When she comes in from the garage she expects to be praised, offered crunchies, told to sit, have her head scratched, and finally eat the crunchies. Don't expect her to go straight from sit to eat - the head scratch has to happen, sometimes more than once.
I've taken to getting out a dozen crunchies, but only giving her a couple at a time. Between "servings" she generally wants another head scratch. The dozen is to keep the amount of treat eating down to a reasonable level as we get her back to a more svelt condition, without depriving her.
The effort to stop her from getting fat seems to be working. She rations her eating based on how much is in her dish. When we kept is mostly about half full (half cup or cup at a time) she started getting "softer" across her ribs and putting on a belly. Now that she gets only a quarter cup at a time, she still rations herself, but based on a smaller amount. Most days she's getting 2 quarter cup servings of kibble and either a half-pack of the Sheba brand "perfect servings" (2 small containers you break apart - 2 servings) or about a quarter can from a standard cat food can and one or two "crunchies" servings. Some days she gets a third quarter cup serving. The bag suggests for her age/size 1/2 to 3/4 cup a day. Since she gets the wet food, the 1/2 cup seems about right.
Now that we're "rationing", we're developing a routine of morning feeding and bedtime (or around our dinner time if she runs out AND asks) that seems to work.
Here's Charlotte on the bathroom sink. She delights in knocking things off the edge into the sink. She also pulls the screen out of the drain ... one of these days . . . Yes, in a normal house we could put these things somewhere else, but in this small bathroom, there is no more space; it's all full.
No comments:
Post a Comment