Last week I introduced you to a new initiative from Purina called the True Nature of Cats. In the post I gave you a little bit of a background about the program. In addition I also gave readers a brief “bio” of the participants (aka – my cats). You can find the posts here;
Week One of Purina’s Pure Nature of Cats
The Participants (my cats)
I just finished week two. I meant to post yesterday (Sunday) but I wasn’t online much (my family spent the day together doing fun things).
Here were this past week’s “challenges” and how well my cats did.
After transitioning to Purina One dry food, start adding Purina One canned food to your cat’s diet.
All of my cats, except Padmé, like the Purina One dry food. None of them had any issues with it. Even Bella, who normally doesn’t eat dry food will eat the Purina One. Paddy will eat it if she has no choice. She will often sit where the food is and stare at us until we give her the regular dry food. What I’ve ended up doing is adding a little bit of the food we used to use into the dry food bowl so that Paddy can have her food (she just needs to pick the pieces out) and the rest of the cats can have the Purina One.
As far as the canned food is concerned ALL of my cats love it.
Bella tends to be VERY picky when it comes to food. Normally she’ll only eat one brand of cat food, and only two flavors (fish flavors). When I picked up the Purina One canned foods I made sure to get a variety of flavors, and multiple cans of each flavor, to see which ones my cats liked best. Bella LOVES the Ocean Whitefish Pate. Normally she won’t eat pates, but this one she devours. She’ll also eat the Turkey pate and occasionally the beef pate. I’m rather surprised about that. Like I said, she only eats fish flavors, so seeing her eat turkey and beef is unusual. And up until now she never liked pates, only cuts, shreds or cubes.
As for my other cats they love all the flavors and textures (cubed, pate…) of the Purina One food that I have served them. No one has had any issues. My other cats will eat any flavor I set out for them.
Incorporate an exercise or puzzle feeder into your feeding routine.
Since my cats tend to eat at different times all day long it’s hard to set out their food in a feeder. I also have to watch our dog because he will eat ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that is food related, especially the cat’s foods.
I’ve been putting treats into their Stimulo feeder. I just have to watch that our dog does not take over. Thankfully he doesn’t know how to retrieve the treats out of the taller tubes so I tend to put the treats in those tubes. Our dog, Espn, usually gets frustrated and walks away.
We have another feeder, or rather, a treat dispensing ball. It’s a Kong Wobbler Treat Dispenser. I don’t have an actual photo of ours (yet) but it looks like this.
The treats go inside and your cat needs to bat it around to try and get it to wobble so the treats will come out of the hole.
So far only Velcro and Anakin have tried to get the treats out of the ball. They are the same two cats in the above picture. The girls won’t even play with the puzzle toy. Bella did bat around the furry “tail” a few times, but ignored the treats inside. The boys, Velcro and Anakin, have swatted the wobbler around several times but give up if nothing comes out. Our dog on the other hand is relentless and tries non-stop to get the treats out (and have managed to knock a few out). Therefore I have to keep the toy high out of his reach when the cats are not using it.
I had a DIY activity this week but I didn’t have a container handy. I was suppose to make my own puzzle feeder. You can make your own with a plastic container (like a margarine container), or with toilet paper or paper towel tubes. If you Google it you can find a few ideas. Purina One has directions on how to make puzzle feeders on their site too. You can find the directions on this web page, Enrich Feeding Time for Your Cat. Make Her a Puzzle Feeder.
I never knew that puzzle feeders were beneficial to cats. I just thought of them as a toy with a treat. They are, but there is more to them than that.
If you have a single cat in your home, he/she might get bored and lonely when you are not around. A puzzle feeder provides them with stimulation and something fun to do. A bored and lonely cat could become destructive, or on the flip side, depressed. Having something fun and challenging to occupy their time not only acts as a boredom buster but also provide fun for your cat, which in turn can make them happy.
Cats are natural born hunters, so in a way a puzzle feeder is a way to “challenge” your cat they way a wild cat might be challenged to find food. For example, if a wild cat chased a small mouse into a hole, it would have to find a way to get the mouse out in order to eat it. It’s similar to the puzzle feeder. Your cat has to figure out how to get the food/treat out of the hole.
Using puzzle feeders is also a great way to slow your cat down when eating. Not all of my cats, but a few of them eat very quickly and often. That is why they are a bit on the chubby side. A puzzle feeder not only limits the amount of food they can have at any given time, it also slows them down from eating too quickly.
Playing is also a form of exercise, so having your cat playing with the puzzle feeders in order to retrive their food or treat is also a sneaky way to get them to exercise too.
This week I was also challenged to put the walking harness on one or a few of my cats a couple of times a day to get them used to wearing it. So far only Bella has been able to wear it with no issues. She doesn’t like wearing it, but she will wear it once I get it on her.
Wearing the harness a few times a day is a way to get them used to wearing it so that eventually I can take them outside for a walk and to let them explore the outside world. All of my cats are indoor cats. They do sit on the balcony, but we’re on the top floor so they have never actually felt grass under their feet. We were hoping to have a house by now so they could have a yard to play in but that has not happened yet.
