Thanks for the thoughts Soapets.

I think you're right that it's in his best interest to keep restricting his food. Otherwise I don't think he'd be able to stop himself.

Our only worry is that the few hours a day that he does get to go outside, we've seen him wandering further away, likely in search of food. We're very careful with what we throw out, but a couple of months ago he found, and ate half of, those little plastic absorbent pads that are found beneath supermarket chicken.

Needless to say we were very worried when he went off his food for a few days, until he was able to bring the plastic up. We were shocked and figured it must've come from garbage in the neighbourhood.

Anyhow, there's some idea of the lengths he'll go to to get some "food".