Feline imponderables

[s1m0n]

What happens at the the 80% line of a bag of food to transform it from delicious to inedible - regardless of the size of the bag?

Why is my clawfooted bathtub irresistable for rolling about underneath, but only when I'm in it? A warm, full, but depopulated tub is boring, even if I'm elsewhere in the room. And no, I'm not splashy and he's a floor-level cat, too sedate* to explore over the side.

*Since the car-broken pelvis that brought him to the Humane Society's attention and my eventual custody.

[Pfreddee]

Not sure about the level of the food bag, but Brillo supplements her cat chow with dog food. I'm not sure it's good for her; During the full moon, I've found her baying at it when I let her out at night...

With best regards.

Pfreddee. (Stephen)

[Lambchop]

What happens at the the 80% line of a bag of food to transform it from delicious to inedible - regardless of the size of the bag?

From what I have heard, kitties have a natural aversion to consuming the same thing repeatedly. In the wild, this would have prevented them from being poisoned by continuing to feed on spoiled prey.

I've had cats who would decline the same thing two days in a row. Other, less fastidious, cats would continue to chow down on the same thing forever. You just have one with healthy instincts.

Bags of food also become stale if they're not protected from the air, so over-bagging it securely in a zip-loc may help. Buy the smallest bags and repackage the contents to avoid exposure to air.

Why is my clawfooted bathtub irresistable for rolling about underneath, but only when I'm in it? A warm, full, but depopulated tub is boring, even if I'm elsewhere in the room.

Of course! The key is YOU. Your friend is socializing with you. He's got you where he wants you--captive in the bath--and he's engaging in friendly nearness.

[dwest]

I always place my cat's kibble in an airtight container and I stir it each time that they are fed, it could be particle residue is settling in the bag and your cat doesn't care for the texture of smaller particles, even my dogs don't like the bottom of the bag. I also give a small portion of canned food every day, the kibble remains the same, the canned food is random mixture of seven different types which has changed over the years as they develop dislikes for some foods they enjoyed initially.

One of my girls, long gone now, use to love to get in the tub and just sit for hours staring at the vast whiteness, she was a very normal Siamese in every other way.

[Denny]

normal Siamese

[Innocent Bystander]

If it's dry kibble, it's probably air-exposure. Ziploc baggies that you can squeeze the air out of, should do the job.

Your bathtub experiences remind me of my wife's cat, Lady, who apparently lived to an improbable 36 years old. She liked to sit on the edge of the bath while the daughters of the house were at their ablutions. She was always Siobhan's cat, and Siobhan would not have lifted a finger to her except to stroke her. Maire was too dreamy to do anything but talk to her. But Nuala had a streak of mischief, and one day could not resist the temptation, and hooked the cat into the bath.

They still talk about it, thirty years later.

[s1m0n]

I went and got a new bag of food, and I'll look into ziplock bags or tupperware cartons. Frankly, spending 20% of his life shrieking about the incompetence of the chef and the sheer, rampant starvationisn of some people he could name around here was having a dire effect in the local housemate satisfaction surveys. We are not the kind of cats that can blithely pitch a fifth of all food. It's deluxe!

[Lambchop]

Well, now you know why he's been shrieking, then!

No need to pitch the food! Just start in with a different flavor for a couple of days. Try getting a couple of flavors and rotating them. It worked for all my Siamese.

[s1m0n]

There are already three open bags of even deluxer food here, none of which he was willing to sniff twice. Flavour was ruled out as the issue several bags ago.

The new bag's appeal wore off half a bowl ago and the natives are restless once again. Sigh.

[Denny]

oddly I don't remember any of mine starving to death

[s1m0n]

I'm not worried, I'm fed up with hearing about it.

[dwest]

I use a Vittles Vault for all our dried pet foods. You do have to be careful with diet changes some cats tolerant quick changes better than others. I use a mixture of three kibbles and some days I will see one variety go faster than another and then it will switch around completely, no rhyme or reason. I have also been somewhat amazed at the number of insect infestations(meal moths mostly) I have found at all the various big box pet supply stores in this area. It's never a bad idea to check all the folds on the exterior of the bags for telltale signs of webbing or cocoons.

[Nanohedron]

oddly I don't remember any of mine starving to death

Yep.

If the food is of good quality and has been well-received before (and stored well), there's no need to nervously dance attendance upon your cat's whim. If mine's being fussy and is getting hungry, the food's still there in her dish, looking at her. She'll eat, make no mistake, and she hasn't borne me any grudges about it.

Sometimes these things are just contests of wills, you know.

However, I do think it's important to note how a food affects your cat, and these products are not all roughly equal. I recently bought a brand's new top-end product, supposedly chock full of the best of everything, and all it did was make my cat listless and dumpy-acting. It was disturbing, and I threw the stuff away. No way am I gonna make my cat eat something that's demonstrably as good as poison. I bought another product with a good track record, and she perked right up. It was a difference like night and day.

[Denny]

Sometimes these things are just contests of wills, you know.

and I know how to open the fridge

[Nanohedron]

Sometimes these things are just contests of wills, you know.

and I know how to open the fridge

If mine's dish isn't full enough for her liking - doesn't have to be empty - she'd typically go to the fridge which is on the other end of the kitchen, sit down before it, and pointedly look at me. That works.

Lately her tactic has changed: after seventeen years of sign language, now she yells. I kind of prefer its in-your-face quality to the "poor me" mope, because she's got a lot of variety in her vocalisations, everything from a pathetic "I'm dying" to a "Hey, dammit. Hey!". Thing is, she could just as well want out, too, but that's not important. What counts to her is that she gets something.