KATIE: Ok, I'm almost afraid to ask...
WAFFLES: So you know how Glogirly has been changing our menus, right?
KATIE: Yes, Waffles. She's been transitioning us from canned food to whole food.
WAFFLES: So this whole food... does that mean I get a WHOLE chicken? Because if it does, I'm getting ripped off. There's no WAY she's been giving me a whole chicken everyday. I think I should complain. Maybe write a letter.
WAFFLES: You mean we've been eating FAKE food all this time???
KATIE: No, Waffles. Our whole food is more like what Glogirly buys at the grocery store for her and Gloman.
WAFFLES: Oh, you mean like Cheetos and stuff.
KATIE: Not exactly. We're eating food that's made right here in town at a small independent pet food deli. They understand that cats are obligate carnivores and need protein, not Cheetos. The food we get actually is the whole animal. Everything is ground up, including the muscle meat, organs and bones. It looks sort of like ground beef from the grocery store, but it has all the nutrients and protein we need. It's also much easier to digest because it's more like what we would eat in the wild and isn't heavily processed. That's key for a cat like me with IBD or sensitive digestive tracts.
WAFFLES: So, no Cheetos?
KATIE: No Cheetos, no grains, no carbs... nothing we don't need.
WAFFLES: But what if I need Cheetos?
Thank you SO much for all of your thoughtful get-well comments, notes and cards. I'm feeling much, much better since I started being treated for IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disorder) just a few weeks ago. One of the most important things we've done is a complete change in diet.
Transitioning to a new diet, especially a dramatic change from canned or dry food to a whole food (cooked or raw) isn't easy. It's important to take things very, very slow. That's exactly what we're doing. Starting with just barely a teaspoon of new food mixed in with the old food and then gradually increasing the amount of new and decreasing the amount of old.
Waffles has joined me in the menu change because, even though he doesn't have any health problems, this diet is healthier for both of us.
The food we're eating is available both cooked and raw. Lots of variety too - quail, rabbit, lamb, pork, pheasant, chicken, duck, deer and more. Waffles is up to eating half/half, raw with his old canned food. I haven't quite taken to the raw yet, so I'm eating the cooked. Yesterday was a milestone - I ate nothing but the new cooked whole food. I'll eat this for a couple of weeks or so and then Glogirly will start to mix in just a tiny bit of raw. Ultimately, she would like to see how we both do on a completely raw diet. But even if I don't transition to raw, the whole cooked food will likely have a very positive effect on my digestive and overall health.
Remember, We're Just Cats
We're not experts. We're not nutritionists. We're not vets. Our only specialty is taking funny pictures, making people laugh and putting Photoshopped wigs on cats. Our intent is not to become your source for something as serious as nutrition. We just thought you'd like to know how I'm doing and what's working for me.
If you're interested in learning more about what we're eating and where we're getting it, you can visit Woody's Pet Food Deli.
This is not a review, not a sponsored post...Woody's doesn't even know we have a blog. Yet.
Katie, we are so happy you're feeling better! Although Salem thinks you both should get an entire chikkun, daily. (She's a little crazed, herself)
ReplyDeleteBibby is doing so much better on a canned food diet, supplemented with various meats (raw and cooked) daily.
VERY happy you are feeling better, Boss Katie! I had the sads when you were feeling under the weather.
ReplyDeleteBut I think Waffles should get a taste of Cheeto once in awhile.
We try to feed raw here and we also use Stella & Chewy's and Weruva canned but ultimately I want to get a meat grinder and get everyone on raw. When they've had a few days of raw there is a noticeable and pleasant difference in odor from the litter boxes!
ReplyDeleteBe sure to also grind egg shells for the Taurine cats need. There must be good sites from Veterinarians that post recipes for cats. I actually got one from my vet a long time ago. I'll check if I have it and post it here for anyone interested.
DeleteDr. Lisa Pierson's site, http://catinfo.org , has a lot of info about cat nutrition, including the "recipe" she follows and details about the grinder she uses
DeleteMichelle, you are way more adventurous than us! We're very lucky there's a "Woody's" that does all the hard work for us. : ) And since they use the whole animal for grinding, including bone & organs, additional taurine is not needed...though it's not harmful either.
DeleteThat's right Glogirly! The bones, the organs everything has all for what a cat needs. Woody is a smart butcher.
DeleteThanks for the info CarolynA and thanks Wolf Den Press for reminding us that we can make our pet food (or have a great deli!)
How exciting! This new diet sounds really yummy! Although I'd be kind of bummed - it does not sound like cantaloupe is included. I hope it works great for you Katie!
