I think melon in the video felt like what you feel like when your mom talks to her friends in the supermarket and tells something embarrassing about you
Jackson, how about a video on feeding a multi-cat household where the cats all have different needs? For example, I have a chonk who needs to lose weight and also a super senior struggling to keep weight on.
They're a bit pricey, especially when you need a few, but there are microchipped feeders! They're air tight when closed so you can have wet and dry food in it. They only open to the cat that it's programmed for. If the cat isn't microchipped, it comes with a small tag that goes on the cat's collar. Definitely worth the investment! :)
@@katiemcfadden2228 do you have one that you would recommend? My problem is my boy, who is a little bigger than my girl, needs to lose more weight and he's so damned picky. She's happy with the wet food and will pretty much eat in one sitting. He screams and cries and will flat out ignore the wet if it's down. And I'm terrified of him getting sick from not eating. In fact, right now, he's pawing at me (he likes to brush my hair) because he also wants food and we're in the bathroom where he eats. Thing is, I don't even put much food down for the two of them combined! I've been making an effort to do better because honestly they do both need to lose weight but he makes it much more difficult. From the day I brought him home I tried getting them on a schedule and it wouldn't take.
@@brokenfoxx hey there! The brand I used was SureFeed microchip feeder. It’s about $150 on Chewy right now. It’s more for people who leave food down all day, but since it’s microchipped, it’ll only open for the cat who’s programmed to use it. So since your girl cat will eat her wet food in one sitting, you could use it for the boy and put his food in it so it’ll only open for him. There’s a training mode to use until he gets used to it. If he’s microchipped you can just use that, but it does come with a tag that can be put on a collar that has a chip in it if he’s not. Definitely a pricy food bowl, but it does work! :)
My cat will chase the freeze dried chicken, so at night we have a routine where I throw pieces across the room and up and downstairs and he runs around like crazy killing and eating them and then we have a peaceful sleep 😆 He’s not overweight but I wanted to make sure he’s getting plenty of exercise and doesn’t become overweight. Also I think it makes it more fun if he’s chased down the treat and he seems to love it. Obviously we play with toys too for fun and exercise 😊
No lie, my cat was getting a little chunky at 13 lbs but only getting a 1/4c of food 2x a day. I bought him an automatic feeder where he gets a little bit 4x a day and you can adjust the portions. He lost 3 lbs over the course of a couple months. The vet was very impressed
Cats need to lose weight slowly to be safe; it's usually a sign of illness when it happens quickly. I'm glad he's okay. Curious to know if his thyroid & neutrophil levels were tested?
@@the_glitter_is if I hadn't been actively adjusting his feeding habits then I would consider it a health issue. But the entire project was for him to lose weight. His check-up was delayed from covid, that's when they weighed him. 3-4mos later later he went in for his yearly teeth cleaning where they also take his blood and urine. He's perfect.
I free feed mine One of them throws up a lot so I switched the food to Blue Buffalo diet control and he stopped throwing up I was feeding them Purina cat chow natural
I finally stopped giving dry food free feeding and now all my cats eat there canned food completely and they are less picky. Best thing I have done for them. I also realize that my cats love to play and sometimes they eat when they are bored. So playing with them more also helps them to not over eat. Thanks Jackson for you teaching. It has helped me and my furbabies be happier and healthier.
This may have been said already but in the UK biscuits when referring to cats is actually dry cat food NOT treats, I believe it is the same in Australia which is where that lady sounded like she was from. Treats are just called treats. 😆
That’s so confusing. When it comes to human food, Americans have to constantly remind themselves other countries mean a sweet dessert when they say biscuits. And then for cats it doesn’t mean that? What?
@@theknightswhosay Biscuits aren't always sweet. They're any dry, unleavened flat, baked good. So what you call crackers are also called biscuits in Aus/NZ. Dry cat food is referred to as biscuits because it's dry, crunchy, unleavened and baked. It's basically crackers for cats.
Me, enthusiastically shouting "Obligate Carnivores" and smiling when Jackson confirms what he was about to say. Also Melon 11/10 good luck on the journey buddy.
Thank you! I learned THE HARD way, with Jack, my first cat. I loved him to pieces! I didn't know much about cats, and I fed him mainly dry food for the first 7 years. Until...Yup, you guess right, he was overweight and got diagnosed with diabetes. That's when I started learning...He lived 10 more years. I gave him insulin shots twice a day and monitored his blood sugar religiously. He had a good life, but it could have been much healthier. Eventually he lost a battle with cancer. I loved his so much. My 3 new cats eat wet food. I sometimes give them dry kibbles though, I hide them in places around the house so they have to "hunt" for them. Random places! I will remember to "play dead" if they bother me during the night!!
I have also learned the hard way about feeding dry kibble. My oldest cat (I adopted him at 2 years old) ate exclusively dry food for the first probably ~6 years of his life and now here he is at 10 years old with stage 3 kidney disease!! Granted, we are all fairly certain he got the short end of the stick genetically due to his numerous other lifelong problems, but I can imagine the dry food diet did NOT do his kidneys any favors. Now he has a special wet food-ONLY diet and receives sub-q fluids daily along with his medications/supplements as well as regular blood draws/tests. The good thing is that he appears to be feeling better than he has in years and he is in great shape, but I now use this experience of going through kidney disease with him to encourage other cat owners I know to feed appropriate wet food diets as early as possible. I know that not everyone has the same level of animal care skills nor the same amount of time, and kidney disease can be a difficult/stressful disease to manage at times, so it really pays to prevent the cat- and human-suffering with a simple diet change. My two younger boys have a routine where with their dinner at night they get 1-2 "treat mice" which are these little balls with mouse "skins" around them that are filled with either a few dry kibble or a few dried meat chunks. I hide them in different places every night so they have to hunt them down and then bat them around to get the food out. @Camilla M, If you are ever looking to mix up your nightly game, I recommend!
A really good friend of mine had her oldest kitty get diagnosed with diabetes after some terrifying symptoms started and she immediately switched everyone over to wet food, as did I. This was news to me as my husband and I had concluded after researching it that “grain free” fancy kibble was what would be healthiest for the Bubbers. The first 2 years of his life were spent at a lake house, coming and going as he pleased, devastating the local fauna, but he was incredibly healthy. He gained so much weight after becoming an indoor only cat when we moved closer to the city and I also learned how dangerous it is for cats to be outside. Bad info has definitely been too ubiquitous in the past and I think it’s really great and helpful that you guys have specific things you can tell folks about to give people good examples to try and implement for their own cats. I love these Jackson Galaxy comments sections bc it’s so comforting to see people out here who love their cats so much fussing over what’s best for them 😻😻😻
@@mightymoose1158 Oh, but aren't the warm bedtime cuddles part and parcel with having a cat? The sleepy purrs, the floppy paws... I sleep worse, when my Clousy is locked out of my bedroom, because he will rive at the door all night and that puts my anxiety through the roof. It's hard getting bopped, in the face, throughout the night (particularly when they decide that soft paw isn't working and start introducing a tentative claw into the situation) but trying to sleep with the sound of someone (the cat - but the subconscious mind doesn't remember it's the cat) trying to break in is so much harder. I think you're very stoical!
Breaks my heart when I see massive obese cats on Instagram 😭🤬. It's not healthy, it's not funny, it's not entertaining. My sister in law had a beautiful golden retriever she just spoiled rotten and I mean rotten. That poor dog couldn't move, had all sorts of health issues, died of multiple tumors very early on due to diet and massive weight. We have four cats in our house, one of them we do have to keep an eye on. She has a sluggish metabolism so we watch her diet carefully and make sure she gets plenty of exercise. I just know some people find it cute or funny to have a plump, obese pet and it's not funny or cute at all, it's abuse.
Its not just being obese that's heartbreaking, its the food they are feeding their pets. People think its funny to feed hot dogs or McDonalds to pets 🤮
@@ceymonepugh2211 Thankfully she never got another dog. She was never able to care for that dog. He spent his entire life sick, health problems of every kind. We were always getting after her for animal abuse but she just laughed at us🤦. That poor dog did not get to live a good quality life. But the way she treated her dog is how she raised her kids as well and they're a menace to society
That first point is so important. My compulsive eater has IBD and was not absorbing her food well so constantly felt hungry. We got her medicated and on prescription food and she stopped begging for food within a few days.
Do you know what medication your vet put her on? I have a 1 year old cat. She has absorption and digestion issues reasons unknown (the vet’s exhausted basically every route). Never tried meds for ibd and I wonder if it could help? She’s on biome food which helps. But she is continuously starving and can get quite hangry. She is now a chub because she’s a wallflower and I give her extra food to be around other pets/people in the house. I also feel guilty she is always starving. Like I’ve never had a pet like her before.
@@RosaliePacheco Mine is on prednisolone and monthly B12 injections. The pred does make her extra hungry, I feed her 1/4 cup of Royal Canin HP/SO twice a day and she does still beg a lot. I hope you can get some answers for your kitty soon!
@@RosaliePacheco - Have you tried supplementing her food with ENZYMES and PROBIOTICS , , , ? My cats were always hungry & some were even violent towards each other (deep biting that led to infections & vet visits) . . . until I began supplementing Enzymes & Probiotics with their EVERY meal. Soon afterward, those w/ prior violent behaviors STOPPED being violent! They'd apparently not been getting all of their nutrition, even though some of the violent ones were overweight! (Young Again Pet Food sells the supplement -& food- my cats are getting, on the internet.) . . . I already had them on a Carbohydrate-Free, Limited Ingredient Diet (LID), as one cat has stomatitis . . . but there just weren't enough enzymes & no probiotics in the food to help them ingest all of its important constituents!
“Food oriented” is not bad when you want to train a cat. I have a cat who would balance on a ball wearing a hat whistling “Yankee Doodle Dandy” if the bribe was big enough. I also have a kitten who doesn’t even recognize his own name, and if you offer him food, he plays with it. The problem is when they start training YOU.
Growing up I had a cat named Sox... she was perfectly healthy, along with her sister Smudge. She was a perfect weight right up until my aunt and uncle had to babysit our 3 cats for two weeks. They decided to free feed them... and from that point on, Sox was a heckin chonk no matter WHAT. She just never lost the weight. It was bizarre.
Our late cat went through a chonk phase. We did the puzzle feeder and it worked GREAT. He ate enough to not be hungry, but it was work for him to get the food out, so he didn’t just mindlessly graze.
My cat very quickly figured out it was much easier to just wack the puzzle over to get to the food. I have a different one that he can't tip over and that works a bit better. He's still too big though...
I didn't realize how much my cat was being overfed until pointed out by her vet. My girl, a Siamese mix that's three, now only gets 1/2 cup of dry food...per day, and 1/2 package of seafood bisque...also per day! Compared to the full bowl of dry left out for her day and night, and full pouch of the bisque she got. The vet also shared that cat's stomachs are very small. She's lost the extra weight, and, I've discovered, she's not at all as hungry as I assumed. It's we, the owners that are the problem, and thanks to her vet, bad habits have been corrected with great success. In place of her previous overeating, we now play together more than before, a lot more exercise. There's a water bowl near her food, and a water fountain in the bedroom, so she get's plenty of water.
