Change of seasons

While we were away on holiday, our cat sitter reported via sms that HRH was eating very well, and would completely finished/cleaned up both bowls of dry and wet food. That I thought was quite a feat, but since we came back, I realised HRH wasn't eating much of the dry food. It turns out that Coco has decided she didn't like Sannabella anymore, and would only finish up the RC kibbles placed on one side of her bowl. So now, her dry food diet is changed to 100% RC.

Although she's totally very interested in smelling whatever human food we are eating, Coco had never once been interested in eating our food, but all of a sudden, she really likes to eat grilled saba (Spanish mackeral), so much so that she will begged / demand to have some of it, and later asked for a 2nd and even a 3rd helping!


I wonder how long her current flavour of the month will last.

Ps: The saba was cooked as it is, i.e. unsalted & with no seasoning, so Coco was not unnecessarily exposed to undesirable food elements.

Is she a 大陆猫?

HRH now seems to despise her once-favourite Fussie Cat tuna with salmon, although she still eats some of the other flavours. Her current favourite of the month is this:


Tom & Pus *whisper - made in PRC* *Sshhh...*

She likes it so much that she's even willing to eat it cold (straight from the fridge).

>_<"

Sometimes, she likes to supplement her diet by catching her own food, which we prohibits as far as possible.




{Chinese translator: 大陆猫 (da4 lu4 mao1) means "cat from the land of PRC (i.e. 大陆)}

Me the PI cat

Mommy says she has to stay away from the PC, so asked me to blog my report on my PI work! She said someone's been asking about the origin of some cat food that we have at home, so I have to make a convincing case that they aren't made in PRC!

Waa... why me?!?


Here's a big bag of Sanabelle Adult formula which was purchased recently.


Here you can see that I am looking high and low for the country of origin, which means the country where it is made. It was really quite hard to find it, as my England is not so powderful yet, you know!


Ahh, here it is! I've found it!


Next, is a bag of RC which comes in 3 types and shapes. The bag say it's a formula for "special" cat... yes, special cats just like me! :)


But mommy say "special" just means it's for extra fussy type of cats... like me.

*Angry*


So I tried to look for the country of origin... there were so many small words...


Finally, I've found it too! Mommy says I did a good job and gave me extra salmon treats. After that, I was so tired from my PI work that I went straight to take my beauty nap.

I must have been too free

Car decal by CWS



An old ad campaign by CWS years' ago


I still see it on the roads occasionally

Cute "smiling" car


Made in China


Also made in China...as I was recently informed (after news of the tainted milk scandal broke). And no, I didn't ask.

Buy 2 cans get 1 free woh...works out to be 80 cents per can. I'd tried some on HRH Coco, who seems to like it...think she's getting tired of Fussiecat. It must be too much of a good thing...

Feeding the fussy HRH

A pretty bowl, in a good large size...


...which I didn't buy it for HRH... Heh! I've been using microwaveable plastic bowls, or the discards from my old pottery class.

I was short of canned food one evening, and on the way home, went to buy this to feed Shiny, and gave the (clean) leftovers to try on Coco.


To my surprise, Coco took to it, and on the next night too.


But it costs more than Fussiecat. >_<"



Coco really knows how to pick and choose!


These (below) are cheaper, but all kena-ed rejected by HRH's QC, including the "kitten tuna pouch" from the same brand.


Rejected by HRH (Note: the actual food looks nothing like the picture)


Another reject! *Grrr...!!*

I must remember not to try these brand on HRH again. Sigh...

Cattyman cat treats

They are back, after a long absence!


It comes as packets of fish bream, shrimp or crab slices.


Our friend can't wait to try it!

Dry cat food

Two weeks' ago, I bought the Sanabelle offer pack which comprise of a 2kg Adult dry food plus 2 free 400g packs of Sensitive formula (bought before) and Grande formula - all @ $24.90. There's another offer comprising - the 1st 10 kg bag @ $60.90 and the 2nd 10kg bag @ $50.90.

The Grande pack is meant to be for "adult cats, particularly large breeds". When I opened it, I realised why.


The kibble is very large and thick, compared to all other dry cat food I've seen.


Clockwise from top RHS : Royal Canine Fit 32, two Science Diet kibbles, Eagle Pack Holistic (the smallest and thinest) & Sanabelle Grande (biggest and thickest).

After two weeks, Coco seems to still like the Grande, though I hesitate to give the Grande to the community cats, many of whom are older and may not have very good teeth. Hopefully, there's enough stock for my order of the 10kg packs of Adult formula, which I hope the community cats will like. The promo price is still cheaper than the bulk order for RC kibbles.

Zippee-dee do-dah Day

Be warned: this is another "eat your heart out" post, ok? :P

Look what I've got, again!



More Temptations treats, which came all the way from Hong Kong, you know! This time, the treats are a present from aunty MightyMouse, who has 3 cats at home.


