fussy eater

[catslave16]

Having just written how problem-free my life with Rufus is (my post ended up under 'Just got cat' instead of under 'Man about the House' where I meant it to go - sorry!) there is something that is beginning to annoy me a bit. I feed Rufus on demand - he always has dry food available, and none of yer cheap muck, it's Iams , but he's not that keen on it - but he'll just have a few mouthfuls of wet food and walk away. But he won't eat anything that's been sitting around for more than an hour, so I have to throw his leftovers out. Can't leave wet food for long in this weather because of flies, anyway, but it's wasteful. I can't afford to chuck so much food, I'm on a very tight budget. The obvious solution is to feed him even smaller meals (I give him about a third of a pouch usually) but I end up feeding him six times a day. He has this way of sitting and looking intently at me that all of you will recognise. If I don't get it, he'll gently bite my left forearm. (He sometimes bites gently while I'm brushing him, but it's not to let me know he's had enough as he purrs at the same time and keeps headbutting the brush, meaning 'more, more'. I sometimes suspect he's got a wire crossed in his brain). At this rate I'll end up feeding him ten times a day, a spoonful at the time. What to do?
Of course, while I was away for five days last week he just nommed what my neighbour gave him twice a day without any nonsense.

[Crewella]

He sounds as though he is training you up nicely and has you wrapped around his beautiful paw!

It's your call - many people enjoy the interaction with feeding on demand like that .... but as you have found you can end up with a very demanding cat and a bin full of wasted food. Personally, I feed twice a day and if they don't like it, tough. I will pick up any uneaten and offer it back to them if they ask later, and I usually find that it seems to 'improve' with time and they eventually deign to eat it as there's nothing else on offer! But then I have a gang of 6 - if I fed them all on demand I'd never get a moment's peace!

[alanc]

My Badger never used to be very keen on wet food, would only eat a few mouthfuls and leave the rest to Tilly. Both of them agree with Rufus and would not contemplate eating Iams. Any time I bought a few packets, they ended up at the local cat rescue. Maybe you should try something else like Royal Canin, Lilys Kitchen or Thrive. Tilly considers that all three are expensive enough to be fit for her to eat! Incidentally, Royal Canin are doing an introductory offer of 3 85g packets for £1.00, so I have stocked up to keep Tilly's food bill down a bit.

[Lilith]

Hah. Is there a cat conspiracy going on here?

My lot were quite happy with Whiskas dried for years; then they went off it a bit and I bought Iams, and they went off that pdq. They'll eat Purina though. For the present.

This is only my own personal take on the problem, Catslave, but in view of Rufus's quite different behaviour with neighbours, once the cooler weather begins (no flies) I'd harden my heart a bit and leave him a dish of food down and if he won't eat it and comes asking, tough until the next mealtime. But easier said than done I know!

Did you have good hols? Hope the rain kept off for the camping

[catslave16]

My beloved Blake loved Iams, but I'm 'taking on board' your comments (dontcha just hate that expression!) and will try a different dry food. Rufus absolutely has me wrapped round his tufty paw. I'm such a soft touch, and he knows it. I worry about him starving when he turns his nose up at his less favourite food - as if a cat would ever actually starve itself! I'm just going to harden my heart. Famous last words...
Thanks for asking about my hols, Lilith. I picked my son up in Rastrick and we went camping in Snowdonia (in spite of my bad back I can manage camping, as you spend most of your time in a tent down on all fours, which is comfortable for me) and I swear our rather basic campsite up in the hills was the funnel of Wales. Never known such wind! It blew the tent down so we spent the night in the car. Next day we found the tent poles had actually split. Fortunately we managed to buy replacement poles and find another, rather lovely campsite, just outside Bettws-y-Coed. Then I was really ill one day with vomiting and diarrhoea - not a lot of fun in a tent 375 miles from my home in Suffolk. But we had some great outings, including a visit to Portmeirion , which is amazing. At night we always have a wood fire in the small bucket barbecue (we never cook on it) and have a drink or two, or three, and talk. Best bit of camping!
I got home at 11.15 pm and Rufus was sitting on the mat inside the front door, waiting for me. How did he know it was me? I hear you chorus: he heard your car come down the road. But a rubber skirt thingy that's attached below the front bumper had come off, and that difference in air intake had changed the sound of my engine (I hope that's what it was, and not an engine problem). I'm convinced cats have a sixth sense.

