Hello! Remember me? Maybe you do. I write about my cats.
The time has come for a fundamental change in the way I care for my cats. Next month, they’ll be 1 year old and no longer kittens. Which means… a change in both the dry and wet food that they eat. Again, if you can search your memory banks for a moment, you may recall that Thor and Loki had a hard time warming up to their wet kitten food. After a few days, though (and probably because they were very underweight,) they started eating. This time it’s not so easy.
Currently, I work in customer service at a natural grocery store. They carry several great types of wet cat food, including a store brand, Wellness (grain-free,) PetGuard, Natural Ultramix and a few others. I’d love to get them to eat the Wellness brand, as the wheat crops in the US are ~90% genetically modified (GMOs.) My number-one priority is to feed them something simple and natural.
But… they won’t eat any of these brands. Each time I presented them the new types of food, they sniffed it half-heartedly and walked away. Granted, I introduced the food alone and not gradually, which I’ve heard is the key to making a switch. A coworker of mine put it nicely: “You have to do it gradually. Cats are like humans; they hate change.”
Recently, I’ve been trying harder with the Wellness brand, specifically the chicken paté flavor, which they are currently eating in the Iams Kitten brand. I say to myself: “Hey! This is the same type of food except BETTER! Surely they will like it, eventually!” Not the case. So far I have tried:
- Heating up the food (which worked with their kitten food when they didn’t touch it)
- Mixing it up thoroughly with their current type of wet food
- Sitting both types next to each other in the bowl (stupid)
- Letting the food sit for a while in hopes that they will cave (also stupid)
So there you have it. I haven’t even covered dry food, which I’m pretty clueless about, though I imagine that will be easier… at least I hope. In any case, I have a pretty decent stockpile of the Iams Kitten dry food. Do you cat owners and experts have any suggestions? A cat-savvy coworker of mine recommended that I heat up some chicken broth and pour it over the new food. I’ll probably try that in the next few days and report back.
I worry about Thor specifically because he has proven more fickle and is a very lean, small cat. I want to ensure that he stays at a healthy weight and I’m already noticing that he’s probably lost a pound or so. Loki is a dog and eats all the scraps, so he’ll be alright.
To conclude, here is maybe the greatest picture I have ever taken of my cats:
My cats formed a heart. I solemnly swear that I did not form them like this. Cuteness overloadddddddd #### 101010101
