For Cat Lovers Only XVII - Post Pics, Ask Questions, Comments, Etc.

[arw]

I can't find my car keys anywhere. I haven't seen the since I got home last night from Target. They aren't in any of the bags or the jeans and hoodie I had on. I've looked everywhere, twice or more. I think Wesley hid them from me It only has my key and keyless entry on it plus a house key so it's easy for him to pick up. I saw him trying to kick them around the other day so now I think he actually took them. I have another set but it always makes me nervous when I don't know where both sets of car keys are.....I keep asking him what he did with my keys!

 

[arw]

I found them in between the cushions on his couch.

 

[Sicy]

Other people's cats do this stuff too, right?

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i wish my refrigerator was ever that empty

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

hi sam

 

[Sicy]

Beautiful photo.

 

[Casamares]

hi sam

Adorable

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

hi sam

I orange noses.

 

[Ms The Edge]

Aww! I don't know what they find so fascinating! Cricket isn't even interested in people food, I think she just thinks it looks like a nice comfy place to curl up!

 

[Ms The Edge]

i wish my refrigerator was ever that empty

But you have to leave plenty of extra room for the cat! My fridge is pretty much ALWAYS empty! There's milk and salsa and ice cream in the freezer. Everything else is unnecessary.

 

[Sicy]

Yeah mine dont care about people food either. That pic is a few years old though. I have more stuff in my fridge now.

 

[Saracene]

hi sam

Gorgeous photo

 

[Drowningman]

Its a cold, wet, rainy Monday morning and I'm stuck at work but I wish I had a comfy box to sleep in...

 

[MsPurrl]

Its a cold, wet, rainy Monday morning and I'm stuck at work but I wish I had a comfy box to sleep in...

That is so sweet!

 

[arw]

I'm still so confused as to what is the right thing to do for Wesley and food. He's totally gained weight the past month or so. I think he looks chunky now but everyone else keeps saying he looks like he's filled in since he was just a bag of bones when I got him. I've switched him over healthier foods but I feel like he's still gaining weight on them. After trying out a few different wet foods last week, he seems to really like Natural Balance the best. It also appears to be more filling for him so he only eats about half of what I give him and then grazes on the rest throughout the day. But he still eats his dry stuff too. I switched to Halo in August but it was too much for his system to handle so I bought a bag of the Purina stuff he was eating and mixed the two with the hopes that he would get used to Halo. He ran out of that mix over the weekend so yesterday and today were his first days on Halo only in his dry bowl. He just had major issues in the bathroom so I'm thinking maybe this just isn't the right brand for him to eat. He's eating less dry with this new wet food but I still want to have a bowl of dry for him to eat.

Any suggestions on a different low carb/carb free brand? Lily eats Purina salmon and brown rice so that's what I bought for him when I first got him in June. While there's no by products in it, I still think there's a lot of carbs and other unnecessary crap that he doesn't need to eat. But then again, he didn't run to his box with issues while he was on it. I'm just worried if I go back to something like that he will continue to gain weight. But maybe now that he's on this new wet food, it will all even out somehow. Lily is overweight but just has not reacted positively to any changes in her food so that's why my sister still feeds her that. But as long as Wesley eats what's in front of him I'd rather find something else since I don't think the Purina stuff is the greatest.

 

[kellyahern]

BLUE Longevity Healthy Cat Food

Wally eats the kitten version of this and seems to like it.

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

BLUE Longevity Healthy Cat Food

Wally eats the kitten version of this and seems to like it.

good stuff.. I give Nochi the adult version that is chicken and brown rice. She loves it

Blue Buffalo - All Natural Weight Control Cat Food


And I also give my chocolate lab a similar version by them for dogs.. She also loves it.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

sam's gone bonkers. he usually likes to come in through the window and snuggle with me but tonight he was weird about it.

this is what ian could see

and that's what i could see. he actually put his paw on my laptop

 

[Drowningman]

sam's gone bonkers. he usually likes to come in through the window and snuggle with me but tonight he was weird about it.

this is what ian could see

and that's what i could see. he actually put his paw on my laptop

That's too funny !!

