My veterinarian has been after me to give my cats more wet food and less dry food. One of my friends, who is very much into giving her cats quality food, uses Fancy Feast. I can get it in bulk at the local feed store, so I do.
The other day, each of my cats got a can of the "sliced beef feast." George and Gracie tried to bury it. The next time I fed them, I gave Jake a can of beef and the other two something else. Sure enough, Gracie and George had to go over and see if they could get some of what Jake was eating.
Early this morning, I heard a "whap," "whap," "whap." By "early," I mean "5 AM." Jake had been sleeping on the pillow next to me (it is covered with a towel) and Gracie had been sleeping down by my knees. Evidently, that displeased her, for when I opened my eyes, they were sitting about six inches apart and exchanging paw slaps. I broke that up and went back to sleep.
It's been over four years since I got Jake and it would be nice if he and Gracie got along sometime.
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5 comments:
It's been six years since I brought The Mighty Fang home. Last night Mencken was sleeping beside my pillow and TMF decided he wanted to do that. So yeah, whack whack whack, me break it up, TMF head over to the foot of the bed sulking.
They are what they are.
-Badtux the Cat-owned Penguin
When I went to veterinary school, we were taught that cats that ate dry food made up for the deficit in water (normal diet being little animals=80% water)by drinking more water. My intuition was "how do you know," and "I doubt it." In more recent years that intuition was validated by research. They don't. So, cats eating dry food are essentially living a little or more than that dehydrated state. That isn't good for them. Nevertheless, feeding canned food is messy and expensive. Without a doubt, there are better diets than the one you are feeding. My preference is Science Diets. My history with Hills goes back many, many years and I know the history of the development of the diet. The purchase of the company by a soap manufacturer did not, as I feared, mark the beginning of "research" throug advertising. Instead, the company has been allowed to operate using real science as the basis of producing diets. The canned food is, without any question a better option but if one were able to get one's cats to eat the dry version WITH water added, that would be both economical and sufficient in water. Often, the cats won't allow that.
G
My cats get the Science Diet kibble. I am *not* going to feed them wet food. First, they don't like wet food. Second, wet food is too messy and too fiddly. Third, they're shelter cats -- kibble is ten times better than what they formerly had as wanna-be ferals, and is what they've always had. So it maybe isn't as good for them as wet food, but it's better than the death chambers at the shelter, so if they don't like it... NYAH!
- Badtux the Cat-feeding Penguin
Hard to argue with that. It is also the case that the people at Science Diet Foods are not ready to concede that feeding wet food is better. You also raise a very good point regarding what cats will eat. Science Diet now includes canned food in their kitten kits. It seems that many cats can become fixated dry or canned food and are difficult to change. You cannot just fast a cat into submission. They will get fatty live syndrome in two or three days if they don't eat. Dry food is still fed in far more cat households (including mine) for the simple reason that canned food is so damn messy.
G
George and Gracie had eaten dry food almost exclusively for ten years or so. I switched them over by giving them a can of wet food once a week, so they would view it as a real treat. Then I ramped up the frequency to now, when they eat the wet food and the dry stuff comes out a little later.
They are not on free-choice, so when the wet food comes out,they are hungry.
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