Conference misery::feline_v1

Mine is crazy about ice cream.  I made the mistake of giving her
a little once.  Now, she starts screaming for ice cream whenever
I open the freezer door to get a TV dinner out.

She is also *very* particular about the kind of cat food she will
eat, though I expect this is rather common.  She insists on 9-lives
out of the can (none of that dry stuff, please) and prefers the
sliced veal or beef variety.  That is OK by me, since that seems to
be the least digusting (to humans) type of canned cat food that I've
found.

			Bob A.

Naw.  Cats aren't really picky.  At least mine aren't.  They eat anything I 
put down for them dry, canned or Tender vittles type.  They will *anything*
we don't want them eat including: a loaf of bread, raw potatos, half a jar
of brewers yeast(which they promptly threw up all over the living room while 
we were on our honeymoon), cotton balls,...you get the picture.

Actually, to be strictly honest there is one thing they won't eat.  One time 
when I was a starving student and needed to stretch the budget, I got some
*cheap* cat food called, believe it or not, Acme cat food.   It sat on the
floor untouched for three days.  Nothing sits untouched for three days in this
house.  Even if they won't eat it, they'll find away to play with it.  Nope.
Wouldn't touch it.  I finally broke down and mixed some Friskees in with it.
It still didn't disappear as fast as it usually does, but it went.  

tlh

Two cats in my previous life (1st childhood) had an absolute pasion for
vegetables. Green beans, limas, applesause, green fried tomatoes(!), 
but their particular passion was for fresh buttered corn on the cob. 
They would chase a cob of corn around and around, laying their heads 
on it sideways so they could gnaw with their side teeth on it. By the 
time they were through, we had two very greasy cats. 

Since they got a lot of vegies, we never worried about trying to grow 
grass or other greens for them in the winter. However, when they 
thought they needed more roughage, they would devour my mother's 
spider plants.

I couldn't eat popcorn sitting on the floor, they would crawl into the 
bowl.

The only things we ever discovered they wouldn't eat were bananas,
pickles, and stewed rhubarb. 

I have seen talk of COON cats -- what are they (I hear they are big).
mike

     Puddie has always been exceptional when it comes to people food.  I could 
leave a piece of raw meat on the counter to thaw and never have to worry about 
her trying to get into it.  She likes fish (Long John Silver's), chicken, and 
veal, but she Never begs.
     Li'l Kitty, on the other hand, is full of mischief but also very finicky. 
That piece of raw meat on the counter wouldn't last long at her paws :-).  She 
loves to nibble on beef ribs and goes crazy over fish or chicken, but she 
won't eat cheese, packaged lunch meat, fruits or vegetables.  
     As for kitty-type foods, Puddie is 16 now and is starting to lose some 
teeth so she doesn't go in for dry foods too much anymore, though she still 
enjoys Tender Vittles.  Li'l Kitty loves dry cat food and usually prefers it 
to the canned.  Since they are so finicky, I've been buying a variety of brands
and flavors to try to keep them interested.  This works sometimes.  I buy Kal
Kan, 9 Lives, Purina 100, and Fancy Feast (their favorite and, naturally, the
most expensive). 

[Re .4, query about Maine Coon cats - see note 5 and responses. (Yes,
they ARE large!)]

My cats, who have dedicated their lives to being direct opposites of
one another, maintain their differences in their eating habits. Chiun,
the Balinese, loves Tender Vittles and that ilk, as well as the small
cans - Friskies, KalKan, etc. He doesn't like dry food much at all,
and won't touch it unless there's no other choice. He likes poultry,
and will get very friendly if someone is eating a chicken sandwich,
but otherwise he doesn't beg much.

Abigail hates Tender Vittles and all such plastic cat food, but does
eat the canned stuff. She prefers dry kibble to munch on between meals,
with Special Dinners - the white-coated stuff - her favorite. She will
eat almost anything, though, especially if people are eating it. Corn,
melon, avocado, potato chips (she boxes them right out of our hands
if we're not careful) and just about anything else. She's also crazy
about those little kitty treats - I've forgotten the name, but oddly
enough this stuff is similar to Tender Vittles, preservatives and all.
She dotes on it, standing on her hind legs to reach for one and generally
losing all self-respect!

-b

Erick drinks beer. Only the good stuff, though.

these Coon cats -- do they have the appearance as a typical house cat
or can you get one with long exotic hair lke a persian ?

Take care, Mike  (Andover)...

