I never thought of myself as a pet person until the cat-stork arrived and dropped off a gigantic grey mut cat with an eating disorder.

I noticed that when I cut back on calories I make the cat but back. When it's a holiday and he gets treats so do I. I'm sure a good trip to the therapist can shed some light on this but I was wondering how many of you notice a similarity in how you and your pet(s) eat each day?

AND....am wondering if you use your pet to help you stay on track or as a co-conspirator in crimes of passionfruit and chocolate?

The only eating behavior I share in common with the cat is expecting to eat at a certain time. Like, lunch is in the middle of the day sometime, and dinner is between 5 and 7. And I'll get cranky if it's not. The cat is not a couch potato, per se, she's more of an under-the-bed or in-the-back-of-the-closet potato. She gets exercise "playing" with the dog. That's usually the cat walking up to a sleeping dog and annoying her (batting at the dog's ear, licking the dog's head, batting at the dog's tail) until the dog wakes up in a start and chases the cat.

The dog, however...I think she gets treats when *I* don't feel good. I feel guilty that I didn't take her out walking, or that I got home late, or that I'm grumpy, and because she seems SO dang happy to get a treat, I'll do that because it makes ME feel better to see her happy.

The dog does not get table scraps, though I will cook an extra bit of ww pasta for her, and we'll pour the "juice" on a platter from steaks that we let rest onto her dry food. She's had the same kibble for close to five years now, though I'll ask her when it's dinner time, "Do you want kibble? How about...spaghetti kibble?!" (or lemon chicken kibble, or thai chicken kibble...it's the same kibble, I just like to say it's the same flavor as what we're eating).

The beagle & I are a good walking team...she prances for the first few blocks (when I really DON'T want to get going), and then she'll stop and sniff everything on the way home (when I'm tired of keeping up with her prancing self and can use the break).

She's a couch potato anyway. She's a hound dog. Laying around and looking sleepy is what she's good at.

MY pet is making me late.

ds accidently let cat out. dh and ds left to go to mil's and I'm home waiting for it to come home. It should be back within the hour.

Does that qualify for dysfunctional?


Cat bites me. I reward and feed it.
Cat leaves. I wait for it to come home.

Cat hates me.
But I still love it.

Yeah... sort of dysfunctional.

Okay, next question... BEHVIORALLY what are the parallels between your eating habits and your pets?

The cats eat two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. Like Denise's cat, they have pretty much eaten the same dry food their whole life. I did change them from one type of Purina to the geriatric formula last year.

They get Whisker Lickens treats from time to time, but not really often.

They get human food when we're not paying attention and they snag it from the table. (Hmmm, I guess that could be likened to humans sneaking food.)

I will say this...one cat LOVES dairy and goes ape when you're eating it and tries to get you to share. The other can take it or leave it. She, on the other hand LOVES meat. She is also scared of bananas.

Specifically - when you are out of shape is your pet out of shape? Neither cat it overweight considering their age. The male cat has a saggy belly now, but he is also over 12 years old, which is old for a cat.

When you're on a diet do you monitor your pet's diet more carefully? Nope

When you exercise more do you encourage your pet to exercise more? My cats race around the house in a frenzy in the late evening. The one cat races me up the stairs and she always wins. I tried to leash train my cats when they were young and being cats, they weren't having it.

When you're a couch potato is your pet a couch potato? One of our cats is a total couch potato and always has been. The other one is actually alert a lot, which is weird for a cat. She does however LOVE to watch TV. In fact, sometimes when the TV isn't on she'll sit in front of it and stare at the TV, then stare at us, then stare at the TV and stare at us until it gets turned on.

Does your pet gain weight in winter etc...Only in that they have more fur in the winter.

Extra Credit: Draw the parallels between your eating habits and your pets and share it here. The only real parallel is that we both drink a lot of water. Granted, I drink mine from a glass or bottle, not from a bowl on the floor, or the floor of the shower.



For example:If your pet is a perfect eater do you think it's because you're in a good space now?

If your pet gets treats -- and I don't mean table scraps necessarily - this can be any treat - pet treats, permission to sleep on the white couch, stay up late etc...- do you get treats at the same time? No, generally, if they get treats it is when I'm cleaning the kitchen or making coffee. (They mistake the sound of the bag of coffee for the sound of a bag of treats. So, sometimes they come meowing and I give them treats.)

I can't be the only disfunctional pet owner on the planet...or am I

I don't know. I think my cats own me and not the other way around.

Dawn

Thanks, Denise. You perked up my day!

quote:

Originally posted by kd:
Okay, next question... BEHVIORALLY what are the parallels between your eating habits and your pets?

