Cat dieting

We're trying a new cat diet program at our house. My one female cat, Miss Daisy, is pawing my arm as I type this to register her disapproval.

Miss Daisy is the chief reason we have a new diet program. Christine's mother once observed: "She looks like she's going to have kittens," as Daisy sashayed into a room.



Ash, one of our newer arrivals at our ranch of cats, likes to eat about as well as Daisy does and is starting to build his girth also.







Monty, our oldest Tom, lost weight when he had a fever of unknown origin a while back and hasn't put it all back on. He likes food moderatly less than Miss Daisy, but he is prone to poke me in the leg when he's hungry. He pokes me a lot when he's hungry.



Oliver, probably the youngest, looks like the illustration on the cat food bag, the one that depicts the cat that's too thin. He doesn't care much for cat food. He'll give Ash his food pretty regularly and sit patiently waiting for him to clean the bowl.

Each cat now has a separate bowl and we're measuring the food with special cat food measuring cup the vet gave us.

I forget if that was two or three "Miss Daisy is getting too fat" lectures ago.

Anyway, four bowls - measured amount, distributed usually by Christine at night and me in the morning. It's a bit of a juggling act because they all want their bowls at once.

They eat from their respective bowls. Except when they don't. Daisy eats from Monty's, Monty eat's from Ash's etc. We try to put the food up after they've finished it and let them nibble again when Monty starts tugging my pantleg.

A couple of nights it seemed to work really well. They didn't even get through the entire measured amount. But I think they're getting wise.

Monty has always had a technique of getting me up when he wants something. He doesn't howl himself, even though he has quite a voice for such a small creature.

He corners Daisy, who hisses warnings.

Christine then urges me to get up and separate them. That never works. Instead, I feed Monty to shut him up. Christine calls it rewarding bad behavior.

Daisy usually eats too and Ash if he wakes up.

You see the source of the problem.

We'll see how the weight loss goes.

Tags: cats

diary