The ones I've seen are all long-haired; I think it's one of the
characteristics of the breed. Most of them are tabby or tabby and
white, but I've heard of some black-and-white ones, and even all-black
ones (must be beautiful!). They are *large* cats, with broad faces
and big eyes, but they don't have the Persian "snub nose".

Their tails are very fluffy, and are often - for the tabbies, anyway -
marked with noticeable rings, which is how the "Coon" part of the name
originated. The folklore says that Maine Coon cats are the product of
a mating between a house cat and a raccoon. This is ridiculous, of course,
but it makes a cute story.

The only Maine Coon cat that I've ever known personally is a rather
old gentleman, very good-natured and dignified (most of the time).
He's affectionate but not effusive; and there's something very knowing
in those big golden eyes of his. If I were to find myself in need of
another cat, I might consider a Maine Coon - but then, traditionally,
I get my cats by picking up the first needy individual that I encounter,
so it's more or less pot-luck! (But not a bad method; I've gotten some
beautiful and loving pets that way.)

-b

Stanley eats most anything, especially if it was meant for our dinner, not
his.  The other two are much more discriminating.  On the topic of cat
food, I find that my crew will eat something one time, and absolutely
refuse it another.  This is a behavior that, not only can't I figure
out, but infuriates me when I have just bought 4 cans of something
and they decide it is time to go on strike on that variety.

The soft bagged foods are winners with both Stanley and Juliette, but
Bitser is much to dignified to eat anything that is not natural.  She
is my fussiest, but even she will melt when I add a little fresh fish
broth (something I always have around) to their dinner, no matter what
it is.

The ONLY dry food any of the three will eat is Meow Mix.  I think we 
would make a great add for them.  I have bought all sorts of other
dry foods, which will sit for weeks until I give it to some friend
and return the Meow Mix to the bowl.

Ellen

Our cats seem to go more for the canned stuff than the dry stuff.

I don't know if they'd like vegetables or not, 'cause they never get any,
'cause I don't eat them.

They love cheese, though, in practically any form. Like nacho cheese 
Doritos.

They also love butter. It's not safe to leave a stick out on the counter
and turn your back on them. They know they're not allowed up there, either!
One night they went through a whole stick. I was surprised they didn't get
sick.

Charlie

     I just founfd out that Pip has a passion for Nacho Doritos.  I was 
sitting in bed, reading and munching on a bag and Pip was playing vulture.
(You know the pose... Sitting next to you but not encroaching just staring 
at you intensly while trying to look like he's starving.)(which hard is 
very hard for Merry, who weighs in at 17 lbs, do to, I might add.)  Then all 
of the sudden he pounced!  No claws, just tried to scare me into dropping the
chip so he could have it.  Finally to get some peace, I starting gving him 
one every now and then to keep him from pouncing.  He let me know when I
waited too long between treats.

    My cats aren't picky about their food.  They are picky about their water.
Even if the water is fresh and cold in a newly cleaned bowl, they'd rather 
drink out of the toilet or from a running spigot or lick the condensation off
the outside of a glass.

tlh

We have two cats, Thaipan and Smudge, brothers.  Neither of them are really 
picky eaters though we do change the type of dry food that we feed them pretty 
often.  They both adore chicken and beef (particularly roast), but they don't 
get on the counter or table for it (they've been hit a few times for that).  
The odd one is Thaipan.  He goes absolutely crazy over chocolate.  We finally 
had to go to using a covered candy dish if we want to leave any out, 
otherwise he jumps on the coffee table and steals the chocolate bars off the 
table.  He then takes them under the sofa (well hidden) and eats them, leaving 
the torn wrappers every where.

Irene

Fuji, the 22-lb. wonder (he looks exactly like Sylvester of Tweety and
Sylvester fame), is not finicky--just voracious.  He'll beg for his supper
as soon as I get home (which can be as early as 4:30 with flextime in
manufacturing), then he'll beg again at 6:00 whether or not he ate at
4:30!  Sometimes he even tricks Steve into feeding him again; he meows
so pitifully you just know this cat has been starved for days (and was
forced to watch catfood commercials during that time for extra punishment).

My late little calico, B. R. Kitty, was a fiend for Famous Chocolate
Wafers (she and Steve had a hilarious encounter over those one night),
buttered corn, Chinese food, clams (she once ate 18 steamers--and this
was just a little 8-lb. munchkin of a kitty!), and would KILL for shrimp
(I had a New Year's Eve party one year and served shrimp cocktail--B. R.
managed to beg half of them away from the party guests.)

