diets in our household of two cats our Tripawd Purrkins is a front leg amp as well. We have tried many diets thru the years and nothing worked for us until now ,what is working for us is Calorie control! Purrkins has lost 1lb 56 ounces we still have 1 1/2 lb to go.
You should talk to your Vet before starting any weight loss with Princess. You will want to watch her weight and loss very closely.
I will give you a link that we are going by, there is a wealth of information on there. Its a lot of reading but a very informative site written by a DVM.
http://catinfo......-fat-cats/
Please read the website - Diets in kitties you have to be extremely careful! It needs to be a slow process. If your feeding dry, just by switching to any wet cat food would start the weight loss!
There is a ton of resources on her site on nutrition etc. It is worth the time to read !
Slow is best in kitties and it is a process and it will take a lot of will on your part;) Do not give in no matter how much complaining is going on. The complaining will stop.
Best of luck and keep us posted please .
Hugs
Holly & Purrkins
Holly gave you a great website to follow and some very good suggestions.
Because I travel so much for work my cats get a bit of wet food and some dry food. This makes it easier for the cat sitter. I feed them in different places in the house and they each get different amounts. The dry food is carefully weighed out.
My tripawd Mona only eats a bit of wet food at a time. The ideal for her is to have a number of little meals throughout the day but that doesn't work with my other cat who believes no food should be left behind. So I feed them twice a day.
They do not get treats other than their dental kibble and I play games with the kibble such as hiding it, or putting them in shot glasses. I think cats looking for treats are really looking for attention and interactions so it's fun to play a game with them at this time or to distract completely by playing with a toy or brushing or massaging them. There is no need to buy toys for cats because you can always find something around the house such as a feather or ribbon.
You will find Princess will become more active when she starts to lose weight. Remember you don't need to buy a scale to weigh her but can take her in to your vets to use their scale.
Congratulations on your new family member!
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
I'm a professional pet sitter so I've pretty much seen it all when it comes to diets! 🙂 I agree with switching to wet food. Dry tends to be much higher in carbs, thus the weight gain/retention. Read your labels, you want something that starts with meat, not a grain. No corn, wheat, soy, etc. Those are just filler.
This is a good resource to review different brands. http://bestcatf.....visor.net/
I currently feed Bob Merrick's wet food and a very small amount (like 1-2 tablespoons per day) of Blue Buffalo Freedom grain free . I think once the bag of Blue Buffalo runs out I'm considering switching to Prairie as BB has had a lot of recalls lately. http://www.prai.....tfood.com/
Also, please keep in mind that the higher the quality food, the less they need because they absorb more of the nutrients, thus less "output" from the other end. 🙂 So, just because something is more expensive, it may not end up being that way because they will eat a little less.
Hope that helps!
Hi Princess and family, welcome! Thank you so much for adopting this sweetie. Do you know how she lost her leg? I have no doubt she will be the optimal weight in no time with your help. As you can see this community is a wealth of information, our kitty members rock!
First, if you haven't already, have her checked out at the vet, just to make sure there's nothing else going on.
And here are some Tripawds resources that can give you some ideas on weight loss:
Weight Loss Ideas for Pets on Three (and Four) Legs
And the following post is about dogs, but it discusses the weight loss of a high protein diet, which Dr. Ward discusses in the Tripawd Talk Radio show link above:
Weight Loss With a High Protein Raw Diet? Ask Wyatt!
We weren't big fans of rx diets before Wyatt went on one. But once we saw how well he digested the food, we could see the benefits. A premium food designed for a certain health issue is bound to deliver what it promises. I would ask your vet about one of the rx foods for weight loss in cats to see if it's right for Princess.
Good luck and let us know how things go. We are always interested in learning more about cats here so keep us posted!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Just want to say hello and welcome!! And thank you for giving Princess such a loving furever home!! 🙂
Her avatar picture is absolutely adorable!
We have ROCK STAR kitties here! You can ALWAYS count on great advice from Mona and Purrkins and some of'our other kitty family members!
Hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
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