Would the person (or people?) who sent us things from Chewy.com please report to me ( mizrobyn (at) gmail.com ) so that I can thank you properly? Chewy didn’t include a note and I’d like to say thank you for the cool stuff!
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Wait – there’s a Pusheen Box?!!
There certainly is – in fact, they have two different boxes, the Pusheen Box which is for the humans, and the Cat Kit Box which is stuff for the kitties!
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Robyn – Regarding the lighting, FWIW, I just replaced all my boob lights with 13.5 inch flush mounted ceiling lights with integrated LED (3 light color options from warm white to daylight that can be changed at will.) that are dimmable. The LEDs are supposed to be good for 15 years. The toughest part of installation was removing the old lights, and while not “pretty” (they’re a flat light surface with a brushed nickel edge), these suckers are BRIGHT. I actually had to adjust my living room light down from “daylight” to “warm white”. Got them at Home Depot, $55 for a two-pack. I don’t know the brand because I threw out the boxes, and I couldn’t find them on HD’s website, but if you’re looking for strong light, something of this type might work for you, at least in rooms were function matters more than form.
Thank you so much for this – it sounds like exactly what I need for the darker areas of the house!
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So like all the reporters today, I have two questions not just one. The first is a request for an expanded answer on Omega-3s. Dosage and recommend brands? I need more specific help.
The second is can we have a discussion on cat food? I think I understand that wet/canned is better than dry, but what brands or flavors are better health wise. Shopping for cat food is worse than grocery shopping for humans. My cats have mostly eaten Royal Canin as their former vet recommended it. But I’ve since moved and acquired a new vet who sells Hills which I previously had understood wasn’t a healthy as R.C. A good, better, and best discussion that includes ingredients to look for/avoid and pricing considerations might be helpful for all. I think like most people, I want to give my cats the best food I can reasonably afford.
I said: I have to be honest, I just grab whatever’s in the store (usually Petsmart) when I need it, and follow the directions on the back of the bottle. I’m SURE there are some that are better than others, but I have obviously not spent the time researching (usually because when I need to get some, I’m in a hurry and just go with what’s convenient.)
I can tell you that I stumbled across a cat food review site several years ago (can I find the link? I’m shocked to tell you that I did – it’s this site right here. After I read all the reviews, I started offering the cats higher-quality food until I found two kinds that they’d eat. They’re currently eating Blue Buffalo Wilderness and Merrick Before Grain. We supplement the kibble with canned food in the form of the only canned food these jerks will eat: Fancy Feast. Offer them the more expensive, better-for-them canned stuff, and they will not touch it.
I’ve heard that even cheap canned food is better than kibble, and if I could convince my cats to eat canned food all the time I’d go for it. But they won’t do it, and I don’t have the energy to fight them on it. (Actually, if I could convince them to eat raw food, that’s what I would love to do. You can read more about raw feeding at CatInfo.org.)
Amy added: My vet and I are big fans of Dr Lisa Pierson (catinfo.org) and I’ve moved all my cats to just wet food, following her guidelines about feeding foods with more protein and moderate fat to obligate carnivores. I highly recommend reviewing her list of foods. When Jinx threw diabetic numbers at us last December, getting him off dry and to low or no carb can food brought his numbers back to normal. And I’ve got Tuxie on low phosphorus Weruva Truluxe to help his very very early kidney signs, since he does not like the prescription kidney diets.
Thanks, Amy! And if you guys have more to add on the topic of Omega-3s (is there a specific brand that’s better?) or cat food, please chime in in the comments.
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I will never get tired of Molly Marinara looking in the mirror. She cracks me UP.
Theo Pesto in the sun.
Christopher Chutney and Franco Fondue have a snuggle.
Sofia Soy Sauce and her ears in the sun.
Alfie Alfredo and Franco Fondue are gonna break out of this joint! (Yes, that window needs a shelf, and I’ve got one that will go there when I get around to it.)
Alfie Alfredo has a smug.
Franco Fondue requires a snuggle.
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Alice Mo the calico certainly takes her rolling-around-in-the-sun seriously.
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Posted on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr) yesterday.
There’s a whole lot of ornj right there. (Left to right: Theo Pesto, Alfie Alfredo, Franco Fondue, Christopher Chutney)
I do enjoy a nice Theo Pesto pie. ❤️
YouTube link
That toy – a crocheted cat, though at this point it just looks like a blob – continues to be Christopher Chutney’s favorite toy. And he is NOT sharing. (It will of course go home with him when he’s adopted.)
Good night innernets. (Sofia Soy Sauce)
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Previously
2020: Looks like it’s nap time.
2019: Gabrielle says “You ain’t that mysterious, lady.”
2018: I realized on Friday that the center of the fan is basically a mirror, so perhaps that explains Arundel’s fascination with it.
