Mine love the Natures Variety Instinct chicken. They've never had FF. We are away right now and have a cat sitter, who reported that one of them took a huge chunk of his breakfast and brought it into the dining room, where he laid it on the rug before he ate. They really do take advantage...

I really thought yesterday's Vomit-palooza was triggered by a hairball. Except lightning struck in the exact same place, only this time Bessie got into the act, although a bit more daintily. Possibly that variety is too rich? At 5:30 a.m., just ugh.

sas, mine loved the juices from the NVI chicken, but then left the meat high and dry. I left it, thinking they'd perhaps come around if they got hungrier, but not much was eaten in 12 hours. I have another half-can but after the Barf-a-thon, I'm inclined to give them a day off from new food.

Linelle, So sorry about your poor kitties. Sorry for you too having to clean it all up.

My kitties didn't care for the Wellness chicken but did finally eat it but giving me the WTH is this look the whole time. Today I fed, well not exactly, more like I put it on their plate, the Nature's Variety Instinct lamb dinner. It is now after four o'clock and almost dinner time and their breakfast is still on the plate. I'll scrap it and try something different this evening. That darn Ziwi Peak is just too good. I wonder if I get forti flora to put on their food if that will make them less resistant.

I'm so disappointed - I don't have a cat but I opened this thread thinking I would see all of your beautiful felines........and there's none......not a single cat........how purrfectally awful.

Maire

Well crud, another epic fail. Gave the boys a can of Natural Balance venison, turkey, lamb version. Toby ate but very reluctantly. Poor Simba who is a skinny minny anyway seemed to get something stuck in his mouth. He gave me a disdainful look and left the kitchen. I don't think it was a bone because this stuff is gross looking. It is the most puréed cat food I've ever seen. It just looks like a totally ghastly pudding....Yuck!

i may just go with the ZP and be done with it.

All three of my kids pictured above started out on raw food, Oliver 20 years ago on home made, Abby and Dorothy on RadCat. Why they refused to eat raw when they came to me, I have no idea. I am going to try ZP starting tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Good luck, Marlene!! Love seeing those kitties, both of you!

Good luck Marlene, I hope they love it as much as my boys do. I have three cans of Ziwi left so I'm stopping in at the local store to stock up and order three cases of it. I will get the venison, the rabbit and lamb, and the plain lamb. DH says to just get them what they like.

How about this cute box-o-kitties?? They have good indoor homes now.

Oh my! They are adorable!

Someone adopted all three together and treats them like royalty! :-)

cattyles, there are some really great humans! Those lucky little ones :-)

Ooooh, they are so cute!

Here are my boys, Trent and Cameron.

Trent and Cameron, my girls would like to date you. :-)

Lucky kitties! That's how I got my two boys. The foster from the SPCA didn't want to split them up and I didn't have the heart to split them. I was actually looking to get an older cat but hadn't found one that claimed me. On a trip to Petco for dog food the SPCA had two foster moms with the kittens, Simba looked at me and me we'd that he was mine, but one look from dear Toby and I knew they both claimed me. The boys sure found a home that loves them.

Oh my gosh Sas, they are gorgeous kitties!

Oh Sas, Trent are Cameron are darling!

cattyles, I would not have been able to walk past that box of kitties without taking all of them.

Bessie (L) and Zephyr (R), fraternal twins. The only kittens in the shelter that day that showed any interest in me.

Zephyr with the lovable belly! Nice to meet his pretty sister Bessie!! Gosh, I love them all.

Cameron and Trent are not biological brothers, but they were sharing a cage at the shelter because Cameron was not doing well alone. Trent had already been adopted by a young couple, but they had dumped him back a few months later when they broke up. I think they had also abused him. Cameron had all the personality when I met them because Trent (understandably) was terrified, and just stood frozen in the little kitty meeting room. I was nervous about taking Trent, but I felt I couldn't just take the one and leave Trent there. It took about 6 months for Trent to come out of his shell, and I really had to work hard with him. But now he's totally sweet and loving, and I'm so happy I took a chance with him.

Linelle, isn't it funny how they pick us? I saw a darling little Tuxedo kitty that I was trying to engage. He just went on a merry tumble with a little orange kitty, totally ignoring me, but Simba was smart enough to claim me!

I've thrown out so much canned cat food for my picky eaters. Tried all the grain-free foods listed here. I gave up the fight of all wet food and give them Orijen dry food. They eat a small can of Against the Grain wet food once a day, which has tuna, which is why they get a high quality dry food.

I think there is something in FF that addicts them so you may have a hard time getting them to eat other foods once they get used to FF.

Love all your kitties. Cats are the perfect pet imo.

I love seeing the biological siblings with their little family resemblances!

