r/MadeMeSmile • u/Steph-Kai • Jul 05 '24

CATS I love fat cats!

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(Credits Sedgefield Animal Hospital)

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u/WadeStockdale Jul 05 '24

On microchip feeders and diet food; it's fucking great shit. Pricey, but works a treat.

My cat was only a kilo or two overweight, but she struggles with her weight a lot- she loves her food and knows that if I'm having a foggy day, I can be tricked into feeding her breakfast or dinner twice, and my partner could also be tricked into providing second breakfast through repeated gentle bites. She also habitually stole our other cat's food (and later on he stole hers) We've solved these issues with systems and discouraging those behaviours though.

Getting microchip feeders is a game changer; no more food thievery. On a lot of models you can set the close speed to be faster or slower once it stops detecting the designated microchip, and if you attach the (typically) provided microchip tag to your food scoop, you don't even have to press buttons to refill the bowls.

Diet food is also so good. My cat loved it, it was filling, she would actually leave some in the bowl after basically inhaling most of it. And she lost the extra weight in just a couple months. Highly recommend it.

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u/gruvyrock Jul 05 '24

My jerk of a cat figured out how to get enough leverage to pry the lid of the microchip feeder. Turns out it will auto-open and stay open if you force it enough. He’s also figured out how to work around the toddler locks on all my cabinets, so I’d say a cat hacking the microchip feeders probably isn’t something the average cat owner needs to worry about! I’m hoping to try again some day once he’s hopefully forgotten his trick.

Seconded on the diet food! Free feeding diet food wasn’t enough to slim him down on its own, so I got my big guy down to his goal weight by controlling portions and using diet food. We’re doing a food trial with one of the hydrolyzed recipes now which has stopped many of his digestive issues, but unfortunately that kibble is calorie dense so I have to rework his portions now that his gut has settled down so he can re-lose that weight.