Hello, this is Dr. Karin! Read my introduction, learn more about me and meet my five cheerful cats: Clutch, Cyril, Alex, Zelda, and Zazuls.
It was the longest six weeks of Cyril’s life, but we finally reached the first measurement of his weight loss journey. I knew Cyril must have surpassed his fair share at mealtime, but it became clear how much food pig he is! I have never left food for more than 30 minutes. This encourages cats to graze and then eat more than they actually need, so at the end of each meal, your dog helper will allow the leftovers to be cleaned up. Not many of them were there. Well, Cyril may not be too impressed with his confinement at mealtime, but Ned and Fred are pleased! Even after reducing the amount of food that had been scattered across the other four cats, there was still quite a bit left in the end. Unfortunately for my greedy cleanup crew, I adjusted the daily portion accordingly.
Clutch, Alex, Zelda and Zazzles are all in good condition, have not lost weight or begged for food. It has legs.
For the past six weeks, Cyril has been closed in another room for breakfast and dinner until the rest of the cats are finished. Most days he was very good at accepting changes in circumstances, but there was a lot of the seduction of food that would abandon him a sense of self-control and respect. This is especially obvious on the night we got hooked on pizza, one of our (and Cyril’s) favorites.
At the start of this journey, Cyril was 6.6kg (14 1⁄2 lbs) and hovered with a physical score (BCS) of about 7-8. As a large cat, he ideally needs a weight between 4.5kg and 5kg (10-11 pounds), but this is a long-term goal. In the first six weeks I would ideally hope that about 10% of his weight will be lost.
And now, the moment when we were all waiting…
The Cyril weighs 5.95kg (13 pounds)! It’s a loss of 650g, or 9.8% of his original weight!
I have to admit, I wasn’t that confident before putting him on scale, but despite stealing food and trying to hunt pizza, he (almost) was his It hit the target! I’m excited about how much he’s lost, but we still have a long way to go.
So, how do you tell him that he’s continuing to eat…?
This article is part of Dr. Karin’s series with five cheerful cats.