I think the dog led the same life day after day, regardless of my weight or however I was eating. He lived with us through my weight ups and downs... and he stayed about the same. We both got more exercise when the fence blew down... because I HAD to walk him.

We DID give him more food the last year of his life, since he enjoyed eating so much. Since I really HOPE this isn't my last year of life... I probably shouldn't eat more...

My poor cat has been eating the EXACT same brand of cat food for 10 years now. His only "treat" is that Santa brings him 3 cans of wet food... but other than that... he eats the same dry thing day in and day out. Well, except for the occasional mouse or rat. Sometimes he eats them. Sometimes he doesn't.

Q. Specifically - when you are out of shape is your pet out of shape?

If I climbed fences and went out at night and fought with the neighbors and chased and caught rats with my teeth... I wouldn't have to ever get on the elliptical again. We tried to make him an indoor cat... but he started spraying in the house.

Q. When you exercise more do you encourage your pet to exercise more? When you're a couch potato is your pet a couch potato?

It is a CAT. I can encourage it to do very little. I'm happy that it uses the litter box.

Q. Does your pet gain weight in winter etc...
No. I do... like 2 lbs. He doesn't.

Q. Extra Credit: Draw the parallels between your eating habits and your pets and share it here.

He will come bite me if his food bowl goes empty. I also get VERY cranky when I'm hungy, but don't usually communicate by biting.

I'll admit to spoiling the heck out of Thor. He's my 4 legged baby. He actually serves as a good reminder to not eat like crazy (to quit when full) because of his tendency to throw up when he eats too much.

Neither of us gets enough treats. I often forget to give him a daily dog "cookie" and it's sporadic that he gets a bone to chew on. (He still gets lots of people food, though.)

I could probably learn from this that neither of us gets enough treats. He (like me) is very routine oriented, though and will definitely remind me that it's time to do such & such.

On the exercise side, I get up and workout indoors all winter, he hates the cold. We both get more exercise when it's warm out. We do walk at night way more in warm seasons.

You are NOT the only dysfunctional pet owner. I'm right there with you.

Okay, next question... BEHVIORALLY what are the parallels between your eating habits and your pets?

Specifically - when you are out of shape is your pet out of shape?

When you're on a diet do you monitor your pet's diet more carefully?

When you exercise more do you encourage your pet to exercise more?

When you're a couch potato is your pet a couch potato?

Does your pet gain weight in winter etc...

Extra Credit: Draw the parallels between your eating habits and your pets and share it here.

For example:If your pet is a perfect eater do you think it's because you're in a good space now?

If your pet gets treats -- and I don't mean table scraps necessarily - this can be any treat - pet treats, permission to sleep on the white couch, stay up late etc...- do you get treats at the same time?

I can't be the only disfunctional pet owner on the planet...or am I

I really enjoyed these stories. I have 3 cats, all of which were stray. Two of them are very conscious of making sure their food is there, and the older one eats too fast and throws up. The third one never bothered me for food until he developed an overactive thyroid. Even though that is corrected with medication, he always wants to eat. My vet was always letting me know that healthy weights are important and once told me that cats lose weight better with more protein and less carbohydrate! I am just so thankful that I had none of the contaminated food.

quote:

Originally posted by cobismom:
Our two boys are the same, although the smaller one tends to eat more since he can open the refrigerator door.

Oh my!!!!

I can't leave pop open cans of pounce treats around. Simba will open and munch on them if he can.

"D" it's a beagle trait, they can eat until they burst! Our two boys are the same, although the smaller one tends to eat more since he can open the refrigerator door.

Actually, my beagles are my trainers as far as walking is concerned. I am very slow with the two knees causing so many problems. But that means more walks for them....they each get a turn taking me out, and we go 1/2 around the block often....and back again. They don't allow me to say no, and they won't listen well when I say the weather is bad...we go whether we like it or not.

My eating does not correlate to Thor's by any means. He does occasionally get people food, though in very small amounts. Maltese, by their very nature, tend to have "ack" issues if they eat too much. So we're pretty careful.

He self feeds, and we can leave kibble out 24/7. If one of us is in the kitchen, he will usually get something. His favorites are bell pepper, broccoli stems, american cheese (the real stuff, not the plastic stuff that comes wrapped in plastic), crunchy lettuce (no leafy parts, thank you), and a bite or two of pasta. The word turkey is enough to get him to try every trick he knows, or causes immediate behavior. He'll do whatever you want if you say turkey.

