Cat vs Human

A month or so ago the awesome cat I live with was puking every single day. Being a cat he didn’t choose to puke on the linoleum floor, nooooo, he chose to puke on the carpet putting my chances of getting my damage deposit back when we move in jeopardy. Oh, and on my bed, nothing like coming home at 10pm after work to find yourself having to do a load of laundry because your bedding has the contents of the cat’s stomach on it.

Don’t get me wrong, I felt bad for the cat, it sucks he was feeling so sickly he was throwing up daily but c’mon, the carpet? Whyyyyyy??

Neither of us like his current vet, she is mean and a pill pusher, and we haven’t found a new vet yet so I did what any sane person would do, I googled reasons my cat was puking daily.

The main result I found led back to his food. Apparently a cat can develop an allergy to their food and the lower quality the food the higher the chance they will develop an allergy or sensitivity. The recommendations for this problem is to swap the cat to a higher quality food but cats being cats you can’t just put some new food in front of them and expect them to eat it. Heaven forbid!

Cats tend to be picky about their food and this little guy is a champ at hunger strikes. If he is very unhappy, like the one time I boarded him while I was away, or he is travelling, or I try him with a new food, he just doesn’t eat. And I don’t mean he nibbles a bit but doesn’t take in enough to count as a meal, I mean he doesn’t eat. Anything. For days. Sometimes even weeks. It is ridiculous. He really is the example all the articles talk about of a cat who will starve himself to death rather than eat a new food he doesn’t like. How he knows he won’t like it if he doesn’t try it I don’t know but my pointing that out to him did not result in him being willing to try a bite, it just resulted in a sad kitty face and a meow. sigh.

More research taught me that I have to slooooowly switch his food over to a new kind. This involves putting a ratio of food in to the bowl that is 4 parts his preferred food and 1 part the new food. Over the span of a week gradually change the portions so eventually he is eating all new food and the original food is a thing of the past. The article said it should take a week but for some particularly picky cats it could take up to a month. I knew before even starting this wasn’t going to be easy and he’d take the month rather than the week. At this point I think it may take us all summer!

I did what the article suggested, a tiny amount of the new food mixed in with the old and it seemed ok. The cat ate, he didn’t look offended or shocked and he didn’t swear at me or try to kill me in my sleep: Point human!

Look at those claws! Deadly weapons!

Over the next couple days I slowly added more of the new food and slowly decreased the old food.

The cat caught on.

Crap.

This resulted in his being picky about which pieces of food he put in his mouth. At the end of a day the only food left in his bowl was the new kibble, the old kibble was eaten. Sooooo I’d say that means: Point cat!

I didn’t back down though! I stayed at the same ratio and kept giving him a mixture, hoping he’d cave and eventually start eating the new stuff. At this point I am fairly certain he eats some of the new stuff but at the end of every day the only food left in the bowl is the new kibble and he won’t touch his food once it is only the new kibble in the bowl. sigh.

So now we are fully in the battle. I won’t back down and give him only the food he wants. He won’t back down and eat the new stuff in large enough quantities that he won’t starve to death.

Stalemate.

The only upside is he has stopped being sick. I guess he is eating enough of the new stuff, or maybe it is just that he is eating less of the old stuff, that his stomach is happy again. I think that is Point human and Point cat because it is a good thing for both of us.

The old food – apparently it is the McDonald’s of cat food, who knew?

The new food, supposedly better for the cat but only if I can get him to eat it!

In case you are wondering what foods I am talking about. Purina One smartblend for indoor cats is the food the cat has always eaten. After researching I learned it is basically the McDonald’s of cat food, who knew? The Hill’s Science Diet is theoretically better for the cat…assuming I can get him to eat it that is! Won’t do me much good if he keeps snubbing it, sigh.

Tags: battle of cat and human, cat food, cat hunger strike, cat tales, Hill's Science Diet, Purina One, who will win