[Lilith]

Wow - camping under those conditions with a very wonky back requires balls! Intrepid is the word that springs to mind. But glad you had a good time, even if it got a bit hairy!

I used to have a very pretty tortie longhair called Saada. And a boyffiend with a Honda 50. One day I was sitting waiting for him on the doorstep with Saada by my side, when she stiffened, looked apprehensive, and fled inside. Sure enough, a minute later, he appeared on the brow of the hill. There were zillions of Honda 50s around in those days - how did she know it was his? But she did.

He was a nice enough lad by the way, she just didn't like his Honda

[catslave16]

Blimey Lilith, I've never thought of myself as intrepid! Thank you for the compliment. I go camping because it's the only holiday I can afford, even with my son paying for petrol to get to our destination, and the campsite fees, it costs quite a lot to drive from Yorkshire and back again (appr 450 miles). We never go for more than three nights - not counting ones spent in a car . We used to go abroad but going to Italy totally put me off package holidays. We've had some good ones, though, my son and I. On the Greek island of Hydra (where my hero Leonard Cohen still has a house) we counted 57 cats just round the harbour. I bent over one and said hello and it jumped on my neck and draped itself like a fur collar. I still think of it fondly as the Mad Cat of Hydra Harbour. Greek cats are semi-feral. People don't have them on their houses, but do feed them. In Egypt I only ever saw one cat, early one morning. It was strolling along the top of a low wall with a man following it. I wonder if they still worship cats and keep them indoors. We saw a few very sad, mangy dogs. It's quite upsetting how animals are (mis)treated in some countries. In Egypt, again, the horses that draw carriages are hobbled and can have very sore legs, with open wounds... You'd think people would look after the animals they depend on for a living, but that's not always the case. I hope that's down to ignorance rather than cruelty.

[meriad]

I have dry food down all the time for mine and same as most feed wet food twice a day; mornings when I get up and evenings when I get home from work. On weekends when I'm home they do often end up with an extra bit throughout the day; as you say - it's hard to resist their pleading eyes.

Dry is Arden Grange because it's cereal free (Harry is cereal intolerant) and wet is usually Felix AGAIL, or store own brand in gravy (as long as no cereal). They're not keen on other flavours so I don't bother anymore. Any leftovers are scraped into another bowl and given to the hedgehog at night. Usually ends up that the cats eat that though - they won't touch it when it's inside and fairly fresh; but outside and manky - hey yes; a feast! go figure

The camping sounds like fun - I've never been to Wales, definitely on my to-do list

[catslave16]

Yes, Wales is beautiful.
And why do cats drag their food out of their bowls and eat off the floor? Go figure, that, too!

[Lilith]

I read somewhere that they prefer to pin their food down on a rough surface but personally I think cats have a grudge against soft furnishings, as witness the scene this teatime (my breakfast; I sleep more slowly than most people and tend not to feel hungry until evening.)

I carry a concoction of chicken and rice upstairs to the 'sofa' (my bed.) I eat, every mouthful watched by Molly from the top of Shahi's vivarium. Leave some on my plate not for Mr Manners but for Miss Molly No-Manners, who descends like a bat out of hell, slurps up some rice and peppers and then noses a piece of sauce-y chicken round the plate. I lift it on to the tray for her; she bats it about and wipes a sauce-y paw on the duvet before gripping chicken in her jaws, and jumping down on to the beautiful new red Oriental carpet runner. Sauce-y runner now.

They say cats are clean, but I believe that to a cat, home is not home unless it's messy. And you know why they call furniture, FUR-niture...

[catslave16]

Yup, Rufus likes to drop particularly sauce-y food on the furniture/carpet. My nice new carpet is about the same colour as the fur on his underbelly, so all the bits he sheds (and boy, does he shed!) blend in nicely...

[Crewella]

FURniture ...... I cannot believe I've been a cat owning antiques dealer for more than 15 years .... and never thought of that!!