I Feel Like I Can't Go Away

[amysuen]

Since switching to homemade food I feel like I can't leave the house for more than a couple of hours. The kittens eat well so they're no problem, but the older two are a PITB. Laelia will only come to eat if there's no-one around, and her plate has to be put in a certain place. If there's any movement or sudden noise she'll bolt and not come back. Snickers will only eat 1 oz at a time so he needs 5-6 meals a day to get his minimum. And everything has to be "just right" - consistency, temperature, location, topper, how high the food is off the ground, who's around while he's eating, etc - and it changes from meal to meal. He's supper ADD so if something happens while he's eating he'll stop and walk away.

I want to visit my inlaws during part of my vacation but I'm afraid if I'm not here Snickers won't eat enough and will develop fatty liver disease. It's been a challenge switching the older two to homemade food so I don't want to leave kibble out and have to start over again.

 

[Ardina]

That seems pretty difficult. Is there a canned food that they will eat more readily? Just for when you're away? If not, could you have someone come over and learn the subtleties of how to feed Laelia and Snickers? And when you're away, they can visit several times a day (or ideally just stay at your place) to feed them.

 

[silverpersian]

Do any of your neighbors have teenagers who could take over? They may be able to stay around for a while when they visit and ensure that Snickers eats.

 

[orange&white]

If I needed to travel more than one night, I'd have to hire a pet sitter.

This Saturday, I'm going to see my father for the first trip since I adopted the kitten, and I'll be gone about 30-32 hours. I don't like to break the cats' routine, but outside their normal raw food, my senior will only eat canned food and the kitten will only eat kibble. I'm going to be up early and feed them breakfast, then before I head out a few hours later I'll give them the rest of Saturday's "calories" in raw food, plus leave some canned out for Tangent and some kibble out for Farrell. They won't eat the raw food if it sits out too long, but they'll have something to eat. I expect they'll be rather hungry when I get home on Sunday afternoon, even if they are essentially only missing one meal Sunday morning.

I don't think 24 hours with either kibble or canned food will undo all the work you've done to transition to homemade food. Longer than that, and I would get a pet sitter.

 

[amysuen]

Thanks everyone! I didn't even think of switching to canned while we were gone. No teens in the neighborhood but our son and his family live 2 blocks away so maybe they'd feed the cats. My parents are 2 doors down but they're mid-70s and don't need more to do. I don't think canned would undo the transition - the kittens eat homemade just fine and Laelia does well with it too. Snickers still won't eat it without a little Friskies Shreds on top so he won't get "spoiled" by having only canned.