I’ve been occupied with some personal matters lately but I think those are more or less settled for now, so it’s back to writing about our cats again (my favourite activity!). I also had a persistent cough (oh no, not again!) but my throat had always been the weakest part of my body since I was young, so that’s no surprise there. I ended up going back to see the lung specialist who cured me of pneumonia in December 2024 and I’m almost as good as new now.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been reading up on the advice of health professionals (not quacks or chiropractors who talk about nutrition which isn’t their area of expertise) who are qualified doctors and/or researchers in their respective fields, and there is one simple conclusion to those of us who are trying to let food be thy medicine and mecidine, thy food: Eat real whole foods, not the ultra-processed ones. And one of way of knowing which is which is simply to see if that chosen food looks pretty much as what is does in nature. For example, eating the whole vegetable is certainly more wholesome than drinking green powders. Eat your fruit and vegetable instead of blending too much of it into a smoothie and end up drinking sugars that get absorbed unnaturally too quickly into our system. Or, eating meat that still looks like meat is definitely better than eating an ultra-processed burger or sausages, processed deli meats or even pepperoni. It’s a very simple idea, isn’t it, but it’s a very good guideline, in my opinion.
Does this eating principle also apply to our pets? I think it does, though I’m not an expert in pet nutrition. Think about it. Why shouldn’t it apply to our pets too? After all, aren’t we all creatures of Nature?
So, what kind of food is the most ultra-processed for our pets? Without a doubt, the convenient food: Kibble. And yet many pets like kibble. For cats, the texture of the crunchy kibble mimics the crunching of bone – this is why they like it. Also, some kibble brands have palatants so that our pets like the food and we end up buying more and more of it. Have you noticed that very often, pets (especially the fussy ones) don’t like healthy food? It isn’t delicious enough without all the flavourings, additives and palatants. For that matter, it also takes a lot of knowledge, willpower, determination and understanding for a human to overcome the greed of the tongue and eat healthily after which the human learns to appreciate and savour the natural moderate tastes of the natural food. You agree?
So, kibble. Sigh. In general, our females like kibble more than our males. I don’t know why. Could it be because female big cats are the hunters in the wild and therefore they need that “crunchy” texture in their food? I’m just making a wild guess here with no scientific or research evidence so please don’t pay any attention to this speculative idea!
After trying out a sample of PledgeCare’s air-dried chicken (which contains Fresh Whole Chicken, Cod-liver Oil, Coconut Oil, Turmeric, Vitamin E Supplement, Inulin) and their founder classifies it as a “balanced meal”, I decided to buy a bigger bag. Our cats love it, and I’m hoping that it being very chewy (like the texture of dehydrated chicken) may subsitute kibble one day.
I also bought their freeze-dried treats but this texture isn’t crunchy. However, our cats love them and I used them as treats.
As for the air-dried food, I first used it as a topper to get them acquainted to the new taste. They liked it instantly.
It took awhile but this morning, I already managed to get Riley to eat it as a meal instead of giving in to her demands for kibble! This is already a huge achievement.
Riley is the biggest kibble-queen we have, followed closely by Akira. Juno is a very smart cat, but she isn’t a leader (not like our super warriors of our “olden days”, Cow Mau, Bunny, Indy, Pole, Cleo – they were all leaders in their own right with unique minds of their own and were definitely not followers). So, Juno is a bit of a follower and has picked up not-so-good habits from Riley and the Blondies. For one, she follows Riley urinating into the kitchen sink and the bathroom basin. Our Blondies spray as well (sigh, females, but they all spray) and I can only hope Juno won’t pick that habit up. Her routine is to go in to play with the Blondies after breakfast every day. She’s definitely not a loner; she needs feline friends.
This is also this morning’s achievement – to get the Blondies to eat PledgeCare’s air-dried chicken instead of their kibble (an after-breakfast snack which they demand for).
Yum, yum, yum!
Try it, Akira, try it…
Yay!
But short-lived. Still, I am definitely not giving up. I know these things take time. It shall be a work in progress.
PledgeCare’s air-dried chicken has a high percentage of protein, so I’m told only use it sparingly for our CKD cats, who are Tabs (Stage 2 PCKD) and Ginger (Stage 1 CKD). So for them, it is only used as toppers.
Hey you, why are you such a kibble-queen, pray tell?
One thing I’ve noticed about Akira is that she is actually a very nice and gentle cat and does not have the trademark aloofness of the typical Calico. Could it be because she is a water-down and extremely diluted Calico? Our vets love her water-colour markings and it’s rather rare too. You have the solid Calicos like Cleo and Suki and you have the diluted Calicos like Rosie, Daffodil and Samantha. But Akira is a water-colour Calico. In fact, when she was born, it took me weeks to figure out just what markings she had! I thought she was Bunny-coloured.
Now, the ginger Blondies are total bullies and tomboys. Is that a trait of the ginger female? I really don’t know. Ginger males are extremely affectionate (Ginger and Gerald) but our ginger Blondies (Kai and Indra) are such tomboys and they are very, very rowdy! They are the ones bullying Juno nowadays.
Try it, Akira, come on….just a little bit.
There was a huge thunderstorm a few days ago which resulted in fallen and uprooted trees. It was very scary. I was so worried about kittens who live on the street.
Luckily Gerald came back unscathed and totally dry. We believe he has some other safe place to go to, especially when it rains. He always comes back totally dry. I can only hope that like, Creamy aka Abu, he has another home. I don’t mind feeding them and looking after them when they fall sick, but if they have another home, that’s reassuring.
Do you have another home, Gerald?
I have, again, tried putting him in Bunny’s Place but sometimes he is just downright unhappy and yowls till no end so much so that I have to let him out again. But if traffic is too heavy and fast along our road, I would put him inside, despite his objections, if only for an hour or two. The speeding kindy cars….they are such a selfish lot. Our neighbourhood gardener just told me yesterday that a cat was knocked down very tragically on another road in our area. That cat was someone’s pet too. “This is a housing estate, slow down!!”, says the gardener who goes around on his motorbike and he also feeds the street cats. Well yes, he has the good and kind sense to do this, but those kindy parents do not. They only drive slowly when their children are in the car and the moment they drop off their children, they speed away and that, unfortunately, is our stretch of the road. Even their teachers speed on the road and once, almost knocked us down. Yes, us humans. And there was no apology too. So much for being educators, eh?
Creamy still comes every day as he had been for more than two years now. Creamy’s home is at the back of our house where he lives with Smokey (who also wears a collar now).
Over at Ginger’s Catio, feeding is never a problem. In fact, everything is polished up clean in every single meal.
This morning, for the first time since her coccidia infection, Juno ate some raw chicken breast meat again. Coccidia is found naturally in meat, especially in the intestines and also the liver, but usually not in the light coloured meat. The dark coloured meat (like the thigh) has a higher concentration of protein too.
Juno is now estimated to be 7-8 months old. Coccidia infection usually, if it happens and also rarely, afflicts those below 6 months of age.
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