Bella will wear shirts (those made for dogs) with no problem, so I knew she would be OK with the harness. Of my other cats I new that Velcro and Anakin (my boys) would not tolerate it at all. I had hopes that Paddy would wear it. Every time I got it on her she would flop over on her side and not get up.
My husband said it reminded him of “cow tipping” where the cow just falls over. That is what Paddy did.
I’m going to keep trying the harness with her to see if I can get her to at least sit up, and then maybe stand up wearing it.
I tried putting the harness on Kitty and she freaked out on me. I mean so much so that I thought she was going to tear me to shreds! She ma be a sweet cat, but when put in a stressful situation (like going to the vet) she turns into a beast. So she’s out.
I’m going to work on Paddy and maybe give Anakin a try too. Velcro would never do it. Velcro is afraid of his own shadow let along going outside. He panics if anyone comes into our home – even family members.
Bella did tolerate the harness, and I kind of skipped ahead on the challenge and took her outside twice already. She doesn’t do anything but sit in the grass. She won’t move… yet.
The first time I had her out our neighbor came up the stairs with their Rottweiler mix puppy (all 50+ pounds of him) which of course freaked Bella out. The second time I took her out she didn’t do anything but sit there.
Both time she was outside she had asthma attacks. Not when she was outside but rather shortly after I brought her inside. I’m really sure what is up with that. I might have to ask her doctor if being outside like that is OK for her. There is no pollen that I can see. There are trees but they haven’t started to bud or flower yet, so that cannot be the issue.
I’m going to keep trying with her, unless the vet tells me otherwise.
Lastly I was suppose to check out my cat’s responses to the changes in their nutrition and environment. As far as nutrition goes all of my cats really enjoy the Purina One cat food (except Paddy who is not fond of the dry food). I’m pleased that Bella will eat foods that are not seafood based and that she now likes pate in addition to the other forms of cat food.
As for the environment, all of my cats seem happy. They have several new toys that they love. The tunnel/tube is their favorite. They all love to play in it, most especially Bella and Anakin. They will stand at either end and then dive into it and try and get each other inside. Anakin also likes to hide inside of it and wait for one of the cats to walk by and then he pounces on them.
All my cats seem like themselves with no great notable changes. Bella is the only one I see the most changes with and I think that has a lot do to with her medications. She’s on two different inhalers now and she has less and less asthma attacks. She’s also eating A LOT more than she used to. I’m not sure if it’s medicine related, or she’s just eating more because she’s feeling better or because she really loves the food (she REALLY love the Purina One Ocean Whitefish pate).
I’ll post a new update this weekend (Sunday providing that nothing “pops up”). Keep an eye out for my next post.
Kimberly
*I am participating in this campaign through Purina One. There is no compensation however I did receive free product coupons and products as part of the campaign to implement with my cats.
ANN*H says
I have never heard of a puzzle feeder for cats. This is so cool they would love this . Having 2 cats , our first one which adopted a stray kitten which is now full grown too
They would love this. We usually feed them some dry and other canned foods. Thanks for all the information
Tammy S says
How funny that your cat would tip over when you put the harness on. Cat Tipping. LOL! My cat does the same thing. Just falls over like she can’t walk. We don’t take our cat’s outside even if they wanted to. We have a lot of coyotes in our area and a lot of the cat’s go missing. Thanks for the review.
Karen Glatt says
Your cats are cute! Purina makes very good cat food. My cat loves Purina One dry cat food and my dog likes Purina dry dog food. It is very healthy, but it does cost a little bit more. But cat and dog food are so important for a healthy animal. Like your cat in the harness!
Ari says
Wow, it’s so interesting how differently each of your cat behaves in regards to food, attempts to get food out and tolerating the harness. And your dog! Just the thought of Espn trying so desperately to get at the cat food makes me smile. Paddy and the cow-tipping comment sounds like a perfect analogy! Poor Bella with the asthma attacks! And Velcro being terrified! It’s so depressing when your pet shows obvious signs of anxiety. Glad all your kitties like the Purina One food. Your challenge looks like it’s improving their lives already. I’m curious about what else will change over time.
June M. says
I have been thinking of getting some toys like these for my boys. I think they would really like them. However they would NOT like the harness & leash. I live in the country so they are used to going out and wondering around on their own.
Janet W. says
Interesting… I’ve never seen a person walk a cat before. I guess that doesn’t feel natural to them to wear a harness. I’ve never owned a cat before so I don’t know much about walking them or their feedings.
Christina says
I have a cat that tips over when we try to put a collar, harness, leash or pretty much anything on her LOL She not only tips, but she stays where and how she lands, she just freezes and won’t move like whatever we put on her was made of lead and she can’t. Our cat who passed LOVED being on the harness and going for walks. We often walked him with the dog and neighbors were amazed at how he just walked, stopped to sniff a bit and walked some more, just like the dog.
I love those feeders, I’ve wanted to get one for our cats but we have one that is allergic to plastic so I’m not sure how she’d do with the kong type ones.
Karen R says
I walked our cat, Jasmine, on a leash in the past. I carried her outside and put her down and let her explore the yard and I walked with her. I think she enjoyed our outdoor time. When the weather gets warmer, we’ll venture out again.
Blessie Nelson says
I hope Bella gets much healtier with this challenge. Good luck and hoping for her!