Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsgreenjeens 
Wow, which one is your CRF girl? Is it Callie? Just curious, because I've been looking at your pictures lately, and I haven't noticed any particularly thin cats, as CRF kitties usually are. If it's Callie, she looks WONDERFUL! What are you feeding HER? The reason I ask is because most CRF kitties don't eat much (I guess because the food isn't that tasty - not that I need to add one more thing for my little piggy Darko to go after!). Also, for her, what about between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.? Does she just not eat anything. My CRF guy needs to have something on his tummy more frequently than that or he spits up froth (I'm assuming it's due to an empty stomach).
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Yes, it is Callie. She is actually the one that started the whole diet thing several years ago prior to being diagnosed with CRF. She has slimmed down, but is at a good weight and has maintained it for 3 or 4 years. The key for her is to keep her pooping and not allowing her to scarf & barf. She eats K/d dry throughout and then she gets a wet food concoction of pumpkin, a bit of Wellness grain free, a bit of EVO venison, and some pureed boiled liver twoce a day, which she sometimes is very picky about not eating. I add Cosequin powder, Epakitin powder, and her Missing Link meds to it with several splashes of water, mix it all up and serve. As long as she eats her dry food, I don't push her to eat the other food.
She usually does fine overnight, but occasionally when one of us gets up in the middle of the night to potty, we'll feed her (usually around 3:00AM). I try to make sure to give her a good serving just before bedtime, though. In the morning, though, I only give her a few morsels (5-7 or so) for her initial feeding. This gets something in her tummy and then we go from there. About 15-20 mins later, I give her a second small serving (10-15 morsels) then she gets her wet food.
She's not to the point where she needs any type of Pepcid to settle her tummy which is common with CRF cats, though. She's also prone to constipation and hard stools so if she needs to have a good BM, that will affect her eating habits as well. One other thing that helps her is to run a Feliway diffuser all the time to keep the stress down. I've been impressed with how well she's eaten lately with Tumbleweed out and about all the time now. She even shares her food with him!

Also meant to mention, we cut out the treats entirely and now use food morsels as treats. I only give them treats after we trim nails or they've taken meds or something like that, though. That helped cut down Callie's weight A LOT!