Monday morning the elder cat showed no interest in his food. That is hugely out of character. Even when he’s been sick in the past, he’s managed to eat.
A vet visit and more than $80 worth of blood tests later, nothing abnormal could be found. Yet he still lacked interest in his food. I was told how important it was to keep him eating something each day.
Which led to this mess…
…because he seemed interested in new kinds of food and would at least try a few bites of each. And I tried various presentations – a flat plate, a small bowl, the usual food bowl, and – his favorite – directly on the living room rug.
The break-through came last night when I got him to eat about 8 Greenies and 60 tiny balls of Science Diet Light (big bag on left) – but only by doling out 5-6 pieces at a time on the rug.
This morning he ate almost 1/8 cup of the Science Diet in his regular food dish. How do I know 1/8 cup? Because I measured it before and after he ate!
And remember I have another cat, so one of the greatest challenges is keeping her from gobbling down all of his food. Good times.
Thank goodness it seems to be resolving itself.
4 comments:
Yeesh!
At least the younger cat will be willing to eat everything he won't touch--and she'll probably love the variety!
I just had to switch all three of my cats to ONE's diet for sensitive systems because our oldest cat started binging and purging everywhere. We think she's like a Roman at the Vomitorium--she'll beg for food, eat till she throws up, and immediately beg for more. At least she seems to be keeping this down.
Do you free-feed or go with a schedule? Scheduling seemed to work better for my finicky cats. Now everyone lines up at the table right before the scheduled suppertime and they bring their appetites.
Oh yes -- I do scheduled feeding. Otherwise, my cats would eat until they burst, especially the younger one.
Funny you mention the binging and purging. My older cat has done this all of his indoor life. I've always attributed it to eating too fast (or perhaps a hairball?) -- but who knows. Once he did start eating again after his recent bout with anorexia, he did quite a bit of binging and purging. So I tried feeding him smaller portions at a time and that seemed to help.
BTW, it's very nice to hear from you and to be introduced to your blog :)
Kat will sometimes binge and purge if he's really stressed out, or if the food bowls emptied while we were at work or asleep.
But otherwise they're great with free-feeding. Except that if he can see the bottom of one of the food bowls, he'll start to complain.
And how's he doing now BTW? Updates! We want updates!
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