Obesity affects an estimated 25–63% of pet cats in developed countries, causing pain, disease, and reduced quality of life. Prevention and management are both owner and veterinary responsibilities.
Feline obesity is a welfare crisis that has developed in parallel with the growing popularity of sedentary indoor cat keeping and free-choice dry food feeding. Obese cats experience chronic joint pain from the excess load on skeletal structures, difficulty grooming (leading to matting, skin infections, and psychological distress from inability to maintain a natural behaviour), reduced mobility that further decreases activity and worsens the problem, and an elevated disease burden including diabetes and hepatic lipidosis. The welfare impact is significant and prolonged — an obese cat may spend years in chronic discomfort before owners or veterinarians recognise the problem and intervene. Owner education is the primary prevention lever: understanding appropriate body condition scores, transitioning from free-choice to measured feeding after neutering, and providing active play and puzzle feeding as routine practice. Veterinary consultations provide an opportunity for body condition scoring and dietary counselling that is frequently missed when appointments focus only on acute health issues. Weight loss programmes must be veterinary-supervised to ensure safe, gradual progress that avoids triggering hepatic lipidosis.