Weight management

We've talked about the importance of Neutering in past articles, and just to recap, the purpose of neutering is not to take away happiness for your cat. Quite the opposite, it is to make a better assurance of a life without all the troubles an unneutered cat would bring. Just like parents have to make decisions for their children before the children are responsible enough to make the pressing decisions for themselves, cats also do not know what is ultimately best for them and living a happy life.

This brings me to my next point, and the main point of this post which is the importance of watching the weight of your cat. Post neutering usually brings about a hormonal change in your cat causing it to become less active. Without reducing it's calorie intake, it is inevitable that less activity with the same energy intake results in excess energy being stored as fat.

As cute as cats look when they are chubby, it is important to keep their weight in check to stop other weight induced problems. These are all common issues human beings also face when dealing with weight problems. Examples might include : Diabetes, Heart disease etc.

Even though your pet may not express his discomfort, being obese for them is also uncomfortable. For example, arthritis is a common issue with overweight cats and this is something they cannot communicate to you. But in addition to this, studies have shown that being overweight also leads to emotional stress for the cats.

What can you do to improve their health?

Make sure you are keeping your pet's macro's under check. This means finding the equilibrium where the number of calories consumed equals the calories burnt.

The more meals and less quantity works really well, and assuming you are feeding them quality food, then each serving size being a tiny bit smaller means more meals for them. Just like humans, once you eat a little bit and let time go by, you might even feel full.

Make sure you give your cat ample room to run around, and encourage them by playing with them with a variety of toys. Lasers, fishing rods, catnip, fake mice, even ipad games. As long as you give them a bit of activity everyday, then your pet's muscles won't go through atrophy and fat will accumulate slower or not at all.