2017: That’s not how you steer the ship properly, Phoenix! Have you forgotten your training?
2016: No entry.
2015: TBT: Bottle Babies.
2014: It’s guaranteed that when you see Stinkerbelle looking this smug, there’s sure to be a Tommy nearby.
2013: Getting REALLY flirty.
2012: When Polly jumped down to examine the room more closely, Dandelion wasn’t quite sure if the Stranger Danger Floof was called for, so she just put on her medium suit instead of going Full Suit.
2011: No entry.
2010: What cracked me up is that Maxi didn’t even stick her paw through the fence to smack Corby, and he still fell over like she’d made contact.
2009: Obviously the only way to get a decent shot of all six of them, they need to be drugged and very, very sleepy.
2008: The Godfather Catmother
2007: Y’all KNOW I wasn’t going to turn down the chance to bring them home for a few days, so Saturday morning I went and got them.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
What I’ve been wondering is, with the bottom of the door so high off the floor, do you lose lots of toys under the door? None of your pics or vids hint at it, just wondering how you could get so lucky?
On the subject of food: having had several “portly” kitties and being chastised by my vet for years I have finally managed to move to almost 100% canned food for mine. I don’t know WHAT they put in that dry stuff but it seems to be addictive. I also could not get mine to eat “better quality” brands. Fancy Feast pat; beef, turkey and giblets and liver and chicken are our three options. A crumbled Glycoflex or Lysine chew on top makes it more attractive. I still give some Royal Canin dry occasionally more as a treat than part of their regular diet. For a while I mixed a little dry with the canned, gradually reducing it, then I just plain stopped giving them dry. They had to eat the canned or go hungry. Tough love!
They get fed three times a day 7:00am, 4:00pm and 10:00pm. At each feeding they each get 3/4 of a can of Fancy Feast. I have two kitties so that means every other meal I have 1/2 can left, I don’t refrigerate it, they don’t like it cold. Just put a lid on it. I don’t think cats are likely to get food poisoning. In the wild they kill a large animal and eat on it for days, right?
Good luck to all fighting “food wars” with their kitties!
Have they lost weight doing this? I just switched to slow feed bowls and you’d think I was starving them. I have “more” than two but only really three of them are chonky. I also have one who I have never seen touch wet food in his lifetime so there is that issue as well…..
Hi Laurie, The short answer is “Yes”!” I have seen improvement in weight control with less dry and more canned. My two tubby boys (born 2002) did lose weight when I cut back on the dry, I did not entirely stop giving it to them. They have both gone over the bridge (2018 and 2019). I adopted a new boy (now two years old) and was determined to do right with him from the start. He is now a long, tall, slim, solid 13.5 pounds. My 15 year old girl is doing well and is slimmer than she was at age 10 and is very happy and healthy.
Only a few of my cats would eat much or primarily “wet” (canned) food. Anecdotally, they were the ones I had from young kittens (about 6 weeks and about 11 weeks), were weaned/raised on canned food, and demanded large portions until they were quite old. They were not overlapping in time of living with me. Their personalities were the most similar, too, so make what you will of that. The rest were somewhat older kittens (12 – 28 weeks), and one 10 – 18 months, and one who was 2-4 years at adoption. All but the first two have firmly become mainly kibble cats, though most of them enjoy a small dish of the wet stuff once a day.
I have had good to great results with Royal Canin kibble, starting with my German Shepherd who had horrible digestive issues, which didn’t really clear up until she got on the RC food specifically for her breed. The cats who had become a bit pudgy were put on RC Calorie Control and lost weight on it, without becoming skinny. Unfortunately, that was discontinued (WHY RC? WHY?!?). The last remaining cats (now down to just one) eventually transitioned to the “replacement” called Satiety. The cat food has been all Rx from my vet, and quite expensive. They also carry and recommend Hill’s, which I have TRIED, but all of my cats (over more than a 30 year span) refuse to eat it. Again, make what you will of that!
The wet food of choice should be PATE, and I favor the tiny little servings that come in a two-pack (far less waste from refusal to eat it all), Nutro and Sheba, from PetsMart. Who has had low stock lately, btw. Seems to be a problem all over! Fancy Feast packets of sauce and shreds of meat are also favored but the shreds are often left behind. Current kitty and the recently deceased old boy both ate these two kinds of canned food. If I offer something else, it might or might not get eaten once, but that’s it, next time it’s anathema. The two that died in 2017 also liked the little Nutro or Sheba two-pack pates.
BUT, many of my online friends have cats that go bananas when the wet food comes out and are MEH! about the dry kibble. It is just so danged individual.
I think you are doing a service, Robyn, to introduce the kittens to both kibble and wet food. Hopefully, they will be more adaptable in their future lives.
Those are some ears on Alfie Alfredo. (And how sweet is Sofia Soy Sauce snoozing away…)