Fuji will occasionally drink beer, which came in mighty handy the night
he got "skunked" and he and I had to take a tomato-juice shower together--
he was so upset by the smell alone, he wasn't going anywhere near water
unless I calmed him down.  

Thank you, Beck's Dark.

E.

Our kitty, Figaro, loves asparagus.  We're lucky if we can get it out of
the garden before she gets to it.

A while ago we bought some of the kitty treats called Pounce.  We began
giving her one or two treats when we went to bed, to coax her up to our
bedroom for the night.  It got to a point where everytime we approached 
the staircase she would bolt upstairs.  Now, she jumps on the bed and 
begins drueling!  We've managed to acquire a Pavlov's cat!  It's amazing
how wet she gets us.  We get a big chuckle out of it, anyway.

We were told by our vet that Figaro shouldn't have dry cat food.  Seems 
that it causes her to have urinary track problems.  Anybody know anything
about this?  We've not given her dry food for about two years now.  

Re .15: the "no dry cat food" business usually has to do with a fear of
urinary tract problems. See note 56 and replies for some comments on
this.

-b

	Our two cats also have differing tastes.  Chorniy is nick-named
FatCat or Pig because he pushes Koshka out of her dish if we don't watch
him.  He likes quantity.  Both cats like human food, especially chips
(any sort), cheetos, meat/fish/poultry (we have to subdue them if we're
eating steak or hamburger), and any sort of potatoes or rice.  Koshka
is our adventurous eater.  She loves chocolate and usually begs half of
what I am eating.  She has been known to eat up to 1/4 cup of chocolate
ice-cream, even though it was VERRRRRY cold - Chorniy will only eat
vanilla.  She's the one who cleans up the dishes after spaghetti dinners,
eats corn, and used to pull the artichoke leaves out of the garbage to chew
on.  She'll also chew on bones (beef). Late one night we head a strange
rhythmic thunking which turned out to be Koshka attempting to prop a 
T-bone up on end to get a better chewing angle, losing her grip, pulling
it up, dropping it, etc until she finally got it firmly gripped.

I recently discovered that my cats prefer spring water to tap water -- not
surprisingly, since our tap water (in Burlington, MA) is pretty bad.  We
usually have a 2-1/2 gallon jug of Poland Spring water in the fridge and I
draw the cats' water from that.  However, a few weeks ago we ran out and it
took us a while to get some more.  I gave the cats tap water in the meantime,
and there was hardly ever a change in the water level.  As soon as we got
more spring water, the water level in the cats' water bowl lowered drastically
overnight.

Chayna is the only cat I've ever known who doesn't like the things cats
usually like -- eggs, fish, cheese, meat, chicken, and so on.  I've brought
home prime rib, fish, etc. from restaurants and she wouldn't touch it!  The
only non-cat-food item I've found that she likes is the liquid from tunafish
cans.  She won't eat the tuna, but loves the juice!  Weird.  She's fairly
finicky about her cat food -- only 9-Lives canned, and only certain flavors
(beef, veal, beef & liver, chicken & liver and, just recently, Western Menu).
She also likes Meow Mix dry food.

Jasper, on the other hand, is a glutton, or would be, if I let him.  He's
not at all finicky.  One of the non-cat-food items he likes is spaghetti
sauce (not so unusual; I've known other cats who liked it).

							-- Nina

On urinary tract problems:  the common housecat is descended primarily
from the Kaffir cat of the Egyptian desert, and as a descendent from
such a genetic heritage has a special needdf on trace elwments.  For
a reasonable percentage of cats, an excess of magnesium can cause a
degree of crystal formation in the bladder, resulting in wall irritation 
and actual bleeding.  The way around this is to feed cats a magnesium-low
diet.  From veteranarians, you can obtain C/D Feline in canned or
dry form.  Also, there are a couple of commercially canned foods,
both manufactured by Friskies: Beef & Liver and Turkey & Giblets, that have
a low enough magnesium content to be used.

On eating habits -- my late sealpoint, Angelica liked to drink coffee.
Black.

My current cats all like thin-sliced aged roast beef.

My two cats like the following people food: scrambled eggs, cheese, chicken,
lamb chops, cream cheese (with or without bagels), sometimes milk, and
raisin bran. 

For real cat food, all I buy is 9-lives and Purina 100 canned stuff and
Purina dry foods. My vet approves of these choices. I occasionally
give them Tender Vittles, although its not as good for them. They also
get Bonkers treats once in a while.

For beverages, they only like milk when its in my glass - they won't
drink it out of a bowl. They drink water, but like it best from the
bathtub or a slowly dribbling faucet. Also, my older cat (2 years)
can't drink from his water bowl until after he's kicked the bowl
all over the kitchen floor, creating puddles.

