How do I Put One of My Cats On A Diet?
When I receive phone calls about the MeowSpace®, many of them begin with the words, “I need to put one of my cats on a diet”
OVERWEIGHT
The dangers of a cat being overweight include arthritis, internal organ damage, kidney disease, feline diabetes, and the like. When we have to put one of our cats on a diet due to being overweight, it’s usually because that cat manages to eat more than the others. Somehow, they are getting to food that they shouldn’t be eating, or we may be overfeeding them because they seem hungrier than the others.
DISEASE or ALLERGIES
When one of our cats suffers from a feline disease or allergy, the food we feed them may need to be very different from the food we feed another cat. For some unknown reason, our cats often fall into the “Grass is greener” syndrome, deciding they want the food that is not theirs. The food they shouldn’t have is the one that got away, like a tricky mouse that eludes capture. I’m certain it has something to do with the hunting instinct. The cat is saying to himself, “I already have the first course meal in my grasp. It’s the dessert that interests me now!”
WHEN IT’S EASY
If we’re lucky, we are blessed with two cats who both eat all their food in one sitting, and have no interests in whatever is in the other cat’s bowl. They don’t even realize they are getting two completely different types of food. We feed them, don’t have to watch them, and within two minutes they have licked their plates clean, and we’re off to work with no worries. Another easy scenario is unusual, but it does happen: it’s when the special food of one cat is ok for the other to nibble on, and as long as both get what they need for the day, no problem.
WHEN IT’S NOT
More often than not, at least one of the cats wants the food that it can’t have. Or one of the cats only nibbles on their food, and the other rushes in when the nibbler walks away. If this goes on too long, we end up with cats that don’t heal from their diseases, overweight cats, bullied cats, and ultimately, angry cats. [Side bar: One of our early MeowSpacers, a vet technician from Texas, had a rather mean, but skinny cat, who was skinny because his food was always gone before he could eat it. They ordered a Magnetic System MeowSpace®, and MeanSkinny Cat began getting his food inside the MeowSpace®. He wore a magnetic collar tag, which triggered the latch on the door to unlock each time he would enter. FatSweet Cat could no longer get to the food, so she lost weight, and MeanSkinny became SweetHealthy! He had been mean because he was always hungry.]
When our cats don’t fall in line with our needs and expectations of them around food, well, all of a sudden we find ourselves in the role of the Feline Police. We end up on literal stake-outs, monitoring and keeping a watchful eye on the food to make sure one does not eat the other’s. We pull out the old squirt bottle or noise maker, or we clap and yell loudly. Soon this fails to work, and we look for ways to hide food, feed them differently, or finally just give up. Our cats either remain fat and sick, or we diligently look for an answer.
FINDING THE MEOWSPACE®
That’s when most people finally find us. They may have an idea of what they are looking for, so they’ll type in a description of it. Sometimes it takes several variations of their idea, but eventually they find us. Others don’t have an idea of what they want, but they seek an answer to the problem. They get onto cat forums of all kinds, type in the problem, and learn they are not alone. On occasion, someone will either have, or be thinking about getting the MeowSpace®, and mention it. At that point, a person types the name MeowSpace into a search engine, and there we are.
The relief and ecstasy some feel at finding us is so great that they order immediately. Some call us first, some wait, come back to the site, read all the posts, make comments, ask their vets, and then order.
GETTING YOUR FEEDBACK
The greatest part of all of this for me is when I get your emails telling me how the MeowSpace® has helped you to put one or more of your cats on a diet, without it negatively affecting the other cat(s) and the humans in the household. They share with me that their cats have gotten healthier, sweeter, more relaxed, and then they reveal the impact it has had on the humans.
One couple was able to stop going to counseling because the problem was solved by the MeowSpace®. No more Feline Police squads. Another told me about saving money on cat sitters because they could hire someone to come in 1 or 2 times a day while they were gone instead of hiring someone full-time. Still another shared with me that her cat’s diabetes went into remission, and the expensive monthly diabetes injections (to the tune of $150/month!) were no longer necessary.
WITH MEOWSPACE® YOU ARE NEVER STUCK
Putting the MeowSpace® to work in your multiple-pet household means you are no longer stuck. The MeowSpace® does the difficult work of keeping the food away from the ones that should not have it, without keeping your pets apart from one another all day. It means sleeping in on weekends, or not getting up in the middle of the night for feedings, or feeling as if you sometimes wish you had different cats (or none at all). MeowSpace® makes for happier healthier cats, and cat owners, too.
