Ripple is in the front, Morris is in the back.
Ripple:
Ripple is 7 years old. He likes to lick soap and generally gorge himself on whatever edible things are around the house. Especially the kind on a plate in front of me.
Morris:
Morris is somewhere between 12 and 15. I lean to the latter, the vet leans to the former. Whatever. When the cat is mostly gums rather than teeth, I'm thinking he's closer to my estimate. He licks no soap. Sorry you conspiracy theorists. Ripple has all his teeth and they still look nice and white and shiney. There, chew on that.
Yeah, I know, they look a lot alike to the untrained eye. Morris is the old guy. Remember this?
So, when you see a photo of a grumpy old cat here. Chances are, it's Morris. Ripple looks more like this:
Ok, now that we've cleared that up (and believe me, my friends that see them all the time are still confused occasionally), I have a question for y'all. Here's my dilemma. Ripple is a pig. He wants whatever Morris is eating and more. Now that Morris can't eat the hard food, and he's entering his twilight years, I'm having to switch him to soft food like Tender Vittles and
Whiskas (in the purple pouch). Which is all well and good. Morris deserves a good spoiling. But once I run out of hard food, do I continue to buy it for Ripple? Maybe just the
Dental Diet for him to crunch on? I mean, Tender Vittles are decently cheap, and so is soft food in the can for the most part. I'm stocked up now on that. But do you think it's healthy to switch a 7 year old to that? In the mornings this week, I put mostly hard food in Ripple's dish, and cover it with a little
Tender Vittles so it looks the same as Morris' dish. The rest of the packet goes to MoMo. Then a smattering of
Temptations on top of each (Morris still inhales those - I'm not kidding when I say that. Remember - he can't chew). Morris has his fill, and perhaps a moment before he decides this, Ripple is horning in on MoMo's dish. When I left, there was nothing left in Mo's dish, and most of Ripple's left. All hard food. Gah! It just seems like it'd be spoiling Ripple when for Morris it's a necessity. Do y'all think it's ok to make the switch for both?
In knitting news (just because): I started a 4th hank of Denim Silk on the SKB last night and split the arms off the body. A few more rows and I'm ready to join in the round. For those of you wondering if you should or could knit this - I say yes! The instructions themselves say it's the easiest sweater you'll ever knit. And it is! If you can increase and decrease, you're good to go. Get gauge on a yarn you can afford and love, and go for it! I love the look of the Denim Silk. The drape is wonderful on it. But, I only have 2 1/2 hanks left until I work up a bit more credit at the shop to get the rest. I'm loving this knit! I can't wait!
The Anastasia socks are coming along as well. Though I did notice I missed a YO in the 4th pattern row. I'm calling it a design element. My "signature" if you will. Because I'm not about to rip out and inch and a half of the foot knitted on size 1 needles. No way. Fuck that.
13 comments:
Thank you for that informative post on who is who... :) No help on the food side though! If you know of a way to get my dog from eating the cat food I'm all ears. Denim silk, sounds lovely to work with!
I would check with the vet to see if Dental Diet only is okay. I always thought that the dry food helped with the teeth. If Morris eats in one sitting, I would give Ripple a little something; nad give Morris his food in a separate location. Just give Morris what he will eat in one sitting; and feed him more often.
Our resident chow hound, Amber, eats her tuna and then tried to get Mr. Paw's tuna. The good thing is that Amber does not like Mr. Paws and can not stand to be near him, so she had to wait until he leaves.
Tender Vittles has quite a bit of sugar in it. (I used to be a veterinary assistant, hey finally I can HELP someone!) Morris, at his age, is not going to suffer any ill effects from it. He's earned it, like you said. But think of Tender Vittles as fast food and regular dry cat food as the balanced diet. If it's realistic and feasible, my inclination would be to give Ripple the Tender Vittles as treats, but try to maintain him on a 90% healthy diet. You'll be saving yourself some headaches and money by not setting him up for tooth and gum problems, obesity and other things that he shouldn't have to worry about just yet. The vet will probably want to switch Ripple to a senior food soon anyway to reduce the protein in his diet (protecting him from liver and kidney problems) so possibly now would be the time to introduce a senior canned food that they could both eat. You'd still have the tooth thing with Ripple, but a good quality canned senior food (Iams or Science Diet are both excellent) is better nutrition-wise than the semi-soft foods.
Bleh! Long winded, sorry!
We had to switch Greedo to hypoallergenic food because he developed allergies. And because he is a pig as well, Somerset is now eating the same food. The only other option is to shut the slower eater in the bathroom with their separate food, but then they start to develop a complex. I second the concern that wet food might lead to tartar build up, but if you give Ripple crunchy treats, it might be OK
Ooooh. OK. Got it Ripple young, Morris old!
(I have the same problem with everyone confusing my cats, as they're all stripedy gray ones).
I think it would be better to keep Ripple on the dental food if you can. I had a heck of a time trying to keep my kitties on separate food when Muffin was on perscription cat food, but it might be better for Ripple's teeth. Ask the vet!
Oh, and don't frog! not worth it!
thanks for clearing that up! I was very confused....
I separate them at night for their wet food - the problem is in the morning. I think I'll be trying to separate them in the morning too, even though it's a giant PITA. Ripple's going to have to suck it up and deal.
Oops. What can I say, a soap licking cat confuses me to no avail!
Am I a bad kitty mommy cuz I hardly ever give my furry fleshbags any soft food? One pukes it up, and it always makes the poo that much stinkier.
It sounds like you're going to have to separate them.
But the real question is this--how on earth did you end up with such twinny looking cats???
We went through a food ordeal with Buddy recently, and the upshot of it was that the vet thinks he should only be on wet food. I asked about his dried food needs, because his teeth are in really good shape. I'd always assumed that the dried food helped with that. The vets at the cat clinic said that the dried food didn't make a difference, and that he's better off on a wet food diet because it helps control his weight. Oh, and after months of feeding him canned rabbit and venison on the reduced ingredient diet, it turns out that he's pretty much O.K. with canned Friskies chicken and tuna.
So I vote for letting Ripple and Morris eat the same food. Don't bother keeping up with the dried food for just Ripple.
I am sooooooo sorry that I mistook one kitty for the other but my kids will tell you that I call them by the wrong name all the time.....(HEEHEE) sue
They do like alike, but their expressions give them away.
I think it may be a case of separating them to give Morris a chance to eat.
Ditto jenifleur on the unhealthiness of 'moist' cat food. I encourage you to do some research - all the non-biased research I've seen indicates that's the least healthy food option.
Love your ID lesson on the cats. I have 2 pretty-much-completely black cats. My friends can tell them apart because one is shy. I tell them, 'if you see her it's Hope and if you don't it's Oh'.
caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaats!
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