Neutering your cat offers many benefits. But how can you avoid weight gain?
Neutering Your Cat: A Responsible Choice
It is often recommended to neuter or spay cats, both male and female, at the end of their growth period. First, to limit and prevent stray litters, thereby avoiding abandonments and the overcrowding of shelters. Undesirable behaviors are also observed, such as male cats marking their territory or female cats crying during heat. Finally, it's important to remember that neutering or spaying your cat helps prevent fights and reduces the risk of running away.
Many of us want to neuter or spay our cats, but we often fear the inevitable weight gain that follows!
Why do cats gain weight after being neutered or spayed?
Neutering your cat comes with a decrease in its energy needs. This means that our cats should consume fewer calories – on average 20% to 30% less each day. Additionally, after castration, our cats lose their natural ability to regulate their caloric needs, which makes them more likely to consume more than they need, leading to rapid weight gain.
So, our cats have reduced caloric needs and a loss of self-regulation ability.
It is up to us to properly control and regulate their diet to avoid weight gain.
How to prevent or limit weight gain after neutering your cat?
First and foremost, neutering your cat is a stressful event, both for you and for your cat. We do not recommend changing or reducing your cat’s diet immediately after the surgery. You can give it a few days of rest, allowing it to return to its home and routine.
Understanding:
When you reduce your cat’s caloric intake, remember that it's not just about reducing the amount of food, but rather reducing the caloric density.
Example with wet food:
If your cat eats 200g of wet food per day, don’t just reduce the amount to 160g. It won’t understand this sudden "rationing" and may become frustrated.
Instead, choose a new wet food, either from the same brand or a different one, formulated for neutered cats and with lower calories. Check out our grain-free wet foods for cats, available in chicken, beef, or fish, specially designed to meet the dietary needs of neutered cats.
Example with dry food:
If your cat eats 50g of dry food per day, don’t just reduce the amount to 40g. Instead, choose dry food that is specifically designed for neutered cats, with fewer calories, or replace part of its dry food with wet food. Wet food is on average 4 times less caloric than dry food, and will provide volume, water, and high-quality protein to your cat, reducing frustration and increasing satiety.
In summary, our tips:
- Choose low-calorie food: Some foods, whether dry or wet, are more suitable for neutered cats and neutered kittens. This is because some types of food are less caloric than others, at the same weight (100g for example). If their calorie content is reduced, these foods continue to meet the essential nutritional needs of cats in sufficient quantities.
- Portion their food: If your cat had free access to dry food before neutering, it's not advisable to continue this. Since your cat can no longer regulate itself, it’s better to calculate the daily food intake (dry food and/or wet food) and divide it into several small meals, at least four.
- Add volume without the calories: It’s possible that your cat will seem frustrated or hungry if you suddenly reduce its caloric intake. This is normal! If its energy needs decrease in less than 24 hours, it won’t be used to this change. You can either transition slowly to a lower-calorie food or add boiled vegetables to its dry food or wet food. Try adding boiled zucchini, which is very low-calorie and often liked by cats. It will provide volume without the extra calories.
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