Can you imagine, a mommy mouse keeping three kitty fur-kids! Do the cats chase the mouse?
Oh, whatever! I don't care as long as the treats keep on coming. Kekeke!!

This is my latest stock-take.


I think these are enough treats to last me till 2009. Yippeee!!

Thank you to all the aunties EJ, Ksn, Cat aunty and MMouse for so sayang me and keeping my tummy well-filled with cat treats. :))

New cat food & treats

New brand of dry cat food in a 400g trial pack. The word "sensitive" refers to fussy cats!


Coco will gamely try out new brands of dry food, and it remains to be seen if she will take to it for long.

The ingredients list



Another brand of salmon cat treats with re-sealable packaging


The shop ran out of the ones with the cat picture packaging, so I bought the pack with the dog packaging, which essentially has the same thing.

Coco loves it! I flossed them a little and sprinkled over the kibbles which Coco hadn't been eating much of lately. Immediately, she ate lots of kibbles, and that was after her wet food dinner, so much so that she must have felt too full to move or talk afterwards. Haha! She slept through the night quietly that evening. :)

One-for-one special offer (FYI)

I almost forgot to mention this for anyone's information: Eagle Pack and Eagle Pack Holistic is having a 1-for-1 promo for both the dry cat and dog food, provided you cut out the offer coupon from the current issue of Club Pet magazine. One coupon entitles one to buy 2 packs of food.

I got to know about this when I visited the pet supply shop over the weekend to buy cat litter and canned food. I'm not taking up the offer because Coco is not keen on this brand, and I still have quite a bit of RC (and now some SD's z/d (?) formula donated by KXBC) for the community cats. I am also not affiliated to the brand in any way.

:)

Special cat food

Speaking of food gifts, I was given these Hill's S/D special C/D kibbles by Mighty Mouse, as her cat Skoda refused to eat them, even though it was specially prescribed for her condition. These are supposed to help reduce the formation of crystals in the cat's urine and prescribed by her vet. The vet had repeatedly assured MM that it can be given to normal cats, but her two other cats also refused to eat these highly unpopular kibbles... haha!



Since it's a sin to waste cat food when there are hungry community cats that need feeding, I've been mixing the unpopular kibbles with the RC Fit 32 kibbles (80% RC, 20% unpopular kibbles) and feeding them to the community cats and to Coco as well. Perhaps the smell of the popular RC kind of overwhelms everything, as so far, I've not had problems with cats picking them out or rejecting them... they eat them all up. :-)

Coco gets more cat treats

Just how lucky can a cat get?

Coco received these cat treats and catnip, even as we've yet to get over the excitement of the matatabi and its dancing effects. These came from the US and were from the same blogger who got the matatabi in Japan for Coco. ;-)



I've been giving the treats to Coco judiciously, and there's still a pack of Temptations from EJ left, despite having given a chicken-flavoured pack to Spud earlier this year when he was feeling down from his skin problem and was denied his favourite wet fish food.

Current cat treats count: 2 packs of Temptations, 1 Goodlife (really!) treats and half a pack of salmon sashimi, all of which should keep Coco happy for months to come.

A BIG Thank You to all the cat treat-giving aunties for your affection shown towards Coco and generosity to us. I don't think Coco should keep the good fortune all to herself, so I will make sure she shares her cat treat gifts with the community cats downstairs. :-))

New flavours

I was dismayed to read in one comment that none of San's amigos took to the new flavours of Fussie Cat. Since Coco is of the "ultimate fussy cat" category, I thought I would have to feed the new flavours to the community cats.

Kang heer kia i.e. ikan bilis flavour





It has the usual tuna with strips of anchovies, which look rather like the Teochew style of boiled anchovies we used to eat when we were kids.



Tua tao i.e. kupang flavour



There were a few small mussels within a can.


I held my breath, but to my pleasant surprise, Coco liked them, especially the achovy flavoured one!

Last weekend, I gave her an early dinner at 4pm (coz we were going out), and despite the early hour, she gobbled up ALL her dinner, instead of eating it in 2 or more smaller servings.

Wow! Either Fussie Cat has yet another success or Coco is their undisputed #1 loyal fan!
And for that, I think Coco deserves a container crate of free Fussie Cat from the manufacturer. ;)

New cat food

Tried this new cat food which Sugar and Jon-Jon seem to like; they especially liked the gravy, of which there was quite a bit. Hence, it was a bit messy to feed the community cats using a sheet of plastic bag (placed on the floor), so I used Coco's plastic bowls instead.



Ingredients list



I left a bit of leftover for Coco to try and the smell permeated the kitchen. It actually smells very good, like a cross between chicken-soup & luncheon meat, which almost made me want to try it! Maybe I should, next time. :P



But of course, our no.1 fan of Fussiecat HRH, just pooh-poohed at it and refused to touch it one little bit.

