ARGH, cat monsters

One is eating too much (diabetic one), the other is not eating and I am having to try all sorts of foods and sit with him to make sure he eats. Civvie cat does not like the wet food diet and had been just refs=using to eat it and has dropped alarmingly thin, and there is no way I can leave dry food out or sugarcat will be on it in a flash.

Sugarcat is taking advantage of all the naughty food that I have been trying civvie cat on. Cling film and heavy porcelain bowls are no problem for this sugar cat to move and steal from. Sugarcat has also just killed a bird and eaten it outside (feathers and feet left...) I now need to hide and leftover uneaten civvie food in the fridge (lesson learned!). After all my hard work his reading are now going to be all over the place.... ohmygod_smile

Two steps forward - two steps back with these cats!!! ohmygod_smile ohmygod_smile

 

you need to get the other one to eat and if that means giving her dry food, then do that, because not eating will lead to medical problems.

Have you read Dr. Lisa's site about transitioning your cat from dry to wet? It is a process and some cats are more resistant than others and you need to take it slow - such as counting out the kibble pieces, placing them on top of the wet food and over days removing one kibble at a time, until she is eating wet. that is one idea.

http://www.catinfo.org

It took several weeks for me to transition everyone, I thought Maui would be the problem, as it turned out it was my civvie that was the problem - she ate dry and wet and when I removed dry, she refused to eat, she would have gone days without eating (but I didn't allow that and did the trick I mentioned above) to get her to eat and it did work. Of course, if given an opportunity she will happily eat dry today.

do you have foritflora? you can sprinkle this on the wet food, this is supposed to be the same substance that is put on dry food to make dry enticing to cats.

something else I am doing to mimick dry is to give them stella & chewy's freeze dried raw diet - while you are supposed to add water, if you serve it dry, it will imitate the dry crunch they like and this is a healthier alternative to kibbles.

http://www.petfood.com/item/stella-and-chewys-freeze-dried-chicken-cat-food/498360/

here is where I buy it.

 

To entice eating (try 1 at a time!)
1) active play sessions trigger hunt, catch, kill, eat behavior cycles. Try about 15 -20 minutes
2) warm the food to baby bottle temp to get it nice and stinky
3) add some tuna juice from water packed tuna.
4) crumble some crushed dry food over the canned if he is/was a dry food addict
5) FortiFlora - some cats go crazy for this - availaable online or at vet's office
5) a teaspoon of plain yogurt with active cultures may perk interest
6) Cat Sip - milk prepared to reduce lactose. Still has carbohydrate in it, but if it gets him to eat something its worth it
7) KMR - kitten milk replacer - sprinkle a bit of the powder on the food. (You can donate any unused to those fostering kittens if it doesn't work!)

 

Don't worry about this because I believe they've calculated small prey to be around 2% to 8% carbs, meaning that it's fine for a diabetic feline. :lol: In fact, my civvie, Henry, has caught a few birds and shared them with Mikey, my sugar cat, and if anything, it made his numbers even better.

It's just the dry food you need to worry about, but you've already gotten some suggestions to help with that. ;-)

 

My friend's cat has been diabetic even longer than Ragnar, and she says he "chases birds and occasionally catches one." Dr. Jen said a mouse was ideal cat food. So don't worry if he catches and eats something.

I had your food problem with Ragnar and Cindy, too. They both loved wet food at first, but later Cindy wouldn't eat it. (Ragnar had never considered kibble edible, though he'd made do.) What I did was to take Cindy into another room and feed her - often.

Don't know what I'd have done in the long term, but wish I still had the problem. Cindy caught FIP from a borrowed carrier and died a few weeks after R. went OTJ.

Blessings!

Shirley and Mr. Beautiful

 

Great ideas guys - many thanks.

Civvie cat is eating OK on the Sheba now but I am having to sit with both at meal times to make sure they don't swap. Ironically civvie cat tends to eat better when sugarcat is around.

I have tried mixing the dried in with the wet and he is eating some. It's killing me having to go and actually BUY dry food but hey ho - needs must!

Nice to know the carb content of the average mouse - he eats quite a few (always leaves the gallbladder thingy tho - we call it the baked bean... :lol: )

 

Jax,
If it makes you feel any better, I've had to go out & buy my civvie some dry food too. She got really sick on hairballs then gave up eating the wet food completely despite me trying 7 brands & who knows how many flavours. ohmygod_smile
She's now underweight & I just need to get ANY food down her neck to build her up again, before I try (once again) to switch her to wet food. She's on the lowest carb dry I can find in the UK (Applaws) & she has her kibbles in the bath, where Milo (the diabeticat) can't get to them. She won't eat a lot of anything at any one sitting anymore, so I just have to encourage her to nibble constantly.

Saying that, she licked some of the wet food last night too, so I may be able to convince her yet.... ;-)

It drives you insane. It really does. @-)

Juliet

 

Not to worry you but you might want to test the blood of the civvie cat. My sister in laws cats both developed diabetes around the same time (unrelated cats). She was so busy treating one that when the other started losing weight she assumed it was because the diabetic was eating the food,,, meanwhile the other cat was also diabetic.