Tag Archives: food

Our New Cat Bowls

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As mentioned in a previous post, my wife broke one of our cat bowls. The new bowls I bought didn’t fit in the stand and turning the stand upside down was not the genius move I thought it was because the bowls slid off too easy.

I looked through the bowls on Amazon and found a two-bowl set that looked like a great replacement. (Keep in mind that the above link is an affiliate link so if you make a purchase I will finally be able to buy that beach house in Hawaii that I always wanted.)

The bowls look similar to Floki’s bowl.

Floki has his own bowl but it really is every cat for himself. I sometimes put Floki’s bowl on the table so Chris won’t make a pig out of himself and eat all the dry food. I have to stop doing that, though, because it annoys my wife.

As soon as I put food in the new bowls, Frankie and Chris were there eating it. I want to say they liked their new bowls but I’m sure if I put food in a garbage can lid it wouldn’t matter.

The new bowls have a tilt to them. I wasn’t sure what the tilt was for until I read the description: “Tilt Angle Design – Keeps food piled nicely or falls to the center, prevent cat food from pushing off the bowl and keep the eating environment clean.” I’m sure this was written by someone who has been studying English for well over a week. In any case, I got the idea. It is designed to keep food in the center and it seems to work. Check out the difference between Floki’s bowl and the two tilted ones after the cats were done eating.

I don’t know how this would work for wet food. I have a different set of bowls for their wet food.

These bowls are good in some ways because they are wide and shallow, which cats like, and there is a silicone outer layer to catch dropped food. The main problem with them is the food tends to get pushed against the edge where it is harder to eat. There is always food left behind so I collect the bowls and then combine the food into the center of one of them. Usually, Frankie will come back later to finish it.

So what do you think? Does anyone else have tilted bowls?

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Photo Friday: Special Delivery

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Chris has not been feeling well lately and spends a lot of time sleeping, which is typical cat behavior but not typical Chris behavior. The last couple of weeks, while our other three cats are gathered in the kitchen waiting to be fed, Chris is laying down somewhere in the house and I have to bring him his dinner, which he does not get up to eat.
cat eating while lying

We have been debating on whether or not to take Chris to the vet. His eye is still bad but slightly better and he does eat and he does come out for attention sometimes, but not as often as before. I worry that if I do bring him to the vet they will just give him antibiotics and steroids (which he has never had and I would like to keep those out of his system) and I will be out several hundred dollars. On the other hand, I would possibly find out if it is something different than what Frankie, Puck and Floki had.

Can’t You See I’m Starving?

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I want to wean the cat’s off dry food because I think it is less healthy than wet food. Eventually I want them all to be eating raw food but Chris has to make things difficult. He eats very little of the wet food, forcing me to keep some dry food out so he doesn’t go hungry.

I thought if I let the bowls go empty a couple of hours before I open a can of wet food, Chris would be hungry and eat more wet food. That didn’t happen. I gradually started letting the bowls stay empty longer and longer, sometimes as long as eight hours, but Chris still won’t eat more than about a quarter of the wet food I put down for him.

cat Chris waiting at food bowl.

The funny thing is, when I first tried feeding them the raw food diet in 2010, Chris was the only one who would eat it. Does anyone else have a dry food addict?

The Return of the Egret

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When we moved into our current home almost two years ago, an egret would show up every afternoon expecting to be fed. I assumed the previous resident had fed the bird and I felt bad letting him (I will assume it is male for this writing) go hungry, but we typically don’t have meat suitable for birds lying around the house. I tried giving him cat food but that was a no-go. We did buy hot dogs for him once but we are not always home and didn’t want the bird to become dependent on us so we stopped feeding him when the dogs were gone. Soon he only came around occasionally and then not at all.

That changed the other day when he showed up at our back door looking for food. I’m not sure what changed but he apparently has a long memory.

egretAgain we had no food for him. Rose wanted me to throw him some cheese but I didn’t think that was a good idea, partially because the cats were very interested in him and opening the door would have been difficult with two bad cats and Puck wanting to run out.

Cats and egretbad cat chris watching egret Eventually he got the hint and went away. I felt very bad not giving him anything but I think it would be better if I teach him how to fish.

 

The Food is Always Better on Another Cat’s Plate

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Since the first day Chris entered our home, he has established himself as the alpha kitty in all areas except food, especially canned food. He likes the canned food and will eat it but doesn’t place a high value on it like our other cats (past and present) do.

Puck, however, was originally named “Chow Man” because of his love for food. Indeed, we named him Puck because, in part, he was into food as much as Wolfgang Puck.

I feed the cats wet food twice a day, in the morning, when I get up, and when I return from work, or around 5:00 on the weekends. The same thing happens every time. Puck and Frankie jump on the counter while I am opening the cans. Frankie then jumps back down to the floor where Chris is waiting. He knows that is where he is fed so he wants to be there waiting. Puck doesn’t think that way. He is on the counter eating out of the first bowl as soon as I scoop food in it. That is when Frankie starts talking to me, telling me to hurry up. I quickly scoop food out for the other two cats and set it down in front of them.

Chris will then eat for about thirty seconds and walk away. I think he anticipates Puck coming to take his food so he just leaves it before that can happen. I then have to pick up his food and bring it to him because Chris is somewhat of a dry food addict and I want him to eat as much wet food as possible. Sometimes I move his food two or three times but every time, before he finishes, Puck shows up to take over.

Our cat Puck stealing Chris's food.

Let me help you with that, Chris.

Our cat Puck stealing Chris's food.

Oh, you’re done? Thanks.

I don’t know why big, bad, alpha-cat Chris allows his food to be taken from him so easily but he does. I also don’t know why Puck has to leave his bowl, which still has plenty of food in it, to take the same food from another bowl. I usually then grab Puck’s bowl and put it in front of Chris but it isn’t long before Puck covets that bowl of food.

This kind of behavior reminds me so much of another species. Hmm… I can’t quite put my finger on which species that is. Anyone have any ideas?