I've Seen Some Strange Things But....

I have seen my cats do some strange things. They amaze me on a regular basis. But I never saw this one...

I was testing out Wellness food, and had one more can to use up after my report to you, so I continued feeding it. I was also doing a preliminary test of a new dry food. It isn't commercially available, and I'm working with the company to improve the flavor, but this was a new one...

There are normally 4 cats eating wet food, 4 cats eating dry food. One eats only wet food and One cat only eats dry food. I have 5 cats. 3 of them will eat either food type.

The 3 who vacillate left the Wellness and went to the dry Friskies I put in their bowls, having run out of the test dry food. They actually left the wet food. I had 2 cats in each dry food bowl, competing for the dry food.

That says something, but I'm not sure what. I know they are not wild about the Wellness. I also know that the test dry food wasn't enough for a good test. There was only enough to fill one bowl, so I pulled the other 2 bowls.

To make a good test of dry food, there needs to be enough that all 3 dry food bowls can be kept full for a week. That should be at least 6 cups of food.

I don't mind if the vacillating cats stick to more wet food. But the one who eats dry food needs to not go hungry or refuse the food.

When I do a test on wet food, I give the same food for several cans. They get that food for 7-10 days. I watch their behaviors, appetites, and behavioral changes.

This dry food was sent to me, unsolicited. I've visited their website and expressed my concerns over the flavor. It's not grabbing the cats. If they can address that with me, and the additional hairball situation that I face, I'll do another test of the food and report the results.

This was just a taste. They weren't wild about it, but they ate it. They seemed to do well on it. One even seemed to thrive on it. But I need to try it again in a more controlled environment - meaning not at the same time I'm using up another food that they aren't wild about. And I need enough of the food to make a good test - all 3 bowls filled every day for 7-10 days.