Piper Cat 1 is very clear on making his views known on food. When he believes it is time to eat, we hear a steady stream of “Mrowrs” until we carry out our duties and re-fill the kibble bowl.
Of course, his “Mrowrs” are not restricted to filling the kibble bowl, so sometimes it takes a while to figure out what the feline grievance du jour is.
Recently, he’s been expressing discontent, even though his bowl has kibble in it. But he’s been circling around the kibble bowl as if that is the focus of his unhappiness.
It finally dawned on me. He wants freshly killed kibble, not kibble left over from yesterday. My task is to empty the kibble bowl of the outdated stuff and re-fill it with freshly killed kibble.
Once I figured that out, the “Mrowrs” have dropped in frequency.
Of course Piper Cat 1 isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree, so to speak. I’ve found that if I dump the old kibble back in the bag and make a big show of getting him fresh kibble, his sensitivities are satisfied.
Piper Cat clearly needs some fresh mousies. My Scout can lend him a few if necessary. I, personally, will be quite happy to ship the one he left in my favorite Danksos yesterday. It was still wriggling when I found it. I had to dump the mousie out of my shoe and put the thing out of its mercy with a good whack of my other shoe. This was done as Scout was hovering over me attempting to get the mousie back.
Mine also enjoy freshly killed kibble. I measure and put it down twice a day, 3/4 cup. Two eat it exclusively, two get 1/2 can of Friskies a day. It works for them, and I can tell if someone’s not eating. Though the newest guy likes to crunch the kibbies and drop crumbs back into the bowl. That’s a new one in my house, weird little leftovers. He also snorts into his canned food, he must somehow stick his nostrils in it. He’s weird.
He wants service. Be sure he’s satisfied or you won’t get a tip.
I once had a cat who liked the kibble that was shaped like little plus signs. She would bite off three ends and let the fourth end fall back into the bowl. She refused to eat the discarded ends, which meant that 25% of her food was going to waste. I would let the ends accumulate with the hope that she would at least eat some of them, but I never saw her do it.
When I was a kid, my cat insisted on only fresh Friskies. Anything left in the bowl was unacceptable. He’d open the cupboard and knock over the bag to get them himself if we didn’t deliver. My question was “How does he know they’re not fresh?”
Recently Hermes has refused to eat old kibble in the rectangular bowl (He’ll gladly clean out the round bowl). Pepper Mill cleaned out the rectangular bowl, and said the ones at the bottom were “moldy”. The rectangular bowl is near the water dish. Water can splash in and get the kibble wet, leading to said mold.
Maybe that’s how my old cat knew. And that may be why “fresh killed” kibble is needed – there can be a difference between stuff in the bag and stuff that’s been out in a bowl.
Perhaps that would be the best utilization of a Roomba yet devised, you could put the cat food bowl on top of a Roomba and let it wander and graze upon the grassy veldt of your living room until Piper Cat can stalk it proper and kill it fresh.
This thread has been extremely helpful. I was still in the denial/arguing stage and telling Boo those left-overs were perfectly fine and he should eat them. Obviously my training is incomplete.
I have noticed that if there are left-overs in the bowl and I leave the house, those unacceptable bits will be gone when I return. :dubious:
Oh god yes, only fresh kibbles are acceptable. Or a look of pain that will break your heart ensues.
And the B always has to sniff my arm while I pour the new kibble into his dish.
Yes, my Sara also insists that food is inedible if she can see the bottom of the dish. Also, sometimes she needs to be petted while she eats. She will stand there next to the dish and yell until someone comes and pets her.
I have four cats on three different foods – one on urinary diet, two on kidney diet and the last one on regular food. They are all most happy when their bag of food is new and fresh, but will happily eat stale leftovers of any of the foods they aren’t supposed to have.
We thought our Chippie was the same way until I noticed that he won’t eat if he can see the bottom of the bowl. If there is still plenty of food in the bowl, we just shake it up a bit so he no longer sees the bottom.
I thought our cat was the only one! We’ve broken him of that, now he only insists that we be in the room while he’s eating. At least for the initial eating when we first get home from work.
According the Rules Of The Universe (Feline Edition - EN Planet Earth) my companion is The Ruler of the House and I have to whip out my Cat-to-Human dictionary at times.
I try to fool her, but she is evidently smarter than I.