Tsk...tsk...

New cat food

I was given sample packs of this dry food last year, and Coco did eat it. Now that the Nutro is running out, I bought a 3kg bag of Eagle Pack Holistic to add to her regular RC.



I'm not sure what 'holistic' means, but they have vegetables and fruits as ingredients.



The kibbles are very small and thin (compared to the fish-shaped Nutro below).
That makes them very easy to crunch, which is good for Sugar, as he hasn't been eating much ever since he had 2 teeth removed by the vet sometime late-last year. The small kibbles are easier for him to eat.


Besides Sugar, JonJon the difficult fella seems to enjoy it too. Needless to say, so did the few other less fussy community cats.

:)

Coco: I deserve more cat treats *whines*

To the aunties who worry that I may put on weight and lose my svelte figure from eating all those lovely cat treats that you'd sent, you needn't have to worry at all.



Because mommy is very stingy with the treats!
:-(

She will give me only 4 to 6 Temptation / Sheba treats with my breakfast every morning (or a bit more when she's in the mood), and I only get to eat the crab slices treats on the weekends.

As if that's not enough, she would make me do tricks just to eat the crab slices, like holding it high up above her knee, just to make me step up onto her leg to get at a tiny piece of the treat!

It's very tiring, you know, making me go up and down like that! But I don't have a choice, since I just luurrvve to eat the treats!



Not only have I not gain weight, mommy thinks that I have lost a bit of weight. I think it's just water loss lah! She thinks I look like a frail old cat in this picture.



That makes me frustrated, you know! *Grrr!!*

Just to prove her point, she took this picture to show my sunken tummy (so she said!) for all to see. How unflattering!



I think I just have a high metabolic rate, especially from all the mad dashing around that I like to do, which irritates mommy when I do it right after she gets into bed at night. *Giggles*

Since mommy thinks I'm too thin, then all the more she should feed me more of the cat treats.
Don't you agree, dear aunties? ;-)

Choosing dry or wet food for cats

On this Biology Blog link is an interesting article on the perpetual debate - whether dry or wet food is better for cats.

Quote from article:
Even though society is accustomed to seeing Garfield-sized cats, obese, middle-aged cats can have a variety of problems including diabetes mellitus, which can be fatal. The causes of diabetes mellitus in cats remain unknown eventhough there has been a strong debate about whether a dry food diet puts cats at greater risk for diabetes. A new study from a University of Missouri-Columbia veterinarian suggests that weight gain, not the type of diet, is more important when trying to prevent diabetes in cats.

Read more : Dry or wet food for cats?


Next thing I would like to know is - how do cats get cancer?
MIL's first cat too, was afflicted by cancer and had to be put to sleep many years' ago.

HRH Coco

I got Coco a new, prettier cat bed several weeks ago, coz I need to wash the existing one, but am afraid it won't dry within a day. Also, the old one has got holes underneath and lots of bite marks, courtesy of Coco, from when she was younger and more bitey.



Now, she still bites when she's in her "excitedly-dashing-here-and-there" mood, but she knows what she can bite on and bite not...well, kind of.

So far, she's only gone to sit on the new cat bed like once or twice, and that's after I've coaxed her or put her in it.


I just don't know how to sleep in the new bed lah...it's like there's a pea in there somewhere, u'know!

The teddy bear (from cat aunty) has suffered a bit. I've seen Coco wrestle with teddy and sometimes lie on him, provided teddy is not in the new cat bed. Otherwise, he will be ignored indefinitely.




Ahh...these, Coco loves definitely!
Sheba cat treats from KSN, and what I called "fishcake strips" from Cat aunty.



I can always count on these and Temptations treats (from EJ) to get a warmly-snuggled Coco out of the laundry basket! She can even recognise the Temptations pack now, and would immediately jump out. Haha!

Meanwhile, HRH still insists on "choping" my blanket every night! *Grrr...*
I was very glad that last night, she went to sleep with uncle SO again (the 2nd time it happened). Well, erm... her butt was a bit smelly. :p



Gimme my old, full-of-cat hair bed anytime!
But I still prefer mommy's blanket the best! *MEooww!*

Since she'd escape her bath last weekend due to wet weather, it will definitely be bath time for Coco tomorrow, before CNY. There'll be lots of screaming and whining throughout the ordeal. Ho, ho, ho... but thankfully, despite everything, Coco does not scratch or bite us, and that makes her a nice cat. :)

Very blessed cat

Today is like any normal day.




All because a parcel came for me...all the way from Canada, and by airmail too!




Oohh...my lovelies!! *drools uncontrollaby*

Thank you, aunty EJ. :-)))




See, my cat treats from all my favourite aunties, waiting to be devoured by me! Ahahahahaa!!
*deliriously happy!*

If only mommy would gimme more treats at every meal. *sulks*




Some gals have all the luck! Tee hee!