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Hand Feeding
I feed my babies Science Diet since my vet reccomended it. Anyone know if this
is healthy stuff? Also, they've been on dry food only. Had no idea they needed a balance of dry & moist. They hate moist. Don't know what to do here. Another question ... made the mistake months ago of feeding them by hand. Now, they absolutely refuse to eat on their own. You can't imagine how exhausting it is, particularly w/Lola who's a nibbler. Friends say the way to break them is to just stop. I say they won't eat. They say, even if my girls go for days they'll eventually get hungry enough to head over to their bowls. Anyone else here have this problem w/cats who demand hand-feeding? Also, if its true that moist food is required in their diet, how the heck am I going to hand feed them that??? Tracy |
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And I thought the Evil 3 were spoiled.......
"Allegra640" wrote in message ... : I feed my babies Science Diet since my vet reccomended it. Anyone know if this : is healthy stuff? Also, they've been on dry food only. Had no idea they : needed a balance of dry & moist. They hate moist. Don't know what to do here. : : : Another question ... made the mistake months ago of feeding them by hand. Now, : they absolutely refuse to eat on their own. You can't imagine how exhausting : it is, particularly w/Lola who's a nibbler. Friends say the way to break them : is to just stop. I say they won't eat. They say, even if my girls go for days : they'll eventually get hungry enough to head over to their bowls. Anyone else : here have this problem w/cats who demand hand-feeding? Also, if its true that : moist food is required in their diet, how the heck am I going to hand feed them : that??? : : Tracy |
#3
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"Allegra640" wrote I feed my babies Science Diet since my vet reccomended it. Anyone know if this is healthy stuff? Also, they've been on dry food only. Had no idea they needed a balance of dry & moist. They hate moist. Don't know what to do here. Another question ... made the mistake months ago of feeding them by hand. Now, they absolutely refuse to eat on their own. You can't imagine how exhausting it is, particularly w/Lola who's a nibbler. Friends say the way to break them is to just stop. I say they won't eat. They say, even if my girls go for days they'll eventually get hungry enough to head over to their bowls. Anyone else here have this problem w/cats who demand hand-feeding? Also, if its true that moist food is required in their diet, how the heck am I going to hand feed them that??? I'm not going to comment on the dry food. Re getting the cats to eat on their own, I suspect it is a matter of out-stubborning them, which is very hard to do, but OTOH, I just don't believe a cat will really starve itself with bowls full of food in front of its nose. ;o) It might take a few days of refusal and tugging at your heart-strings, but you've just got to stay firm. Hard, I know. After you have made them eat by themselves, maybe you could start mixing a little wet food in the dry? Just a few morsels to start with, and then gradually increase the amount of wet while cutting back on the dry. This will probably take weeks, or even months. Purrs for a successful "weaning". You can do it, in spite of those pitiful meows and looks! -- Marina, Frank and Nikki |
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Allegra640 skrev i meddelandet ... snip Anyone else here have this problem w/cats who demand hand-feeding? Also, if its true that moist food is required in their diet, how the heck am I going to hand feed them that??? Tracy Oh, Tracy dear, you spoon-feed them of course! Elisabet |
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Allegra640 wrote:
I feed my babies Science Diet since my vet reccomended it. Anyone know if this is healthy stuff? Also, they've been on dry food only. Had no idea they needed a balance of dry & moist. They hate moist. Don't know what to do here. Science Diet is ok, there are better foods out there that cost about the same. Check out these pages to learn mo http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm Wet food is better than dry. You can try different brands and textures to see which ones they like. Our cats despise food that is a paste, it has to be chunky otherwise they won't eat it. they'll eventually get hungry enough to head over to their bowls. Anyone else here have this problem w/cats who demand hand-feeding? Also, if its true that Nope. moist food is required in their diet, how the heck am I going to hand feed them that??? You don't. You need to re-train them to eat from bowls. -- Victor M. Martinez http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv |
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On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 12:14:12 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
wrote: (Victor M. Martinez) had some very interesting things to say about Hand Feeding: Science Diet is ok, there are better foods out there that cost about the same. Check out these pages to learn mo http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm I can't get Felix to eat any other type of dry food. In fact, I can't even get him to eat an SD variety other than Light Maintenance. :-) Wet food is better than dry. You can try different brands and textures to see which ones they like. Our cats despise food that is a paste, it has to be chunky otherwise they won't eat it. OTOH, when we got Felix a chunky-style canned food, he licked the sauce off the chunks and left the solid pieces. The more blended style, he eats quite readily. Leave it to *my* cat to be the oddball. :-) Of my three, only Rocky will eat the chunks in gravy style of food. The girls, like yours, just lick off the gravy and leave the chunks. |
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Allegra640 wrote: I feed my babies Science Diet since my vet reccomended it. Anyone know if this is healthy stuff? Also, they've been on dry food only. Had no idea they needed a balance of dry & moist. They hate moist. Don't know what to do here. Another question ... made the mistake months ago of feeding them by hand. Now, they absolutely refuse to eat on their own. You can't imagine how exhausting it is, particularly w/Lola who's a nibbler. Friends say the way to break them is to just stop. I say they won't eat. They say, even if my girls go for days they'll eventually get hungry enough to head over to their bowls. I'd say your friend is right - it just depends upon whether you can "out-stubborn" your cats until they give in. (I've never known a cat to let itself actually starve when there was food available - it just depends upon how easy it is to blackmail you into thinking they will.) As to dry vs moist, that depends upon the cat, and I've never had any luck persuading them one or the other is better for them. (If they had their "druthers" they'd most likely only eat either as a last resort, when "game" was scarce.) |
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