Feline obesity affects a growing proportion of cats and causes significant welfare harms through joint disease, diabetes, and reduced quality of life that proactive prevention can address.
Feline obesity is a growing welfare epidemic that significantly compromises quality of life. Obese cats experience chronic joint pain that limits their ability to jump, play, and groom themselves. The inability to groom leads to matted fur, skin infections, and significant discomfort. Diabetes from obesity requires daily insulin injections and causes thirst, frequent urination, and weakness. Obese cats live shorter, more restricted lives than lean cats. The welfare tragedy is that obesity often results from misguided kindness - overfeeding as an expression of love - that causes the very suffering owners want to prevent. Prevention through measured feeding and appropriate diet is far preferable to treating obesity-related disease.