It seems that every day is an adventure in trying to get our chronically sick kitty to eat, and we've learned to pretty flexible and creative.
For example, Buddy is a former stray, and after five years, he still hasn't gotten the hang of eating out of plates. He prefers to eat off of butcher paper, or paper sacks, or boxes, or the comforter, or on the pages of a book I'm trying to read, or...well, just about everywhere BUT his plate!
He also likes to eat out of a spoon, especially when he's congested. Buddy's sinuses are all screwed up from chronic infections that went untreated before we took him in, and can't smell his food worth a darn. So we got into the habit of waving a spoonful under his nose to help him get a good whiff, and now he thinks that's how he's supposed to be fed.
Then sometimes he seems to want to forage for his food. So we'll roll his pate style food into little balls about the size of a marble, and set them just inside a paper grocery bag, or just under the hem of a favorite blanket, or anywhere he's likely to pass by and 'find' his own dinner. Other times he prefers for the little balls of food to be arranged in a row, like he's eating his way through a buffet line.
We've also resorted to rolling the little marble sized balls of food across the floor for Buddy to 'catch,' or throw into the air like it's live prey. Yes, this is one of the reasons why raw food isn't an option for us!
Oscar has a peculiar ritual where he likes for the first few bites of his food to be put on a hand towel in the window sill. Then once he's finished that, he'll jump down and happily eat the rest of his dinner out of his plate.
So since we're always on the lookout for new ideas, and can always use a good laugh...
What sorts of funny or odd things have you done to get your cats to eat?
For example, Buddy is a former stray, and after five years, he still hasn't gotten the hang of eating out of plates. He prefers to eat off of butcher paper, or paper sacks, or boxes, or the comforter, or on the pages of a book I'm trying to read, or...well, just about everywhere BUT his plate!
He also likes to eat out of a spoon, especially when he's congested. Buddy's sinuses are all screwed up from chronic infections that went untreated before we took him in, and can't smell his food worth a darn. So we got into the habit of waving a spoonful under his nose to help him get a good whiff, and now he thinks that's how he's supposed to be fed.
Then sometimes he seems to want to forage for his food. So we'll roll his pate style food into little balls about the size of a marble, and set them just inside a paper grocery bag, or just under the hem of a favorite blanket, or anywhere he's likely to pass by and 'find' his own dinner. Other times he prefers for the little balls of food to be arranged in a row, like he's eating his way through a buffet line.
We've also resorted to rolling the little marble sized balls of food across the floor for Buddy to 'catch,' or throw into the air like it's live prey. Yes, this is one of the reasons why raw food isn't an option for us!
Oscar has a peculiar ritual where he likes for the first few bites of his food to be put on a hand towel in the window sill. Then once he's finished that, he'll jump down and happily eat the rest of his dinner out of his plate.
So since we're always on the lookout for new ideas, and can always use a good laugh...
What sorts of funny or odd things have you done to get your cats to eat?