Marlene

Might as well throw my $.02 in here.

All the cats I've ever had seem to have at least one "weird" thing they 
loved.  Probably the weirdest one was green olives!  Another cat I had 
liked potato chips and would eat them out of my hand.  The other thing 
I've noticed is that in general you can broadly categorize cats as
fish eaters or fowl eaters.

Our two cats are as different as night and day re eating habits.  The 
older one (11) is a fowl and meat eater, and always wants to eat what 
we're eating.  The other one, however, seldom if ever eats table scraps 
or any of the other goodies like cheese, ham, hamburg, etc.  The only 
people food he will eat is fish.  As with most cats, neither one of them 
will drink water out of their bowl...they all have their favorites, with 
the toilet of course being number 1.  However Whizbang (the younger one) 
prefers the fish tank for his water supply.  (He doesn't bother the fish
however)

rpp

	Kat likes raw tofu.
	They all like Cheez Balls (yech!).  They can play with them before
eating them!
		<_Jym_>

                     BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!
    
    MY REGGIE *LOVES* GREEN OLIVES! I DISCOVERED THIS THE HARD WAY THOUGH.
    I WAS EATING OLIVES ONE DAY WHEN REG HOPPED UP ON ME, SNIFFED MY
    MOUTH AND PROMPTLY CHOMPED ON IT! BEING QUICK TO UNDERSTAND...!
    I GAVE HIM ONE AND HE COMMENCED TO INHALING THE LITTLE MORSEL! 
    HE ALSO HAS A FETISH FOR FIG NEWTONS, HE DOESN'T GET THEM VERY OFTEN
    THOUGH, I'M NOT SURE IF THEY'RE TO GOOD FOR HIM. THERE'S NOT MUCH
    HE WON'T EAT, IF HE WANTS IT, HE TAKES IT EVEN IF IT MEANS TAKING
    OUT OF MY MOUTH!! 
    AS FOR OTHER (NORMAL?) CAT FOOD, HE'S ANOTHER 9-LIVES VEAL AND BEEF
    EATER

    Out of my three cats, only Uggie has strange tastes in food. He
    loves potato chips, although he doesn't eat a lot of them at a time.
    But I was quite surprised when I held out a potato chip to him and
    he took it and gobbled it down. Actually, when it comes down to
    it, all our cats have strange eating habits. One evening my husband
    and I had eaten at Ming Gardens and we had brought home some chicken
    with cashew nuts. The next day I reheated it and had some for dinner,
    but when I couldn't finish it I offered it to the cats. Well, Pooki
    and Uggie each took a bite and were not interested - but Minki
    proceeded to scoff the entire dish down (cashews and all)! Between
    the three of them we'll almost always find one who'll eat something
    unusual.

    Since my last entry in this space, my wife discovered accidentally
    that Vivianne (my black half-Siamese) loves Jello vanilla pudding.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    My cats are not particularly odd, but each has a little dietary
    oddity.  One like crackers -- not to eat, to lick the salt off of.
    The other likes share Grapenuts (tm) with me; she has no scrupples
    about eating from my bowl, though I do and generally provide her
    with a saucer and a couple of teaspoons full.  If I don't have
    Grapenuts again the following day, I get cussed out.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    Re .27:
    
    >                          -< See also topic 79 >-
    
    Is that the note on self-reference?
    
    
    				-- edp

Who would have guessed it ?

I was eating some old stale salt-free peanuts.  What's-his-face was
whining next to my chair.  I held out a peanut to show him he doesn't
*really* want what I'm eating.  He gingerly took it from my fingers.
(He's not too used to being hand-fed).

Boy, was I surprised when he ate the peanut !  I gave him some more,
and he ate them all.

    Souche eats mostly tender vittles type of foods for cats.  She has
    never had what we are eating for dinner.  She does like to lay on
    her back and sleep underfoot while we are eating a meal, however.
    Some of the ODD things she does like are apples  (the ones already
    in your mouth preferabley), green grapes (peeled. of course), any
    kind of ice cream, milk spilt on floors (not in her dish) and eggs
    that have accidently fallen on the floor but not in her  dish.  
    She is one of the most loving felines I have encountered in my pet
    cat life.  I really think she thinks I am her mother.  My husband
    is convinced she thinks I'm her mother.
    This was an interesting and amusing topic to read.  I really enjoyed
    this one.                                      
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    My kitten probably likes all the usual meat and milk containing
    foods.  She hasn't had too much of it, since we're trying not to
    give her too many bad habits.  Unfortunately, I am a sucker when
    it comes to animals and food.  One afternoon, I was eating sardines,
    and Shadow started pathetically MYOO-ing.  I gave her one.  She
    practically inhaled it.  She also tries to sit in my lap (in my
    plate) when I am eating.  Then last night my husband cooked bacon.
    30 seconds after he took the bacon out of the plastic wrap she let
    out this horrible screech (she doesn't have a very loud voice, so
    I guess screech is her way of being loud).  I thougt she was in
    horrible pain or something.  No.  There she was, sniffing the air,
    breathing in all that bacon stuff.  Then she stood on her hind legs
    like a dog begging.  She was so intent on the bacon that she wouldn't
    even eat cheeze that was offered to her.  She didn't get any, however,
    because my husband was cook, and he's immune to animal begging.

	My cat Shamus has recently started doing something quite unusual -
	he likes to lick envelopes and stamps!  I come home at night and
	open my mail, and he starts licking the flaps of the envelopes I've
	just opened.  Last night I was paying my bills and had left a sheet
	of stamps lying out and he started licking the stamps when I wasn't 
	watching.  I can't quite figure out what it is about mucillage
	that he finds so delicious!  

	Pam

    
    	That's interesting. My coon cat Samantha recently developed
        a taste for scotch tape. I've come home from work many days
        finding little teethie marks in the scotch tape.
    
    	I wonder ....
    
   

    My cats have *always* had a field day with the glue on envelopes
    and stamps.  The (usually) used envelopes they can have;  I am less
    amused when they get into the unusued stamps!
    
    As for scotch tape, mine love it when I roll it into a clunky ball,
    sticky-stuff out.  They bat it, but it sticks to their paw, then
    they shake the paw - and when the tape ball is finally detached,
    they sneak up to it, sniff around it, and start all over again.
    
    Hysterical to watch.  Masking tape is even better.

    Have you ever encountered something like this?  It seems that
    Sy waits until I get home (doesn't matter what hour) then finishes
    off what ever food is left in his dish.  Then he lets me know in
    no uncertain terms that he wants more food.  Its like he is saving
    the food in case I don't come home for hours.
    
    BTW-he has always been an only cat and only recently started with
    this behavior.  
    
    la

    My 'cat sitter' has mentioned that mine do similar things when I
    am gone.  So long as we sleep in the house at night - the cats seem
    to trust that we will fill the food bowls.  (They get dry science
    diet maintenance - free feeding).  But when we disappear for a night
    or two, they get worried, and save up the food.  Once they were
    so relieved to see the cat sitter (to them a well known/loved cat
    sitter!) that they cleaned everything up.  I guess they figured
    they had not been forgotten and were left in the care of familiar
    *trusted* hands!
    
    Cats come up with the strangest things sometimes!
    
    Sally

    Sukie, one of my parents cats goes nuts for Quavers or Wotsits,
    whereas Jasmine, the other won't touch anything faintly crisp-like
    prefering Munchies for which she will be an absolute slave, Suke's
    don't give a damn about them...
    
    Dinah had the most unexpected taste I've known of though.  she loved
    chocolate covered toffee, especially curlywurlies.  She'd take a
    bit you'd broken off the end of it chew on it for as long as possible
    and them try to steal it whilst you were eating it until she got
    some more.  Must have been lousy for her teeth though I supose.
    She also had a wierd taste for cat litter ... clean only of course.
    That I put a stop to for her health's sake by substituting wood
    shavings which she seemed to prefer to use for its proper purpose
    ......but then she never was the same about her litter tray from
    the time that she had to share it with a rabbit, but then that's
    another story.

    Be careful about letting cat food sit around for more than a few
    hours.  The vet says to put down food for one meal.  If there is
    any left over, throw it away.  It goes ransid.

    Tiger, my Maine Coon, age 9 years, loves a spoonfull of yogurt or
    a little sour cream. He can hear a yogurt top or a sour cream top
    being opened from a dead sleep. He'll stand or sit with the most
    pathetic look until you offer him some. A sardine is his favorite
    but he likes to carry it around before he eats it. A great help
    to us is that he loves dry cat food. This enables us to load up
    an auto feeder and go hiking for a long weekend. The feeder did
    jam once, and he was a little ravenous when we got home, but as
    a rule it works out well. 

I read that it's not a good idea to feed cats anything with sugar in it- they
can't digest it and it's bad for their teeth (since they don't brush their
teeth daily).  :)