Sounds great for you and her both! One tip- cats often prefer that water be kept a little way away from food. Possibly wild instinct, to avoid contaminating it with decaying food. Even though that's not a problem in the modern world, instinct is instinct. :)
Jackson, we need a video about feeding cats raw meat, is store bought chicken good? Beef, pork, lamb, quail, rabbit? What is best and how to handle, store, feed and freeze for all uses. How to prepare and good hygiene too. Let us hear your ideas. Thanks
@@ksisu1324 I think what Mav eL meant there is that it can't just be meat. If you're feeing raw then it needs to be a balanced raw of meat, organ and bone
My cats are on a raw diet. In Australia we have a product called Vets All Natural which I add to raw kangaroo for my cats. The idea behind it is to mimic a cat eating prey in the wild including their stomach contents which would have a small amount of seeds and or grains in it naturally. My cats are both very healthy on this was of eating.
@@ksisu1324 no. when you feed them raw meat you are not giving them a whole mice but parts of the animal. they need vitamins too and when raw feeding you have to include certain vitamins to a certain extent
My big beautiful Bonnie girl is no longer receiving as many “treaties”. Her previous owner overindulged, but we are now eating healthy and exercising daily. Twenty pounds and dropping 😻
My kitty was so big people would ask me is she was pregnant all the time. The vet wanted her to lose some weight (from 15 down to 12 or 11 lbs) so I started paying attention to her behavior after she ate. For one, I eliminated gluten from her diet. She still gets some dry food (1/3 of a cup, grain free) a day but the rest of her meals are wet food. And guess what? She's 12.5 lbs now! It did take about a year or so but it worked. Watching your show and this channel has helped me to understand her better, so thank you, Cat Daddy!
I adopted a big boy, his heaviest 22lbs. He is a tall guy so the vet set a goal of 13lbs. It takes time, energy & consistency but after changing to high protein, grain-free wet food only & playing everyday, he is now 14lbs. You'd never know he is 15. 😸💕 Suffice to say, obese cats break my ❤️ & their owners infuriate me. It's abuse.
Hi Frederick would you share the brand of food? I need to help my beautiful girl loose a few pounds! I would like to try the food you used! Thank you!!!
Something Jackson said once has been the most powerful thing about feeding cats that I’ve ever heard. He said, “It’s better to feed your cat the lowest quality wet food than it is to feed him the highest quality dry food.” As somebody that is in a literal constant battle with my terrorist cat to keep him healthy, I wouldn’t call fat pets abuse. At worst, it’s neglect, but I think mostly it’s ignorance. My cat became overweight after moving to the city and becoming an indoor only cat. He grew up across from a lake coming and going as he pleased, devastating the local fauna I’m sure, but he was very healthy. I got married and my husband would feed him when he asked, without knowing, and then poof one day he was fat. My husband had actually started buying him the fancy cat food when we moved in together thinking it was better for him (“look! It’s grain free and I read that’s what cats should be eating bc they are obligate carnivores!”) and to this day they are best friends so I wouldn’t say he abused him, he really thought he was taking good care of him. He read about it and so many resources were wrong back then especially. It also doesn’t help that my cat will gaslight us when we are alone and act like he hasn’t JUST been fed when the other spouse _has_ actually already fed him. So it takes literal _constant_ work to keep this dude from eating himself into a coma, work that we had to do together and adapt and evolve and research and communicate to accomplish. It’s hard, but your experience and knowledge can help others a lot. It’s incredibly encouraging to hear how far you’ve come and telling people what you did and how you did it could really make a difference. The most important thing is awareness, which really isn’t there is so many cases. So, thanks for your story and I hope you share more! It’s truly noble what you’ve done and the world needs more people like you.
I ran across this video and had no idea dry food was so bad for cats. As soon as I watched this video I threw out all of the dry food for both my cats. I have a 10-year-old and a two-year-old and the difference I have seen in my 10 year old cat is incredible. He is running around and playing like I almost don’t even recognize him I had no idea I was hurting my cats. Thank you for your work
Not particularly, there are some dry food like James well beloved that are grain free and have nutritional value but I also prefer to giver her other foods like chicken breast and other meats like beef, fish and shrimp, she loves the stuff, her coat is shiny and healthy and she's growing up very well
@@HUYI1 no, all dry kibble is bad for cats. There is no good kibble for a cat, period. Way too high in carbohydrates, and they NEED to get basically all of their moisture from food, and you can't rely on them to drink water in anywhere close to what the amount they need.
@@amymeyer3658 my girl eats grain free dry food and I also mix wet food natural ingredients the best I can for her and also give her good high protein meats to balance her diet, her coat is beautiful and she's a healthy cat, she gets many compliments whoever meets her, I don't think I can do any better than this situation? Why do you assume that I go to supermarkets and buy crap food for her? your assumption is very bad right now, I've talked to my vet and my local pet shop place who also have cats and they have told me the best diet I can give her, please don't be ignorant and think I'm feeding her garbage I'm not and I want the best for my girl, long healthy life, why would you think I would want less for her?
My cat went on a diet a few months ago, and is starting to get back to his vet approved weight. He was never severely overweight, the vet said he was just a bit heavier than he liked, but I knew I had to nip that bud before it got to the point of being a problem. No quality of life is too good for my baby boy. We're even getting an apartment bigger than what we need, cause there's space above the kitchen cabinets to set up a cata super highway. I'm gonna get wooden ladders and wrap twine around them so they double as scratching posts.
This is great I hope you share some of your techniques and resources for folks looking to accomplish something similar! Sometimes I become really devastated when I wonder how many cats aren’t being loved enough and stuff like this helps lift the daggers out of my heart. ❤️🩹
Dearest Jackson, my feline companion Hazel who was 13 years and 3 months died 3 days ago on Sunday 29th August 2021. Her cremation is today Wednesday 1st September at 12.00pm. The pain is so deep and raw... I am wondering if you can give me some very much needed advise about how I can cope with or ease the pain/grief I am feeling. Kindest regards to you ♥
Duncan, who passed away in March, was an overweight, food motivated cat. He showed up a starving 5 month old, and the vet thinks that is where his food drive came from. The vet put him on a diet. He hated it. We worked out a feeding routine where his last meal was right at bedtime. Since he was full at bedtime, he let me sleep. I worked out a meal plan where he had 3 meals a day, roughly 8 hours apart. We got his weight down to what the vet wanted. The vet hugged me when he made weight. Now...if someone could control my kibble like I controlled his. :)
Love giving my cats tiki cat because you can SEE the chicken, the organs, the quail egg. It's so much more of a real food than dry kibble, and they love it! I'm transitioning my kitten from the kibble she had at her shelter to tiki cat and she's going FERAL for it
i agree with this so hard like when she used to eat dry food, I would be sort of disgusted to touch it because when you look at the ingredient it’s all like vague mystery Meat byproduct and chicken/corn meals just trash that the meat industry didn’t want not anything high quality but i feel so much better about feeding her tiki and she loves it too! i don’t feel disgusted by it
I got Diva with 7 years about a year ago, and as a very young cat she nearly starved to death. Food is everything to her, and she would eat about anything(not raw meat^^). She is adjusted to meals and and though she is chubby and will always be, her weight stays the same and she is absolutely fine. And she is the strongest cat i ever came across, she can knock you over. Built like a little bulldozer. I love her. Adopt don´t shop.
My boyfriend consistently gives my small female orange tabby treats saying, "She's hungry!" She has him trained. She's short in height and length. I adopted her from an animal shelter I worked at. She's very vocal too. Another reason I wanted her. I'm going to show this to him right now!
@freeanimals594 - Circumstances gifted us a feral cat, a slim, trim feral cat. But she blimped up quickly. A big part of the problem was my partner who desperately wanted the cat's affection, so overfed her and give treats all the time on top of that. It has taken a lot of convincing by me, but the kitty is now slowly losing weight.
When he talked about his little girl and her sister, I thought that he was talking human foster child.. and I thought that oh my god who gives their kid name snickers :D
My last cat was fed dry food by the time he was about 5 years old he was getting fat. We had mealtimes and I wasn't feeding that much but he was steadily gaining weight. I switched to grain-free wet food and he got trim and fit. He had more energy and played more. His fur even got better. It was odd to me because I was feeding more food by weight of the wet than I was the dry. Quality of food is very important.
I totally get it. Kitty is the first cat my husband ever had. When I moved in with him 2 years ago (we remarried after 29 years 😃) kitty weighed *17 POUNDS* . Now, with my advice (I grew up with lots of cats), kitty weighs 11 pounds. He is 5 years old and he has so much energy! He is suuuper comical and adorable! My husband thinks everything he does is original, but it is kitty doing cat things 😂.
I totally get the “being a Pez dispenser “ 🤣 my black bobtail, Thelma, has allowed me to be at her every beckoned call for 15 years and I wouldn’t trade a single second of it! 😊❤️
B "You've made your melon-shaped bed" cracked me up I do wish that you had gone over the dangers of having an overweight cat. I think people gravely underestimate how bad obesity is for a cat's health and lifespan.
It always makes me so sad when I see a picture of a fat pet and most people comment things like "What a chonk" in a positive way and view fat pets as extra cute. Reactions like those only make the problem worse, convincing pet owners that it's okay if their pet is fat (or that it's even preferable as it's "more cute") and they don't have to worry about it. In reality such pets are unhealthy, will probably live shorter and their comfort of life is lower than if they weren't overweight. We shouldn't accept and reinforce this conception that fat pets are extra cute compared to pets with normal weight when that "cute" chonk does so much damage to their health.
True true, everything you said is true but i think most pet owners KNOW that there pet (cat) is Overweight, but struggle to keep them in balance. It hurts to see these animals struggle but it really, really is hard to fix this situation. P.S: I don't have a overweight cat, my Lucy is a good 7-8 pounds and is very active :))
@@aleksnotsorry2180 the sad part is not when they not realise the cat is overweight, but when they know and tell themselves "it's too hard" to change their cat's weight
@@Karmelia6 I agree I think it might help if more people with healthy cats shared their specific techniques that help them, so there are some actual examples out here to choose from and follow. I think when it’s so murky and open ended those same lazy people aren’t ever going to do the work to create a custom meal plan so it helps cats to put some ideas out there, like specifics on what works for some cats. I know it’s different for every cat and “talk to your vet” but dude- some ppl just aren’t going to do that, and some vets are just as vague. I want to make a database of different kitty diets and regimens so people can just pick something to start with or point to for inspo. Maybe I’ll start a custom cat cuisine concierge service for the alliteration opportunities alone!
@@rainbomg talking to a vet can be worse than finding info on the internet at times when it comes to Nutrition. Most vets have little to no training in pet nutrition and recommend dry kibble that the pet food companies sell them on. This issue is becoming less and less because more pet parents are becoming more aware and the vets are being forced to take a look at all toe dried pet foods that line the shelves of their office.
My family once had a cat that weighed almost 30 pounds he wasn't chonky and believe me when I tell you that cat was built, he used to bring us 6 foot long snakes that he hunt down, he was magnificent rip little buddy...
