10/30/11 Loose Lips

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Tena and Curry(GA)

Tena and Curry(GA)

Member Since 2010
Greetings Lantus Land Beans. Happy Sunday.

Quickie update on my civvie, Sidney, and her journey with transitioning to wet food.

Boy is she stubborn, picky or one very smart kitty.

I've got her eating all wet now :-D and even gave her a little raw this morning. The only time she'll really eat is if I hand feed her.

She's having to get use to the texture of the food and even the process of "eating" the food now. Before she would just inhale the kibble w/out chewing. So I'm currently putting the food on my finger and letting her lick or eat the food. "Its finger licking good." Its hard to get her to eat enough food during the day, but she doesn't seem to be losing weight so I guess she is getting enough.

She isn't scratching as much now that she's eating wet ....her coat use to feel on the dry side when she ate the kibble so I know the extra moisture is helping. Oh btw, she's eating Cowboy Cookout.....since she's a Texas girl. :lol:



The next step is getting her to eat her food on her own. Maybe even teaching her to go to the frig and prepare her meal as well as Curry's would be great. ohmygod_smile
 

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You have patience!!!! Henry will be just like Sidney. We got him a new bag of his hypoallergenic food and he won't touch it. Somethings changed. I've had to add in horrible science diet and I've blown the last 8 weeks of the trial. The science diet has four protein sources. We'll have to restart from scratch if he gets diarrhea. I wish he'd eat wet food but he won't even lap up tuna juice. If its not crunchy he won't touch it.

How do you plan on getting her to try eating on her own. With Maverick the shape of the plate/bowl was really important to getting him to eat wet food, even the size of the pieces. It took a long time to transition him from syringe feeding to eating wet food on his own. He lost a lot of weight so we had to do blood work often to check his liver. Wet food in any quantity didn't hold a candle to what he was getting in that horrible high calorie kibble.

Love the picture!!!!

Also we've spent the last week trying to train Henry that he could go in through the cat door also, not just out. He was waking us at least five times a night to get into his food room. I don't know what I'll do when Hef figures out he can get in there now and eat kibble. He'd eat all day long if he could.
 
Hey Karrie,

Good to hear from ya. Our kitties are sure demanding aren't they. When I read that it took Dr. Lisa about 3 months to transition one of her cats I felt better. Then Jill said the same thing last week and felt doubly better.

How do you plan on getting her to try eating on her own. With Maverick the shape of the plate/bowl was really important to getting him to eat wet food, even the size of the pieces. It took a long time to transition him from syringe feeding to eating wet food on his own. He lost a lot of weight so we had to do blood work often to check his liver. Wet food in any quantity didn't hold a candle to what he was getting in that horrible high calorie kibble.
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What I've started to do was to lower my finger that she is licking into the dish to sorta guide her eating. She is so slow when eating on her own and I think her tongue gets tired. She's licking the food and not really biting off any chunks. I did experiment with locking her in the bedroom (where her food is) last week for about half a day. She did eat what I had left out for her. I did the same thing yesterday but only for a shorter period of time and she didn't eat. Silly kitty. Playing with her before I feed her also seems to help a little too.

Remembr too Karrie that actuallys started introducing the wet food to Sid last year when Curry was dx. But now that I can put the food in the bedroom w/o Curry getting to it, I decided to give this wet food transition a bit more effort on my part. She's more than half way there....she's off the kibble....

I also reread the information from Dr. Lisa......one of her comments made alot of sense.....the cat doesn't recognize the wet as a food source yet....so keep a small dab of it by their food dish.....one day you might come in and see that its gone. Good luck w/Henry. What a challenge.
 
If it helps, Maui was spoon fed and force fed wet food. She never wanted anything to do with it and when she was diagnosed and I learned about dry food dangers, I tried to transition her. Her former avatar is Miss Maui with a face full of FF. Feeding times were always a mess.

After a couple weeks of spoon feeding, she took one lick of the spoon on her own, then another and as if by magic, she put her face in the bowl and started eating. that was the end of my force feeding her. And now, she won't go near kibbles.

There is a product out that you may find helpful to transition. It's a freeze dried raw food that can be served as is or with water added. I'm thinking if you sprinkle this on top of the wet food, she may eat it because it's dry and crunchy (yet it's not kibbles and real dry food).

