Now that Oscar has his place in the Tightwad Towers household, he is trying to change the rules in his favour. Since he first appeared in the garden he has scoffed anything I have put down in front of him, that is now changing.
I have pandered to the whims of my two girls, Heidi and Mayze, by providing the food that they like. It has taken a while of trying different food to find what they will eat, things are running smoothly there. But now Oscar is starting to get a bit more picky. He jumps up on the worktop to steal Heidi's food while she is still eating it.
Yesterday I bought a large box of Whiskas, £9, because Oscar has been eating that, he has also been eating Felix, so I put either of them down for him, plus a bowl of dry Whiskas nibbles. In the last few days he has started to sniff and lick them but turned his nose up and walked away.
This morning he was waiting at the door to come in, his food from last night was still there, he looked and walked away. I thought fair enough, so I took it away and put down a fresh bowl of wet Felix, and dry food. Quick lick round the bowl, and he walked away. Then he comes fussing round my legs to tell me he doesn't want that, have I got anything else.
I stroked him, made a fuss of him, and pointed at the bowl, it's that or nothing. So now he has gone outside in a sulk. I don't know if he will try his luck elsewhere. We shall see what happens later. If he is hungry he will eat the food. I am not rushing off to the shops again to buy something different.
Fussy cats are as bad as fussy kids, I think, haven't had any kids but that's what I hear.
ilona
PS, By the way, Noel's book is now out in audio, all read by himself.
PPS. It's Noels birthday today, he is 51. So Happy Birthday Noel.
Wide awake.
3 hours ago
Hi Ilona,
ReplyDeleteOh yes we indeed have a fussy cat too, it’s our little grand kitty, Ninja, she belonged to our daughter but left her behind when she moved up to Cairns, one of the hottest places in Australia. She thought it mean to take her away from her home to a blazing hot place. Anyway Ninja has ended up on a special dry food to prevent dental problems and ironically had to have a canine removed, of course she developed a dry socket so now she is eating more soft food, which needs to be minced, she won’t tolerate any chunks! We call her toothless now. Talk about spoilt, but we love her.
Fi
my cats can be fussy and it does make you give them different things, all in all they are pretty good eaters, they both love felix as good as it looks, but only get that one every now and then, apart from that its a random mix of felix/whiskars/aldi brand , Pixie is more of a biscuit lover and would scoff the whole dish if i let her lol x
ReplyDeleteDear Meanqueen
ReplyDeleteWe have a similarly fussy cat. He adopted us and just like Oscar, would eat any sort of food we put in front of him. Then he decided his palate had changed and now will only eat certain brands. However, like any cat, if you buy a load of food that they enjoyed last week, you can be sure they won't want it this week!
Best wishes
Ellie
Yes, it is a bit of a nightmare trying to keep up with their ever changing tastes.
DeleteThese cats wind us around their little paws don't they?
ReplyDeleteI have now made the rule, after faffing around after them and getting cross that I put the food down and if they don't eat it they can fill up on biscuits, and they do. lol
They are a crafty load of monkeys.
Doesn't stop me feeling guilty though, lol
Briony
x
My cat will only eat dry Whiskas - kitten. She's 6 now and won't touch anything else but she enjoys fresh chicken breast as a treat and likes to lick yoghurt and custard pots!!
ReplyDeleteMy Mayze will lick a yogurt pot.
DeleteI had a picky long haired girl who adored the indoor cat food it has fish oil. So both cats got that & had gorgeous coats. After she passed I bought a less expensive brand for old Bobbcat Scratch-it & the new one Obi Wan Kenobi they're fine with it but I noticed their coats are dull instead of brilliant shining as they were on the more expensive brand. I think I'll put a drop or two of fish oil on their kibble & see if it improves things. It won't hurt thats fur sure.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had cats I also had 2 Springer Spaniels, the queen cat would inspect all the dishes before eating hers and NO ONE was allowed to go near the dishes until she started on hers. Of course that meant that they all ate what they got. She wasn't fussy at all as long as her dish was in exactly the right spot.