Its like he's trying to get a little attention but the bed's so comfortable that he's falling asleep

 

[Sicy]

 

[Liesje]

I'm still so confused as to what is the right thing to do for Wesley and food. He's totally gained weight the past month or so. I think he looks chunky now but everyone else keeps saying he looks like he's filled in since he was just a bag of bones when I got him. I've switched him over healthier foods but I feel like he's still gaining weight on them. After trying out a few different wet foods last week, he seems to really like Natural Balance the best. It also appears to be more filling for him so he only eats about half of what I give him and then grazes on the rest throughout the day. But he still eats his dry stuff too. I switched to Halo in August but it was too much for his system to handle so I bought a bag of the Purina stuff he was eating and mixed the two with the hopes that he would get used to Halo. He ran out of that mix over the weekend so yesterday and today were his first days on Halo only in his dry bowl. He just had major issues in the bathroom so I'm thinking maybe this just isn't the right brand for him to eat. He's eating less dry with this new wet food but I still want to have a bowl of dry for him to eat.

Any suggestions on a different low carb/carb free brand? Lily eats Purina salmon and brown rice so that's what I bought for him when I first got him in June. While there's no by products in it, I still think there's a lot of carbs and other unnecessary crap that he doesn't need to eat. But then again, he didn't run to his box with issues while he was on it. I'm just worried if I go back to something like that he will continue to gain weight. But maybe now that he's on this new wet food, it will all even out somehow. Lily is overweight but just has not reacted positively to any changes in her food so that's why my sister still feeds her that. But as long as Wesley eats what's in front of him I'd rather find something else since I don't think the Purina stuff is the greatest.

Correct, the Purina is like eating McD's fries for every meal. The Blue others suggested is a good brand, easy to find, reasonably priced. I use Nature's Variety Instinct cat kibble (chicken kind). It's grain free (so, low carb) but for some reason is cheaper than other much worse brands. At our pet store it's $12 for a 6lb bag.

If you want a low carb, look for "grain free" diets.

Once you find a good food that works, play around with portion sizes to control weight. Since weight can be controlled that way, I'm more picky about finding something that the cat likes and keeps them healthy with normal poop. Once they get used to a food (eat it for a month or two and do really well), I'll experiment with weight control.

 

[arw]

Correct, the Purina is like eating McD's fries for every meal. The Blue others suggested is a good brand, easy to find, reasonably priced. I use Nature's Variety Instinct cat kibble (chicken kind). It's grain free (so, low carb) but for some reason is cheaper than other much worse brands. At our pet store it's $12 for a 6lb bag.

If you want a low carb, look for "grain free" diets.

Once you find a good food that works, play around with portion sizes to control weight. Since weight can be controlled that way, I'm more picky about finding something that the cat likes and keeps them healthy with normal poop. Once they get used to a food (eat it for a month or two and do really well), I'll experiment with weight control.

so do you suggest I keep with what I'm using for dry (Halo with nothing else mixed in it), in order for his system to get used to it, even though it essentially gives him the runs? I was at Petco today to get him some more wet food so I read the ingredients of a lot of other brands. Most of the grain free type brands have the same ingredients as Halo. So this is where my issue becomes since most brands are $12 or more a bag, I can't keep buying bags of food for him to try.

I switched his wet food last week but I'm pretty sure it's the dry stuff that's giving him issues. I mixed his old wet with his new wet for about 5 days and then he had the new stuff straight for a few days with no issues. Everything in his box looked the same as always. During that time he was on the Halo/Purina mix. I switched to Halo only on Sunday morning so yesterday is when the changes in his box started again.

 

[Sicy]

If you keep changing his diet then he's going to have issues in the box. I'd just pick one and stick with it.

