Last Sunday, I took in an extremely obese owner give-up. Spider weighed
21lbs, the vet is estimating his ideal weight to be between 10-12lbs.
His buddy, Snowball, is only about 4lbs overweight.
As they are new to my household, I initially simply put their food out,
as I was expecting them to be a little nervous. They didn't eat at all
for 2 days, then one morning both bowls were empty. The next day, I
tried to switch them to three meals a day (I was told by the previous
owner that Snowball in particular is a picky eater and does not like
her food to be stale), each time removing the foodbowls after 15
minutes. But they barely touched the food each time, so I again left
the food out over night, and it was gone in the morning.
At this point, after one week, both cats will not eat when I am there.
They take one look, and then Snowball begs at the door to be allowed
out to explore the house, and Spider jumps on the sofa to be petted. I
tried tempting them with canned food, but they are not interested.
Together, they are eating about 1 cup of Iams Weight Control a day, and
though feeding guidelines are only that, guidelines, it seems like they
should be eating more in order to avoid rapid weight loss. Right now,
they have each lost 1lb, but given that they didn't eat at all for 2
days, that seems ok?!? Though I want both of them to go onto a weight
reduction program, I want this weight loss to be controlled and very
gradual.
Does anyone have experience with early warning signs for Hepatic
Lipidosis? As of which point should this be a concern?
Thanks!