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Britain's cats are getting so fat that they now have their own diabetes clinic.

Just like their owners, cats are eating badly and exercising less and weight is ballooning.

The average cat weighs 25 per cent more than a decade ago and the creatures are four times more likely to become diabetic than 30 years ago.

Fat cats are also at risk of potentially fatal liver conditions, lameness and arthritis, as well as skin conditions triggered because they can't stretch enough to groom themselves properly.

Dr Sijin Niessen with Wilf, one of the cats to enter the Feline Diabetic Remission Clinic in Hertfordshire

Fat cats, such as Zorro, who weighs twice as much as he should, are becoming more common with the average cat weighing 25 per cent more than a decade ago

Experts say that just like humans, much of the problem has its roots in a bad diet and lack of exercise. 

Heavier traffic, coupled with owners seeing cats as companions rather than hunters, mean that Britain's 8.5million pet cats are spending more and more time locked indoors.

Plus, modern lifestyles are out of kilter with age-old genes.

Stijn Niessen, who runs Britain's first clinic devoted to the study of feline diabetes, said that more than half of the cats kept indoors are dangerously overweight, compared with a quarter of those that regularly go outdoors.

Dr Niessen, of the Feline Diabetic Remission Clinic in the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals in Hertfordshire, said: 'Because we live so closely with these animals, they are exposed to the same pressures.

Cats, such as Tom, pictured, are also at risk of potentially fatal liver conditions, lameness and arthritis through being overweight

'They get tasty, rich foods from us, which thousands of years were not available.

'But genetically cats are much the same as they were then they hunted and intermittently consumed prey.'

The vet, who has treated more than 100 cats in his clinic in the past year said that while these ancient genes would once have helped cats store vital energy until their next meal, they now predispose them to diabetes.

His study of blood samples from diabetic cats shows that Burmese cats are particularly prone to the condition.

And, just as with people, diabetes is more likely to develop in middle and old age.

While it can be controlled with regular insulin injections and a low-carbohydrate diet, it raises the risk of a number of health problems and can kill.

Last month, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home admitted the fattest cat in its history.

At 22lb – just over a stone and a half – Titan is more than twice his recommended weight and the most recent in a 'spate of morbidly obese felines' to squeeze through the home's doors.

Lindsey Quinlan, Battersea's head of cattery, told the Sunday Times: 'Most of the dangerously overweight cats we get have been living indoors.

'But people often give their pets too much food or the wrong types of food as an expression of their love, although it is in fact a form of cruelty.'