I helped one of my long haired (Siberian Forest cat) cats - whose overly fluffy dense coat covered his excess weight well - go from 12 lbs to 8 pounds. I was feeding a freeze dried raw food diet but was just giving him what the instructions recommended which was too much for him. I gradually cut back by a half of an ounce per day of food, each week or two. I went from giving him the "recommended" 8 oz per day to 4-5 oz per day gradually. He went from fat to sleek and svelte. I now just use the freeze dried food as a back up and make fresh myself and then freeze the extra portions for him. These guidelines go without saying:1) NEVER FREE FEED! 2) Never feed dry food. 3) Feed two wet grain-free meals per day. Next: If the cat is not losing weight, cut back on the amounts of food you give him gradually as above.
One of my cats has caught 10 mice over the last few months... In the house. 2 adults and 8 babies. I think he got them all. Glad he is a good mouser. Was a cold winter mama and papa mouse were busy making babies under my house.
It is crazy how the universe knows what I need to hear by placing videos in my youtube algorithm. My furbaby was told (well his parent was told) he is a chunky monkey for his size and age. I didn't see it, I do feel it when I pick him up, and probably see it now that it was pointed out. So, this is perfect. Thank you for always providing education for humans who love their furbabies. What is great this advice may work with all furbabies, not only cats. Now to put word of advice into actions.
Our cat kept gaining weight despite feeding him less and lower calorie food and it turned out he wasn't losing any because his colon wasn't working properly. We had been feeding him tuna and it totally messed up his system but we didn't know until later how harmful it was. Don't feel your cat tuna!!!
@@caitiedidit Tuna can lead to mercury poisoning. You can give it once in a while as a special treat of the cat really loves it. But it shouldn't be the regular diet. Fish in general shouldn't be regular diet for cats because it can lead to malnutrition due to how their metabolism works.
@@caitiedidit It's very high in salt, and it's not a balanced food for cats. As an occasional treat it's fine, but definitely shouldn't be a daily thing, and should only be fed in moderation when it's given.
@@gaticornio774 Yeah I don't know why fish became the defacto cat food. I read once "think feathers and ears (i.e., rabbit, chicken,) not horns and hooves" when feeding cats. My cats do still get some wet food mixes that include pork, beef, and fish, but I try to lean more towards chicken, turkey, duck and rabbit.
I remember looking up videos about cats before adopting our first one, and found a Jackson Galaxy video about mealtimes. I’m thankful I had found it. We adopted Gurt now 3 years ago, and we do 3 mealtimes a day. Our routine made it so easy when we adopted our second cat, Parfait. She adapted very quickly even tho she was just 3-4 months old. Thank you for all of the amazing videos! I’m always learning new things thanks to Jackson.
He meows his little head off at 16:30 if I didn't give him his food. He is prompt. He gives me until 17:00 & then it's like "OK, mom, you're taking your sweet time, so let me tell you what time it is"
Thank you, we have stopped free feeding and the kitties are eating wet food and losing weight! We also tried the CATalyst for our arthritis cat and he has improved so much! I recommend you to all my cat people!
I have to agree, one of my cats was overweight for over 9 years, I decided to FINALLY change it up and stop free feeding. She lost a good amount of weight! I also trained each of my cats to have THEIR OWN food bowl. Not to eat from the other bowls. It worked! She lost so much weight and actually jumps around and plays! I can tell shes happier! Designated feeding times really works!
Please keep this topic in mind people, we lost our little dog due to diabetes. By the time we realized there was something wrong he had the beginning of liver and kidney failure. The vet said household pets need a diet that manages a healthy weight and not just having a full dish 24 hours a day. Our cat is over weight right now, but we are working on it now
My girl Evey used to be a "more to love" kitty, and she was obsessed with food like Melon. She's now a slim and happy 17 and a half year old in a single cat household. One of the big problems for her weight was sharing a house with other people who constantly left for out for their cats which my cat would steal! I have also wondered if there was an element of food anxiety there because she always felt the need to compete with other cats she lived with. Before I adopted her at age 7, she lived with 3 other cats and 2 labradors so I imagine food didn't hang around for long! Also, when we lived in the country for a year, I had her on a diet, and there were no other cats to steal from so she started catching mice and supplementing her meals all by herself 😂 she put weight ON that year! She's a very determined little kitty...
I get it with the biscuits/ treats. Around here we called them cat crack🤣. It took time and dried meat dusted with a little catnip and we kicked the habit. To save money I make the treats and all the cats love them just as much. Love you Jackson❤
I’ve had success with converting to a timed feeder, my cat isn’t massively overweight but the vet said she was “a bit flabby” for a small cat😂 Have noticed that she is far more settled with having a routine, she gets fed every 6hour a smaller portion and then her midnight feed is double portion and then she sleeps all night.
@@megasauruss my cat was free fed for 12 years, I switched her to the automatic feeder after we moved just after her 12th birthday. For a few weeks she wasn’t too happy about it but now she freakishly knows exactly when it’s nearly dinner time and she sits by her feeder or she hears the noise it makes and she runs to it. If I offer her food in-between now she isn’t interested at all
If you feed him when he bats at you, you're basically teaching him a trick. You're teaching him to bat at you while you sleep to get treats. Like how when you call him to sit and give him food as a treat for following instructions, you basically just told him to bat at you for him to get a treat.
Which book is that, Renata? I am trying to change MY cat's diet. She is overweight, too. I'm like Jessie in the video. I give her treats and I need to stop that.
Hi Jackson! I'd love to see a video on how you feed your cat as to how much portions you give, say they're eating wet food or dry food, suitable for they're age, caloric requirement etc.
Your 3 videos on cat nutrition really helped. Our british short hair lost his extra weight. He is still a bit on the chonk side, but looking healthier than before. Thanks for helping us!
I'm learning...slowly. Buck & Tigger are gaining, not losing weight. NO MORE DRY FOOD! Day 1 of wet food was impressive. Puss Kat Dinner is what they associate with wet food. Day 3 they are losing interest. I give them 1hr mealtime then cover food and save for next serving window. Meals are 3, morning, 1pm & 9pm. That's it.
Melon is definitely saying "watch it mom!." He had a bit a sas and attitude with that meow 😂. And something to add, I try to get my cat Betty on a schedule when it comes to meals.
my 2 year old cat Baby has the head size of an 8 month old but her body has gone from sausage shaped to football shaped and now she's kinda... sweet potato shaped. I think being rescued from starvation made it really hard to get rid of food anxiety and now that she's been a kept cat long enough to feel secure, it's boredom. I'm gonna get a really nice puzzle feeder and stop free-feeding soon, so she can keep entertained and not hungry in between those timed meals. plus, i wanna put her on a more appropriate food. the dechonkification is imminent! She's my sun moon and stars so I want her to live a good long life!
Love your videos, please do a video about introducing cats and babies! I’m currently pregnant and want to do all i can to make sure my cat settles to this change! X
We have a boy who has been slowly growing, but for reasons unrelated to food, he has been isolated from our other cats for large periods of the day. The separation during mealtime has kept him from being cleanup man for the other cats, and he is slimming down - finally. I probably wouldn’t have separated him if the behavior issue wasn’t in play, but it has been good for him in more than one way. Meal time will likely forever be separated for his health.
My tip for dealing with a cat hitting or poking you in the face at night: Cover your face with a blanket when they start to bother you. Bundle yourself up in a cocoon until they stop. Eventually, after enough nights of this, they’ll realize that tactic doesn’t work and stop doing it
Mine did that he was scratching me on my face,hair,eyes...not pleasant and he was so stubborn nothing worked and we had so many sleepless nights ....he only stoped doing that after I bought an automatic feeding machine so he stopped nagging me for food at 4 in the morning....
@@samarahendrickson2629 look at the cat mate 300 or c500 they have ice packs and you can freeze your wet food so that it defrosts by the time it is his/her next meal.
I love that his name is Merlin but you call him MELON!! So funny. And great advice! My Cleopatra has trained me well but at 22 lbs needs to loose some weight!
Could you make a video about taking care of a cat when you have conditions like ADHD/Autism/ect? I have ADHD and find it really hard to stick to the three R's. One thing that ruin it for days. I've been doing alright with trying to do meal times instead of free feeding, but sometimes I forgot. And how much wet food should you buy at a time? I don't know if I can convince my grandpa to switch from dry to wet or not, but I'd like to try convincing him.
Honestly, I buy a big box of wet food. Wet food is normally canned so it will last a very long time. You need to transition your kitty slowly. Your cat might prefer a certain texture of wet food. My cats like shredded but hate pate. And if you transition too fast, it might cause stomach issues. Some wet food is better then none. Even if you end up feeding one wet food meal, and your grandpa feeds them a dry food meal. This is still better. Honestly, my cats help keep me on a ritual and routine. They remind me when it is time for them to eat. They will tell me when it is time for the before bedtime play session. This helps me stay on a schedule, which greatly helps me.
Here's one piece of advice - set a reminder on your phone to feed your cat. If you tend to say "eh, I'll do it later" and then forget (I know I do lol), then an alarm might work better. Hit snooze when you can't do something immediately, and then try to get up and do it when the alarm comes back in a few minutes. Hope this helps! :)
I think this might be a better question for a people expert, not a cat expert. You are trying to alter your own behavior not your cat’s, so an ADHD expert might be better able to help
@@Tinyvalkyrie410 I forgot I commented that XD But you're right. I am subbed to an ADHD channel so I could look through the videos there. Thankfully have been keeping up with the feeding times at least! Can't believe it's already been 7 months wow
Just got the annual vet visit this week, and he came back as healthy, and doing well. No chonk, and yes he will remind me in the morning that he does want his nice meaty pouch, nicely warmed up, and served to him. Treats I got some low cal treats recently, which he absolutely adores.
Jackson, I don't think you can have experienced a big cat whacking you on the face all night if you think you can just lay there and ignore it! I have the exact same problem as Jessie. Max hits my face with a claw extended, until I give him some food. It hurts! I have tried leaving him out of the bedroom but he just throws himself at the door until it opens.
Hey Chloe! Me and the wifey have the same problem of the cats throwing themselves against the door, but we keep that door closed at night. We end up putting on an audiobook or something that kind of drowns it out. They eventually have stopped except that witching hour when they know I'm getting up for work and it's soon to be breakfast. They will eventually give up as long as you ignore them and you don't get up to scold them. (I have trouble with that sometimes tbh). But we're all a work in progress!!
Unfortunately he does this because it works, one of my cats will actually bite my ankles until he is fed when I am working or putting on my makeup. I hate closing doors in general and my cats can open them, so I’m working on this also. The absolute worst tactic is that my big one will attack the little one as a final resort, which is absolutely effective and awful. It’s hard, I try to play with them a lot and prevent these things but in the meantime if I cave I am giving them the flavors they don’t like (you know the Uber healthy stuff without any added flavoring) when it’s impossible to live my life bc of the active terrorism these cats are using against me. The behavior reward cycle is the thing to break, so the worst thing we can do is give in to bad behavior and reward it. I start by lowering the reward as much as possible, when the behavior cannot be endured, ignored or avoided. They don’t bother me at night anymore. Progress! @@_inflection3209 I appreciate people giving specific ideas and examples for their own ways of overcoming these things. I feel like a specific feeding schedule helps, cats learn a schedule pretty quickly (and my big guy will try to gaslight me and my husband into feeding him a little sooner every time or feeding him again if the other spouse did already but isn’t around) another thing I tried is measuring out specific meals for specific times for specific cats. I used old peanut butter jars I wash out and just labeled them and that seemed to work really well, so I’m about to try that again. Other than that, I love what you said about how we are all a work in progress. Yes! The important part is that we are trying, and sharing ideas, and not giving up! We will not negotiate with terrorists! (much) and eventually, we’ll figure it out!
