Diabetes, orthopedic complications, urinary tract disease, liver problems. These are just some of the illnesses associated with excess weight in a cat.
There are also a) dermatological issues because a cat who weighs too much cannot properly groom herself all over her body and remove foreign substances from her coat; b) quality-of-life concerns because an overweight cat cannot play and hunt in the vigorous ways she would find emotionally fulfilling; and c) difficulties taking care of her because there’s an increased risk of complications from anesthesia should she need to be “put under” for, say, a dental cleaning. But it gets worse still.
A new study suggests that we can add poor absorption of nutrients and other digestion difficulties to the list. Another way of putting it: too much food can actually translate to a decrease in the nutrients the feline body can take up from that food, with more of it passing from the animal’s body never being utilized.
Researchers reporting in the Journal of Animal Science made the finding when they followed a small group of cats over the course of 20 weeks. For the first two weeks, the cats, who started out lean, were fed specific amounts of food to make sure they remained in ideal body condition. Then they were fed ad libitum for the next 18 weeks, meaning they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted.
They more than doubled their caloric intake, and the weight piled on. While they started with an ideal body condition score of about 5 (ideal is 4 or 5), they ended with a body condition score of 8 — putting them almost in the obese range.
Results of overeating
As the cats gained weight, the time it took for food to travel through their digestive tracts decreased — by about 25 percent. Concomitant with that rushed transit time was a decrease in their bodies’ absorption of protein and other nutrients. Not only that, but the bacteria in their guts also underwent changes, impacting the diversity and balance of gut flora.
Practical implications
Any diminishment of nutrient digestion by cats impacts their health, as does a change in the bacteria of the feline gut. That makes it imperative to take steps to ensure that your cat remains trim or loses excess weight.
People should weigh their cat’s meals on a food scale rather than simply eyeball how much goes into a cup. That will ensure their pet gets the right number of calories every time — an important component of weight management since it takes very few extra calories to turn a cat at ideal weight into one who weighs too much. After all, many cats need only a few hundred calories a day.
It’s also important to make sure your cat engages in daily physical activity, both by playing with you and with toys that you set out.
Six in 10 pet cats in the United States are overweight. Feeding and activity changes are in order in many households.
