Help our big orange boy be not so big

Post date: 2026-08-06 03:32:34

Our beloved 14-year-old cat Julius Augustus (cat tax) is a big boy - he was 18 pounds when we got him three years ago, and we've gotten him down to just over 16 pounds. But he needs to lose a little more, and we can't seem to get him past his plateau.

Julius is a larger-than-average cat. He's like a normal cat scaled up. He is a bit overweight for his size though, and we've been trying to get him down to 15-15.5 pounds. He's hit a plateau at just over 16 pounds, for months. We've reduced his calories a few times which will move the needle a tiny bit at the beginning, but then it doesn't budge again.

He's clearly adapting to the lower calories by conserving energy. Cutting calories further seem cruel and pointless.

Have you had a cat with this issue? How did you solve it?

We manage his food to the gram. He gets half a Churu every day (we have to give some to Baby (cat tax) when she gets her butt ointment, and Julius will come eat hers if we don't give him some). We've accounted for that in his calorie limit. He'll get a Greenie every third day or so. No other treats, no table scraps. His supplements are negligible-calorie, and are accounted for.

Julius is an indoor cat, but gets to go outside on a harness once or twice a day weather permitting, but it's usually just a sedate stroll around the yard (unless there's a bunny he needs to stalk). He's not into playing. We've tried everything - wands, strings, balls, you name it. Sometimes we can get a little burst out of him, but most of the time he watches indifferently and then wanders off. He gets into the laser a little (I'm not a fan of lasers for cats generally) but not in a sustained way, and usually Baby horns in and takes over when the laser comes out. (Baby is not interested in the other types of play that we've had some limited success with for Julius.) He does occasionally get the zoomies but we haven't been able to leverage that into play.

We got a cat wheel, but neither cat is interested (it's been a couple months).

Any ideas or things that worked for you

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