@@rainbomg haha they really are little terrorists! I totally agree feeding on a schedule totally helps. I'm such a light sleeper that them attacking the door keeps me up all night, and we really considered leaving our door open until their first vet visit because they ate one of my plants . Now I'm sleeping with a room full of plants and cats meowing and clawing at the door. See? No one's perfect and our learning is perpetual! Some tips and things that have made my sleep more restful is the whole playtime before bed. That really winds them down. Also puzzle feeders. I've made so many home made ones , they don't care that it's an egg carton, they just want snacks. I don't encourage kibble for cats but my one girl refuses to eat wet (or is at least super picky with it). So their last meal is put into something that requires work.. like a pop bottle with holes.they have to bat around to get out. They're so preoccupied that I get some rest before they realize I'm gone. Don't give up! We just need to be craftier than our furry children. And be kind to yourself if you give in. :)
your cat trained you and you reinforced the behavior. it's like giving a child what they want everytime they throw a tantrum, they are going to throw a tantrum because they know they'll get it.
I definitely learned the hard way about negative reinforcement lol. My little tortie girl figured out that when she wants us awake at 2am to play with her and "give chase" all she had to do was launch herself at our curtains a couple times 😂 NOTHING gets us out of bed faster! Jokes on her though. Once we figured out she wasnt going to stop, we bought those plastic kitty caps for her claws. The first night was hilarious! Nothing like watching a cat slide down your curtains like a thrown sock because she couldnt sink her claws in 😂 (no cats were harmed in this process, she was okay! Just embarrassed lol)
Melon is definitely saying C.! As would my chonk, Hazel. I like that you acknowledged genetics. My vet told me Hazel would be “a circle - she’s short and round” when she was just a kitten. But I am concerned about her heart, possible feline diabetes and losing her early now that’s she an older girl at age 10. She’s def too inactive and food motivated. I will definitely be cutting out dry Purina and switching to meals and I love your crunchy “meat treat” options for a bedtime snack. Thank you !
I’m so happy you did this video!! This goes for any pet owner!! It’s really sad to see humans quite literally kill their pet with food…most often due to lack of knowledge, but some substitute food for love or think food=❤️. I have seen this early pet death time and time again due to over feeding. Whether it’s pet food or table food…doesn’t matter. Thank you Jackson!!😽😺
My Cat is my Timer, He eats every 6 hours but at night he know his last mean is at 7:30pm and he sleeps all night. Yes he gets 4 meals a day but they are small meals so I know he is eat well. The Strange thing about my cat is that he does not like treats I have tried to get him some but he he just walks away from them.
The best thing we ever did for our cat and our sanity was put him on a schedule. We set a specific alarm sound to go off for his 3 feedings and we respected it like it was the law. We also moved the alarm clock to a neutral location because the cat thought we were somehow making the sound go off each time, so he was still being a brat 5-30 minutes before feeding time for awhile. About a week after we moved the alarm, he settled right in and we haven't had begging and bratty food-seeking behavior every since. It's clear he feels food secure and happy.
Currently watching this while feeding my cat. She is nervous about me and territorial bit starting to realize that I control the food and I am reliable to feed her. For a few days, she would hiss at me if I took her bowl away (especially if she hadn't eaten it within an hour or so). Now, she will eat when food is given to her and only hisses around 20% of the time. 😅 Rescue Kitty trying to get her mojo on.
Thank you for the advice to ignore a wacking cat, however I have a Siamese that put his nails into my skin. Not for food but he wants me to make some space for him. He has very sharp nails that i can’t ignore. He is 17,5 years old and started this behavior the last year after losing a stray cat that we took in. They weren’t friends by the way. When we took in the stray he was very mad at me that I betrayed him by taking in the stray. They didn’t fight but the stray was very dominant. I regret my dissension for taking another cat in the home but couldn’t kick him to the curbs again. But my rescue Siamese that had become an very happy cat suffered my dissuasion. well now he is old and suffers from arthritis And I give him all the attention he wants. So I endured his nails in the night.😜
I did, she is so much happier from 16 to 14, for a Burmese that about perfect, she also was grooming obsessively, that also stopped. Wet food, Tiki Cat. Thanks cat guru😀
Thank you for this video!! I have a chonky cat I adopted a few years ago. She was clearly overweight (15-16lbs when she should be 10) and by following the vet's calorie guides she's down to about 13. I've tried wet food, and while she loves to drink up the liquid in it, she barely eats the foot itself and will starve herself. She is not very food motivated and only eats liquid treats (that come in the little tube packets), which I give her very rarely (less than once a month). She has set meal times as well, and I recently got blood work done for another issue and seems she's pretty good. Finally, I've tried so many toys with her, and found little success! She gets overwhelmed really easily and is terrified of most toys. Obviously a previous home was not kind to her - she's panicked when I tried to dust before, so any long toys will freak her out within a minute if not instantly. She only enjoys a laser pointer, which isn't ideal, and only plays a little bit before becoming bored or overwhelmed. She is about 9-10 now, so definitely a senior cat, so I really want to be on top of her health! I will definitely try free dried treats - maybe this will finally help her understand that meat is good even if not in pellet form! Best of luck to other chonky cat owners!
Try getting a string and a throw pillow or a small rug, and put the pillow between you and the cat. Put the string under the pillow so you are like this 🧎♀️➡️~-💮-~🐈 and then slowly pull the string towards yourself. Be patient, and I bet she won’t let it go fully under the pillow without chasing after it! My kitty is similar he gets very overwhelmed by toys bc he was hurt when he was little. It’s important for them to feel safe. That’s his favorite game, he loves digging the string out from under stuff!
Jessi i feel for you we just got our first cat at the start of December and she was in the shelter free feeding dry food since July. Got her to a wet food immediately, (thank you Jackson for the video on how to read the labels and what to look for) but we're still trying to work through the wanting access to food at all hours. It feels like I've got a six month old baby all over again any time i roll over there she is making soft biscuits (no claws) trying to get me up for food. So I'm with you in solidarity.
The best way to help a "chonky" cat lose weight, is to switch them from dry food to wet food or balanced raw. Dry food is full of carbs, which contributes to weight gain, and keeps them from feeling full.
I had to my cat on a prescription kibble due to allergies and he went crazy for it was hungry more often and got rounder. When I was finally able to get him off of it and went to Ziwi he is satiated with less and is not as round
Thank you for this! I took my new cat (6 years old, adopted from a shelter in November) to the vet today and the vet said "wow, she's chunky." So we're starting at 15 pounds and trying to slim her down, especially since the shelter was free-feed and she hates me for trying to control her diet 😅
Answer is either B or C, mainly because my cat is a former Chonker, but is still more than willing to be a Chonker. I feed her twice per day but if I put down something she loves such as some fish, she'll wolf it down, then vomit because she ate so fast, then she won't touch her kibble all day, but follows me, stalks me and sulks. She is constantly begging though not as vocal as Melon. Thanks for the tip about meat treats, but she's missing a lot of her teeth.🙄😸
I think melon in the video felt like what you feel like when your mom talks to her friends in the supermarket and tells something embarrassing about you
hahahaha I agree
🤣 I agree
Perfect
Lol and my cat does exactly what Melon does!
Jackson, how about a video on feeding a multi-cat household where the cats all have different needs? For example, I have a chonk who needs to lose weight and also a super senior struggling to keep weight on.
Yes! I’m in the same situation, and it’s sooo frustrating.
They're a bit pricey, especially when you need a few, but there are microchipped feeders! They're air tight when closed so you can have wet and dry food in it. They only open to the cat that it's programmed for. If the cat isn't microchipped, it comes with a small tag that goes on the cat's collar. Definitely worth the investment! :)
scheduled feeding times and separate for feedings.
@@katiemcfadden2228 do you have one that you would recommend? My problem is my boy, who is a little bigger than my girl, needs to lose more weight and he's so damned picky. She's happy with the wet food and will pretty much eat in one sitting. He screams and cries and will flat out ignore the wet if it's down. And I'm terrified of him getting sick from not eating. In fact, right now, he's pawing at me (he likes to brush my hair) because he also wants food and we're in the bathroom where he eats. Thing is, I don't even put much food down for the two of them combined! I've been making an effort to do better because honestly they do both need to lose weight but he makes it much more difficult. From the day I brought him home I tried getting them on a schedule and it wouldn't take.
@@brokenfoxx hey there! The brand I used was SureFeed microchip feeder. It’s about $150 on Chewy right now. It’s more for people who leave food down all day, but since it’s microchipped, it’ll only open for the cat who’s programmed to use it. So since your girl cat will eat her wet food in one sitting, you could use it for the boy and put his food in it so it’ll only open for him. There’s a training mode to use until he gets used to it. If he’s microchipped you can just use that, but it does come with a tag that can be put on a collar that has a chip in it if he’s not. Definitely a pricy food bowl, but it does work! :)
When you named him Melon did you know he was going to become a melon?
Totally underrated comment!
🤣🤣
Hahah I swear she's saying "Merlin" not melon
😂😂😂 Awww, smh
I heard melon too
My cat will chase the freeze dried chicken, so at night we have a routine where I throw pieces across the room and up and downstairs and he runs around like crazy killing and eating them and then we have a peaceful sleep 😆 He’s not overweight but I wanted to make sure he’s getting plenty of exercise and doesn’t become overweight. Also I think it makes it more fun if he’s chased down the treat and he seems to love it. Obviously we play with toys too for fun and exercise 😊
Same! My cat acts like he is catching a living fish!
No lie, my cat was getting a little chunky at 13 lbs but only getting a 1/4c of food 2x a day. I bought him an automatic feeder where he gets a little bit 4x a day and you can adjust the portions. He lost 3 lbs over the course of a couple months. The vet was very impressed
Cats need to lose weight slowly to be safe; it's usually a sign of illness when it happens quickly. I'm glad he's okay. Curious to know if his thyroid & neutrophil levels were tested?
@@the_glitter_is if I hadn't been actively adjusting his feeding habits then I would consider it a health issue. But the entire project was for him to lose weight. His check-up was delayed from covid, that's when they weighed him. 3-4mos later later he went in for his yearly teeth cleaning where they also take his blood and urine. He's perfect.
@@h.3994 Oops, I read that 3 as an 8 in regards to lbs🤦♀️🤣 Thats wonderful. He is a lucky boy to be so loved 😸
@@the_glitter_is oh wow yes, lol 8 would be a disturbing amount!
He need to talk to cat dad 👍
This is oooooo important! It's not good for your cat to be overweight at all - thanks for sharing this vid Jackson!
it's not good for ANYONE
I love your videos! My cat does too 😸
I free feed mine One of them throws up a lot so I switched the food to Blue Buffalo diet control and he stopped throwing up I was feeding them Purina cat chow natural
How do I stop free feeding them?
