If your cat is getting to be a little too heavy, then you may be rightfully concerned about their health. Overweight pets are often exposed to increased risks for a number of ailments including diabetes and possibly fatty tumors. Putting your cat on a diet is a great step to improving their health, and in this article we’re going to cover the best foods you can use for this, and also some tips to helping your feline friend regain their svelte figure.
How do you make sure you’re feeding your cat the right amount?
Feeding your cat a lower calorie food is a great first step toward their weight loss, but you of course also need to make sure that they are eating the correct amount of food! It’s perfectly easy for them to over eat a diet food as well, and you’ll need to adequately monitor their intake. While being a few pounds over or under weight won’t phase a human, it’s a big deal for a cat. Unfortunately, most pet parents don’t really know how much a cat should be eating! So, let’s start there. These are the typical feeding guidelines when offering wet foods to your cat.
A healthy and active 8 pound cat requires about 240 calories per day. This comes out to around 30 calories per pound of body weight per day. Please note that you should split this amount into multiple feedings. At least twice per day, but if your cat seems to have trouble eating that much at once, then you may need to feed them this amount divided into three meals.
What kind of cat food should you be looking for?
Like most humans, pets get fat because they are ingesting an excessive amount of junk food. While for humans this is usually things like cake or cookies, for pets this is typically an excessive amount of grains. Most cheaper foods are chock full of these, because they make a good filler that adds calories but offers little in the way of nutrition. Your best bet for slimming your cat is to find a food for them that is high in protein and features very low amounts of or preferably no grains. Here’s what to look for when selecting the best canned cat food for weight loss.
Look for foods that are
- High in protein
- Low in carbohydrates
- Use quality food sources
Best wet cat food for weight loss options
Okay! Now that we know what we’re looking for and we know how much we’re supposed to actually be feeding our cats, it’s time to dive into Beanietoes picks for the best weight management cat foods. We’ll also tell you why we picked these specific foods as well! Okay, here’s our picks for best wet cat food for weight loss.
#1 -NomNomNow
This is the absolute best wet food diet available for cats. Partly because it’s not a wet food in the traditional sense. It’s actually a highly nutritious whole food diet that is tailored specifically to your cat. Everything comes already portioned out so you can make sure that you are giving your cat exactly the right amount of food to be healthy, and the company will even work with you to perfect this food to your cat’s needs which is pretty cool. They also ship it right to your door for you! With NomNomNow, all the work of helping your cat to slim down is done for you. There’s no calorie counting or portioning involved, making it one of the easiest ways to help your cat achieve a healthy body weight. A high-quality fresh food also offers numerous health benefits, and the moisture content helps to avoid major health issues like struvite crystals or kidney problems which can plague cats, especially as they get older.
What’s great about it?
- High in protein and low in carbs
- Limited ingredient list (good for allergies!)
- Only whole food items
- Restaurant quality ingredients
- Perfectly portioned for you cat (Calorie work is done for you!)
- Formulated by a vet
- Scheduled delivery to your door
- Meals can be tailored to fit your cat
- Highest quality food for cats available
This company, based out of San Francisco, only uses restaurant quality, limited ingredient recipes that are formulated by a vet! Above you can see the recipe for the fish diet which includes only five ingredients, and they provide a complete nutritional breakdown for you. While you might think that this diet would be much more expensive then a canned diet, it might surprise you how affordable it is. It can even be less expensive than a comparable, high-quality wet cat food diet at around $14 per week. You can learn more about them here. This is the absolute best wet cat food for weight loss, because all of the food comes pre-portioned so that your cat can’t be over fed.
#2 – Halo Cat Food
Looking for something a little less pricey, but still pretty good? That’s okay, we understand some pet parents are on a budget! We’ve got a great recommendation for you as well. While not marketed as a “diet cat food”, Halo is actually an exceptional pick for it. Let’s take a look at the ingredients and the nutritional information for this brand.
Let’s start with the calories. Most Halo brand cat foods have approximately 160-180 calories per 5.5 oz can. Based on our previous assessment of what a cat needs to be healthy, this should be an excellent amount for your cat to lose weight. Our previous feeding instructions actually come from the Halo foods, and all of their products actually come with similar easy to understand instructions to help you feed your cat the right amount. Their recipes are also very palatable, and your cat won’t even know he or she is eating a lower calorie food. That makes the transition that much easier, and they have many tasty flavors available, making it easy to pick one that your kitty will be happy to eat.