It's Stella & Chewy's freeze dried cat dinners: http://www.stellaandchewys.com/cat-products.php

It's made with decent ingredients and diabetic friendly, so it might be worth a go and could be a good alternative and even used as treats.

My girls prefer it dry in a bowl.
 
heehee i get unreasonably excited to see a loose lips condo! it's such an unknown - what will this LL bring? we never know til we peek. :-D

two crazy thoughts.

one is that i must be related to pavlov's dogs, because tena, you said finger lickin good and i thought "mmm kfc sounds yummy today."

second crazy thought is what would happen if you dehydrated the canned food? would that turn into crunchies and therefore be edible?

rainy gray day here - a good day for staying inside and maybe even having a fire in the fireplace. and i COULD even put down the puter and find a good book. sounds tempting. that and a little greasy KFC would be just the thing!
 
Great update, Tena. You always do so awesome with those girls. LOVE the pic.

I like Julie's suggestion. They have some interesting foods out there now like "Stella and Chewy's" and "Prowl". Curry can't have the "prowl" cuz it's a little too high in carbs for a FD but Sid might like it.
 
Hillary: thank you for sharing your "war" stories regarding transitioning. It really helps to hear how others struggle and then finally the kitty light goes on. And thanks for the feeding ideas. Will have to try it out.

Celi: girl, you crack me up. Luv the pic.

Julie: you always have such good ideas. Never thought to dehydrate the food.

Marje: Lots of great foods for kitties these days. Miss Diva Sid is sooooooooooo darn picky. She made a liar out of me today....decides "Xnay on the Cowboy Cookout and anymore raw"....finally pulled out some FF and she ate some. I feel really fortunate that Curry loves anything I put in front of her....Sid not so much. *sigh*
 
Marjorie and Gracie said:
I like Julie's suggestion. They have some interesting foods out there now like "Stella and Chewy's" and "Prowl". Curry can't have the "prowl" cuz it's a little too high in carbs for a FD but Sid might like it.
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Prowl is definitely a no-no for diabetics. Neither is the new Grace food. Right in the comments section someone asked what the carb content is and a company rep responded as 23% carbs :shock: My civies ony get a little sprinkle of Prowl on top of their raw if they're in one of their finicky moods.

The Addiciton brand has a similar dehydrated raw product It doesn't look suitable for a diabetic, either, but as a sprinkle on top of food for a finicky civie would be ok.

Any freeze dried raw food or freeze dried meat treat crushed up and sprinkled on top of canned food would make it more appetizing. I did that to get Emma to transition from canned to raw. I used Stella and Chewy's freeze dried for dogs because the cat products hadn't come out at the time.

You can try Poultry Crispies, too. They're hard and crunchy like dry food.

So Leroy woke me up at 4:20 am this morning by having one of those coughing/panting/something fits :shock: That was the first one he had since the 18th. Leroy was just lying on the bed near my knees. And he had another more wet-sounding one half an hour ago :? Fortunately Leroy sees Dr. B this Thursday, hopefully not sooner.
 
Thanks Squeem3. You are always so helpful and knowledgeable about these things. Guess you've been there and done that....you're an xpert in my book.

I'm glad you are taking Leroy in this week. Give us an update when you have a chance.

hugs to all and to all a good ni, ni.
 
No phone service due to the Nor'Easter yesterday, so no internetz at home. And I don't have a smart phone, just a stupid one. But we do still have power in my immediate neighborhood, so I'm thankful for that. Others just a few streets away are out. I'm at work now quickly trying to catch up on email, FDMB, and FB, and probably won't be able to get back on until tomorrow.
Wanted to share a pic I took of Donny recently when he fell asleep with his tongue sticking out :cool:
donovantongue.jpg


MJ&Donovan
 
oh so cute, mj! he looks like he's sleeping while he's sitting up!!

i don't know what i think about Poultry Crispies. something kinda wrong about the sound of that! :-D

poor leroy - hope you can get some answers on his hurking, licking behavior. the fact that it's so intermittent - 12 days without it - would make me hopeful that it's not too serious. let us know what the vet says.
 
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