@@leahgoldenpeoples3053 don’t give them food? Give them only two meals a day.
Jessie: "I have a beautiful boy called Melon, who needs to lose weight."
Melon: "Heckin no I don't mom!"
😃🤣🤭
Coincidence!
He was definitely saying that.
well, with a name like that!
Imo I think that cat was offended, my cat responds the same way when she disagrees lol
Literally 🤣🤣🤣
I finally stopped giving dry food free feeding and now all my cats eat there canned food completely and they are less picky. Best thing I have done for them. I also realize that my cats love to play and sometimes they eat when they are bored. So playing with them more also helps them to not over eat. Thanks Jackson for you teaching. It has helped me and my furbabies be happier and healthier.
My cat begs for food when she's bored. I started playing with her every time she begs between meal times, and she's so much happier!
I'm not sure which is more enjoyable...the cats, or Jackson laughing at his own jokes? 😹😹😹😹
I cracked up at the ‘murica joke @ 8:17 😂
@@beerforsheep Me too😂😂😂
Definitely the cats 😸
I crack up right along with him because he’s so RIGHT ON!
The cats, for sure. But also Jackson. I can't decide.
This may have been said already but in the UK biscuits when referring to cats is actually dry cat food NOT treats, I believe it is the same in Australia which is where that lady sounded like she was from. Treats are just called treats. 😆
Spot on!
She sounds more New Zealander to me, but yes, you're right about the biscuits, in the case of Australia.
That’s so confusing. When it comes to human food, Americans have to constantly remind themselves other countries mean a sweet dessert when they say biscuits. And then for cats it doesn’t mean that? What?
"Biscuit" in New Zealand and Australian English means a small crisp baked item e.g. cookie or kibble. Also pronounced "bikkie".
@@theknightswhosay Biscuits aren't always sweet. They're any dry, unleavened flat, baked good. So what you call crackers are also called biscuits in Aus/NZ. Dry cat food is referred to as biscuits because it's dry, crunchy, unleavened and baked. It's basically crackers for cats.
"If I had any pass it would be fat cats and bald cats"
Next video: How to rehair your sphinx cat
😃🤣🤭
And Cornish Rex and Devon Rex--all hairless cats (I kid)!
That's what sweaters are for.
😂🤣😂🤣
Me, enthusiastically shouting "Obligate Carnivores" and smiling when Jackson confirms what he was about to say. Also Melon 11/10 good luck on the journey buddy.
Thank you! I learned THE HARD way, with Jack, my first cat. I loved him to pieces! I didn't know much about cats, and I fed him mainly dry food for the first 7 years. Until...Yup, you guess right, he was overweight and got diagnosed with diabetes. That's when I started learning...He lived 10 more years. I gave him insulin shots twice a day and monitored his blood sugar religiously. He had a good life, but it could have been much healthier. Eventually he lost a battle with cancer. I loved his so much. My 3 new cats eat wet food. I sometimes give them dry kibbles though, I hide them in places around the house so they have to "hunt" for them. Random places! I will remember to "play dead" if they bother me during the night!!
I have also learned the hard way about feeding dry kibble. My oldest cat (I adopted him at 2 years old) ate exclusively dry food for the first probably ~6 years of his life and now here he is at 10 years old with stage 3 kidney disease!! Granted, we are all fairly certain he got the short end of the stick genetically due to his numerous other lifelong problems, but I can imagine the dry food diet did NOT do his kidneys any favors. Now he has a special wet food-ONLY diet and receives sub-q fluids daily along with his medications/supplements as well as regular blood draws/tests. The good thing is that he appears to be feeling better than he has in years and he is in great shape, but I now use this experience of going through kidney disease with him to encourage other cat owners I know to feed appropriate wet food diets as early as possible. I know that not everyone has the same level of animal care skills nor the same amount of time, and kidney disease can be a difficult/stressful disease to manage at times, so it really pays to prevent the cat- and human-suffering with a simple diet change.
My two younger boys have a routine where with their dinner at night they get 1-2 "treat mice" which are these little balls with mouse "skins" around them that are filled with either a few dry kibble or a few dried meat chunks. I hide them in different places every night so they have to hunt them down and then bat them around to get the food out. @Camilla M, If you are ever looking to mix up your nightly game, I recommend!
A really good friend of mine had her oldest kitty get diagnosed with diabetes after some terrifying symptoms started and she immediately switched everyone over to wet food, as did I. This was news to me as my husband and I had concluded after researching it that “grain free” fancy kibble was what would be healthiest for the Bubbers. The first 2 years of his life were spent at a lake house, coming and going as he pleased, devastating the local fauna, but he was incredibly healthy. He gained so much weight after becoming an indoor only cat when we moved closer to the city and I also learned how dangerous it is for cats to be outside. Bad info has definitely been too ubiquitous in the past and I think it’s really great and helpful that you guys have specific things you can tell folks about to give people good examples to try and implement for their own cats. I love these Jackson Galaxy comments sections bc it’s so comforting to see people out here who love their cats so much fussing over what’s best for them 😻😻😻
@@megapiglatin2574 I will!!
I had to train mine to live with a shut door. I’d rather sleep with my cat but realized how terribly I was sleeping. Took a few days but they got it.
@@mightymoose1158 Oh, but aren't the warm bedtime cuddles part and parcel with having a cat? The sleepy purrs, the floppy paws... I sleep worse, when my Clousy is locked out of my bedroom, because he will rive at the door all night and that puts my anxiety through the roof. It's hard getting bopped, in the face, throughout the night (particularly when they decide that soft paw isn't working and start introducing a tentative claw into the situation) but trying to sleep with the sound of someone (the cat - but the subconscious mind doesn't remember it's the cat) trying to break in is so much harder. I think you're very stoical!
I love how Jackson is so humble he not only takes shots at himself, he also laughs about it
Breaks my heart when I see massive obese cats on Instagram 😭🤬. It's not healthy, it's not funny, it's not entertaining. My sister in law had a beautiful golden retriever she just spoiled rotten and I mean rotten. That poor dog couldn't move, had all sorts of health issues, died of multiple tumors very early on due to diet and massive weight. We have four cats in our house, one of them we do have to keep an eye on. She has a sluggish metabolism so we watch her diet carefully and make sure she gets plenty of exercise. I just know some people find it cute or funny to have a plump, obese pet and it's not funny or cute at all, it's abuse.
Its not just being obese that's heartbreaking, its the food they are feeding their pets. People think its funny to feed hot dogs or McDonalds to pets 🤮
@@katel3962 Completely agree! Pets aren't toys and shouldn't be treated like they are.
I'm feel so sorry the poor dog died I hope your sister-in-law learn her lesson.
@@ceymonepugh2211 Thankfully she never got another dog. She was never able to care for that dog. He spent his entire life sick, health problems of every kind. We were always getting after her for animal abuse but she just laughed at us🤦. That poor dog did not get to live a good quality life. But the way she treated her dog is how she raised her kids as well and they're a menace to society
Same with plump obese people it shouldn't be celebrated.. it's unhealthy
That first point is so important. My compulsive eater has IBD and was not absorbing her food well so constantly felt hungry. We got her medicated and on prescription food and she stopped begging for food within a few days.
Do you know what medication your vet put her on?
I have a 1 year old cat. She has absorption and digestion issues reasons unknown (the vet’s exhausted basically every route). Never tried meds for ibd and I wonder if it could help? She’s on biome food which helps. But she is continuously starving and can get quite hangry. She is now a chub because she’s a wallflower and I give her extra food to be around other pets/people in the house. I also feel guilty she is always starving. Like I’ve never had a pet like her before.
@@RosaliePacheco Mine is on prednisolone and monthly B12 injections. The pred does make her extra hungry, I feed her 1/4 cup of Royal Canin HP/SO twice a day and she does still beg a lot. I hope you can get some answers for your kitty soon!
@@RosaliePacheco - Have you tried supplementing her food with ENZYMES and PROBIOTICS , , , ? My cats were always hungry & some were even violent towards each other (deep biting that led to infections & vet visits) . . . until I began supplementing Enzymes & Probiotics with their EVERY meal.
Soon afterward, those w/ prior violent behaviors STOPPED being violent! They'd apparently not been getting all of their nutrition, even though some of the violent ones were overweight! (Young Again Pet Food sells the supplement -& food- my cats are getting, on the internet.) . . .
I already had them on a Carbohydrate-Free, Limited Ingredient Diet (LID), as one cat has stomatitis . . . but there just weren't enough enzymes & no probiotics in the food to help them ingest all of its important constituents!
“Food oriented” is not bad when you want to train a cat. I have a cat who would balance on a ball wearing a hat whistling “Yankee Doodle Dandy” if the bribe was big enough. I also have a kitten who doesn’t even recognize his own name, and if you offer him food, he plays with it. The problem is when they start training YOU.
"The problem is when they start training YOU" well said haha
Hahah. They are always training you.
LOL
😂
Your comment made me LOL
Growing up I had a cat named Sox... she was perfectly healthy, along with her sister Smudge. She was a perfect weight right up until my aunt and uncle had to babysit our 3 cats for two weeks. They decided to free feed them... and from that point on, Sox was a heckin chonk no matter WHAT. She just never lost the weight. It was bizarre.
Our late cat went through a chonk phase. We did the puzzle feeder and it worked GREAT. He ate enough to not be hungry, but it was work for him to get the food out, so he didn’t just mindlessly graze.
My cat very quickly figured out it was much easier to just wack the puzzle over to get to the food. I have a different one that he can't tip over and that works a bit better. He's still too big though...
My puzzle feeder just drew ants into it 😂🙃
I stopped free feeding my cats because of you and starting trying more wet food. They are getting healthier especially the chunky one hehe thanks!
Jessie: "I have a beautiful boy called Melon, who needs to lose weight."
Melon: "Food! Hell yeah!"
I didn't realize how much my cat was being overfed until pointed out by her vet. My girl, a Siamese mix that's three, now only gets 1/2 cup of dry food...per day, and 1/2 package of seafood bisque...also per day! Compared to the full bowl of dry left out for her day and night, and full pouch of the bisque she got. The vet also shared that cat's stomachs are very small. She's lost the extra weight, and, I've discovered, she's not at all as hungry as I assumed. It's we, the owners that are the problem, and thanks to her vet, bad habits have been corrected with great success. In place of her previous overeating, we now play together more than before, a lot more exercise. There's a water bowl near her food, and a water fountain in the bedroom, so she get's plenty of water.
Sounds great for you and her both! One tip- cats often prefer that water be kept a little way away from food. Possibly wild instinct, to avoid contaminating it with decaying food. Even though that's not a problem in the modern world, instinct is instinct. :)
Jackson, we need a video about feeding cats raw meat, is store bought chicken good? Beef, pork, lamb, quail, rabbit? What is best and how to handle, store, feed and freeze for all uses. How to prepare and good hygiene too. Let us hear your ideas. Thanks
Watch The Primal Pack here on CZcams. They go over everything you need to learn about raw feeding!
any kind of meat works but you can't just put meat in a bowl since that isn't a balanced diet and the animal will end up ill.
