Once again, we are having a battle of wills at the Mansion, concerning the feeding of the fleabags. I fear that Farmer H is over-feeding our new dog Scarlett. She came with a big heavy-foil pan in her kennel. For water, I assume. But Farmer H took it out, and used it for feeding her dry food. So he kind of fills it up! It's bigger than a pie-pan. Also, I just found out he gives Scarlett a CAN of food in the evening. "So she'll have a belly full of warm food for the night. Then I give her the dry food in the morning."
It all started because I told Farmer H that Jack is looking fat again. He had slimmed down since there wasn't food sitting around for dear departed Sweet Sweet Juno.
"Ah. It's baby season. I think Jack has been eating baby rabbits. Besides, I don't know what all you give him for snacks. And as far as you know, he goes over to eat with Big Jack at his house."
"I am not the reason Jack is fat! He gets a quarter-size scrap of bread as I leave, and a half slice of bread when I get back. Or whatever leftover we have. Just a small treat. That's why it sits on the counter. I don't give it out all at once. But YOU are giving him too much dog food again."
"It's cat food. Until it runs out. That my buddy gave me from the donation thing. And I only give him a cup."
"That's the problem! You give him that metal cup full! It's more than a cup. He doesn't need that much! Plus he eats whatever is left over in the other pan."
That's what I don't get. Farmer H said he feeds Scarlett over by her house, but that big pan has been sitting on the porch with food in it. Anyhoo...
"I looked it up on the internet! A dog Jack's size needs from 3/4 cup of dry food to 1 1/4 cup."
"But you use the metal cup in the garage!"
"It's marked, HM. That cup is marked in cups."
"That doesn't mean you read it! You fill it up over the top."
"Yes. It's a cup."
I went to get my clear plastic measuring cup. "THIS is 3/4 cup! That's all Jack needs!"
"He'll starve to death on that!"
"Not if I'm feeding him so many treats, and he's eating over at Copper Jack's!"
I swear. Farmer H makes it up as he goes along. It's like when he takes his medicine out of a serving spoon and calls it a tablespoon.
Because serving spoons are used at the table.
ReplyDeleteScarlett is too young to be getting fat as dogs do when they are a bit older or a lot older. Farmer H needs to rein in his enthusiasm when doling out food. Replace Scarlett's foil pan with a smaller one and insist he use that instead, if it helps. It's a pity you can't replace the metal cup with a smaller one. He can clearly see the one cup marking on it? Or does he look at it with his blind eye?
River,
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh! Farmer H turns that blind eye to many things. Usually things that would benefit ME! Like right now, T-Hoe is at 13 percent oil life remaining, and needs an oil change. I don't know how many days of nagging it will take before Farmer H will act on that task.
I'll try to get a picture of the dog food metal cup, and compare it to my measuring cup. Today I saw that Farmer H had put a RED SOLO CUP inside it. He says that's what he feeds Scarlett with. Not sure how much it holds. I can measure one with water. But he's forgetting that he gives her a CAN of dog food as well. Which is 1/3 of her daily requirement. I know that from reading the label when we were feeding it to dear departed Sweet Sweet Juno.
Yes, measure it against your measuring cup than mark it with bright red marker or tape and insist Scarlett gets no more than that. I see far too many over fed animals here and on the internet, they are huge blobs with legs and it makes my heart hurt.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm not so lazy, I'll get pictures for comparison. I was just having success getting Jack slimmed down for the summer. So I need to give Farmer H pictorial evidence of how much TOO MUCH he's feeding those dogs.
Depends on the size of the solo cup, but the most common size is 16 oz. That is two cups. I give my three dogs two cups of food a day. That's it. HeWho was refilling the food dish everytime he saw it empty. I made him stop, so now he doesn't feed them at all unless I specifically tell him to. Just can't win, can we?
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty standard Solo cup, so I imagine Farmer H is double-feeding Scarlett. He feeds Jack with the metal cup, but I'm pretty sure Jack is getting more than 3/4 cup.