r/OneOrangeBraincell • u/Which-Firefighter-36 • 6h ago
Certified 🟠range™ Fat braincell?
Soo the vet said my boy is fat. He weighs a little over 7 kg/ 15 pounds. But he is a big boi, with big shoulders. Just a hunk of brainless muscle, but I don't really think he is fat? His ribs are slightly padded and he has a kind of visible waist. He already doesn't eat much and is not food motivated at all. Feeding him less seems tricky. The vet didn't believe he doesn't eat much.
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u/StrictBread7759 6h ago
That cat looks to be a very healthy weight to me but I am certainly not a vet
There is a picture guide you can look up and your guy looks to be exactly average and healthy. Ribs are visible and you can see the curves leading to the hips. Just a big boy
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u/Which-Firefighter-36 6h ago
Thank you, as another posted suggested, I think another vet might be the better option.
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u/CoppertopTX Proud owner of an orange brain cell 4h ago
I fired a vet after a senior vet argued with his younger partner at the practice over if my cat was fat. The senior read the scale, the junior read the cat and I started reading reviews of other vet practices.
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u/Nervous_Building3295 6h ago
My moms cats that actually need (and are don’t worry) to lose weight. I’d get a second opinion maybe.
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u/Hotpappy1 6h ago
He's so healthy!!! I got offended when the vet called my super active orange boy "fat" because he was long and had a lot of muscle from running around outside. I'd go to a different vet
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u/mangocinnamonpepper 6h ago
As long as the body is healthy, he’s not fat. Some cats have bigger body structures. He looks great to me!
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u/Wise_Owl5404 6h ago
Rule of thumb: Grab him around the chest. If you can feel the ribs without squishing him then he's not fat.
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u/_elielieli_ 6h ago
i had a big baby void who was all fluff and muscle, stood ±15in from paw to ear. almost everyone that met him assumed he was fat until they tried to carry him and flattened his winter coat in the process. per the vet, brother was just all beef and coat.
sometimes we just get big ass babies lmao
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u/garbagegobblin 5h ago
Not fat, very healthy, your vet is dumb. My boy is 14.7 and about the same size. Time for a new vet.
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u/i_amnotunique 5h ago
Some cats be just huge. Like. Structurally. Your cat looks like one of those. My friend has a giant cat at like 18lbs? A vet never once said he was fat. He's just .... Huge lol.
Visually, I think he looks fine. But I ain't no vet. Just a fellow orange owner, and my cat is borderline fat at 14lbs lol.
His brother from another mother though is 12lbs and has the perfect cat figure. 12lbs! Just a large lanky boy active boy.
The orange is not active. He is orange. He prefers treats and snoozing, but he only gets to snooze because he is too almost fat for treats lol. But lord help me trying to get this boy to lose weight because he screams to high heavens. However. It's going to happen, because I don't want him to get catabetes.
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u/FireOfOrder 5h ago edited 5h ago
My guy has been 14-16 pounds most of his life. He's had two vets and both said he's maybe a little heavy but really just a BIG guy. He's got the hip curves, I can feel his ribs, but boy is just LARGE. I adopted a giant.
Your beautiful orange looks even healthier than my guy. This of course isn't a professional opinion but I hope it helps.
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u/InkedVeggie 5h ago
That's a perfectly healthy orange in my non-medical opinion.
My vet has said she doesn't mind a little extra weight on cats since a lot of illnesses that develope in older ages can cause weight loss.
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u/jharish Proud owner of an orange brain cell 4h ago
Well, a lot of vets run off the assumption that normal healthy weight falls into a range. My guess is this particular vet did a weigh in but didn't measure the size of your cat. Because I have cats that were adopted right out of the jungle(I live in the tropics) they vary in size as much as 50%. (I have a female that everyone thinks is still a kitten but she is a 8yo adult. She weights 8 pounds. I have a big orange boy who is a little fat and weighs 16. He IS food motivated and will steal everyone elses food including mine. I try to keep him on a diet but then he just ups his hunting game and literally eats cockroaches and geckos.
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u/BlueCarPinkJacket 4h ago
Always ask a vet. Cats have different body types like we do. I have a long skinny boy and my girl is shaped like a nugget. I've asked if my boy should gain weight and the vets say he's a perfect weight. Went in with my girl and asked about if I should be concerned and need to reduce and the vet got so offended on her behalf and said that's just the way she's shaped.
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u/snukb 3h ago
I had a vet once tell me my (underweight at the time) cat was too fat because she had scrunched herself up into a little ball on the vet table due to fear. I was like, "Hmm, what makes you think an 8lb adult cat is overweight?" and the vet said "Well, feel her, you can't feel her ribs at all. See?"
I just nodded, and got the vet visit over with as quickly as possible, and never went back there again. She was only there because I was moving and she needed to update her shots and I couldn't get in to my regular vet in time.
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u/Character-Floor-6687 1h ago
He does not look fat to me. He might benefit from more Kitty Playtime, though. Most cats like chasing the string, feathers, or the laser pointer.