@@ksisu1324 I think what Mav eL meant there is that it can't just be meat. If you're feeing raw then it needs to be a balanced raw of meat, organ and bone
My cats are on a raw diet. In Australia we have a product called Vets All Natural which I add to raw kangaroo for my cats. The idea behind it is to mimic a cat eating prey in the wild including their stomach contents which would have a small amount of seeds and or grains in it naturally. My cats are both very healthy on this was of eating.
@@ksisu1324 no. when you feed them raw meat you are not giving them a whole mice but parts of the animal. they need vitamins too and when raw feeding you have to include certain vitamins to a certain extent
My big beautiful Bonnie girl is no longer receiving as many “treaties”. Her previous owner overindulged, but we are now eating healthy and exercising daily. Twenty pounds and dropping 😻
My kitty was so big people would ask me is she was pregnant all the time. The vet wanted her to lose some weight (from 15 down to 12 or 11 lbs) so I started paying attention to her behavior after she ate. For one, I eliminated gluten from her diet. She still gets some dry food (1/3 of a cup, grain free) a day but the rest of her meals are wet food. And guess what? She's 12.5 lbs now! It did take about a year or so but it worked. Watching your show and this channel has helped me to understand her better, so thank you, Cat Daddy!
I just adopted an obese senior and this video is so helpful! Thanks Jackson, I am addicted to your videos!
I adopted a big boy, his heaviest 22lbs. He is a tall guy so the vet set a goal of 13lbs. It takes time, energy & consistency but after changing to high protein, grain-free wet food only & playing everyday, he is now 14lbs. You'd never know he is 15. 😸💕
Suffice to say, obese cats break my ❤️ & their owners infuriate me. It's abuse.
Hi Frederick would you share the brand of food? I need to help my beautiful girl loose a few pounds! I would like to try the food you used! Thank you!!!
Wow 8 lbs is a Good loss for anyone (i think, i only know kg 😅)
@@meisupergirl8720
Per Google
8lbs = 3.629kg
Can not upload the photo with details ☹
Something Jackson said once has been the most powerful thing about feeding cats that I’ve ever heard. He said, “It’s better to feed your cat the lowest quality wet food than it is to feed him the highest quality dry food.”
As somebody that is in a literal constant battle with my terrorist cat to keep him healthy, I wouldn’t call fat pets abuse. At worst, it’s neglect, but I think mostly it’s ignorance. My cat became overweight after moving to the city and becoming an indoor only cat. He grew up across from a lake coming and going as he pleased, devastating the local fauna I’m sure, but he was very healthy. I got married and my husband would feed him when he asked, without knowing, and then poof one day he was fat. My husband had actually started buying him the fancy cat food when we moved in together thinking it was better for him (“look! It’s grain free and I read that’s what cats should be eating bc they are obligate carnivores!”) and to this day they are best friends so I wouldn’t say he abused him, he really thought he was taking good care of him. He read about it and so many resources were wrong back then especially. It also doesn’t help that my cat will gaslight us when we are alone and act like he hasn’t JUST been fed when the other spouse _has_ actually already fed him. So it takes literal _constant_ work to keep this dude from eating himself into a coma, work that we had to do together and adapt and evolve and research and communicate to accomplish. It’s hard, but your experience and knowledge can help others a lot. It’s incredibly encouraging to hear how far you’ve come and telling people what you did and how you did it could really make a difference. The most important thing is awareness, which really isn’t there is so many cases. So, thanks for your story and I hope you share more! It’s truly noble what you’ve done and the world needs more people like you.
What good did you use?
Lol I thought Caroline was his human kid, till he said the word “sibling.”
I read this comment before watching the video and I laughed so hard when he started talking about Caroline omg
@@CeeDeeBC hahahaha that made my day! 🙂
Same. I thought he was calling his kid chunky
Same here😆
please everyone who has adopted pets pls keep them healthy and happy :D
I ran across this video and had no idea dry food was so bad for cats. As soon as I watched this video I threw out all of the dry food for both my cats. I have a 10-year-old and a two-year-old and the difference I have seen in my 10 year old cat is incredible. He is running around and playing like I almost don’t even recognize him I had no idea I was hurting my cats. Thank you for your work
Not particularly, there are some dry food like James well beloved that are grain free and have nutritional value but I also prefer to giver her other foods like chicken breast and other meats like beef, fish and shrimp, she loves the stuff, her coat is shiny and healthy and she's growing up very well
@@HUYI1 no, all dry kibble is bad for cats. There is no good kibble for a cat, period. Way too high in carbohydrates, and they NEED to get basically all of their moisture from food, and you can't rely on them to drink water in anywhere close to what the amount they need.
@@amymeyer3658 my girl eats grain free dry food and I also mix wet food natural ingredients the best I can for her and also give her good high protein meats to balance her diet, her coat is beautiful and she's a healthy cat, she gets many compliments whoever meets her, I don't think I can do any better than this situation? Why do you assume that I go to supermarkets and buy crap food for her? your assumption is very bad right now, I've talked to my vet and my local pet shop place who also have cats and they have told me the best diet I can give her, please don't be ignorant and think I'm feeding her garbage I'm not and I want the best for my girl, long healthy life, why would you think I would want less for her?
My cat went on a diet a few months ago, and is starting to get back to his vet approved weight. He was never severely overweight, the vet said he was just a bit heavier than he liked, but I knew I had to nip that bud before it got to the point of being a problem. No quality of life is too good for my baby boy. We're even getting an apartment bigger than what we need, cause there's space above the kitchen cabinets to set up a cata super highway. I'm gonna get wooden ladders and wrap twine around them so they double as scratching posts.
💜😽
This is great I hope you share some of your techniques and resources for folks looking to accomplish something similar!
Sometimes I become really devastated when I wonder how many cats aren’t being loved enough and stuff like this helps lift the daggers out of my heart. ❤️🩹
@@rainbomg It was originally just gonna be the ladders, but I got the twine idea from Evan & Katelyn's Catcus Cat Bed video.
yasss that is awesome and I'm in a similar situation
Dearest Jackson, my feline companion Hazel who was 13 years and 3 months died 3 days ago on Sunday 29th August 2021. Her cremation is today Wednesday 1st September at 12.00pm.
The pain is so deep and raw... I am wondering if you can give me some very much needed advise about how I can cope with or ease the pain/grief I am feeling.
Kindest regards to you ♥
Could Melon have meowed at a more perfect time when she was being filmed? God, I love cats!
Duncan, who passed away in March, was an overweight, food motivated cat. He showed up a starving 5 month old, and the vet thinks that is where his food drive came from. The vet put him on a diet. He hated it. We worked out a feeding routine where his last meal was right at bedtime. Since he was full at bedtime, he let me sleep. I worked out a meal plan where he had 3 meals a day, roughly 8 hours apart. We got his weight down to what the vet wanted. The vet hugged me when he made weight. Now...if someone could control my kibble like I controlled his. :)
Great job 👏👏👏
How long did he live? I am trying to get my babies to lose weight now 💛
Love giving my cats tiki cat because you can SEE the chicken, the organs, the quail egg. It's so much more of a real food than dry kibble, and they love it! I'm transitioning my kitten from the kibble she had at her shelter to tiki cat and she's going FERAL for it
i agree with this so hard like when she used to eat dry food, I would be sort of disgusted to touch it because when you look at the ingredient it’s all like vague mystery Meat byproduct and chicken/corn meals just trash that the meat industry didn’t want not anything high quality but i feel so much better about feeding her tiki and she loves it too! i don’t feel disgusted by it
I got Diva with 7 years about a year ago, and as a very young cat she nearly starved to death. Food is everything to her, and she would eat about anything(not raw meat^^). She is adjusted to meals and and though she is chubby and will always be, her weight stays the same and she is absolutely fine. And she is the strongest cat i ever came across, she can knock you over. Built like a little bulldozer. I love her. Adopt don´t shop.
My boyfriend consistently gives my small female orange tabby treats saying, "She's hungry!" She has him trained.
She's short in height and length. I adopted her from an animal shelter I worked at. She's very vocal too. Another reason I wanted her.
I'm going to show this to him right now!
@freeanimals594 - Circumstances gifted us a feral cat, a slim, trim feral cat. But she blimped up quickly. A big part of the problem was my partner who desperately wanted the cat's affection, so overfed her and give treats all the time on top of that. It has taken a lot of convincing by me, but the kitty is now slowly losing weight.
When he talked about his little girl and her sister, I thought that he was talking human foster child.. and I thought that oh my god who gives their kid name snickers :D
My last cat was fed dry food by the time he was about 5 years old he was getting fat. We had mealtimes and I wasn't feeding that much but he was steadily gaining weight. I switched to grain-free wet food and he got trim and fit. He had more energy and played more. His fur even got better. It was odd to me because I was feeding more food by weight of the wet than I was the dry. Quality of food is very important.
C. I'm hungry! He is totally wanting those biscuits!
I totally get it.
Kitty is the first cat my husband ever had.
When I moved in with him 2 years ago (we remarried after 29 years 😃) kitty weighed *17 POUNDS* .
Now, with my advice (I grew up with lots of cats), kitty weighs 11 pounds.
He is 5 years old and he has so much energy!
He is suuuper comical and adorable!
My husband thinks everything he does is original, but it is kitty doing cat things 😂.
I totally get the “being a Pez dispenser “ 🤣 my black bobtail, Thelma, has allowed me to be at her every beckoned call for 15 years and I wouldn’t trade a single second of it! 😊❤️
I adopted a couple kittens from a stray litter. One of them is a pure black bobtail. 7 months old now and super sweet.
Although not relevant because it’s still dry food, but when she says “biscuits” she means dry cat food, not treats
Came here to say this! Biscuits=kibble
Hugs and kisses to the one person in the world who could get me yelling "OBLIGATE CARNIVORE" before the sun's up on a Sunday morning.
B
"You've made your melon-shaped bed" cracked me up
I do wish that you had gone over the dangers of having an overweight cat. I think people gravely underestimate how bad obesity is for a cat's health and lifespan.
It always makes me so sad when I see a picture of a fat pet and most people comment things like "What a chonk" in a positive way and view fat pets as extra cute. Reactions like those only make the problem worse, convincing pet owners that it's okay if their pet is fat (or that it's even preferable as it's "more cute") and they don't have to worry about it. In reality such pets are unhealthy, will probably live shorter and their comfort of life is lower than if they weren't overweight. We shouldn't accept and reinforce this conception that fat pets are extra cute compared to pets with normal weight when that "cute" chonk does so much damage to their health.
True true, everything you said is true but i think most pet owners KNOW that there pet (cat) is Overweight, but struggle to keep them in balance. It hurts to see these animals struggle but it really, really is hard to fix this situation.
P.S: I don't have a overweight cat, my Lucy is a good 7-8 pounds and is very active :))
@@aleksnotsorry2180 the sad part is not when they not realise the cat is overweight, but when they know and tell themselves "it's too hard" to change their cat's weight
@@Karmelia6 I agree I think it might help if more people with healthy cats shared their specific techniques that help them, so there are some actual examples out here to choose from and follow. I think when it’s so murky and open ended those same lazy people aren’t ever going to do the work to create a custom meal plan so it helps cats to put some ideas out there, like specifics on what works for some cats. I know it’s different for every cat and “talk to your vet” but dude- some ppl just aren’t going to do that, and some vets are just as vague. I want to make a database of different kitty diets and regimens so people can just pick something to start with or point to for inspo. Maybe I’ll start a custom cat cuisine concierge service for the alliteration opportunities alone!
