Self Regulation?

[Niels]

Does it also works the other way around ?

If he is left to eat how much he wants, can he eat to much ?
Themba here only eats a little bit of his kibble. (small handfull a day)
But i think he would eat alot more raw and wet food if he got the change.

Can i give him raw untill he decide not to eat it ?

(I hope you don't mind if i turn the question around john popp, seemed much to start new topic about it)

 

[scorpius]

Scorpius: cats need much more than 20-30 ml water pr day! But the dosing you´re doing is fine, 12 ml will make him fight back if he is reluctant at swallowing what he gets: usually you need to dribble it in.

That's good to know Good idea to dribble it in... thanks... dj

 

[John Popp]

All good by me, the more information the better and I think we hijacked Louie's Dad's thread.

 

[Niels]

All good by me, the more information the better and I think we hijacked Louie's Dad's thread.

Oh haha, i thought this was your thread.

My excuses louie's dad.

 

[Louie'sDad]

All good by me, the more information the better and I think we hijacked Louie's Dad's thread.

No problem! I've been guilty of that more than a few times on the Corvette/Camaro/Chevelle/Hot Rod websites that I frequent.

I never heard that B12 is an appetite stimulant, and, frankly, I'm not buying it. B12 should lead to an increase in energy levels and a quickening of metabolic rate, both of which will cause an increase in activity levels with consequent faster calorie burning. The increased food consumption should be more than compensated for by an increased caloric requirement.

 

[Louie'sDad]

Does it also works the other way around ?

If he is left to eat how much he wants, can he eat to much ?
Themba here only eats a little bit of his kibble. (small handfull a day)
But i think he would eat alot more raw and wet food if he got the change.

Can i give him raw untill he decide not to eat it ?

(I hope you don't mind if i turn the question around john popp, seemed much to start new topic about it)

Since cats in the wild will eat almost anything when they're hungry, including rotten meat and feces (it's great when you don't have a "gag reflex"), then it's hard to understand animals being finicky. Apparently they won't gorge themselves like wild cats, who never know when their next meal is coming. They are certainly smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. They train their owners well!


I have a feeling that a continued and sustained feeding regimen consisting of nutritional but not necessarily palatable food leads to an intake of just enough to maintain a healthy body weight (survival instinct), with no gorging and excessive weight gain.


Eating too much, probably applies only if the following are met:

1. Adult cat with lowered metabolic rate and low/moderate activity.
2. Present food that is HIGHLY palatable to the animal.

 

[John Popp]

We could derail this thread again and I could tell you all about my 1967 SS Chevelle.

There seems to be a circular logic there, although the want of calories after heightened activity generally exceeds the calories burned. Probably not a question easily resolved, although in the cases I was thinking of increasing activity level would also be seen as a positive. To the contrary, increasing Chongo's activity level would probably see me calling a carpenter to repair the damage.

 

[Louie'sDad]

We could derail this thread again and I could tell you all about my 1967 SS Chevelle.

There seems to be a circular logic there, although the want of calories after heightened activity generally exceeds the calories burned. Probably not a question easily resolved, although in the cases I was thinking of increasing activity level would also be seen as a positive. To the contrary, increasing Chongo's activity level would probably see me calling a carpenter to repair the damage.

Nice car...............first Camaro and the only one with vent windows. I hope it's a DZ motor. My "baby" is a triple black '65 Corvette with sidepipes, that took me 5 years to restore. Crazy powerful 327 that I built for it. Close to 400 RWHP @ 6700. In the high 12's @ 118 with skinnies.

That's true to a certain extent, although not generally a 1:1 relationship. I believe that moderate activity increase leads to small to no appetite increase, whereas heavy increase in activity leads to appetite increase. It's a fine line that people tread when trying to lose weight with diet/exercise regimen. The best way, I believe, is to exercise moderately. Once exercise levels increase beyond that, caloric consumption increases with subsequent weigh gain (hopefully muscle mass).

To your second point: can you say "sugar high"? I'd rather suppress the activity level commensurate with healthy BMI rather than having the animal bounce off the walls like a kid on a sugar high.

 

[John Popp]

My wife and I have worked very hard to establish some sort of regimen for the amount of and type of food Chongo will eat in a given day. It is all over the board, sometimes eating all of it and other days only a third at a given meal. We've also divided his meals into 3 varieties, raw, canned and kibble with hopes that we could unearth some sort of trend. To date we have been totally unsuccessful in finding any rhyme or reason as to what the right amount is or what he would really like to eat, outside the kibble which is always gone.

We've also found that Chongo would much rather leave his food untouched and out as bait to draw the other cats in and attack them. It's pretty funny as he just hides out and waits for them to inspect his bowl and then lays some wood on them. This will happen 3-5 times, then the other cats will just give up and he then proceeds to et his food.

I guess that is also the issue in a multiple cat household, as often I don't have a clue who is eating who's food and they can often be observed in the other cats food. Three cats, three diets and they all seem to fancy the others food more so than their own. So unless I can really spend an hour on feeding patrol, I have a hard time dissecting exactly what each of them are eating.

 

[scorpius]

Here's some info on B12 as an appetite stimulant in cases where a cat hasn't eaten for a while (there was a Texas A&M Vet study done on this):
http://pets.thenest.com/b12-shots-stimulate-appetite-cats-10100.html

dj