Halo makes highly digestible recipes which can help your cat retain more nutrients, and they use only human grade, whole food ingredients, and their recipes are very limited in design. This makes it an excellent choice for cats that have sensitive stomachs or who may have allergic reactions to other foods. If you’d like to see our full, in depth review of the Halo cat food brand and all of the flavors they offer, you can do so here. This is the best wet cat food for weight loss for pet parents on a budget.
What’s great about it?
- High in protein
- Limited ingredient list (good for allergies!)
- Only whole food items
- Human grade ingredients
- Grain-free varieties available
- Easy to digest
- Affordable option
#3 – Wysong Archetype Raw Diet
This awesome pet food is made by Wysong. While they aren’t as well known as some other brands, they’ve been creating high-quality foods for pets since the 70s. The truth is, Wysong has cared about the health of pets long before most other manufacturers did. They also offer extremely nutritious, high protein diets for cats. Their Archetype diet is so nutritious that it can actually be fed to cats or dogs. What stops cats from being able to eat most commercial dog foods is that they’re too full of fillers, preventing cats from getting adequate nutrition, but there are no fillers in Wysong’s Archetype. In fact, this diet is composed of nearly 95% whole meat, and it’s completely starch free. Since it’s mostly meat, there’s no carbohydrate fillers making up empty calories, and your cat will be able to fill up on good food instead. It should be mentioned however that their chicken recipe is rather high in fat content, and for overweight cats it might be better to choose quail, pollock or rabbit instead.
Raw diets offer the best nutrition, because they are very minimally processed. They also offer the best flavor, making them a great choice for picky cats. This food contains little besides a single name meat protein, so it’s also excellent for cats with lots of allergies or food sensitivities. This is a freeze dried food, and while you can feed it dry, we recommend re-hydrating it with water in order to give your cat the maximum benefit and to add much needed liquids to their diet. While Archetype raw diets are more expensive than canned foods, this product is actually very affordable when it comes to raw diets. Click here to learn more about this excellent food for your cat.
What’s great about it?
- Nutritious raw diet
- Focuses on just one meat protein (good for allergies or food sensitivities)
- 95% meat proteins
- Starch free and very low carb
- High in protein
- Very palatable for picky eaters
- Low in carbs (good for diabetic diets)
# 4- Taste of The Wild Cat Food
Taste of the Wild offers an exceptional low calorie food that is filled with healthy proteins and cuts out the carbs that your cat does not require. This food has just 145 calories in a 5.5 ounce can, and it would be an excellent brand to switch to if you’re looking to help your kitty drop the extra pounds. It even contains probiotics which can aid in digestion. It’s a good option, and it features a high protein percentage, but it’s not quite as affordable as Halo’s diets are, and it includes some less desirable items like potato starch unfortunately. It is however a good option for reducing calories.
The biggest problem with this particular diet though is that some pet parents have stated that their cats simply refuse to eat it. If you’re worried that your cat may be picky about what they are eating, then you may want to go with the Halo diet. That one seems to be particularly tasty for whatever reason, and my cat never refuses it when it’s offered to him. For extra picky cats, avoid novel proteins. These are food sources which they not accustom to eating. Opt for familiar favorites like fish, chicken or turkey if you want to make sure they eat what is offered.
What’s great about it?
- High in protein and low in carbs
- Limited ingredient list (good for allergies!)
- Real meat ingredients
- Grain free
- Contains probiotics
- Very affordable option
What else can you do to help your cat lose weight?
While nutrition is of course the most important step to helping your cat lose weight, you don’t have to stop there! You can also help your cat to shed the pounds by helping him to be more active. Try to get your cat to play more often. Even if your cat seems like he doesn’t like playing very much, that may change if you join in with a feather toy or even a laser pointer! Many times your cat is just bored, and playing with them can help them to be more active and stop them from just lounging around the house. It’s also important to remember that while toys do help, your cat wants to play with you. Participating in their play activities is the surest way to keep their attention and get them to continue exercising.
However, you might also consider a cat tree, which could encourage him to climb. Cats love being up high, and they’ll naturally be attracted to scaling these areas, giving them much needed exercise. Or, if you’re feeling really adventurous, some cats actually do enjoy going on walks. If you fancy trying to teach your cat something new, then you could try teaching him to walk with a harness. Taking a short walk every day would definitely help him to shed a few pounds, even if it’s just around the yard. If that doesn’t sound too fun, then they actually have exercise wheels available for larger pets. These are similar to hamster wheels, and the small one is perfect for dogs or cats that weigh up to 25 lbs. While getting your cat to walk on the wheel will be a little more work than with a dog, many of them do actually enjoy it. Here’s a video of the wheel in action!
