I'm always on a diet. My surrogate parents try to approximate the
cyclic diet I would have if I lived in the wild. It works something
like this:
Jan. - March.
I'm not hungry at all and would prefer not to eat. Outside, I'd live off my stored fat, but my Dr. says that's not good for me. I should eat at least a little bit of food each day so my kidney's aren't damaged. The main item on my diet now is a prescription dog food called Medi-Cal Canine Preventive. It's for puppies and growing young dogs and tastes pretty good. It can only be purchased through a veterinarian. I love it!
Other things I'm offered include my favorites: seedless grapes, avocados, macaroni and cheese salad, Kellogg's Smacks, fresh figs, Casaba melon, mangoes and bananas. I'm allowed to eat as much dog food as I want and have generous servings of the others.
- April - May
- This is the time I have a real craving for protein. I'm fed one meal a day that includes 1/4 C. dog food, 3 ozs. lean chicken, a 1/2 cup of cantaloupe cubes, 3 strawberries, 1/2 c. fresh pineapple, 2/3 cup of cubed watermelon. The fruits vary from day to day and include others such as pears and apples (peeled), bananas, kiwi. I like almost any fruit except citrus.
- June - August
- The protein in my diet is reduced now, and more fresh vegetables are
added. My dinner plate has 7 or 8 small servings on it. A typical meal
would be: 3 oz. lean chicken (boned, of course), 1 ear of cooked corn,
a handful of fresh English peas still in the pod, 5 large strawberries,
1 peach (peeled and sliced), 1 plum (peeled and slices), cantaloupe and
honeydew melon. Basically, I get whatever is fresh and in season, even
asparagus.
- Sept. - Dec.
- I'm really hungry now. I'm given lots of low calorie foods to try to
satisfy my appetite without putting on too much weight, My dinner plate
will have a serving of lean chicken or 1/3 C. dog food. I still get the
Medi-cal, but now it's the Weight Control, not Preventive. It's lower in
fat and not nearly so good tasting, but I'll eat anything right now. 1
carrot, peeled, will be on my plate with 3 different kinds of melon,
strawberries, 1/2 ear of cooked corn, a kiwi, sliced. Again, items vary.
Sometimes I have a serving of cooked butternut squash, or beets.
Food is also used to bribe me when I get into something I shouldn't like a closet. I'm perfectly willing to drop what I'm doing if the bribe is good enough. Sometimes I hold out for the second or third offer, but make no mistake about it, food is my primary concern (except during mating season).
NOTE from Remo's parents: Remo's favorite treat or bribe is his dog food, followed by a variety of sugared cereals. We keep Kellogg's fun cereal packages on hand. If he is tired of one, we just open another.
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