The first step was buying "senior, low-activity", i.e. lazy fat-cat cat food. We have switched from an apparently deee-licious imported American brand of cat food to a probably far less tasty brand of low-cal "la ligne" preserving French cat food. I think it might be mostly made of hay.
The second step will be PORTION CONTROL. This may be where we have been going wrong in the past. According to the diagram on the French bag of cat food (which shows one sleekit cat and how much it should eat and one fat cat and how much it should eat) - we may have been feeding our cats too much. Let's refer to the picture again:
It's quite likely that we've been feeding our cats too much.
Unfortunately all the European recipes and portion sizes are in grams - a weight measurement - which means scales. This includes the cat food portion sizes. After 10 years in the UK - I still use American cookbooks because I use cups - a volume measurement. Using scales seems faffy and pointless - but I do have a scale somewhere. The Vol-in-Law must be serious about slimming these cats down because he:
1. asked me where the scale was
2. ventured into the chaotic pots and pans cabinet to find the scales (I heard the clanging from the other room and held my breath against breakages)
3. did not find the scales, but is determined to look in the cabinet above the oven (which is where I thought it was all along). That is the hard-to-reach storage space for disposable cups and plates, never-used and rarely-used nice tablecloths and cloth napkins and our collection of national flags for display on national holidays and the occasional international sporting events. (please don't ask why scales are in there)
Anyway, since we've not yet found the scales the cats have about a day or two left of the tasty American cat food (at least in terms of their current portion sizes) before they're put on the French hay.
Soon to be hungry
3 comments:
Poor "Soon to be hungry". Heh heh!
I have several felines and canines and we've always had a problem with food control here - they are all in various shapes and sizes, and while the tubby ones could use some weight loss, several others certainly don't need it, and they all tend to eat on different time schedules. Which could be reorganized I suppose but there would be a lot of unhappy furry campers for sure.
I'll be looking forward to the updates on how all this turns out for you, good luck!
Zoloft says she'll secretly mail them some of her treats for the days that hay won't cut it.
After reading your previous post and then spying Kitty Camino from a rather unflattering position, I remarked to Rex that we would be in danger of incarceration in the UK. We have always attributed KCs heft to his "height," but there is no doubt about it now: he is fat. Since we don't want to even imagine trying to give him insulin shots, (as a friend must currently and forever after do for her once-obese cat), he's also on a diet. Poor kitties.
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