Hello! Three Kitty Home + Two Dogs

Hi! You can call me Gembug. My husband and I have 3 awesome cats and 2 dogs.
But, being a cat forum, I'll just talk about the meowers!

Calli is the oldest, and the smallest. She is hilarious to watch coming down the stairs. She's so small that she looks like a feline teeter-totter coming down the stairs! She is about 11 years old now, and is just a tiny bit chubby. She is a grouchy/skittish sort, so the youngest tends to torment her. Tips on how to get him to leave her alone would help!

Rascal, aka L.S., is the middle child at 8 years old and is about 10 months past his diabetes diagnosis. He does not particularly like to be picked up, and he hates feeling "held" in a way that his escape is hindered. We mostly respect his dislike of being picked up or held, so we did not realize that our healthy 23+ pound cat had dwindled to a pitiful 11 pounds. He was never fat, just a big, tall, long cat, so we didn't see the weight loss. One day I picked him up because I was having to lock the cats in a room while I moved stuff and he was super light. I took him to the vet and after a little bit of discussion, we realized it was likely diabetes. Test results confirmed. I did some research immediately and put him on a homemade food diet taken from catinfo.org and his symptoms went away. He has never been on insulin or medicine and he is happy, healthy, and up to 15 pounds and holding steady.

Shanks is the baby of the bunch, and he is 2 years old. Sweet, lovable, curious, and playful. When Calli slinks by, trying to be inconspicuous, it raises his desire to play and then we hear her screeching at him.

We have Rascal on real food, but Calli and Shanks refuse. I have tried everything. Gravies, parmesan, mixing the new with the old, making sure they see Rascal eating it, adding tuna juice....

 

Welcome! I have a full house as well with 3 cats and a dog so I can relate.

That's awesome that he went into remission on a diet change alone! I wish my little bugger would do that.