Cat food (or the lack thereof)

So last fall, for no apparent reason, my cats went on a hunger strike. They'd done this before once - that's when I switched from one brand of grain-free kibble to another (Wellness Core to I can't remember what). I ordered a different bag of grain-free kibble, which they ate ok for two days then they started complaining again. I spent the next three months in an ongoing battle with them - for a long time I held the line and refused to order a new, different bag til they reluctantly ate the previous bag, but they got more and more miserable (and made me more and more miserable, too).

Eventually they started trying to steal Cersei's food. I've fed her raw her whole life, and they were trying to walk into her crate and eat her chicken drumsticks with her. While I wasn't really fond of them at that point, I did not want Cersei to have murder on her soul, so I started locking her in her crate while she ate. The cats deputized one cat to sit and stare at Cersei and the other to follow me around howling miserably.

Finally I gave up and tossed a chicken leg in a bowl for them. They licked it for a long time, then wandered off looking fairly pleased. I fed it to Cers. The next day, they leapt up on that table and demanded another chicken leg, so I gave it to them. When I went back in 15 minutes later to retrieve the licked leg for Cersei, it was completely stripped of meat. (Who fans, it looked like the Vashta Nerada had gotten it.)

So I started feeding them chicken. Since they weren't eating the bones, I got thighs for them - more meat for the same price. They turned back into somewhat lovable pet cats, instead of the whiny horrid beasts they'd been. And Banders, the fluffy one, started gaining weight.

He's always been thin, under all that fur, and he'd gotten frighteningly skinny in the Battle of the Kibble. Unlimited raw chicken thighs put some much-needed flesh on his bones, and made him somehow grow even more hair than before.

So after a month of only chicken (the kibble bowl was getting dust in it), I decided I had to get them some kind of vitamin supplement, lest they die of malnutrition now that I actually like them again. I settled on this Alnutrin stuff, because it seemed the least crazy-cat-ladyish of the available supplements. About every other day, I skin and debone a pound of chicken thighs, chop them into biggish chunks, and sprinkle some powder on them. The chunks go in a glasslock container in the fridge, and I dole out a quarter cup or so whenever they're hungry. The kitten is still fat, still shiny, and very smug about getting her way. Banders is a solid 5 on the cat weight scale, with a coat that's even more glorious than usual. He doesn't seem to get hair matts anymore (I haven't had to cut one out since I started the chicken), and he doesn't get hairballs either.

Sadly, I cannot report that Banders has become more sane on the raw chicken diet. He is still weird as all get out. But he is more content, generally - there's much less of that "getting lost in the hallway and screaming for help" thing, and the "yowling at invisible monsters" has entirely ceased. He generally follows me around and purrs, unless I try to pet him, which just confuses him. He only meows for two reasons now: either he wants the door to open, or he wants more chicken.

He did flip out completely on Mel's puppy Tess. Remember the crackninja story? Full on crackninja on Tessie, who didn't really have time to get offended before I flung the cat into the bathroom to cool off. But other than that, he's doing aiiight.

Disclaimer! If you feed your cats something and they die don't blame me. And I have absolutely no advice for how to convince a cat to change its diet - mine transitioned themselves to raw. But shit, it worked for me, maybe it'll work for you.