H-K, totally agree. I'd set out to get two MALE kittens. I swore, no more females for me. We have a wonderful, airy, cheery, no-kill shelter (Sonoma Humane Society). Two rooms full of kittens: a party room and a nap room. The kittens in the party room were having too much fun to pay attention to a potential new mom. So I went into the nap room and sat down. I wasn't going to take a kitten if we didn't connect. After a bit a little black and white guy (Zephyr) crawled into my lap and started purring really loud (he is still King Purr). Yes, I'll take this one, please. They took him out to the front desk while I looked for my second MALE.

I went back to the party room. Chaos. I wondered if it just wasn't in the cards to get two. But I wanted two!!! Now!!! I returned to the nap room and again sat down. Another black and white kitten got in my lap. The shelter helper looked up kitty's info. Oh, it's "Flower," a female. Oh please no, I thought. "Flower" began to purr. I fell.

They suggested I go into a little quiet room with the two kittens to see how they got along together. The minute they put them down, side by side, I went, Hey! These are littermates!!! Oh yeah, they agreed.

"Flower" became Bessie (cowhide) and "Smudge" became Zephyr. Out of 60-75 kittens, these two, brother/sister picked me. The thought of adopting just Zephyr and leaving Bessie behind is just horrible. They are quite the pair and Bessie cured me of my female cat aversion.

OMG..my girls are just going nuts with all these perfect boys. Too bad we aren't allowing them to date until they are 16!

Sas, I'm so glad you took baby Trent! You sound like me - "if not me, then who"?

And Linelle, the way those two litter mates ended up together.....I love a good love story!

Bonded pairs touch my heart. They actually are more attached to one another than to me, but I've come around and am okay with it.

Thanks for the photos - I love seeing all of your beauties.

Thanks again, Maire

Linelle, after my Tommy boy died at a very young age I was determined to never have another male cat. My sweet Tommy was found in our garage by my pups as we were getting ready to leave for my shop. The pups wouldn't get in the car and kept sniffing the garage. Then a heard a mew. I found a very young looking cat in an almost empty Pepsi box. He scooted out of the box and hid between a cabinet and the wall. i put the dogs in the car and got some kitty food left from our Lily who passed several months before. i coaxed the kitty out but he was so starved for affection that he couldn't decide if he should eat or be petted. I told DH there was a kitty in our garage and he was going to chase him out. I told himnot to because we needed to either find his owner or at the very least make sure he got adopted. I kept him in the garage with food and water and a litter box and went to work. DH went to all the closest houses and no one claimed him. I posted on FB that we found a very young male cat and I would pay for him to be neutered, if he wasn't already and supply food and a litter box for him. well no takers so i went to Petco and bought a collar and some kitty toys. I named him Tommy and fell in love with the little guy. We took him to the vet and he wasn't neutered or microchipped. The vet said he appeared to be about ten months old. We had him neutered, microchipped, and got his vaccines and he had found his forever home. He was such a sweet boy but had terrible urinary problems. He was in and out the vets every few weeks and we just couldn't get the frequent episodes of cystitis under control . The last time he was at the vet they kept him for four days and we were going to have them operate to shorten his urethra to hopefully help the issue. The vet called the night before and said they could do the surgery but it wasn't going to help the cystitis and could make Tommy incontinent. He suggested we just forgo the surgery and bring Tommy home. He wasn't home anytime at all until he had another bout of cystitis and I could tell we were losing him. When we got him to the vet he was in massive kidney failure and the vet put him to sleep. I was devastated. The vet said we went above and beyond and he would have died in the wild alone and in pain if we hadn't adopted him but I still feel like I failed my boy. He was with us for just over a year and cost us thousands of dollars but I loved that little guy with all my heart . There will never be another Tommy.

What a sweet-face little boy. I had a big gnarly alley tom adopt me at my old house. He ruled that alley with an iron claw lol. Once he decided to be tamed, he was the absolute best cat man ever. And he broke my heart, of course. In a very similar way to your Tommy. But they sure did know that they were loved and there were some good humans during their short lives. So we done good! A broken heart won't kill us but we made all the difference for them. :-)

Holly-Kay, your Tommy was so precious.

You absolutely did not fail your little guy. You gave him every chance for a good life and most importantly, you gave him love and affection.

It's amazing how these little fur kids take ahold of our hearts.

Knowing when to let them go is the ultimate act of love, to me. It's so hard.

My old alley tom was unfortunately named CowCat. We saw him often and had even tried trapping him but it was impossible. He was determined to rule the neighborhood and produce as many kittens as possible. He was spotted exactly like a cow and the nickname stuck. After he came inside, I wanted him to be Bocephus (Bo) but he was already CowCat or Cowcow. Gosh, I miss him. Daisy, my little tailless that I lost in January is the other one that I'll never really get over. Sigh.

To somewhat wander back on track.........Cowcow was when I started feeding raw. My vet was so against it, I almost relented and stopped. In the end, she admitted that it made a huge difference for him and probably bought him a year. After he died, I started feeding canned again and discovered the high quality brands. When Stevie Ray started having the signs of inflammatory bowel disease, I went back to mostly raw. It's hard to know what really is best, other than no dry food.

