My sister's into that making food business. She won't feed her fish regular food. You can join our forum and ask her about it at pondutah.com if you wish. I'm going to divert you through my new site, though, just to get more exposure. ;) Here is a link that might be useful: Matt's koi pond

Some of the animals might simply be seeking nurtients their regular feedings does not provide enough of or in the right form for them to assimulate, but I am sure that is not the entire story for all of them. I have a diluted calico American short hair cat, who was rescued as a 6 week old kitten. Even though she has been well fed and cared for these last five years, she is still very competative; especially when it comes to food. No matter if she has already been fed and is full or not, she still wants to eat other cats' food and even people's food. I never have given her people food, but she still acts like she knows its flavor and that it's something she must have. I know she does not do this because she is hungry; instead, it's a competative thing for her. The problem got so bad I had to seperate her food area away from the rest of pets, and also limit her access to their food. Only since then have its been possible to get her weight down to 11.5 pounds, which is just barely under the topmost of what is still a healthy weight range for her bone structure and body type.

Venison is a 'novel' protein for cats who are sensitive to poultry and other commonly used meats in cat foods. I get trim ends off venison roasts and venison hearts for my cats, they thrive on this as a generous supplement to their diets. It's pretty lean so a little extra fat is helpful to a nursing queen. Tuna is ill-advised as it's habit forming, it lacks nutrients that cats must have, and it's potentially quite contaminated by mercury and other heavy metals. The best thing for a nursing queen is quantities of wet food. A commercial variety of cat food provides many added nutrients that aren't in plain meat. Remember that the naturally-present taurine breaks down in fresh meat so must be supplemented. My cats love chicken hearts, turkey hearts, and sliced venison hearts, all served raw. They are still fed good quality tinned food to ensure that other nutrient needs are met. You might want to try a higher fat variety like Wellness or Evo. The nursing queen needs substantially more energy and hydration in her diet than would a non-pregnant or nursing adult cat. The higher energy wet foods take care of both needs. And these are great first foods for kittens, who also have higher energy needs than adults. When you rest your hands to either side of her ribcage, and gently stroke back, you should just be able to feel ribs to pelvis. They won't be visible, there's a thin fat pad between skin and bones. If she's got visible bones she's definitely too skinny. Queens do tend to look thin and drawn out with young litters. Good feeding should correct this. Kittens begin to self-wean at about 5 weeks. They'll start exploring cat food but will still nurse. Don't be in a hurry to wean the babies, let them and the queen work it out. Most kittens quit nursing altogether at 8-9 weeks, some a little later. Unless you have a kit still latching on at four months it's not a problem. Are you able to post a picture of mama and babies? It would be a pleasure to see them.

Thanks, everybody, for the suggestions. It's one of the typical Tetra filters, where you just slide the cartridge in, so it's pretty easy for the cat to pull it out too. Last night, we tried taping a piece of plastic netting over the opening where the filter is. Some of your other suggestions sound better, though. So, if the cat succeeds in getting the netting off, I'll try them. This cat is a little peculiar as he puts his paws in the water dish and splashes out some of the water when he's drinking from it too. He does have one filmy eye, so it may have something to do with sight problems.