I don’t know how food motivated your cat is, but for Gus’s clicker training I either use pieces of dry food (he normally eats 90% wet food so dry is novel) or freezedried 100% meat, normally salmon or chicken. I actually buy the dog sized bags of chicken purebites and break the pieces up because...
Auggie is a very picky cat, and only seems willing to branch out when it's fish. So he probably gets too much fish, but oh well.
He eats: Chicken, Venison, Salmon, Trout, and Tuna. He won't even touch anything Duck flavored and isn't fond of Turkey.
It's actually probably one of the easiest things to clicker train! If you put your finger a couple of inches in front of your cat's nose, they'll naturally sniff it. So then just *click* and treat. We did that a couple of times then moved the finger further away until he had to walk to touch it...
Finger tracking comes in handy for plenty of stuff! Like leading a cat directly to your lap for cuddling :thumbsup:
Also it means I can teach slightly more inane tricks, like jumping over my leg if I stick it out.
It does have practical purpose though! Helps with leading him into his carrier...
I second all that! Harness training your cat can be a great solution, especially if your cat is curious and not afraid of much. And it sounds like he is! And it's far cheaper than building a catio if that sounds inviting. After a slow introduction to the harness inside so he was comfortable with...
Yesterday was Augustus’s birthday- the Empurror turned four! Coincidentally it worked out well with the pace of his harness training, so it was the first time he got to go outside! I opened the door and he waltzed right out with his tail straight in the air, no hesitation at all. We went on a...
Nothing more peaceful than a cat tail repeatedly whacking you in the face. I swear this cat is a sadist, he was purring the whole time!
Teaching finger tracking-he’s rewarded when he presses his nose to my finger.
Wow I can sympathize! My cat Augustus also has pica, and would eat his litter whenever I would pour it or fiddle with the box. Originally he was on clay litter, but we immediately switched to a grass based litter. Somehow worse... Whenever I'd pour it, he shoulder his way into the box and take...
Thank you two so much! I know my pet store carries Nature's Variety Instinct and Natural Balance, so I'll check if they have venison in stock during my next pet store run. And I'll check if they have the others too; the Feline Natural looks awesome! As for the Farmina Dry, once he finishes the...
Hello! My cat Augustus is now eating a mainly a mixture of Merricks Limited Ingredient Chicken and Ziwi Peak Venison. He seems to LOVE the Ziwi Peak venison, he eats it far quicker than Merricks, but when offered other Ziwi Peak flavors won’t touch them. This leads me to believe it’s the venison...
I believe he had an intestinal biopsy at the shelter. To check if there was a medical cause like IBD for his pica? I'm not entirely clear on it as they didn't tell us much and I'm not that great at deciphering the medical terminology on his official files.