General Chat

Thanks for the info Rollo. We live in Spain, so the choice is limited. The Spanish aren´t cat lovers.
I had wondered about the fly spray as OH is very generous with it & I´m sure it must get on to Ollies fur & paws. As he does a lot of grooming It can´t do him any good.
Nor do the fur balls for that matter, although he will submit reluctantly to a daily brushing.

Felix marinades is very "wet" which is why my cat likes it. Give it a try.
The RRP is £ 4.50 but I usually get it £ 10 for 3 during the monthly offer when I can get a dozen boxes at once.

Dazed is quite right dry food is a poor decision for any cat and a disaster for toms. Sure it is convenient, cheap and not messy. A cat dying of anemia will make anyone deciding for convenience wish they hadn't.

A bit off topic but apart from cats not liking dog food never ever like never give them dog flea treatment. Also if you are using any kind of pyrethrin treatment for flies, bugs keep it far away from cats. My vet tells me he has had a surge in these problems this summer often with sad results.

Dry food for any cats as the main foodstuff is bad, but especially so for Toms.

Their urinary tract is very small, dry food makes their urine thicker than normal and then they have trouble peeing. Even with water, for Toms it is a problem.

If you have a cat who is or has had a problem, the vets will advise you to give them more water!!! How?

One solution is with their wet food, add a teaspoon of water and mash it in. This way there are getting that little bit extra fluid which can make all the difference.

My cat now only ever has dry treats occassionally and only a couple at a time. Luckily he is not that interested in dry food. Our previous cat loved his dry food, but had to be taken off, when he kept having problems (this was some years ago).

And as an aside. Many years ago had a dog and a cat. Cat would not touch the dog food, but typical dog, it ate everything it could. Spoke to the vet about this, and he explained that my cat was very clever. Dog food does not have the right ingredients for cats so does not appeal to them. But dogs can happily live on cat food because of the better ingredients.

Hope this information helps. :-D

Give them what they like it keeps wastage to a minimum and in the end is the cheapest way. If you are lucky he will eat something economical. Snr Blue for instance quite likes Tesco brand when his marinades are not available but won't eat Whiskas in any shape or form. A friend's cat is of the opposite opinion. Usually once you have hit on what they like they will eat the same again and again and again.

Some cats prefer pouches with gravy some with jelly - they rarely like both. Pretty well any cat will eat cooked chicken legs bones and all. They are cheap in bulk if you have the facility to cook a lot at once and freeze them.

Cats have very different digestions to dogs and what they like is little and often. Expecting them to eat at set times twice a day is not really their thing though the cat is an adaptable animal.

In any case I treat my cats the same as my kids - very rarely say no. I am lazy and it is infinitely easier and less stressful to encourage than discourage. Happy cats are not stressed and unlikely to scratch furniture, pee where you don't want and so on.

If I try and sleep past 8am then Sny Blue has my toes for breakfast instead :-(

<3

Hi Rollo.
I was aware of the problems of dried food which is why I haven´t given in & fed him that exclusively.
He has Whiskas pouches & all manner of expensive offerings, but he won´t look at them other than to lick off the gravy & walk away.
No problems with his teeth as far as I can see......I have the scars to prove I have looked ;-)
Have pretty much decided to offer him cheap food. After all if he´s going to leave it, he might as well leave the cheap stuff as the expensive.

My senior male cat (a British Blue weighing > 20lb) is very keen on his nosh but is fussy. He gets by on Felix Marinades about 5 pouches/day. He tops up on whatever's going that he fancies - mussels, prawns, ham, chicken wings being favorites.

We adopted as an abandoned kitten a black female Parisian street cat who was with us for 15 years. She liked nice nosh too but would always eat whatever was offered.

There you go.

btw It is not a great idea to feed dry food to male cats lots of water or not.

I'm obviously a 'harsh' cat owner. My 3 are given a third of a can of cat food in the morning, and a sachet each (same variety) in the evening. They do have 2 types of dry food down and water. That's it. If they don't like, tough luck. They're not going to starve themselves.
They also don't know what a 'treat' is, and won't eat my food.

No healthy animal will starve themselves, but they will 'try it on' :-D :-D :-D

He´s not too keen on being inspected & he refuses to consider anything that´s been cooked.
Don´t think he has a problem with his teeth because I can hear him crunching from the next room.
Hopefully when the weather cools down a bit, he´ll get his appetite back.
Don´t feel much like eating myself when it´s 33c.

what about a lttle boiled chicken with rice,,,,,,and take his dried food away for a couple of days,,,,,chicken and rice will go off pretty quick though so dont leave it for hours on end...

have you looked at his teeth and gums for infection?

My old girl was like that. If it was good enough for someone else, it was good enough for her.
Oliver, my fusspot, has never stolen a thing in his life. He´s just not interested.
Mind you, he still weighs a ton.
He shouts for his food, but not because he´s hungry. It´s just because a cat´s entitled.

my tom cat is not too fussy at all and the thieving female cat from nest door eats anything she can get her chops on - she sneaks in here all the time nicking his food and he does nothing about it - her owner buys exactly the same food as my cat has, but it makes no difference - she even eats it when it "gone off" a bit

Are male cats fussier eaters than females?

Had 2 females in the past who would eat pretty much anything......particularly fond of finishing up a Chinese takeaway.
Have now had Oliver for 6 years. For the first 4 he refused everything except kitten food. Then he decided that he might just worry down the most expensive cat food. For the past couple of months he has been refusing even that. Doesn´t like fish, except tuna, won´t even consider leftovers. will grudgingly eat a bit of raw liver or kidney.
He doesn´t starve because he has a dish of dry food available for when he gets peckish & he likes to share a fruit yoghurt now & again,but he worries me.
It has been exceptionally hot here in Spain this summer & he´s been drinking a lot of water, which is fine.
He pesters for food, but when he gets it, he just sniffs it & walks away.
Not a bit like my old girls.