It was because of Bunny that I had to create the “Surprise-Me-Happy-Meals”, just to entice Bunny to eat. He was getting very choosy and losing protein, so I had to resort of offering him all kinds of different foods ranging from raw, to canned, to cooked and to kibble.
Whatever it took, just to get him to eat.
And once the other cats know that Bunny gets special treatment, of course they would demand for it too.
But lately, Cow and Cleo have gone back to eating raw, which is really good.
Indy still needs canned and cooked so let’s see how that goes later.
I just read up about hydrolysed proteins – it is available as kibble. The protein is broken up to such a small size so that the immune system does not react to it. More about this later. In normal food, the protein is intact. RC has a prescription diet that uses feather protein. Ming-Yi’s cat, Dorami, needs this product due to allergies but Mina (the mother) likes it more.
Maybe Indy needs this? I shall discuss with the vet first.
Indy had a 7-week bout with bloody diarrhoea in October 2019. The vet did various tests and prescribed various treatment but nothing worked until I found an article where a shelter operator had the same problem with one of his cats. He then switched the cat’s diet to rabbit and it worked. So I did the same for Indy. I switched him to Cubgrub’s pure raw rabbit and it worked! The bloody diarrhoea stopped. So that turned out to be a case of allergy to chicken because he had eaten it for too long.
The shelter operator said he ensures all his cats have protein rotation. I did the same with our cats too. Protein rotation – that’s the keyword.
But protein rotation can be difficult if the cat isn’t willing to eat another type of single protein. So I use Coco&Joe’s because in every recipe, there is a mix of proteins. For every meal, the cat will be eating at least two different proteins. For Gerald and Creamy who has refused to eat raw food, I supplement their regular canned food with Monge’s Monoprotein Rabbit. They don’t really like it, but I mix it up with what they like and normally, it’s all eaten up.
So back to the Surprise-Me-Happy-Meals. Tabs demanded for kibble too, after knowing (and hearing!) that the Super Seniors have kibble. And now, Tabs has turned out to be our biggest junkie among all our cats. She wants kibble at anytime she likes and Riley is riding on this as well. I have to find a way to cut this down. I started by offering Primal Freeze-Dried yesterday, instead of kibble. Take it or leave it, Tabs, it’s your choice. I know you aren’t starving.
Kibble, kibble, kibble, kibble, kibble!
Ginger too was equally demanding and wanted kibble or he would go on a hunger strike. This is because he knows Tabs got it.
But after “exiling” Ginger to the catio because he just had to spray urine all over the house without us knowing, Ginger has had no choice but to eat what the Monsters eat and that’s Coco&Joe’s with the occasional treats. So, Ginger is back to raw now. So the exile has done Ginger good, nutrition-wise. He also only eats twice a day now, just like the Monsters. But why is he still so obese?? It could be his genes that came from his father (we don’t know who it is). Daffodil was so small, as small as Cleo.
In any case, Ginger has always loved the Monsters, especially Minnie and Smurfy. They love him too, so they are all reunited as one big happy family at the catio.
Ginger’s Catio, make no mistake. Uncle Ginger is the boss. The silly Monsters fight amongst themselves but nobody bullies Uncle Ginger. Uncle Ginger also doesn’t care when they fight. “Sort it out yourselves, you silly boys, I’m going to take my nap. Just don’t be too loud.” Uncle Ginger to the Monsters is what Uncle Bobby was to Cow, Bunny, Pole, Tiger, Cleo, Indy and Tabs.
Allow me to digress a little, please. When I had to rehome Minnie and her boys, believe me, it was one of the hardest decisions of my life and it pained me so tremendously. But that was a decision I made because I was too depressed at the time and I thought I was going to die soon. Then who would look after this young family? That was the reason I had them rehomed. I supplied their food throughout their stay at the adopter’s. But that’s water under the bridge now. They are back home. But without Rio. Rio passed away of unexplained causes when he was there.
I recall how so many little reminders would make me think of them. There wasn’t a day when I did not wake up thinking about them. You know the song “Five Little Ducks Went Out One Day”? That killed me each time I heard it because the boys went first and Minnie only went much later when she did her Phantom of the Opera stint in our attic.
Now I can listen to the Five Little Ducks without anymore feelings of guilt. Maybe a tiny bit, because of Rio.
The first round of rehoming was just the four younger boys without Smurfy. I thought Smurfy was so close to Ginger so we should keep him. Then, within 2 days, we brought them all back. Their photos and videos broke my heart so we took them all back. But down the road, I couldn’t cope again, so there was a second rehoming was done after the boys were neutered. This time they were slightly older so I thought they would be able to cope better. Minnie had already left them when they turned four months old. She escaped and went back to the street, only occasionally coming back to see them at Stargate 2.
So I erroneously thought Minnie had detached herself from them but I was wrong. After getting them rehomed, Minnie came back mewing and mewing that same evening. I felt SO bad about this. And Ginger also missed them. How many times I wanted to just drive to the adopter’s place to take them all back but I was in such dire straits health-wise that I couldn’t cope. Minnie soon got used to it but not Ginger. Then Minnie did her Phantom stint and I caught her (finally!) so Minnie was reunited with her boys. That reduced my guilt, by just a wee bit.
For one-and-half years, the adopter sent photos and videos. Then we visited after the MCO was lifted and seeing them made us decide to take them back. They actually remembered us. Then we had to build this catio for them since there was no more space in our house. I’m so, so glad we brought them back. Robin was only 3.45kg then and having really bad diarrhoea. It took more than a month to get him back to normal. He is now 5.0kg and has become so super confident that he is the No.1 bully in the catio. Rey was having skin problems but that was resolved quite fast.
Life’s like that. We make the best decisions we can and sometimes it is because we had no other choice due to our circumstances. But it is alright to change our minds and do better after that. We cannot always make the correct decisions, only the best within our capability. And that’s good enough. Nobody expects us to be perfect, so we mustn’t beat ourselves up when our decision goes wrong.