Kitty Update
Our cats are on a diet.
The details are not necessary, but suffice it to say that GirlCat's weight-related grooming issues have reached a tipping point, and we (I) can no longer make excuses for her (or myself).
We (I) just have to suck it up and deal with the inconvenience of separating the three cats and feeding them individual meals, rather than just letting them have a free-range, all-day buffet.
I guess the diet technically starts tomorrow, but this evening, I gave them their first separate meals (that went so-so, details to come) and then took up all the food until morning.
GirlCat and BoyCat (the fat ones - she is 25 lbs, he is 21 lbs) will be eating the special, expensive Obesity Management diet food from the vet, and MamaCat will finish off the bag of Purina Healthy Weight and Hair Ball Formula that they've been eating, then she'll switch to a regular (not diet) formula store-bought food, since she's actually a little skinny (a hair under 7 lbs) these days.
We'll start with two meals per day, of 1/2 cup food per cat per meal. If they drive us nuts on that plan, we'll divide their one cup per kitty into three meals, but the vet said that two should be fine, after a few days to adjust.
The plan, at the moment, is for me to feed them with I get up in the morning and again when I get home in the evening, or a little later, to be roughly every twelve hours.
I'm not sure how we'll manage separating them.
On our test run this evening, I stuck Mama in one bathroom, and the Boy in the other, and gave Girly her food in the laundry room, where they are used to eating (because she was already hanging out in there, and I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting, so I didn't want to move her).
Mama and Boy were not happy a bit about being shut in the bathrooms, and I don't think they ate anything while they were in there.
Then, I let them out and moved all three bowls into the laundry room, where Mama promptly started eating the Girl's diet food - not her own less-diet (and less-expensive) food.
I moved it out of her reach, and then she tried to eat the Boy's diet food.
(The vet tells me that it's evidently quite yummy. MamaCat seems to agree.)
With some fancy food-work, I managed to get the boy to eat a good bit of his own diet food, and the Girl to have some of hers, and Mama to stick (mostly) to her cheaper stuff.
Then I took it all up. And the whining began.
Nah, it's not really that bad, although the Boy does seem to be complaining a bit. Or maybe he just wants some lovin'.
What he really wants is to sit on my lap, right on top of Peeper. That's his favorite place to be, these days.
So, as I said, I'm not quite sure where/how to feed them separately, as they seem to be completely freaked out by the idea of eating anywhere but in the laundry room.
Maybe after a night of no food, they'll be less picky about the location?
The hardest part, I'm sure, will be for us to stick with it and to ignore their complaining until they get used to the new system.
But we really have to, because poor GirlCat is miserable, and there doesn't seem to be any kitty gastric bypass on the horizon, so there are no other options.
Wish us luck.
I was surprised when BJ (Brothercat) was at the vet the other day and he was only 10 lbs. He used to be 12 lbs. when he was younger. He seems fatter now than then. He may just generally be shrinking in his old age.
ReplyDeletePhineas is 9 lbs. and Maggie is 8 lbs. And we are trying to get the babies up to at least a pound each to see about starting their shots.
I worry about having kitten food in the house again. Right now it is no problem because the little ones are still primarily in my room. (Although they visit the big kitties sometimes.) Once they are sharing the whole house the big kitties invariably eat kitten food and have shown a tendancy to gain weight when they do.
As for a kitty sitting on top of Peeper, I found that a car always wanted to sit atop a baby in my arms. I works out, once you are sure that the cat has no ill intent. Quite cozy.
ReplyDeleteTricky. Ours get fed in separate places, and the skinny one finishes his and steals from the fat ones plate, so it works out well! Could you try feeding them one at a time in their regular spot, keeping the other two out (herding cats!). A bit time consuming maybe, but they'd each get a shot at their share and have it taken up afterwards out of reach of the others.
ReplyDeleteGet ready for a lot of whining. My vet wanted me to go down to 1/4 a cup twice a day. I got down to 1/3. And now, after months of being awakened at 4 am by relentless meowing and nowhere to put the whiner, I have resorted to killing him slowly with food. I sleep. The cat is happy. Just, please don't tell my vet.
ReplyDeleteI am kind of of the same mind. Cat should be happy, even if it means a shortened lifespan. But really if a kitty is overweight, you really, really, really want to put them on a diet before they get to 25 lbs. I don't want to go into any details here, but if we had it to do over again, I am sure Whozat would agree, we would have done it sooner. Girly cat is miserable and there are issues I don't want to think about let alone talk about.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: The kitties haven't figured out yet that they have to eat up because the food is going away soon, so I think we're going to do 4 smaller meals (1/4 cup each) for now, until they figure out that they need to finish it all.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the Boy is clingier than usual, but I don't know if it's because he's hungry, or maybe it just seems like more, because I can't distract him with food when he's annoying me with his clinginess.
LK - Maybe BroCat has lost muscle and replaced it with fat, over the years? He would look fatter, but could weigh less. Or maybe he's getting shorter and fatter? Do cats do that? I wouldn't think their spines would compress, like people's, being horizontal and all. Hmmm....
Anonymama - Good point, on the other hand, you never had a cat that was three to four times the size of an average newborn.
Of course, you also never had an average newborn.
Vee - Good idea, the laundry room (where they typically eat) has a door on it. (And, on a completely non-cat-related note: CONGRATULATIONS!!!)
OOHM - I think they'd like ours to get down to 1/4 cup 2x day, too. We'll see how that works.
Shrike - You are so, so, so right. I feel like the worst kitty mommy ever.