Fat feline slims down on 'Catkins' diet
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-21 10:34

The controversial Atkins diet, credited by a host of celebrities for helping them acquire a svelte figure, has a new figurehead -- a portly British cat which has shed half its body weight under the regime.

A cat poses for a photo. The controversial Atkins diet, credited by a host of celebrities for helping them acquire a svelte figure, has a new figurehead -- a portly British cat which has shed half its body weight under the regime. [AFP]

Using a version of the no-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, dubbed perhaps inevitably "Catkins", Fidget has slimmed down from a hefty 22 pounds (10 kilos) to only 11 pounds, his owner said Wednesday.

Pet shop owner Shaun Kirk tried the new regime after Fidget, aged 18, found it difficult to crunch dry biscuits.

The newly-sleek cat, who used to tear open packets of food for himself in the shop whenever he felt peckish, instead tucks into tins of meat.

"I suppose you could say he's on the Catkins diet," said Kirk, from Tyneside, northeast England, adding that the weight loss had nothing to do with a new exercise regime.

"He still just knocks about the shop and he's never gone out much. He loves his home comforts," Kirk said.

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