@@rainbomg talking to a vet can be worse than finding info on the internet at times when it comes to Nutrition. Most vets have little to no training in pet nutrition and recommend dry kibble that the pet food companies sell them on. This issue is becoming less and less because more pet parents are becoming more aware and the vets are being forced to take a look at all toe dried pet foods that line the shelves of their office.
My family once had a cat that weighed almost 30 pounds he wasn't chonky and believe me when I tell you that cat was built, he used to bring us 6 foot long snakes that he hunt down, he was magnificent rip little buddy...
I helped one of my long haired (Siberian Forest cat) cats - whose overly fluffy dense coat covered his excess weight well - go from 12 lbs to 8 pounds. I was feeding a freeze dried raw food diet but was just giving him what the instructions recommended which was too much for him. I gradually cut back by a half of an ounce per day of food, each week or two. I went from giving him the "recommended" 8 oz per day to 4-5 oz per day gradually. He went from fat to sleek and svelte. I now just use the freeze dried food as a back up and make fresh myself and then freeze the extra portions for him.
These guidelines go without saying:1) NEVER FREE FEED! 2) Never feed dry food. 3) Feed two wet grain-free meals per day.
Next: If the cat is not losing weight, cut back on the amounts of food you give him gradually as above.
One of my cats has caught 10 mice over the last few months... In the house. 2 adults and 8 babies. I think he got them all. Glad he is a good mouser. Was a cold winter mama and papa mouse were busy making babies under my house.
Melon: *hears he has to lose weight* WAT?! NO!
It is crazy how the universe knows what I need to hear by placing videos in my youtube algorithm. My furbaby was told (well his parent was told) he is a chunky monkey for his size and age. I didn't see it, I do feel it when I pick him up, and probably see it now that it was pointed out. So, this is perfect. Thank you for always providing education for humans who love their furbabies. What is great this advice may work with all furbabies, not only cats. Now to put word of advice into actions.
Our cat kept gaining weight despite feeding him less and lower calorie food and it turned out he wasn't losing any because his colon wasn't working properly. We had been feeding him tuna and it totally messed up his system but we didn't know until later how harmful it was. Don't feel your cat tuna!!!
Why is tuna bad? 👀
@@caitiedidit Tuna can lead to mercury poisoning. You can give it once in a while as a special treat of the cat really loves it. But it shouldn't be the regular diet. Fish in general shouldn't be regular diet for cats because it can lead to malnutrition due to how their metabolism works.
@@caitiedidit It's very high in salt, and it's not a balanced food for cats. As an occasional treat it's fine, but definitely shouldn't be a daily thing, and should only be fed in moderation when it's given.
@@gaticornio774 Yeah I don't know why fish became the defacto cat food. I read once "think feathers and ears (i.e., rabbit, chicken,) not horns and hooves" when feeding cats. My cats do still get some wet food mixes that include pork, beef, and fish, but I try to lean more towards chicken, turkey, duck and rabbit.
@@TheZoeBird Have you tried insect based food?
I remember looking up videos about cats before adopting our first one, and found a Jackson Galaxy video about mealtimes. I’m thankful I had found it. We adopted Gurt now 3 years ago, and we do 3 mealtimes a day. Our routine made it so easy when we adopted our second cat, Parfait. She adapted very quickly even tho she was just 3-4 months old. Thank you for all of the amazing videos! I’m always learning new things thanks to Jackson.
Food is my cats’ love language.
Food is my cats coping mechanism.
He meows his little head off at 16:30 if I didn't give him his food. He is prompt. He gives me until 17:00 & then it's like
"OK, mom, you're taking your sweet time, so let me tell you what time it is"
Jackson, i just love watching your videos! Not only are they so educational but so, so funny too! You really brighten my days!
Thank you, we have stopped free feeding and the kitties are eating wet food and losing weight! We also tried the CATalyst for our arthritis cat and he has improved so much! I recommend you to all my cat people!
Hi. Can I ask, what is the CATalyst?
"Very food oriented"😂 I love this euthemism.
My vet recommends you for cat everyday life advice. Kudos to you!!
I have to agree, one of my cats was overweight for over 9 years, I decided to FINALLY change it up and stop free feeding. She lost a good amount of weight! I also trained each of my cats to have THEIR OWN food bowl. Not to eat from the other bowls. It worked! She lost so much weight and actually jumps around and plays! I can tell shes happier! Designated feeding times really works!
What food did you use?
@@joynadrich3082 For years it was Purina Naturals indoor.
I switched them to Blue Buffalo Healthy Aging!
Please keep this topic in mind people, we lost our little dog due to diabetes. By the time we realized there was something wrong he had the beginning of liver and kidney failure. The vet said household pets need a diet that manages a healthy weight and not just having a full dish 24 hours a day. Our cat is over weight right now, but we are working on it now
Melon: Jackson help I'm starving! she never feeds me! *sparkly eyes*
My girl Evey used to be a "more to love" kitty, and she was obsessed with food like Melon. She's now a slim and happy 17 and a half year old in a single cat household.
One of the big problems for her weight was sharing a house with other people who constantly left for out for their cats which my cat would steal!
I have also wondered if there was an element of food anxiety there because she always felt the need to compete with other cats she lived with. Before I adopted her at age 7, she lived with 3 other cats and 2 labradors so I imagine food didn't hang around for long!
Also, when we lived in the country for a year, I had her on a diet, and there were no other cats to steal from so she started catching mice and supplementing her meals all by herself 😂 she put weight ON that year!
She's a very determined little kitty...
I get it with the biscuits/ treats. Around here we called them cat crack🤣. It took time and dried meat dusted with a little catnip and we kicked the habit. To save money I make the treats and all the cats love them just as much. Love you Jackson❤
I’ve had success with converting to a timed feeder, my cat isn’t massively overweight but the vet said she was “a bit flabby” for a small cat😂 Have noticed that she is far more settled with having a routine, she gets fed every 6hour a smaller portion and then her midnight feed is double portion and then she sleeps all night.
This is a really great idea.
Specifics like this are really helpful, I think ppl really just don’t know where to start and this gives them at least _something_ to try
I want to get a timed feeder for my cats so badly but they're free feeders and my parents refuse to let me change that. So annoying.
@@megasauruss my cat was free fed for 12 years, I switched her to the automatic feeder after we moved just after her 12th birthday. For a few weeks she wasn’t too happy about it but now she freakishly knows exactly when it’s nearly dinner time and she sits by her feeder or she hears the noise it makes and she runs to it. If I offer her food in-between now she isn’t interested at all
@@megasauruss I got mine on Amazon and it’s for biscuits as she won’t eat wet food ever since she was a kitten
If you feed him when he bats at you, you're basically teaching him a trick.
You're teaching him to bat at you while you sleep to get treats.
Like how when you call him to sit and give him food as a treat for following instructions, you basically just told him to bat at you for him to get a treat.
Please keep talking about raw diet! I changed my cat's food after reading your book, thank you ❤
Which book is that, Renata? I am trying to change MY cat's diet. She is overweight, too. I'm like Jessie in the video. I give her treats and I need to stop that.
Hi Jackson! I'd love to see a video on how you feed your cat as to how much portions you give, say they're eating wet food or dry food, suitable for they're age, caloric requirement etc.
Your 3 videos on cat nutrition really helped. Our british short hair lost his extra weight. He is still a bit on the chonk side, but looking healthier than before. Thanks for helping us!
I'm learning...slowly. Buck & Tigger are gaining, not losing weight. NO MORE DRY FOOD! Day 1 of wet food was impressive. Puss Kat Dinner is what they associate with wet food. Day 3 they are losing interest. I give them 1hr mealtime then cover food and save for next serving window. Meals are 3, morning, 1pm & 9pm. That's it.
They are trying the Cat Wheel. One watches the other & then tries.
I think Melon's basically saying "you're petting me but YOU'RE NOT GIVING ME FOOD!"
Melon is definitely saying "watch it mom!." He had a bit a sas and attitude with that meow 😂. And something to add, I try to get my cat Betty on a schedule when it comes to meals.
"I'm not fat, I'm fluffy."
Thats what my cat says...Lolol 😂😂😂
my 2 year old cat Baby has the head size of an 8 month old but her body has gone from sausage shaped to football shaped and now she's kinda... sweet potato shaped. I think being rescued from starvation made it really hard to get rid of food anxiety and now that she's been a kept cat long enough to feel secure, it's boredom. I'm gonna get a really nice puzzle feeder and stop free-feeding soon, so she can keep entertained and not hungry in between those timed meals. plus, i wanna put her on a more appropriate food. the dechonkification is imminent!
She's my sun moon and stars so I want her to live a good long life!
Love your videos, please do a video about introducing cats and babies! I’m currently pregnant and want to do all i can to make sure my cat settles to this change! X
We have a boy who has been slowly growing, but for reasons unrelated to food, he has been isolated from our other cats for large periods of the day. The separation during mealtime has kept him from being cleanup man for the other cats, and he is slimming down - finally. I probably wouldn’t have separated him if the behavior issue wasn’t in play, but it has been good for him in more than one way. Meal time will likely forever be separated for his health.
My tip for dealing with a cat hitting or poking you in the face at night: Cover your face with a blanket when they start to bother you. Bundle yourself up in a cocoon until they stop. Eventually, after enough nights of this, they’ll realize that tactic doesn’t work and stop doing it
I thought JG was going to suggest not letting the cat sleep with her at night or access to her bedroom--at least until he stops!
I tried that, needless to say my cat is very stubborn and tenacious. Ended up closing her out of the room.
Mine did that he was scratching me on my face,hair,eyes...not pleasant and he was so stubborn nothing worked and we had so many sleepless nights ....he only stoped doing that after I bought an automatic feeding machine so he stopped nagging me for food at 4 in the morning....
@@lunadumbledore2883 Does that work for wet food?
@@samarahendrickson2629 look at the cat mate 300 or c500 they have ice packs and you can freeze your wet food so that it defrosts by the time it is his/her next meal.
I love that his name is Merlin but you call him MELON!! So funny. And great advice! My Cleopatra has trained me well but at 22 lbs needs to loose some weight!
That's so funny I didn't even realise she was saying Merlin 😂
Mellon seems to be saying, "Food? Hell yeah!" lol
I think Melon was saying, 'Hey, how dare you!' (call me overweight!).
Could you make a video about taking care of a cat when you have conditions like ADHD/Autism/ect? I have ADHD and find it really hard to stick to the three R's. One thing that ruin it for days. I've been doing alright with trying to do meal times instead of free feeding, but sometimes I forgot.
And how much wet food should you buy at a time? I don't know if I can convince my grandpa to switch from dry to wet or not, but I'd like to try convincing him.
Honestly, I buy a big box of wet food. Wet food is normally canned so it will last a very long time.
