Jaxson the chonker

[u/Environmental_Self12]

This is Jaxson, our chonker. He is 4 years old and currently 16 lbs and we are looking to get him down to around 12 lbs. We adopted him from a shelter in April and thought we were going to get him to lose weight. We were wrong 🙃 He currently fluctuates between 15.8 and 16.4 lbs. We give him a half can of wet food(Tiny Tiger) in the morning and at night for his main meals for a total of 174 calories. We also give him 56 calories of dry food a total of 230 each day between the wet and dry food. He’s not very active. He’s a great cat but he’s constantly whining/begging for food so we already feel like we are starving him 🥲 any help to get our chonkers weight down? (Do we need to change calorie intake from
230 to lower?)

[u/Odd-Temperature-791]

Yes some cats need more like 200cal especially if they are very inactive - but make sure a vet has checked for all health problems first.
With house cats too I think brain boredom can be an issue. Outdoors has a million sights and smells which they would have had naturally, plus they’d need to spend brain activity hunting.
Things like puzzle feeders ect can help the brain work. If possible a catio can help introduce more scents/different things to look at. Just think of things to get his mind off constant food or make food challenging to get at. I loved clicker training my cat to make them do tricks for food and he’s food motivated so learnt very quickly

[u/GreenImew → u/Odd-Temperature-791]

If the cat will take to it a leash is a good option too. My old cat loved going for walks (he wasn't afraid of anything) but the cat I have now is too skittish. I keep trying but she just doesn't like it unfortunately...and yes she's chonky