ReplyDeleteWe've been reading great things about cantaloupe, Summer! ...and we know that you love it. It happens to be one of Glogirly's favorites too. So the next time she finds a nice ripe on at the grocery store, she's promised to give us a taste!
DeleteHarry would much like to eat nothing but mousie brains. That's about as raw as it gets.
ReplyDeletePatty make sure Harry is checked for worms or toxoplasmosis. Sorry to be preaching today on the comments. I've recently been to a specialist for my Samantha's skin allergies and tests had to be done before she started a new med and especially for toxoplasmosis. The doc said if she was exposed to mice (which we have here and she catches them but we release them) it was good if she did for the Meds to work. But toxoplasmosis is not good to humans. And to cats too but I have to read more about it. http://www.vetwest.com.au/pet-library/should-you-be-concerned-if-your-pet-eats-a-rat-or-mouse
DeleteI found this info. I was curious about the worms from eating a mouse so I thought of sharing.
Katie - we are so happy to hear that you are feeling better and are transitioning well to your new diet!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're figurin out somefin to help ya Katie. Although I could go for some cheetoes.
ReplyDeleteWaffles I think you should write your letter to your favourite KFC people! Or to the new deli Glogirly is shopping for you guys.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you are doing better beautiful Katie. I knew Glogirly and Gloman would figure things out and I am sure they will check your new food with your vet because you kitties do need Taurine in your diet and a prevention of urinary tract infections that make guys like Waffles could get. My vet told me this last week when I told her I bought Science Diet Perfect Weight. Our orange Jack is on the chunky side.
I am loving this raw diet idea. Be sure you check with your vet. Lots of companies want to sell their products and they make promises on their package that are not promises they can meet. Us humans have to be vigilant about this too. Like that Kraft dinner with Veggies in it. I don't think so! But Waffles I think you can get a few licks from Glogirly's Cheetos once in awhile. No harm in a few treats! Love you guys! Stay healthy!
Thanks for all the great information, Celine. We've definitely been doing our homework. After reading about the many benefits of a whole food diet for cats with IBD, Glogirly talked with our Vet about Woody's before we tried anything at all. Part of the objective is to get Katie on a limited ingredient diet too. So it made a lot of sense to us to go with a whole food option that's not heavily processed and doesn't have all sorts of stuff in it that we can't even pronounce. Our vet laid out all the pros and cons, talked to us about the importance of safe handling, etc... She also explained that some veterinary organizations do not endorse raw feeding (AHAA for example). She did a very nice job of giving us explanations to both sides of the 'raw or no raw' discussion.
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Katie, I knew you had awesome Pet Parents!! I don't like all those products you can't pronounce the ingredients. There are so many choices for pet foods out there. Consumers like Glogirly have to make their own research. It helps our lovely furry friends when we are caring for their welfare just like Glogirly and Gloman who loves you guys so much! Thanks Katie for the info. X
DeleteWaffles, you look like you've already eaten a lot of cheetoes!
ReplyDeleteSo glad Katie is feeling better!
Sounds like we could all benefit from a Woody's nearby! So pleased you are doing better, Katie. Waffles, you shouldn't cheeto with a cheeto!!
ReplyDeletehe he he!!! Cheeto with a Cheeto!
Delete*giggle*
Oh we're sooooooo glad Katie continues to improve!!! Cheetos sounds like a good food to us ..... & we could get orange powder everywhere!!!
ReplyDeleteYou don't need cheetos? But you do need cheese doodles, right? If not... please don't tell my family. --Ashton
ReplyDeleteWe're so glad Katie is feeling better. You are so very lucky to have a pet food deli in your city! Despite being a decent-sized city, the only places around here that carry anything acceptable that isn't in a can or a kibble bag only carry it for dogs. Paws up for your living in a city that thinks of their cat diets, too!
Katie,we are so happy you are fee.ing better. Did the vet tell you to try the newdketlrare you just trying it on your own? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteHi Mario,
DeleteGlogirly and the vet have been talking about nutrition for a few years now. Each time she sees her, they often talk about food. (...not Cheetos haha!) This time, Glogirly found out about Woody's first and then approached our vet about it. She already knew about them... in fact they are just a mile or two from the clinic.
: )
This makes me very happy - not just because Katie is feeling better, but because it's such a testament to what a whole food diet can do for cats.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Ingrid. Much of what we've learned, we've learned from YOU. If anyone reading the comments here is not familiar with Ingrid's site, The Conscious Cat, we highly recommend checking it out. If there's a particular topic you are interested in, just do a search on her site and chances are she's written a wonderfully informative article about it. Ingrid and our vet are our top two Go-To's when it comes to important information about health and wellness.
