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We've been slowly transitioning our brother and sister cats from Dick Van Patten's whatever food to Nature's Variety Instinct and we've run into a bit of a snafu. The cats had been doing fine on it over the month or so where we mixed the two foods and only the new food towards then end of the last bag. But when we opened a fresh bag, it seems that our boy cat likes it SO MUCH he'll gorge and barf, repeatedly. My girlfriend found a bowl that's supposed to slow them down--it's like an upside down bowl with holes in it they have to reach into to pull out the food. It seems to work OK for now but we've still got a couple issues: 1. My girlfriend is worried that they aren't getting enough food and are going to get fatty liver disease and die. It seems like they'd spend more time getting the food out if they were that hungry. They are a little overweight and we're trying to cut down, but haven't actually trimmed their portions below recommended amounts yet (wanted to get them used to the better food first) so the only way they'd be getting not enough food is if they were just giving up on getting the food out and starving. I've watched them pull the food out and it doesn't look like it's THAT challenging for them. 2. The boy cat still barfs sometimes. This morning he did it and there wasn't even much food in it. I'm not sure what the issue is. Before he was definitely gorging but it was mostly clear stuff with just a little food. The boy was just in to the vet after having a bad allergic reaction to some almond butter off something in the sink (almond butter has since been banished from the house.) We panicked a bit on this round of barfing because we thought it might be related, but after talking to the vet it seems like it's mostly something to do with eating too fast or just indigestion. The cat doesn't seem uncomfortable at all after the barf and is still pooping and peeing fine. I'm wondering if we should try a different food all together? I don't want to make things worse by switching things up on them again. I also really like the idea of Nature's Variety since the factory is only an hour away from where I live. Obviously that's not enough reason to stick with a food that makes the kitties sick though.
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Aug 19, 2013 19:13
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 00:06 |
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LoreOfSerpents posted:One of my cats used to eat too quickly, so here's what worked for me: Cool, I think the weird bowl is working sortof like the marbles. The clear with not much food has only happened once and our vet doesn't think it's any kind of blockage as the cat actually seems more energetic and rowdy than ever. We were thinking about switching to wet food anyway so perhaps our solution isn't that far away.
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Aug 20, 2013 17:23
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One of my cats has always had issues eating to fast and barfing, and it's getting a bit worse. He didn't have the issue when he was a kitten/younger cat and we had him on some lower quality dry food (Natural Balance). Now they're eating Nature's Variety Instinct dry food. We've tried to slow him down with a special bowl and that worked for quite a while (like, years), but it seems that he's learned how to down stuff fast enough again. I think the "freeze dry raw coating" on the Nature's Variety stuff might be part of the problem so I might try switching them to solid gold or some other brand that doesn't have it. Any time we'd gotten the kind with freeze dried chunks the cat would instantly barf so I'm wondering if it messes with his tummy.
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Oct 2, 2016 20:26
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