 

[arw]

I wouldn't necessarily say I keep changing his diet. I just started last week with new wet food otherwise he's been on the same wet since I got him. I've gradually been switching his dry food over the past month from a mix of two brands down to one brand. He only had a few days last month of Halo only without the Purina stuff in it because I ran out of Purina. That's when I noticed his box issues so I bought another bag of Purina and have been mixing the two. I thought maybe after a month or so of eating Halo mixed with something else he would be used to it and be able to handle it without anything else mixed in it.

 

[Sicy]

How many times has he had the runs? He could just have to get used to it. Though if you said you've mixed it for a month it seems weird that it would give him issues.

 

[arw]

2-3 times....I scoop his box out just about daily so it's been yucky since Sunday night.

 

[Liesje]

Most of what I know about food is what I know about dog food, but maybe the same principles apply.

Dogs - especially German Shepherds - can have sensitive stomachs and take time to settle on a new food. Like if I do a "cold" switch, I WILL have major poop issues (and in this case it's not some runnies in the box). It takes a week or so of feeding a new food consistently before I can really say if it's going to work. I haven't switched or even tested a new food it over a year because I hate not knowing how it will settle and possibly coming home to a mess. You know the phrase, "the shit hit the fan"? I know what that looks like.

Some of my dogs also have trouble with grain-free diets even though they are technically healthier (since a dog is a carnivore). Once time I tried Innova EVO which at the time was like THE best kibble available and my dog was basically squatting around shooting out liquid nonstop. I couldn't even give it a few days to see if it improved. Currently I do not use a grain-free diet, but I use a "limited ingredient diet" (LID). The idea behind these mixtures is that there is ONE meat/protein source (not chicken, turkey meal, beef broth, etc all in the same box) and ONE grain/carb source and that's it, nothing else except a few other additives necessary to keep the food from spoiling. I really like the LID kibbles having dogs with sensitive stomachs. I use California Natural and there's 3 of them, I haven't had any issues cold switching between formulas (chicken/rice, lamb/rice, herring/sweet potato). So sometimes the right food for the animal is not necessarily the "best".

For ALL my animals I follow the rule of NO corn, wheat, soy, or gluten. Those are unhealthy fillers so grain free, LID, or not, I those ingredients always disqualify a food.

Luckily my cats have pretty iron stomachs and have eagerly eaten everything - dry or wet - except Felidae.

 

[kellyahern]

I would just go back to the Purina for right now to get the runs to go away. Then if you want to start mixing in another brand in a couple of weeks, try that. The important thing is to stop the runs, because that can make a cat dehydrated as well as associating negative feelings with the litterbox. He may just have a bad reaction to something in the Halo if he's not used to it by now. I agree with Sicy, after a month he should be used to it and if he's not, he may be allergic to something in it.

You can also ask the vet what Wesley's ideal weight should be.

 

[arw]

I did ask my vet in July and he said Wesley should gain another 3-4 pounds. He's tall and long so the vet said he should be about 12 pounds for a healthy weight. But I just feel like he's gained so much lately. I think it's just me being a wacko because everyone else thinks he looks like a healthy little guy. He was soooo skinny when I got him. I'm just nuts....


In other kitty news....best cat toy ever: Super Target paper grocery bag. I gave one to Wesley to play with over a week ago and he drags it all over the place. Sometimes he takes a nap in it and other times he kicks it across the room. It's still totally intact too. I thought maybe it would be in pieces by now after all of the abuse to it but it's still perfect.

 

[Sicy]

I think it's just me being a wacko.

In other kitty news....best cat toy ever: Super Target paper grocery bag. I gave one to Wesley to play with over a week ago and he drags it all over the place. Sometimes he takes a nap in it and other times he kicks it across the room. It's still totally intact too. I thought maybe it would be in pieces by now after all of the abuse to it but it's still perfect.

A plain grocery bag? Too funny.