Hair-biting on abdoman

Question
We have a ten-year-old neutered house cat, "Bud", who does not go outside at all except for vet visits.  He has a good personality and shows great affection to both my wife and me, just as we do toward him.  He is overweight, 25 lbs., and we have tried dieting but he hates the food.  It's also pretty expensive.  He still gets exercise during playtime with us but in the process of washing himself, he sometimes bites the hair on his (large) belly until it's close to bare skin.  Anything you can suggest as to cause and/or treatment?

Answer
HI Jim,

First of all, obesity is as serious a health concern in cats as it is in humans. It leads to diabetes, arthritis, and kidney disease. Please start today getting Bud to lose weight. You do not need prescription diets to do this, and in fact most of those diets make cats even fatter, because they contain too many grains. Cats are unable to convert carbohydrates into energy as omnivores such as humans can do. Instead, as specialized carnivores, they get all their energy from protein. Carbohydrates are converted directly to fat by the cat's metabolic processing!

To get Bud to slim down, what you need to do is first convert him to a high quality (high protein) canned food or a raw diet. All dry foods contain very high carbohydrate levels. Even the new "grain free" kibbles simply substitute potato for grains - potatoes are high in carbohydrates and make cats very fat. So please read this website on choosing a canned food for your cat:

http://www.catinfo.org

First you will need to get Bud used to the idea of mealtime and no free choice food (which I assume you are doing now). Feed him 3-4 meals a day, at the recommended amount of food for his weight. Then you can gradually start reducing the amount of food, but you will find he will lose weight only due to the higher protein lower carb diet.

You may find that a good quality canned food also eliminated the belly scratching. That is a classic sign of a food allergy. I highly recommend you try a canned food with no grains in it, because corn etc is a common allergen for cats. Wellness is a good, reasonably priced choice. No it is not as cheap as supermarket brands but you get what you pay for - and giving Bud good health by feeding good food will save you vet bills in the long run!

Bud may also have fleas, often cat owners are in "flea denial" because they don't see any fleas on the cat. But feline fleas spend very little time on the cat - they jump on, bite and jump off again. Indoor cats can get fleas too, as they ride in on people, dogs or even squeeze in through cracks. The best treatment for fleas is Advantage. Apply it to the skin at the back of Bud' neck and it will kill the fleas within 24 hours and keep working for about 8 weeks. It is a safe and effective product. Never use pet-store flea treatments, collars, sprays etc. Hartz, for example, has been sued for causing the death of hundreds of cats due to their toxic flea products - do a google search on hartz toxic cat or similar to find more info on that. Only use a veterinary product such as Advantage (also sold online no prescription needed).

More cat nutrition info:

http://www.catnutrition.org/clienthandout.html

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm