Finicky stomach's & weird allergies

The trials and tribulations of having 12 cats varying in ages ensure that there's never a dull moment. Just a small recap: we have 1 diabetic cat - Jasper - who resides in the large bathroom, 1 FIV+ cat - Dobby - a free roamer of the entire house, 2 cats with kidney disease - Smokey & Rollie - free roamers of the entire house, and 1 cat with chronic bronchitis/allergies - Vera - also a free roamer of the entire house. Doesn't seem so bad in writing, right?! Those are just the ones with some sort of health issue!

Jasper - he's on a controlled diet - a set feeding schedule with a set amount of food throughout the day. This came about for 2 primary reasons - diabetics need to be mindful of weight/carbs/sugars (yep, still applies in the feline world!) and he turned out to be a fast eater who would wolf down his entire serving in a mere few seconds and immediately throw it all back up. Out the door went a simple twice-a-day feeding. Enter the greatest thing in technology - an automatic feeder! It goes off on a schedule - based on what we programmed it to - and only a set amount of food at each serving. It easily holds a little over a week of food, has a battery backup if the power goes out! So he now gets several mini feedings throughout a 24-hour period. Keeps his sugar levels better maintained, and now no fast eating to the point of getting sick. He still eats really fast sometimes - but no more getting sick because he has time to process each tiny meal he gets. He gets an appetizer of chicken squeeze up in the morning with his probiotic mixed in - he LOVES that and will wait at the door for it, calling out if he thinks we are late with it.

Enter the Siamese Rollie & Smokey - kidney disease - this changed some things in our house. Mainly, it put us at a higher price point for food - that is now being fed to 11 cats. Just to give you a picture - I used to buy a 22 lb bag of cat food (healthy weight/hairball control) every 2ish weeks for 11 cats. So, 44 lbs of cat food in 4 weeks at a more reasonable price of about $46 per 22 lb bag. Now we feed them Renal support dry cat food - 11 lbs for $69.99 once a week. So, I used to spend $92 a month for 11 cats and now I spend $279.96 a month. (Yes, that makes me absolutely sick to my stomach!!) That's just the dry food - it doesn't include the wet food.

Wet food brings its own set of challenges. Let's start with prescription renal food -

also expensive, that is for Rollie & Smokey. In my house, crack a can of anything and ALL the cats come running for wet food. So I have to buy prescription and non-prescription - just to save some money. Depending on where I get it, wet food goes on sale - so long as it's not prescription. Enter the million-dollar bathroom cat Jasper. He is literally the anomaly here - in a perfect world he could eat the non-prescription food, but he is allergic to the fish flavors, fish additives, fish oil, salmon oil. I know, shocking - a cat allergic to all things fish-related. Now, take that allergy to the wet food aisle, read a few labels of the Beef, Beef/liver, Chicken, and any other non-fish flavored food. Get just a few ingredients in and you'll find there is some sort of fish/fish oil additive. No big deal, right? It's not like that's the number one ingredient. Jasper would like to tell you in no uncertain terms - It's a huge deal. He will eat the wet food because he absolutely LOVES the wet food and it truly is a treat for him. But no sooner does he eat it, and he has emptied his stomach from all the food he's eaten in the last 12 - 24 hours.

So we have:

Rollie & Smokey - Prescription Wet Food - for Kidney Disease

9 other cats that can eat non-prescription food

Jasper - non-prescription wet food - but it can have no trace of fish or fish oil.

Let's also stop and ponder - wet food has a higher water content. But my wacky cats like their wet food to be more of a soupy mix that tastes like wet food. I'm thankful for that as it makes the wet food spread a little farther around!

We have entered the stage of crazy cat owners who now have food containers labeled for each set of food specifications. All to make feeding wet food easier (I can mix it with water and have it ready for doling out!) This also ensures that any guest in our house doesn't attempt to eat anything from those containers.

So, if feeding 12 cats seemed easy while they are all rubbing on your legs and crying while you scoop out the 12 bowls, add in all those extras who can have what, who needs what, etc. No walk in the park for sure! There have been days when I would think, just don't give Jasper the wet food, but he sits at his door and cries because he most certainly heard the cat food can top pop.

The last two pieces of the wet food headache - Smokey doesn't love to eat when I put out the food, so it's hit or miss if she's getting what she needs from the prescription food. Hazel - she's adorable for sure, but absolutely prefers to eat on the step, partially hidden by the wall. It's a safe spot for her, I guess, although the other cats do come and eat from her bowl - so it's just safe from the humans!

Till our Tails cross again,

Mel