Quote:
Originally Posted by La lamy
I recently took in an abandoned female cat and I've had some challenges trying to figure out what to feed her. At first it was just kibble which I found handy and non messy. She didn't like some Friskies' beef flavour so I eventually figured out she mostly prefers fish. Then a friend told me that a vet told him cats need wet food, that it's healthier for them, while another said they need dry food which is better for their teeth. All I know is my cat prefers wet food and starts meowing WAY TOO EARLY to get some in the morning. SO I'm back to dry for her during the day and wet at night, hoping she'll stop the meowing in the morning. What do you feed your pet, and how is it working out?
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Sounds like the OP has--well--a cat. And those of us who have a cat learn very quickly who is in charge. (hint: it isn't the human).
Our cat (a rescue job from a St. Paul, MN animal shelter), has a way of interpreting the rules so that they favor her. For example, my wife tired of Kitty wanting to be fed every time my wife was cleaning in the kitchen. So she laid down the rule. No food until AFTER the dishwasher closes. She caught on pretty quick, only she interpreted it to mean that EVERY time the dishwasher closed, she was going to get fed.
Also, just accept the fact that every cat has expensive taste. At first we gave her some expensive wet food as an occasional treat. Wasn't long until she expected the expensive stuff for EVERY meal. Didn't work to not give her the stuff she wanted and she wasn't fooled one bit by being given a less expensive wet food. She wanted the top-shelf stuff and would either meow incessantly at one or the other of us until she got it, or would sit staring at her dish with her pathetic I'm-just-a-poor-starving-kitty look, looking at us when one of us were in the area and giving us the most forlorn, sad-sounding meow that you can imagine.
Oh--and things happen on HER timetable, not ours. If Kitty gets hungry at 3:00 AM, she'll wake me up to get fed. She has a sort of graduated-intervention way of doing it. If pats and meows don't do it, expect a wet nose in the ear. Covering up doesn't help. She'll look for any bit of exposed skin and bite it--not hard, but noticeable. And if THAT doesn't work, she rolls out the big guns. One tactic that just about always works is picking up my glasses from the nightstand and dropping them onto the floor. Or, if she can't find the glasses (or if I put them in some inaccessible place before I go to bed) she's discovered that a TV remote dropped on the floor will eject the two "AA" batteries onto the floor, which she then bats under just about any piece of furniture in the area, which is a guarantee that her human will throw in the towel and feed her just to get a little sleep.
I heard it summed up perfectly once: "Dogs have owners. But cats have staff". True words.