ReplyDeletehi ilona mayze heidi and oscar - it looks like we are both having the same problems with our boy cats. amy is a lovely black and white female and on the whole she is quite easy to please but benny hes on his own. he tries to sleep on my arthritic feet turns up his nose on many foods i give him and pushes amy off her bed. i am a full time referee as they have many a disagreement during the day but then all of a sudden kiss each other. like you ilona dont know what to do for best. maybe i should leave them alone. cats are very fussy eaters and its a job to know what to give them i feed them felix whiskas gourmet sheba and occasional small pieces of chicken. hope all is resolved soon for you - lots of love liz amy and benny.xxxx
ReplyDeleteI had same issue with my cat Harry when we were joined by Fifi; the vet said that it was Harry asserting his authority as head-cat.
DeleteCould he be eating elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteHe could be. He's been going backwards and forwards between me and a house round the corner for several months.
DeleteHe came in at teatime today, I put Felix down and he ate it, maybe he is hungry if he hasn't eaten all day.
Im lucky that my 5 cats will all eat the same stuff that they have had from the start.But I still have to buy three different things.Aldi Vitacat,12 meat pouches £1.85p...but only the gravy one.They wont touch the one done with jelly.They have the big yellow plastic packs of perina Go Cat bicuits,that are mostly on offer at Wilkinsons at £2 for 800g.Then they also have Vitacat filled pockets from Aldi 59p for 65g.As you can imagin I buy alot of all this with being 5 of them..but they do eat it..well mostly,lol.The only thing they wont eat is when its gone dry overnight,so I scrape it off and put it out for the birds or any hungry cat that might be passing!They cost me alot each week,but if they were on Whiskers or Felix it would cost me alot more!A neighbour once gave me some of the more expensive pouches a few years ago...but they wouldnt touch it.xx
ReplyDeleteThree cats is enough for me, plus Micky from two doors down. He will eat anything.
DeleteOne of my cats ate whiskas pouches for years then stopped a year or2 ago and wouldn't touch it. I discovered that whiskas had changed their recipe around that time. Sounds to me as though Oscar is trying to find his place in the household 'herd' now, specially if he's not used to living with other animals. I would put the food bowls beside each other. I found a book by Vicky Halls very useful - if memory serves it was called 'Cat counsellor'. Library should have a copy.
ReplyDeleteOscar was a feral cat when he was younger, he probably had to fend for himself a lot and find food wherever he could. Now it is freely available he is trying his luck and holding out for something a bit more to his liking.
DeleteA stray cat adopted my Grandma years ago. When she died we took him home ( 40 miles away) to live with us. My mother noticed that whenever she peeled potatoes he would wind himself all around her legs in joy. This was never an affectionate cat! Mother thought she'd give him a small piece of raw potato to see what happened. Well, he absolutely loved it. So she did that each time he was nearby when she peeled spuds. We think that , as a stray, he might have got used to surviving on potato peels.
ReplyDeleteaww, our two are fussy as well, felix good as and sheba and encore when it's on offer - tesco have an offer on at the moment 3 for £10 that includes felix / sheba wet food and go cat dried food so that's our two sorted :-) Jo
ReplyDeleteI have a very fussy Labrador. She is a lab cross breed. She will not eat food in gravy at any price, only in jelly. She will not eat certain brands but will pick at others. What she really likes is "human food" As she has survived 4 bouts with cancer and an emergency hysterectomy and a tumour in her eye you can guess she is very spoilt. One curious thing is she will not eat whilst we are watching her and turns her head away so that she cannot see the dish whilst we are spooning food into it Once we move away she turns her head so she can see it with her good eye and picks at the food slowly, however, if it is human food it is gone in two sweeps of the dish with her tongue!
ReplyDeleteShe is now 12 so I don't think she will change now.
me thinks that you are in love with Noel...;)
ReplyDeleteWe have inherited Grandads prickly old girl, she terrorises our two youngsters, eats anything that isnt hers, and is a source of endless amusement as she grumps around , you can practically hear her chunttering under her breath . I felt deeply honoured when she rubbed around my legs when i was hanging out the washing , shes been here 3 months so its taken a while
ReplyDeleteOur daughter adopted a stray cat, They called him bob , He would eat regis food as well as his own so they had to feed regi on the work surface so that doesn't happen he can be fussy sometimes too and we always wondered if he was eating somewhere else xxx
ReplyDelete