Thursday, September 30, 2010
Cats Going To Raw-The First Five Days
Will be keeping a journal of the dogs and cats journey in to raw, (how wonderful that I have this here journal! All ready, set up and everything!)
Seven cats going to raw. (Why I have seven is that whole long post I’ve been promising to write for well over a year and still haven’t done...I’ll get there. I’ll GET there!)
Cats are: Serenity, Rani, Shadow, Daniel Striped Tiger, Blondie, Casper and Morticia.
Day 1: Test dinner of skinless/boneless chicken breast.
Rani, DST, Casper and Morticia chomped down the “test” dinner.
Serenity needed a bit of canned food on top.
Blondie needed a bit of dry food on top.
Shadow didn’t want to co-operate.
Day 2: Breakfast of skinless/boneless chicken breast.
Rani, DST, Casper and Morticia chomped down on the breakfast.
Serenity needed a bit of canned food on top.
Blondie and Shadow said, “NO!”
Day 2: Dinner of skinless/boneless chicken breast.
Rani, DST, Casper and Morticia chomped down on dinner.
Serenity needed a bit of canned food on top.
Blondie was finally coaxed to eat with a bit of canned food on top.
After an hour long stand off, Shadow ate some canned food.
Day 3: (Lunch/Dinner) 5 bites of salmon each, 2 bites of shrimp each, chicken
wing.
Rani, DST, Casper and Morticia chomped down on the fish.
-Rani and Morticia thought the chicken wing was a toy.
-DST chomped away.
-Casper wants to chomp on it but keeps slinking off thinking he’s going to get in to trouble for eating it.
Serenity did not get chicken wing but also did not require canned food anymore. (Progress!)
Blondie ate the fish when the tiniest bit of canned food was put on top.
Shadow said, “NO!”
Removed chicken wing, put some dry food on top of fish and called for Shadow. She is sitting in a cubby above the refrigerator and I cannot reach her. She will not come to me. I put the bowl on top of the fridge. She has chosen to stare at me and continue to refuse to eat.
Sigh.
Day 4: Left overs of Day 3, (fish, no chicken wing)
Rani, DST, Casper, Morticia AND Serenity chomped down on breakfast.
Blondie needed a bit of canned food on top.
Shadow said, “NO!”
I need Shadow to eat so I went to the store and got canned food. My intention was to mix it with dry, starting off with just a little bit of canned, secretly hidden in the dry. I opened the can and she ate it. First two ingredients are meat, not meat by product, but meat. It’s not the best but it’s better than dry. And it’s progress.
I also found some sardines in a can that were ONLY sardines in spring water. That’s the ingredients. Nothing else. I got these thinking I was going to outsmart Shadow. “HA! Sardines! Wait till she gets a load of these!”
Rani, DST, Casper and Morticia went to town on the sardines.
Serenity walked away from eating before I had a chance to introduce her to sardines.
Blondie licked the sardines but did not eat them.
Shadow sniffed at them and made the widest berth around them as possible.
::screams in frustration to the sky::
That’s ok, I also got tuna. I WILL win this one!
Day 5: Final leftovers from Day 3 plus fresh chicken wings on top.
Rani, DST, Casper and Serenity gulped greedily at the food.
-Rani and DST started to get the idea of the chicken wings and started to eat them, with some of the bone/cartilage but didn’t eat much.
-Casper was confused but did lick the chicken wing and took tentative bites here and there.
-Serenity did not get a chicken wing...not yet. She’s older and I want her to get in to this without using canned food at all. She’s doing great, will give her wings soon.
Blondie had the fish with some canned food on top. She started to eat and whenever she would get to a piece of salmon, she would spit it out on the floor next to the bowl. BAH!
Shadow ate only canned food. (FINE! You win for now, Shadow but I am NOT done with you!)
Morticia was far too confused to eat.
I’m running out of fish. I have some tilapia that I have to defrost, some more sardines, some mackeral and then tuna. The tuna is in a can and it’s to get Shadow and perhaps Blondie to start eating something other than that damn canned cat food. I know Blondie will eat the tuna...I can’t remember if Shadow ever ate any when I’ve given them some in the past. I need them to start eating the chicken with bone. Only two of the seven have figured out what the hell they are supposed to do with it. This may take awhile.
BUT! Already, Serenity is more energetic than she has been in the past six to 10 months. In January she started to show signs of age with her difficulty in climbing and jumping. She is fat, (she doesn’t eat that much, it’s the commercial pet food that made her fat), and she’s had the sneezes lately. She still sneezes some, not as much but she’s still doing it. She isn’t jumping yet either but she IS climbing a little easier and again, her energy is a bit more. Not a whole lot but a bit. Also? She feels lighter. Again, not a lot but a little. It’s only been 5 days....this could be a very good thing as time goes on.
I just have to get everyone to eat what the hell I give them and stop sticking their nose up in the air at their dinners and to stop wondering about their good fortune with the chicken wings. I also have to figure out what else to feed them. I concentrated so much on the dogs’ diet that I didn’t put as much time in to getting food ideas for the cats. The dogs I think I have it down now, (except for the really gross stuff), so now I’m going to work on the cats and hopefully, soon, PLEASE be soon, this will be as easy as putting out a bowl with a chicken wing in it and they all fucking eat it!
