I have a feeling all cats are a little bit insane...
Artie has taught himself to play Fetch. Usually at 3 am. By dropping his mousie toy onto my belly at 3 am. Repeatedly. If I don't throw, he runs and gets another one and repeats the process. So far, the record for cat toys in my bedding has been 36 in one night. He's determined.
I've found a number of very high quality foods that the Vet approves of for Artie during the process of trying to weed out the source of his dietary intolerance. These are:
Canned:
Nature Organics Kitten
Almo Nature
Evangers
Dick Von Patten's Natural Balance
Wellness Grain Free
PetCetera Gold Ribbon
PetCetera Platinum
Dry:
Dick Van Patten's Limited Ingredient
All of the canned foods are wheat-free, rice-free, gluten-free, preservative-free, dye-free, and contain human-food-grade cuts of meats like chicken, beef, venison, fish, shrimp, and scallops. They're also minimally processed, with chunks of meat and fish. And Artie seems to be loving them, judging by their rapid vanishing from the food bowl.
He's finished his course of meds, with no real difference. I still have him on the probiotic and the slippery elm bark, with no real change yet. He has good days and bad days. Today is a bad day for swelly belly due to gas, which he is expelling in prodigious amounts, loudly. I've given him two belly massages, during which he practically deflated... but these farts aren't near as stinky as his usual output. The only thing I can link this to is the fact that he got into my tea (with cream) and polished off about half a cup before I caught him, and the crust of bread he stole from the rats.
I'm also starting to wonder if some of his gas is swallowed air, since he eats very fast, with big gulping bites. I'm going to have to find a way to slow him down and see if that helps. I think his time as an abandoned, hungry kitten, before I took him in, might have caused him to be a little neurotic and compulsive about food. If so, he fits in here... every member of this household, human and animal, has some sort of mental health thing going on...
The joys of rescues, eh?
Here are a few piccies of the two fur-faces I've talked about here, Artie and Alistair:
By
odd1out at 2010-10-08
By
odd1out at 2010-10-08
Artie:
By
odd1out at 2010-10-08
By
odd1out at 2010-10-08
By
odd1out at 2010-10-08