He does D's beagles "snuff" through the kitchen thing, although only if someone else is in there. If I am cooking a turkey, he guards the stove the entire time. I have to watch where I walk when I pull it out.

We have a "no feeding from the table" policy in our house, and we politely remind all guests of that before we eat.

And last, but not least, Thor is a picky eater, rivaling most kids. He also quits when he has had enough. Unlike both of us.

quote:

Originally posted by D in St Pete:
(A snuffle-trip is when she wanders, nose to the ground, snurf snurf snurf lick along the floor.)

David's (best friend in Delaware) dog, Murphy, does this, and she will eat ANYTHING she finds, which can be problematic. A few months ago, David had to pry out a SCREW which had become lodged between two of her molars because she was trying to eat it. When I was down last, I see her mouthing something so I go check her mouth and she's picked up a STRAIGHT PIN.

She snuffles around the kitchen island and around the livingroom table constantly. Now that I know that she will pick up things that are dangerous to her, I'm always checking her mouth when I see her munching on something (because she's not the type of dog that carries her food elsewhere to eat it so I know it's not food when I see her chewing in the livingroom).

Our sweet, sweet beagle has a slow metabolism. My initial journey with Weight Watchers resulted in a 3 lb loss for her (hey, when you only weight 39, that's a big weight loss!).

She'll eat until she cannot move if she's allowed to. We feed her green beans, carrots, corn, peas...all kinds of stuff with big belly-fill factor and few calories (and NO SALT) because when she's "sated", she doesn't snuffle through the house looking for that ONE piece of food she might have missed on her other 87 snuffle-trips through the house that day. (A snuffle-trip is when she wanders, nose to the ground, snurf snurf snurf lick along the floor.) And she's not a stray. She's just (the trainer said) "Food-Motivated." Like her owners.

The cat MUST HAVE some amount of new food poured into her bowl every night at 9:30 (or 8:30, depending on the time change). She will meow *loudly* until someone picks up the bag and shakes it and a few pieces clunk in. She won't eat from an overfull bowl (she'll pull pieces out and scatter them until it is whatever she deems "appropriately" full), and she will not eat pieces that are on the bottom. She'll only eat when she's hungry, and doesn't like any snacks. Except butter.

So...our food mirrors the dog's. We like it. We try to fill up on better stuff first, but don't deny ourselves an occasional "treat". We exercise. We do not, however, snuffle through the house looking for food.

And I thought I was the only one that did this.....

Simba the wondercat is now 17 svelte lbs of love.... as opposed to the 22 lbs he started out as. 17 lbs is better when he decides that it's time to wake me up by standing on my chest.

I feed him a fistful of food in the morning and a fistful at night. He started gaining weight after the hurricane evacuation a year and a half ago. That whole ordeal really messed him up. I think he needs kitty therapy.

On the contrary, they save me calories! I know they shouldn't but they get a lot of people food. They always get some of what we have for dinner, unless it is a red sauce because then the Bichon throws up. They always get food from me while I'm eating so I end up eating less.

Jill

Cat we have now is "naturally thin" and I can leave out a bowl of food and he eats the right amount. Our old cat had some bingeing and purging issues... and we had to feed her "mini meals". The old cat and the dog would eat until they were morbidly obese, if we let them.

I actually found my pets to be weight inspriational.

I think that the vet was the VERY first place that I heard about portion control. It was the first time I heard, "Don't put out a giant bowl of food because they will eat it all. You have to measure their food and not over-feed them."

The vet was the first place I heard of exercise in moderation.

We gave the animals treats... but in moderation. They were both a healthy weight... even though it was our doing, not theirs. Both of them lived a REALLY long time. The cat lived to be 20 and the dog lived to be 18.

I actually thought that animal care and feeding and exercise was good practice and modeled healthy food and exercise behavior.

I am more careful with my dog's diet, than I am with mine. Everything is carefully measured, so he doesn't get overweight.

He gets regular dog food, light dog food, dental dog food, a few plain Cheerios , and three Greenies dental treats a week.

My son feeds our cats, so there is no correlation to my eating and the cat's food.

I do know that one of my cats is a binge eater. I don't know if it is because he was a stray or what, but if the cat bowl runs out of food, when he gets food he eats too much and then throws up. He typically doesn't do this as long as there is at least a little food in the bowl all of the time.

Dawn

If I ate like my dog I would be stick thin! She only eats her food when she's hungry, but she does like her treats which she only gets 3-4 times per day and they are very small.

She does love to sleep and so do I. I'm on Spring Break right now and she comes up to our bed in the morning which makes me want to stay in bed even longer cuz she's such a snuggler!