As The Cats Turn

Every so often, the best laid plans of a Salamander go far astray. I’ve got four cats to take care of. All of them have different diet requirements. Here’s this week’s feline soap opera:

1. The Warrior Princess is at least twenty-one years of age, severely arthritic, and has become a very picky eater. She doesn’t eat everything in her bowl at once, but grazes throughout the day. Since the other cats would eat her food before she gets around to returning to it, she gets her own room in the house and free-feeds whatever she wants whenever she wants. It isn’t unusual to have three bowls down for her at the same time, each with a different food.

2. The Little Grey Shit has Feline Triad Syndrome (pancreatitis, cholangiohepatitis and inflammatory bowel disease). She also has diabetes. She needs a low carb/high protein diet fed in small amounts throughout the day. I had her on a high quality specialty food until a few months back, when she began refusing it. I unhappily switched her to Fancy Feast classics, which actually have a good protein to carb ratio, and she was eating that happily until last week.

3. The Little Black Shit has inflammatory bowel plus a whopping hairball problem that actually required surgery last year. She’s also on a high protein/low carb diet, which is pretty much only found in canned foods. She was dealing well with the Fancy Feast classics until a couple of weeks ago, when she started leaving food behind and then started refusing the canned food.

4. I have found both LGS and LBlS at the Little Brown Shit’s food bowl. Now LBrS won’t eat canned food. When offered, she refuses it. I’ve tried several times to get her to switch, but she resists my efforts every time. Fortunately, LBrS is the only cat in the house without medical issues, so I can resign myself that she’s a junk-food junkie and give her the highest quality dry cat food she’ll accept and that I can afford. About two weeks ago LBrS started refusing her kibbles.

Here’s where it gets interesting. LGS and LBlS have taken to raiding LBrS’s bowl of kibble. LBrS, on the other hand, has started stealth feeding from LBlS’s bowl. She’d probably steal from LGS too, except that I feed LGS on the kitchen table (the easier to give her the insulin shots). [As an aside, LGS is the only one in the household who actually eats at the kitchen table!] Something has gone completely haywire with these cats’ feeding habits and I have no idea what.

Enter Bonito Flakes. Apparently those things are kitty chocolate. My claim that I’d eat anything if it was first covered chocolate sauce could be paraphrased to say, “My cats will eat anything so long as Bonito flakes are mixed in.” I discovered this morning that this even extends to medications. LGS has begun refusing her pill pockets as well. I rolled the pill pockets in bonito flakes and VOILA!, they vanished as if by magic. OK, they vanished as if by hungry cat, but often that’s the same difference. I hope this “I won’t eat my food but I’ll eat everyone else’s” phase of cattitude passes soon, but if not, then All Hail Bonito Flakes!