You need to transition your kitty slowly. Your cat might prefer a certain texture of wet food. My cats like shredded but hate pate. And if you transition too fast, it might cause stomach issues.
Some wet food is better then none. Even if you end up feeding one wet food meal, and your grandpa feeds them a dry food meal. This is still better.
Honestly, my cats help keep me on a ritual and routine. They remind me when it is time for them to eat. They will tell me when it is time for the before bedtime play session. This helps me stay on a schedule, which greatly helps me.
Here's one piece of advice - set a reminder on your phone to feed your cat. If you tend to say "eh, I'll do it later" and then forget (I know I do lol), then an alarm might work better. Hit snooze when you can't do something immediately, and then try to get up and do it when the alarm comes back in a few minutes. Hope this helps! :)
I think this might be a better question for a people expert, not a cat expert. You are trying to alter your own behavior not your cat’s, so an ADHD expert might be better able to help
@@Tinyvalkyrie410 I forgot I commented that XD
But you're right. I am subbed to an ADHD channel so I could look through the videos there. Thankfully have been keeping up with the feeding times at least! Can't believe it's already been 7 months wow
set an alarm! And after every meal, wash the bowl and meal prep ahead of time so that everything is out and ready to go.
Just got the annual vet visit this week, and he came back as healthy, and doing well. No chonk, and yes he will remind me in the morning that he does want his nice meaty pouch, nicely warmed up, and served to him. Treats I got some low cal treats recently, which he absolutely adores.
Jackson, I don't think you can have experienced a big cat whacking you on the face all night if you think you can just lay there and ignore it! I have the exact same problem as Jessie. Max hits my face with a claw extended, until I give him some food. It hurts! I have tried leaving him out of the bedroom but he just throws himself at the door until it opens.
Ketamine can help
Hey Chloe! Me and the wifey have the same problem of the cats throwing themselves against the door, but we keep that door closed at night. We end up putting on an audiobook or something that kind of drowns it out. They eventually have stopped except that witching hour when they know I'm getting up for work and it's soon to be breakfast. They will eventually give up as long as you ignore them and you don't get up to scold them. (I have trouble with that sometimes tbh). But we're all a work in progress!!
Unfortunately he does this because it works, one of my cats will actually bite my ankles until he is fed when I am working or putting on my makeup. I hate closing doors in general and my cats can open them, so I’m working on this also. The absolute worst tactic is that my big one will attack the little one as a final resort, which is absolutely effective and awful. It’s hard, I try to play with them a lot and prevent these things but in the meantime if I cave I am giving them the flavors they don’t like (you know the Uber healthy stuff without any added flavoring) when it’s impossible to live my life bc of the active terrorism these cats are using against me. The behavior reward cycle is the thing to break, so the worst thing we can do is give in to bad behavior and reward it. I start by lowering the reward as much as possible, when the behavior cannot be endured, ignored or avoided. They don’t bother me at night anymore. Progress!
@@_inflection3209 I appreciate people giving specific ideas and examples for their own ways of overcoming these things. I feel like a specific feeding schedule helps, cats learn a schedule pretty quickly (and my big guy will try to gaslight me and my husband into feeding him a little sooner every time or feeding him again if the other spouse did already but isn’t around) another thing I tried is measuring out specific meals for specific times for specific cats. I used old peanut butter jars I wash out and just labeled them and that seemed to work really well, so I’m about to try that again. Other than that, I love what you said about how we are all a work in progress. Yes! The important part is that we are trying, and sharing ideas, and not giving up! We will not negotiate with terrorists! (much) and eventually, we’ll figure it out!
@@rainbomg haha they really are little terrorists! I totally agree feeding on a schedule totally helps. I'm such a light sleeper that them attacking the door keeps me up all night, and we really considered leaving our door open until their first vet visit because they ate one of my plants . Now I'm sleeping with a room full of plants and cats meowing and clawing at the door. See? No one's perfect and our learning is perpetual!
Some tips and things that have made my sleep more restful is the whole playtime before bed. That really winds them down.
Also puzzle feeders. I've made so many home made ones , they don't care that it's an egg carton, they just want snacks.
I don't encourage kibble for cats but my one girl refuses to eat wet (or is at least super picky with it). So their last meal is put into something that requires work.. like a pop bottle with holes.they have to bat around to get out. They're so preoccupied that I get some rest before they realize I'm gone.
Don't give up! We just need to be craftier than our furry children. And be kind to yourself if you give in. :)
your cat trained you and you reinforced the behavior. it's like giving a child what they want everytime they throw a tantrum, they are going to throw a tantrum because they know they'll get it.
I definitely learned the hard way about negative reinforcement lol. My little tortie girl figured out that when she wants us awake at 2am to play with her and "give chase" all she had to do was launch herself at our curtains a couple times 😂 NOTHING gets us out of bed faster! Jokes on her though. Once we figured out she wasnt going to stop, we bought those plastic kitty caps for her claws. The first night was hilarious! Nothing like watching a cat slide down your curtains like a thrown sock because she couldnt sink her claws in 😂 (no cats were harmed in this process, she was okay! Just embarrassed lol)
Melon is definitely saying C.! As would my chonk, Hazel. I like that you acknowledged genetics. My vet told me Hazel would be “a circle - she’s short and round” when she was just a kitten. But I am concerned about her heart, possible feline diabetes and losing her early now that’s she an older girl at age 10. She’s def too inactive and food motivated. I will definitely be cutting out dry Purina and switching to meals and I love your crunchy “meat treat” options for a bedtime snack. Thank you !
I am so happy you made this vid! That woman was as if she was describing my situation. Now I know what to do. Thanks for the advice, Cat Daddy! 🐈❤
I so need to be trained not to make my cat fat. Yes, I love food and want to feed everyone (pets) all the time! Thank you for this information!
I’m so happy you did this video!! This goes for any pet owner!! It’s really sad to see humans quite literally kill their pet with food…most often due to lack of knowledge, but some substitute food for love or think food=❤️. I have seen this early pet death time and time again due to over feeding. Whether it’s pet food or table food…doesn’t matter.
Thank you Jackson!!😽😺
My Cat is my Timer, He eats every 6 hours but at night he know his last mean is at 7:30pm and he sleeps all night. Yes he gets 4 meals a day but they are small meals so I know he is eat well. The Strange thing about my cat is that he does not like treats I have tried to get him some but he he just walks away from them.
The best thing we ever did for our cat and our sanity was put him on a schedule. We set a specific alarm sound to go off for his 3 feedings and we respected it like it was the law. We also moved the alarm clock to a neutral location because the cat thought we were somehow making the sound go off each time, so he was still being a brat 5-30 minutes before feeding time for awhile. About a week after we moved the alarm, he settled right in and we haven't had begging and bratty food-seeking behavior every since. It's clear he feels food secure and happy.
Currently watching this while feeding my cat. She is nervous about me and territorial bit starting to realize that I control the food and I am reliable to feed her. For a few days, she would hiss at me if I took her bowl away (especially if she hadn't eaten it within an hour or so). Now, she will eat when food is given to her and only hisses around 20% of the time. 😅 Rescue Kitty trying to get her mojo on.
I love your videos. I love learning more about cats & becoming a better cat Momma bc of you. Thank you Jackson!!!!
Thank you for the advice to ignore a wacking cat, however I have a Siamese that put his nails into my skin. Not for food but he wants me to make some space for him. He has very sharp nails that i can’t ignore. He is 17,5 years old and started this behavior the last year after losing a stray cat that we took in. They weren’t friends by the way. When we took in the stray he was very mad at me that I betrayed him by taking in the stray. They didn’t fight but the stray was very dominant. I regret my dissension for taking another cat in the home but couldn’t kick him to the curbs again. But my rescue Siamese that had become an very happy cat suffered my dissuasion. well now he is old and suffers from arthritis And I give him all the attention he wants. So I endured his nails in the night.😜
I did, she is so much happier from 16 to 14, for a Burmese that about perfect, she also was grooming obsessively, that also stopped. Wet food, Tiki Cat. Thanks cat guru😀
Thank you for this video!!
I have a chonky cat I adopted a few years ago. She was clearly overweight (15-16lbs when she should be 10) and by following the vet's calorie guides she's down to about 13. I've tried wet food, and while she loves to drink up the liquid in it, she barely eats the foot itself and will starve herself. She is not very food motivated and only eats liquid treats (that come in the little tube packets), which I give her very rarely (less than once a month). She has set meal times as well, and I recently got blood work done for another issue and seems she's pretty good. Finally, I've tried so many toys with her, and found little success! She gets overwhelmed really easily and is terrified of most toys. Obviously a previous home was not kind to her - she's panicked when I tried to dust before, so any long toys will freak her out within a minute if not instantly. She only enjoys a laser pointer, which isn't ideal, and only plays a little bit before becoming bored or overwhelmed. She is about 9-10 now, so definitely a senior cat, so I really want to be on top of her health!
I will definitely try free dried treats - maybe this will finally help her understand that meat is good even if not in pellet form! Best of luck to other chonky cat owners!
Try getting a string and a throw pillow or a small rug, and put the pillow between you and the cat. Put the string under the pillow so you are like this 🧎♀️➡️~-💮-~🐈 and then slowly pull the string towards yourself. Be patient, and I bet she won’t let it go fully under the pillow without chasing after it! My kitty is similar he gets very overwhelmed by toys bc he was hurt when he was little. It’s important for them to feel safe. That’s his favorite game, he loves digging the string out from under stuff!
Jessi i feel for you we just got our first cat at the start of December and she was in the shelter free feeding dry food since July. Got her to a wet food immediately, (thank you Jackson for the video on how to read the labels and what to look for) but we're still trying to work through the wanting access to food at all hours. It feels like I've got a six month old baby all over again any time i roll over there she is making soft biscuits (no claws) trying to get me up for food. So I'm with you in solidarity.
The best way to help a "chonky" cat lose weight, is to switch them from dry food to wet food or balanced raw. Dry food is full of carbs, which contributes to weight gain, and keeps them from feeling full.
Useful advice. Thanks.
Hello what kind of raw food? Thanks
I had to my cat on a prescription kibble due to allergies and he went crazy for it was hungry more often and got rounder. When I was finally able to get him off of it and went to Ziwi he is satiated with less and is not as round
Thank you for this! I took my new cat (6 years old, adopted from a shelter in November) to the vet today and the vet said "wow, she's chunky." So we're starting at 15 pounds and trying to slim her down, especially since the shelter was free-feed and she hates me for trying to control her diet 😅
Carbohydrates are *obesigenic* in multiple species. Probably addictive as well. Thanks for reminding us just how bad dry feed for cats is!
My cats were kind of free-fed, but they were also super active. They played a lot with us and each other, and even our dogs.
be kind to your cats. play with them, feed them well, keep them at healthy weight and happiness levels 🌟
Answer is either B or C, mainly because my cat is a former Chonker, but is still more than willing to be a Chonker. I feed her twice per day but if I put down something she loves such as some fish, she'll wolf it down, then vomit because she ate so fast, then she won't touch her kibble all day, but follows me, stalks me and sulks. She is constantly begging though not as vocal as Melon. Thanks for the tip about meat treats, but she's missing a lot of her teeth.🙄😸