I Can Haz Wet Foodz?

Jesse and I had a lot of mileage off of the tacos, so there hasn’t been anything new in the last few days for our diet. But, our cats have had a HUGE change in theirs, and they asked me to include their food habits for a blog entry. So here we go:

As many of you may know, we have three cats:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wade
DOB 6/15/2006



George Weasley Wade
DOB 3/16/2007



Fred Weasley Wade
DOB 3/16/2007



So, we used to feed the cats all in the same room, twice a day, and the same food. They got 1 cup of dry food 2 times a day. Their food was Dick Von Pattens Low Calorie food, which for us can only be purchased at Petco, which fortunately isn’t too far away.

Sadly for the cats, we’ve had a few problems over the last few weeks. It started off with poor Fred getting very, very sick. We were told that if he recovered, he would need a dietary change for the rest of his life. Thankfully, our little one recovered after four and a half days in the animal hospital.

Because of Fred being sick, we took Mozart and Georgie into the vet to have some tests run on them because A) Georgie is from the same litter as Fred and could be more likely to have the same problems as Fred had and B) they all eat the same food and could be food related. Well, we were told something pretty obvious: Georgie and Mozart are FAT!!! In fact, Banfield says that Mozart is obese! So, feeling a bit embarrassed (I mean, they get low calorie food and such), we asked the vet for some advice. She said that we need to feed them in separate rooms, ¼ cup of food 2x/day, and for only 15 minutes each session. Yippie! Just what we needed, even more difficult cats. But we love our kitties and want them to be healthy, so we bit the bullet. We decided to start Tuesday night after we brought Fred home from the hospital. Here’s how it worked…

We started by rounding up each of the cats and shutting them inside a room. By virtue of our house being small, we only have three choices – both non-master bedrooms and the hall bathroom.

Then, we found 3 bowls and put them on the counter. We grabbed Fred’s super delicious wet food (at least that’s what all the animals think) and measured out ¼ cup. We then scooped some of the dry food into the two other bowls (of course measuring only ¼ cup). Then we shoved a bowl in each room before the cats could escape and Yoda could break through our defenses. We really need one of those openings that jail cells have. Hmm…



This went on for a few days and the cats barely ate anything. They don’t do well with being told they only have a certain amount of time to eat. In addition to that, Mozart and Georgie decided to go on hunger strike because Fred got wet food and they didn’t. I tried to tell them Fred also had four and a half days in the animal hospital and that was why he had wet food, but they didn’t care.

So by the time Friday rolled around, we had starving cats. I took Fred to the vet for a follow up and she informed me that Mozart also had crystals in his urine. She recommended that Mozart and Georgie go on the wet food diet for 30 days. She also recommended buying this powder stuff to mix into their food to help dissolve any crystals. My first thought? “Awesome, now all of the cats need to eat really expensive, prescription-only wet food…”



Of course that night for dinner, Mozart and Georgie were all like, “YIPPIE SKIPPY!!!!! WET FOOD!!!” They were so excited, that they slammed that food down. After 15 minutes I went to let Mozart out. He had licked his bowl clean and turned it over to prove how awesome his new food was. We’re pretty sure Georgie finished his in about 5 seconds since he spent most of the 15 minutes meowing to get out. Even Yoda got in on the fun. He likes to hang outside the rooms where the cats are eating and lick the floor, hoping for a little taste of super-awesome wet food.

Here is Mozart's bowl:



Here are all of the pets with their wet food:

Fred:

Mozart:


Georgie, who is saying: "I can has more?"


Yoda, who is thinking, "Mommy and Daddy are so nice by letting me make sure the cats licked this bowl clean!!!!"




Moral of this story: Pets (furry ones) really, really LOVE wet food.

But this wouldn’t be our food blog without ratings, so here we go:

Sarah:

Preparation: I give this a 2 out of 5. We used to just scoop food into a bowl and sometimes shut all 3 cats up. Now we have to get the three bowls, measure the food, mix in some powder, AND wrangle us some cats. All the while Yoda barks at us because HE doesn’t get wet food…

Taste for whole thing: The cats give this a 5 out of 5. They really, freaking love wet food. In case you haven’t figured this out.

Pickiness Factor: I give this a 5 out of 5!!! For pets… All 4 of ours dig this!

Jesse:

Preparation - i'll give this a 3 out of 5. It certainly takes a little longer to open a can, measure out the correct amount, and then smear it into the bowl instead of just using a measuring cup of dry food. And having to currently mix in powdered meds makes this even worse…not to mention having a swarm of cats as well as Yoda begging for its quick delivery. But then again, it's not like i'm cooking. Can ---> Bowl ---> Stomach ---> Win

Taste – 4 out of 5. As far as cat food goes, this stuff isn’t actually that bad. It’s loaded in fat, so you get a good flavor. They could do a little better job on the hummus-type consistency, but I guess that only means you don’t have to exert much effort swallowing. The subtle hint of a woodsy aftertaste puts this ahead of the rest.

Cost – 2 out of 5 – not being able to buy bulk amounts of this is a shame. And since it’s prescription, your places of purchase are limited (and it’s expensive). But I don't know if i would want to have a 5gal. bucket of this in the first place.

AVERAGE RATING: 3.5