You know it's been a bad week when...

[Lauren & Eliot]

Eli's been on insulin and low carb food for a week but we just started testing yesterday. Black (which went down to pink two hours later but). This morning? Red.

But tonight was yellow! And I know it's not much but right now I'm over the moon.

(I got him some new super low carb dry food to wean him off the dry food doing as little damage as possible. Problem is he doesn't like it and barely nibbled... but he still won't eat a whole serving of canned food! Ugh. I don't want to starve the butt. I sprinkled on half a serving of these chicken toppers - which are on sale right now 2 for 1! - and he LOVED it but still didn't finish the pate food.

My partner thinks this is a sign he/we should start making his food. He's actually weirdly pumped about this and being able to help, he's the cook, it's sort of the sweetest thing.)

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

I love it that your partner wants to make his food. I know there are a few members that do it for their cats.

Since Eli loves the treats you may want to try pushing some of them into the canned food. If that works then you can gradually mix more of them into the food each meal until he is eating all of it. That is worked with one of my cats

 

[Sandi and Toby]

We have been using the PureBites chicken toppers as well (1/2 tray before each shot) just as a pre shot treat.

As you know, thst isn't a complete food, but you might want to try Tiki Cat Puka Puka Chicken, which is. The Tiki Cat has all the necessary vitamins, nutrients, etc to serve as a complete diet. It isn't cheap, but it might be worth a try if you want to get him off dry, and then maybe mix it with pates in the future.

Good luck to you and Eli!

Sandi & Whisper

 

[Lauren & Eliot]

Lisa: Right?! He's a sweet man; I'm mostly in charge of tests and shots, since I'm the one who is home at those times, but he really wants to help.

I tried smushing the flake-y chicken topper into the pate this morning... and he just took two bites and walked away. He's always a light eater in the morning and will eat a little more in a couple hours, but COME ON cat. This is going to be a loooong road; he's just so used to pretty much always having food - unless he was dumb and at all his kibble at once - and just eating when he was hungry.

Sandi (and Whisper!): Yikes, yeah, pricy, but it's worth a try! I'd like to get him eating a decent meal before shots vs part of it and grazing the rest of the day, on the canned before it dries out and then on the dry kibble. He's a Big Cat; the doctor has him on 300 calories right now, I personally think it should be more like 250 and then lowered, but. It's hard to find a flaky canned food without all the fillers and still enough calories without destroying my wallet. We were looking at the Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken but at only 100 calories per 5.5 can he'd need two a day plus something extra and a) he doesn't eat a ton to begin with, 11 oz+ would be crazy b) that's $$$ at $4+ per day. The Tiki seems to at least be 182 calories for a 6oz can. Though actually it seems to add up to about the same since it's $4.50. Ugh, too much math, more coffee...

Thank you for your help despite my rambling!