Do your pets reflect you?
In my house, the girl cats are chunky and the boy is not. Very much like me and my husband. Several months ago, we decided the cats were going on a diet, so we switched to grain-free food. We talked to the vet about it, it wasn’t random. We read and talked with other cat owners, and tried to do the responsible thing. The girls are still chunky. Our boy got sick.
Cats have to eat
It’s hard to tell who is eating or doing anything else when you have three. Apparently our male didn’t like the new food and stopped eating regularly. When we brought him to the vet for upchucking, we discovered he lost weight too fast. In cats, their bodies respond by dumping fat into their blood. Too much fat clogs their liver, and they get fatty liver disease. Pretty serious.
Sick cats get really picky
It’s been months of trying to entice the cat to eat. We’ve tried a huge range of wet and dry food. We’ve tried varying temperatures. Varying depth dishes. Different material dishes. Guarding the cat from the others while he eats. Just when we think we found something he likes, he changes his mind.
The girls are loving it. They get all the foods he rejects. Any weight they had lost is all gained back.
I feel like a bad cat Mom.
Even though I know I’m not. My cats are quite spoiled and rule the roost. I feel bad for this sweet little cat who is now so thin. He’s also become even more skiddish than he was before.
New cat feeding resource
Lisa Hoberg DVM from Holistic Housecall Vetinary Service posted a great resource from one her friends on her Facebook page. It a webpage or 18 page pdf, Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition by Lisa Pierson DVM. I thought I knew a lot, but I learned a lot more reading this. It includes a lot of tips for feeding picky eaters.
We shall see. Anyone discovered any other resources, tips or tricks for feeding felines?
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