How To Keep Your Cat Fit
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You adore your playful feline baby. Perhaps you want to see her happy and healthy. Of course, it is your responsibility to look after her fitness. The best way to keep your cat fit is to spend some quality time playing with her. So, she remains active, enjoys your company, and stays healthy and fit, without putting too much weight.
Obesity is a huge problem in the feline community. Statistics reveal that 10-30 percent of cats that visit vets are flabby and overweight. Do you know staying active is good for your tabby’s heart, lungs, and coat?
Unless you keep your cat fit, the kitty faces a plethora of health risks. Inactive cats are prone to hyperthyroidism, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and fatty liver syndrome. So, you must make sure your kitty stays active. Here are a few tips to ensure feline fitness.
Exercise A Good Way To Keep Your Cat Fit
Putting your kitty on an exercise program shouldn’t be a tough job, as cats have naturally short attention spans. However, it is important to keep each session short. Do not stretch any session beyond two to five minutes every time. Most importantly, you would want to avoid introducing a number of exercises together. Make sure each exercise is introduced gently and gradually. This is even more important if yours is an obese or overweight kitty.
Obese cats face the risk of joint injury in the event they are pushed into doing exercises quickly. Jumping and aerobics can wait until your feline has shed some weight.
It would be even more helpful for cat health to make them play when they are most interested. Being nocturnal mammals, cats are happier to be active when the sun goes down. And this helps you keep your cat fit.
A scratching post is an ideal cat toy that will serve two purposes. Besides helping her natural scratching instinct, it will help tone shoulder and back muscles.
Keep Your Cat Busy
Sky is the limit when it comes to keeping your kitty moving.
What is your kitty most interested in doing? Being predators, cats have natural instinct to stalk and chase. What toys and objects interest them the most? Interactive balls, electronic mice, stuffed toys, ping pong balls, and catnip filled toys with a crackling sound are some of the toys that most kitties love to play with and chase. Bring them on and get your kitty going!
Drag a catnip mouse in front of them and tap into their natural prey instinct. Enjoy watching your feline baby working hard to catch her “prey.”
It’s a good idea to encourage them to chase these objects. Boredom is the worst enemy for cats. They want to play with you. The more affection you show to your cat, the more responsive she will turn out to be.
This way everyone will have fun. More importantly, the bond between you and your kitty will get stronger while you are able to keep your cat fit.
If your feline baby is a couch potato, who is interested in nothing but food, then you can make meal time play time, so they can have fun as well as move around a bit.
- Hide their favorite food in places that are not within easy reach.
- Let them find and reach out to their favorite treats.
- Keep their water and food bowls at a distance to help them burn calories over time.
The idea is to get them moving, so they can stay fit.
Diet Key To Keep Your Cat Fit
Research reveals that the biggest contributor to obesity in cats is wrong diet. Free feeding your kitty is a gross mistake that you do not want to do. It only adds calories and weight and makes kitty obese. Overweight cats live short, often succumbing to heart and liver conditions and diabetes.
Start your kitty on a good diet to ward off disease and illness.
Another idea is to make her work for her food. A plastic foraging ball can come in handy here. The ball has a hollow center for hiding dry cat food. When the ball moves, tiny specks of dry food fall out, giving your moving kitty an incentive for chasing the ball. When her body moves, she is burning those calories. However, make sure she gets enough to eat and doesn’t starve in the process. This helps your cat keep fit and agile.
Cut Down Obesity Risk
According to a study report by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, about 70 million cats are obese or overweight, which is enough of a reason to worry. An obese cat is at a high risk of early death and may die two and a half years earlier than a kitty of the same age with an ideal weight. Cut down the obesity risk and keep your cat fit.
It’s a good idea to watch your feline friend closely to understand what she loves doing. Being naturally playful and active, cats can be easily motivated to move, jump, and chase things. When the whole idea is to get them going, any idea that makes them move will help boost cat fitness. Make sure you visit your vet for regular checkups of your feline. This will help in the timely diagnosis and treatment of any health problem.
