shelaghc
Member Since 2017
How much is a "small? meal"
My Jester was up to four cans of 5.5 ounce Friskies per day and was still losing weight - from about 11 pounds to just over 7 pounds - and he still wanted more food.
We went to a new vet who suggested less food would be better and that what might be happening is the equivalent of Jester being completely unregulated because of far too many calories.
So over the course of about ten days I dropped him down to about 3.5 cans - vet wants him on no more than 300 calories a day ultimately
And after that ten days he had actually put on almost a full pound so I slowly brought it down to 3.25 cans. No weight loss or gain over the next week, but even that's a victory. So now we're going down to 3 cans and I'm hoping it'll make a difference again.
But he's *always* hungry it seems. I work during the day so I can't give him small meals all day. I feed him about a can in the morning when I give him his insulin - he drives me completely up the wall because he just meows over and over and over again while I try to get anything done - including just using the bathroom.
(I'm absolutely not a morning person and there are times I find myself yelling at him to shut up because I literally can't take ten minutes or more of constant unrelenting meowing. Then I feel guilty for yelling at him because he's just expressing himself the only way he can.)
And he always seems to want/need more to eat about an hour after his dosage, so I give him about a half a can more to tide him over till I get home.
When I walk in the door after work, it's the same thing as the morning. (I can handle it better because I'm not bleary from just waking up.)
I try to limit how much he gets with each feeding through the evening and night, but he always seems to want more. He'll cry and cry for me to keep feeding him.
I know it's hard to reduce a cat's food intake. I've never had to do anything like this before.
The vet prefers me to feed him just twice a day but I know many here do the "small meals" thing instead. And truthfully, there's no way I could get Jester to eat just two meals all in one go even if I wanted to.
FYI - Because I have three cats and one who is *very* aggressive about eating the other cats' food, I can't do one of those timed feeders.
So what is a small meal? And how do I get Jester used to them now?
btw, the target goal of 300 calories would be approximately 2.5 cans of the kind of Friskies he likes. (Truthfully, I'd like to try to get him on a lower carb food, but the vet recommended until Jester gains some weight not to experiment with other less reliable flavors that might put him off and on that I wholeheartedly agree. For the time being she recommended I settle on two or three flavors that he'll eat regularly and to give him those three in the same amounts every day.)
My Jester was up to four cans of 5.5 ounce Friskies per day and was still losing weight - from about 11 pounds to just over 7 pounds - and he still wanted more food.
We went to a new vet who suggested less food would be better and that what might be happening is the equivalent of Jester being completely unregulated because of far too many calories.
So over the course of about ten days I dropped him down to about 3.5 cans - vet wants him on no more than 300 calories a day ultimately
And after that ten days he had actually put on almost a full pound so I slowly brought it down to 3.25 cans. No weight loss or gain over the next week, but even that's a victory. So now we're going down to 3 cans and I'm hoping it'll make a difference again.
But he's *always* hungry it seems. I work during the day so I can't give him small meals all day. I feed him about a can in the morning when I give him his insulin - he drives me completely up the wall because he just meows over and over and over again while I try to get anything done - including just using the bathroom.
(I'm absolutely not a morning person and there are times I find myself yelling at him to shut up because I literally can't take ten minutes or more of constant unrelenting meowing. Then I feel guilty for yelling at him because he's just expressing himself the only way he can.)
And he always seems to want/need more to eat about an hour after his dosage, so I give him about a half a can more to tide him over till I get home.
When I walk in the door after work, it's the same thing as the morning. (I can handle it better because I'm not bleary from just waking up.)
I try to limit how much he gets with each feeding through the evening and night, but he always seems to want more. He'll cry and cry for me to keep feeding him.
I know it's hard to reduce a cat's food intake. I've never had to do anything like this before.
The vet prefers me to feed him just twice a day but I know many here do the "small meals" thing instead. And truthfully, there's no way I could get Jester to eat just two meals all in one go even if I wanted to.
FYI - Because I have three cats and one who is *very* aggressive about eating the other cats' food, I can't do one of those timed feeders.
So what is a small meal? And how do I get Jester used to them now?
btw, the target goal of 300 calories would be approximately 2.5 cans of the kind of Friskies he likes. (Truthfully, I'd like to try to get him on a lower carb food, but the vet recommended until Jester gains some weight not to experiment with other less reliable flavors that might put him off and on that I wholeheartedly agree. For the time being she recommended I settle on two or three flavors that he'll eat regularly and to give him those three in the same amounts every day.)
