{"id":5230,"date":"2021-09-22T03:14:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T11:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2021-09-22T03:14:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T11:14:42","slug":"wild-and-sometimes-crazy-wednesday-feline-feeding-frenzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=5230","title":{"rendered":"Wild (and Sometimes Crazy) Wednesday \u2013 Feline Feeding Frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019ve learned a lot over the years about cats and their traits and preferences. It\u2019s been an interesting and enjoyable journey. One thing that was always fairly straightforward with all of the cats I\u2019ve loved is their eating habits. You put down a plate or a bowl of food and they eat it. Oh, we\u2019ve had cats, over the years get sick and stop eating. Red Flag! That cat gets an immediate trip to the vet. We discover the problem, attempt to remedy it and usually the cat will resume eating\u2014depending on the problem and the age of the cat and so forth.<\/p>\n

Then Came Olivia (yeah, that\u2019s the title for my next\"\" Calico Cat Mystery). Well, she has never been a very good eater, yet she\u2019s a fairly big girl and has plenty of meat on her bones. At nearly 11 pounds, I\u2019m sure she\u2019s just fine. But darn it, I want to see her eat.<\/p>\n

As a kitten, she got canned and dry kitten food and I\u2019d see her eat it. In fact, I\u2019d sit and watch to make sure which cat was getting the right food\u2014Sophie, our senior cat, does not need the rich kitten food, and Olivia, as a kitten, couldn\u2019t have regular cat food. Sometimes Olivia would not eat while I watched, so I\u2019d leave the area and go about my business. The food would often disappear at some point, but I wasn\u2019t always sure who ate it.<\/p>\n

\"\"I\u2019d sit with Olivia when I\u2019d feed her and watch her sneak up to the plate as if stalking it, take a sniff, maybe a taste, and dart off to parts unknown. Sometimes I\u2019d watch for thirty minutes\u2014nothing. I\u2019d leave the area and come back to find the food gone.<\/p>\n

When we switched Olivia to adult food she started eating a bit of the canned version more often. Then she stopped altogether. She still wasn\u2019t losing weight, so I was pretty sure she was eating enough kibbles to keep her going. The vet finds nothing wrong with her and, as I said, she is maintaining a good weight. She just thinks canned food is gross\u2014unless she decides she wants to eat it.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve quit putting a plate down for her when I feed Sophie (who adores canned food). Sometimes she hears the can open and tears into the kitchen all excited, runs to her feeding spot and waits. So I fix her a plate. Sometimes she will eat it. Often, however, she will sniff the food and walk away. Sometimes she\u2019ll refuse the food, then come back and eat it.<\/p>\n

Lately, however, she is back to ankle-hugging me while I prepare Sophie\u2019s meal. She runs to her old eating spot waiting for her plate. Eight times out of ten, lately, she\u2019s been eating it, especially if it contains liver. Who knew? We\u2019re feeding a lot of liver-flavored cat food these days in case Olivia feels like eating it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve learned a lot over the years about cats and their traits and preferences. It\u2019s been an interesting and enjoyable journey. One thing that was always fairly straightforward with all of the cats I\u2019ve loved is their eating habits. You … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5231,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}