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Cat Forum / General Topics / September 2005Occasional fasting a good idea or not?
AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? > AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in > a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? Its never a good a idea to fast a cat unless she's vomiting (e.g., pancreatitis), going in for surgery or blood tests. Cats don't have the capability to conserve nitrogen from the body's general nitrogen pool- so if they don't consume protein every day they'll catabolize their body protein to meet their protein needs. Phil >AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in >a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? Are you out of your mind? Before you do anything stupid like that, check with your feline family member's vet., ok? > AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in > a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? Definitely not a good idea, Ajanta. Cats need their high-protein diet pretty much full-time, unless contrary advice is given by a vet due to illness/surgery. In an extreme case, I knew of a feral rescue cat who was self-fasting due to the stress of captivity. Cat rescue had taken her in because she was heavily pregnant and needed help. Unfortunately, due to this self-induced fast, the mother cat re-absorbed her litter. So tragic... and potentially dangerous. I'm well aware that wild exotic cats fast - or seem to fast. When food is scarce, fasting is hardly a choice. I even know of a zoo which includes a 'fast day' into their big cat feeding regime. However, I'm sure this zoologicial case is carefully controlled by an exotic species vet. On a personal level, I have a female cat (Panther) who has put on extra weight since her spaying. To deal with this, I changed her biscuits (she also has wet food) to a 'light' menu. This is gradually helping. When she heard of this, my vet was very pleased that I had taken this step. If you're thinking about fasting as away of dealing with an overweight cat, try a 'light' menu. Please don't risk fasting your cat without consulting your vet. Spider > On a personal level, I have a female cat (Panther) who has put on extra > weight since her spaying. Neutered cats have a lower daily energy requirement and require about 1/3 less calories. Phil > > On a personal level, I have a female cat (Panther) who > > has put on extra weight since her spaying. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Phil Tell that to my fatso moggy ;-) Ivor > > > On a personal level, I have a female cat (Panther) who > > > has put on extra weight since her spaying. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Tell that to my fatso moggy ;-) I meant neutered cats should be fed 1/3 calories. P. : Definitely not a good idea, Ajanta. Cats need their high-protein diet : pretty much full-time, unless contrary advice is given by a vet due to [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] : a 'light' menu. Please don't risk fasting your cat without consulting your : vet. Let me explain where I am coming from. If I ate just the right meals all the time, there should be no need to fast. However, in America people as well as cats tend to be overfed rather than underfed. If you skip one meal every 15-20 meals, that's not fasting really, it just corrects for all the overeating, treats, snacks. I understand Phil when he said cats can't store food. But I am not talking about going days without food. Some cats are fed once a day, so they can certaonly go 24 hours. Most feed every 12 hours. I am talking about making the gap 24 hours just once a week. BTW, rest assured I am not doing anything rash. This whole discussion is theoretical, trying to understand how best to integrate cats with modern industrial-food environment. > I understand Phil when he said cats can't store food. That's not exactly what I meant. I was referring to their inability to store protein not actual food. The cat's protein-catabolizing enzymes operate at relatively high rates of activity and don't decrease when the cat consumes low or no protein. So if the cat doesn't consume high amounts of protein daily, she'll start to catabolize her own body protein to meet her needs. Cat's can't conserve protein, so every time a cat reuses her protein she loses some of it. This is one of the reasons why cats have a higher protein requirement than the dog and other mammals. Phil. > Let me explain where I am coming from. If I ate just the right meals > all the time, there should be no need to fast. However, in America > people as well as cats tend to be overfed rather than underfed. First of all, cat food is specially formulated to be "the right meal" so it's good to give it all the time. Secondly, your cat will only be overfed if you feed him/her too much. If you're worried that the cat is eating too much you need to switch to diet food, cut back a bit on portion size, or, better yet, talk to a veterinarian for a body evaluation and then make dietary changes accordingly.  SignatureMar --------- VTIT >BTW, rest assured I am not doing anything rash. You just admitted you were being rash by accepting poor eating habits as the norm, : >BTW, rest assured I am not doing anything rash. : You just admitted you were being rash by accepting poor : eating habits as the norm, I meant this is just conversation, debating ideas. My thoughts may be right or not but they don't affect what I feed the cat. I am not going to change the actual diet based on impulses or some newsgroup thread, without considerable validation from diverse sources. You are probably not used to the research world where people routinely analyze a lot of "what if" scenarios. > AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in > a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? NO!! Even when my cat was overweight, the vet said not to cut his intake by more than 10% and that it would take months before any results were seen. > > AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in > > a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? > > NO!! Even when my cat was overweight, the vet said not to cut his > intake by more than 10% and that it would take months before any > results were seen. My vet said for weight loss 25% reduction was fine. We did that with no ill effects. But why anyone would think a cat should "fast" is beyond me. >AS with people, is it a good thing for cats too to skip a meal once in >a while, say once a week (which is what I tend to do myself)? What makes you think it's a good idea for people to skip meals? That's kind of crazy - if you're overweight or eat too much, it would be better to correct your poor eating habits. That's the most ridulous thing I've ever heard. You're going to starve your cat to lose weight?! How absurd, cruel and retarded. Just ignorant. How about ever hear of diet food, strick diet. Regular meals, smaller quantities? Might want to look into that. What kind of person skips meals to lose weight. Any idiot knows smaller quantities more often is better for your health and metabolism. If any meal is skipped the body automatically goes into safety mode and stores all food afterwards as fat because it doesn't know when the next meal is coming. Think clearly before you do something so ridiculous and hard yourself or your cat!! JQ : What makes you think it's a good idea for people to skip meals? There is immense vloume of research that occasional fasting---typically one meal per week, skip the food but not water---is good for human health, even independent of weight considerations. Of course, cats are different and the same may or may not apply to them. References to any research that may have been done are more useful than knee-jerk arguments and name calling. |
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