How do I know my cat is fat?

[passion33]

What are the telltale signs of a fat cat versus a furry cat? What are distinguishing signs between a fat cat and an obese cat?  Is there a BMI scale for cats as there are for humans?  And how can I make my indoor cat exercise more?

[Savas]

you know your cat is too fat if...

When he sits around the house... he sits around THE WHOLE HOUSE!!! :)

You know your cat is too fat when he jumps down onto the bed and bounces you onto the floor!!!

Heh heh...seriously, if you pet the cat (stroking) you should be able to feel their ribs a little. If you  can't feel them, then your cat is getting dangerously fat.

Especially if he ate his own ribs.

With sauce. :)

[christy195050]

Your cat should weight approx 4-6 kilos.  You must remember when feeding your cat/s that a cat would normally eat on an average of one mouse, a few grasshoppers/lizards and  some grass every  day in the wild so if you are feeding them more than 85 grams wet food twice a day you are overfeeding them. If you are feeding dry biscuits as well then more often than not you are over feeding. If you want a cat to loose weight then feed them two desert spoons of game raw meat twice a day  ie kangaroo, diced lean turkey, rabbit, diced chicken breast or dice fish . Do not feed biscuits at any cost as these promote weight gain,urinary tract infections/crystals, diabeties etc.as most people leave the biscuits out for the cats to help themselves and nearly all are made with flour or binding of some sort. You can even put your cats on a natural diet of snap frozen mice which you can purchase from any vet hopitals or pet outlet in packs of 50.

[passion33]

Thanks for the comment lonewolf.  His belly is so close to the ground!  He weighs a ton when I lift him!  And he is the size of two small dogs!  I think I feed him enough (1/4 cup weight loss dry food for breakfast, 1/6 can of wet food for dinner, and 3 tsps of the dry food at bedtime) but he is always so hungry!

[lonewolf07]

One way to tell is by looking to see if he has "the droop"; that is - is his stomach getting closer to the ground?  Another way is to "pinch" the fat, a bit like they do with humans.  If you shave a fat cat he will still be fat.  If you shave a long haired cat, he'll be average to even thin.  The best thing to do is take him to the vet and have him recommend some weight loss food; some of it tastes pretty good to cats.

We have a cat like that and I have no idea how he got so "tubby".  Our other two cats - one is 23 yrs old and not very big and the other one isn't light but he isn't tubby either.  They all eat the same food.  I don't give them treats to often.  But personally, I'd ask the vet to rule out anything like a thyroid problem.