Marlene2007, you still have Ab E. Gail and Dorothy? That photo of Dorothy and Owl E. is wonderful. So sorry about your Owl E.

And after talking about the kitties we lost, scrolling back up to see the healthy ones makes me smile. That picture of Toby sitting all sassy on the chest of drawers restores my good spring mood!

ETA: Sorry I'm such a conversation hog in the kitty threads. I'm normally a lurker, have been for years and years.

cattyles, I am a member of FB for one reason and one reason only. We have a closed cat group and all we do is post pics of our fur kids and talk about them...24/7 (although I did drop out a few months ago right after Oliver crossed the Rainbow Bridge). So, I totally get the "obsession" :-)

Yes, Abby is almost 4 and Dots is 1. Oliver had a sister, Sofie for 16 years of his life and she had FELV since birth but she was with us for almost 16 years. We got Abigail for Oliver when Sofie passed away from pancreatic cancer and they bonded in less than 24 hours. Then Dots came along and again, Dots and Oliver bonded in less than a day.( Abs and Dots not so much...but they are now friends). Oliver was a special little man. He was my velcro boy and my soulmate. He had so many issues throughout the years. Heart problems and had his very own Cardiologist :-), thyroid problems (although he had the Radioactive Iodine Treatment at 16 which cured it) and then at 17 started going into renal failure. We took him in for fluids every 3 or 4 or 5 days depending on how dehydrated he was. The vet gave him a very short time but he lived a very active happy life for the next three years. I miss that little man every single day.

Sorry for the long post. It is CAThartic. :-)

Thank you so much for sharing your stories Marlene and Catty. I can't believe that I can still sob with a broken heart over my precious Tommy. Maybe because all of my other kitties led long, full lives, and Tommy burned brightly for such a short time. Anyway all of my cats were and are special but Tommy was my heart cat.

Toby and Simba have helped my heart to heal. Simba is a bit more stand offish but Toby is a big old love bug and would gladly be carried around the house with me. One of the boys is trying to get into my arms when they aren't napping, eating, or playing. When I sit in the evenings Toby is in my arms laying like a baby and Simba is sitting on the top of my chair trying to eat my hair.

I guess I'm kitty obsessed but I love our cat threads!

Holly-Kay, thanks for bringing Ziwi Peak to my attention. I just received an order from Chewy, and added in a case of the Ziwi Peak lamb. Served it up this morning and the enthusiasm was overwhelming!

Sas, I'm so glad your crew likes it. My guys just devour it. I still haven't found anything else that they will eat so I rotate the lamb, venison, and the rabbit and lamb.. I think I will start getting the lamb on autoship from Chewy because their price is 2.61 a can for lamb and 3.17 for the other flavors. Our local pet food store charges 3.05 for all flavors so it is more economical for me to buy it local except for the lamb.

I wish I could find another food that they would like as much so I could give them a can of Z.P. at one feeding a can of something less expensive at the next. It sure hurts the wallet when two cases of food runs $75, and a case only lasts six days. I bought a few different brands for them to try but they just turn their nose up at it so my local SPCA is going to get a donation of canned food from me.

At this price, no way are they getting this every day. Maybe once your kitties are totally used to a wet food only diet, they will become more experimental.

Sas, they are totally on a wet food diet. They only get a very tiny amount of dry cat food as a snack at night (less than an ounce to split). I know the Ziwi is expensive and hard to justify. I just ordered the lamb and beef auto ship every month but I ordered some Weruva cat food that is much more reasonable. They may not eat it so we will see. It will sure help if they do because it was about $1.80 a can. If they will eat it I will feed them the Weruva in the morning when they are the most hungry and give them the Ziwi at night. Then in a few weeks maybe give a can of Z every other night.

Holly, I used to feed my cats Weruva. I think you may use more. It's not a dense wet food and has a lot of gravy. I had mentioned Natural Balance in a previous posting. It wouldn't hurt to try it. I use the limited ingredient for my allergic cat.

Sas, every time I see your kitties, I almost mistake them for mine! Misty on left, Mila on right.

I've been looking for new food for my kitties and came across this article about their need for a low carb diet (so many foods, even grain free, are chock full of carbs like peas, cranberries, blueberries, etc.!)

As part of the article, she includes a chart of cat foods and how much carbs they contain.

Jersey girl, thanks for recommending but that is one that is in a bag to give to the SPCA. It was actually the grossest cat food I ever saw. It looked like a gummy pudding. Toby ate some of it but giving me a baleful look and only ate a bit. Simba acted like he had something caught in his throat but he was probably gagging at the consistency. Are all the flavor so pudding like?

Annie, it really is uncanny how much alike our cats look. Yours have gotten so big and they are so pretty.

I have given our cats Weruva. They liked the Paw Lickin Chicken. I really am lucky that they like most foods. I recently tried them on Wild Calling duck flavor, and it was a big hit.

I LOVE all the kitty photos!