The Less-Than-Pleased Ruler

Cats run the house – at least mine do. So at feeding time this morning, all of them were less than enthusiastic over their gourmet grilled turkey which they usually like A LOT. I cannot always successfully please all four of them, but usually, my rulers except my humble offerings.

Aside from being ill, there are a ton of reasons your cat will look at you with disdain over the meal you have presented. One major thing is, just like people, they like variety. Unfortunately, even variety boxes of food are packed in layers - all turkey on one, chicken on the next, and so on. Very convenient for the company, but if we don’t pay attention to what yesterday’s selection was, we will run into trouble. Not good if you have done your testing and given your insulin accordingly.

Usually a repeated selection will result in reluctant nibbling. Sometimes, even if you do mix it up, kitty refuses. In this situation, I assume it is the food, provided kitty has been doing pretty well. If two cats snub the same food, I pitch it and start over. They can smell more than me, and if two cats are refusing, that tells me that something is not right with the food. I play it safe and either scrub their bowls and refill or use different bowls if I can with the new food. I actually bought a set of mini pie pans for this purpose. I feed kitties and the pans go right into the dishwasher after. It is convenient and they always have clean fresh bowls. Generally, this solves the problem. It also lessens the possibility of cross-contamination if you do end up with a “bad can” of food (remember, pet food does not have the same quality assurance standards as human food – and even if it did, lots of human food has failed miserably many times).

Once in a while, despite rotation and variety, kitty will suddenly refuse to eat what was considered a favorite food. Again, if they are stable and not ill, 90% of the time, the food itself has changed. Companies tweak their ingredients all the time, and just like the New Coke thing in the 80s, it can fall flat (no pun intended). Plus, manufacturing is not necessarily 100% consistent across the board. For example, on the rare occasion that I eat canned soup, which I did this past week, most of it was fine. The last can I warmed up had so much salt, there was no way I could eat it, and I have a love affair with salt. The stirring machine must have skipped that batch or something.

You can use an old box or invest in a basket to mix up your cans in random order so the daily selection is usually different. Also, take advantage of sales for different brands of foods. There are low-carb options across many brands, so as long as you are doing your label reading, it is a good idea to keep kitty on a varied diet. You probably do not want to eat spaghetti every day for dinner, and as the kitties have more heightened senses that we lowly humans, you can’t expect them to accept the same old thing day in and day out.

There is a ton of information on different food brands on the Feline Diabetic Support Group on FB. I also stay on the lookout for discounts and coupons through all my area retailers and grocery stores along with those available online. There will be times when you chose a food variety, and kitty absolutely hates it for no known reason whatsoever. If that is the case, I usually donate the food to my local shelter. They can use all the help they can get, and as long as nothing is wrong with the food, why waste it?