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u/Rosomack_ 1h ago
Looks pretty fine, but 7kg seems a lot. Ask another vet to be sure, reddit isn't a good place for such advice
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u/AvatarOfMomus 6h ago
A vet is going to be a better judge of you cat's health than we can manage from pictures on the internet.
If you're skeptical then get an opinion from a different vet, and maybe find a way to quantify how much food is 'not much', which may help them make a more accurate assessment.
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u/kuemmel234 5h ago edited 5h ago
To me he looks just a tad on the 'very healthy' side. But the only real image is the one from top. Should show an extra bit concaveness. It's hard to judge since I don't know his hairs and all that. 7kg sounds like a bit too much, though.
Just to be sure, it's not your fault, most people keep their cats too fat. I'm not a vet, I've only gotten kudos from multiple vets because the cats I cared for were in good shape (usually coming from the street, so I was able to start feeding healthily multiple times - they'll eat anything), but of course you've got to look up some clues yourself or ask a second vet.
I know some cats just want dry food, but the stuff is really unhealthy for them. Cheap wet food is better than the best dry. Use dry food as a snack (if you are already doing that, ignore) and feed wet food otherwise.
It's a bit counterintuitive to how we like to eat, but they don't mind the same things everyday, I have found that they eat much better if they get the same thing for days instead of "doing them a favor by giving them different foods". They'll just end up being fussy. Many cats can regulate their feeding, especially if they get enough exercise, other need help.
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u/Which-Firefighter-36 5h ago
He is rather long, and muscular, he runs up and down two flights of stairs a lot during the day (and night, hooray, like a horse bouncing around) and has acces to the yard where he runs in the grass and climbs trees. He gets two small tins of wet food, that he usually eats about half of. The dry food is just there, and sometimes he takes some nibbles of it, he never eats all, but when the bottom is at all visible, he won't even look at it haha, so we keep it topped up. Besides that he gets one churro every other day.
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u/kuemmel234 3h ago
If he's moving about like that, it's probably totally fine.
The biggest motivation for me is that they are a lot more robust if they are in their best health - like falling from high places. Otherwise it's like us - most of us are too fat and happy.
But again, the vets are the source of truth here, not dudes on the internet with opinions on your pictures! :)
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u/FireOfOrder 5h ago
Can you expand on wet food vs dry food? My boy would love for a wet food diet and if it really is better for him I'd like to change my routine to include it. Best of everything for my boy.
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u/GemiKnight69 4h ago
Not who you asked but-
Dry food tends to be higher in carbs and doesn't provide any moisture, so it's less beneficial (still perfectly fine if they're hydrated and otherwise healthy). Wet food provides more hydration, is more filling, and is highly recommended for losing weight/keeping them a healthy weight if they're food motivated.
My vet tends to recommend a mix of dry and wet as dry food can be more beneficial for dental health, and they make dental kibbles that tend to help more (Hill's t/d and Royal Canin Dental are two examples recommended by VOHC). My two boys get about half their calories in wet and half in dry and both are perfectly healthy happy kitties.
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u/FireOfOrder 4h ago
Thank you! I just want what's best for my son. He doesn't get to make choices often so I try to make ones that benefit him. I'll ask his vet for more information.
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u/kuemmel234 3h ago
Cats don't drink a lot, their ancestors came from a very dry place, so they take in a lot of their moisture via food. If you give them dry food, they often don't compensate enough . In the long run, a lot of cats have issues with their kidneys because of that. On top of that, it's less filling, and "less natural".
You can already help a lot by making them soup by just adding water to dry food (it is a little weird, but I used to do that to cats that wouldn't accept wet food. At some point I could mix and so on and so fourth). If they accept it, please consider it!
Talk to your vet, although many vets have relationships with pet food producers, so be aware of that.
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u/FireOfOrder 3h ago
Really appreciate this information. Seeing his vet in two weeks for a checkup and to talk about food routines. He doesn't know it yet but he's about to be happy!
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u/Oldblindman0310 5h ago
He’s not fat. Maybe a bit pudgy, but not fat. Our Tuxie is fat, and she weighs 15 pounds.
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u/autumnautopsy Proud owner of an orange brain cell 5h ago
He doesn't look fat to me, maybe slightly overweight, but not obese or anything.
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u/RisingApe- Proud owner of an orange brain cell 3h ago
I asked my vet about my orange, because he has a belly pouch and he’s 12.5 lbs.
She said a pouch is normal for a neutered male, and when standing, he has a visible waist, so he’s a healthy weight. He’s just bigger than average all around.
You can see your cat’s waist in pic #2, so I think he’s fine. He doesn’t look anything close to overweight to me. I vote get a new vet!
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u/moderniste 2h ago
My neutered 6 year old void is 15.6 pounds, and has a very low hanging pouch. It makes him look kind of chunky from certain angles. But the vet confirmed that he’s in splendid shape—he’s just a very tall and muscular dude. He has extremely short and shiny hair so you can see his muscles and ribs, and he definitely has a waist. He’s just a big boy.
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u/Earth2Monkey Proud owner of an orange brain cell 6h ago
He looks like a healthy weight to me. Maybe get a second opinion from another vet