I’ve been actually very busy dealing with some AnimalCare matters, so it’s been very challenging, acclimatising the cats back to home and settling Robin’s chronic diarrhoea (more about this in the next post).
But, I’ve finally found a “system” for their feeding sessions. They all rush for food and they do the musical chairs where they move from bowl to bowl even without finishing their own first. I guess they had been used to “community eating” where food is served in large bowls and everyone eats from there at their old home.
Now, I need to train them back to eating from individual bowls.
Luckily I’ve got two bedrooms adjoined by a bathroom – that’s quite ideal.
So, this morning, I went into the rooms without food. I cleaned their litter boxes and changed their water. Of course they followed me around, hoping for food. This made it possible (though not easy) to lure Robin into one room and the other four into the other room. Once this was done, I served Robin his special food (chicken, steamed pumpkin and Vetri DMG), alone in this one room.
That’s Robin’s chicken, steamed pumpkin laced with Vetri DMG. You will also see Robin’s Metronidazole rolled with bread. Fortunately, I can pill him. The rest are harder to pill. I have to lace the rest’s food with Vetri DMG too – everyone needs it. For the other four, I’m still mixing canned food with raw food to gradually get them back to 100% raw.
This is Minnie, Smurfy, Lynx and Rey eating in the next room. There is still some musical chairs, but it isn’t so bad. It made me realise that Robin is the biggest musical chair player. Poor little guy….the vet said he had been malnourished.
For the benefit of new readers: I just brought the whole family back from their previous home.
Robin is finishing his breakfast here.
Surprisingly, both rooms are so clean today. No more messing up. The rooms also do not have an odour anymore. On the first two days, it did. It was pretty bad too.
Robin isn’t as hungry as he was when I visited him at his previous home that day. On our visit, he ate two cans of food at one go, and even asked for more. Poor guy…
When he came back, he had a crazy appetite too. Eating like he had a bottomless stomach and I couldn’t let him eat so much as he was having diarrhoea.
Once Robin had finished his meal and the other four had finished too, I opened the bathroom doors and voila…the boys started playing with each other. Smurfy joined them in their games too.
For the benefit of new readers: Smurfy is from Minnie’s first litter (I assume first, because she was just a kitten herself and I saw her clutching a grey kitten and a calico in her mouth, walking up our street). Minnie brought Smurfy to our porch, asking for help. Smurfy was very thin and Minnie had jaundice. I got Minnie treated but vet discovered she was in early pregnancy. So I let her deliver her kittens. The whole family was later rehomed. Now they are back with us. That’s the very short version!!
Minnie went back to her comfort spot!