DeleteThe Conscious Cat
Katie, glad you are feeling better! Your new diet sounds yummy.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to read this. I suspect my Katie may have the bare beginnings of digestive disorder of some sort. There is no such place for us here though. How wonderful our Katie there has a choice. xox
ReplyDeleteOh, we sure hope she doesn't have anything serious. There are still many wonderful foods out there there that I'm sure can work nicely for your Katie though. We are very lucky to live in a pretty large city where unique options like Woody's are available. They appear to to be doing very well too...they'll soon have three locations.
DeleteSounds like a great change over. But we do think sometimes it is ok to NEED cheetos
ReplyDeleteWe agree! ... especially about the needing Cheetos part.
DeleteKatie, thanks for the update and we are glad you are doing so well on your new diet. It sounds very yummy to us.
ReplyDeleteThat's great you're doing better and taking to your new diet, Katie. You know Waffles will eat anything as long as it's chicken. ;)
ReplyDeleteHow great you have a place like Woody's near you. We don't have a pet deli near us.
Wow, a pet food deli? Maybe it's a good thing we don't have one here, or Mom might think about switching us. Again! Mom had to switch us to Hill's Prescription CD cuz of Toby's urinary tract issues. Good luck with your new diet, Katie & Waff.
ReplyDeleteWe are glad you are feeling better and enjoying the whole cooked diet. We bet Waffles LOVES the chicken part! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's great news--a better diet will be healthier for both of you. We are very familiar with diet change and cats. It can be difficult as cats get fixated on texture. Two of our three are on raw, and Benny is finally on canned (it took YEARS to transition him).
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad you are doing better, Katie. Regarding the WHOLE animal, my brother Rusty used to eat whole chipmunks, fur and all. Sometimes he would leave a bit of the tail out. I did not notice chipmunk on that list.
ReplyDeleteSimba, maybe we'll have to place a special order. haha!
Delete: )
I feel your pain, Waff, I *need* Cheetos too, but I can't have them anymore because of my cardiac-related dietary restrictions. So I'm always looking for new ideas and I didn't see shrimp on that list either.
ReplyDelete~Vicat
I hope the new food helps Katie's tummy. You are lucky to have a deli for cats in your town.
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad you are doing so well. You know if you want to drive your person nuts, we ate around that teaspoon of the new food for weeks... and then we just didn't eat if it got to be too much or too mixed! I will not change my diet unless I want to! Or unless you give me junk food...
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the update Katie - I haz been wondering how you are doing. Your posts give our staff ideas for improving our health and information they can then ask our vets
ReplyDeletethanks
Love
Belle
I keep my paws crossed that the new food will help your tummy , Katie !!
ReplyDeleteXOXO
Good luck with the new diet! We eat a raw diet too! The rabbit is our favorite. Hope you learn to enjoy it as much as we do!
ReplyDeleteGood for you if you’re feeling better. Bones, muscle meat and such sounds gross. TW says I’d never survive out in the streets anymore.
ReplyDeleteYeah, CK... it sounds pretty icky to Glogirly too. Fortunately it really looks no different than grocery store meat. (though we know TW and Pops don't eat grocery store meat) It doesn't smell bad either.
DeleteWe're very happy you're feeling better. ... though we ARE stuck on the "no Cheetos" part. ;)
ReplyDeleteStay healthy, friends!
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher
Waffles..isn't Cheetos one of the elebenty food groups??..Katie..is am happy to hear your pretty tummy is getting used to the new foods..Hugs to you both!
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad you are feeling better Katie and maybe the Cheetos for Waffles can be used to bribe him for something you want!
ReplyDeleteKatie we sure are glad you're feeling so much better...and that Waffles is enjoying the new food...but Waffles sounds like you just enjoy food. Maybe there's still hope for that chicken!
ReplyDeleteSo happy you are feeling better! How lucky are YOU to have a Pet Food Deli near you? I had never even heard of one til now, how cool is that?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure Waffles doesn't need Cheetos? Isn't that what gives his fur that lovely orange color?
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're feeling better, Katie... except for that Waffles-induced headache :)
We think the food your eating sounds scrum-dilly-iCloud despite no whole chicken
ReplyDeleteSnorts,
Lily & Edward
is it wrong that my eyes got leaky at that milestone.. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I think Waffles needs to learn the difference between need and want.. that is a very difficult lesson for a lot of people.. (i'm loving his fangs peeking out too)
Awww.... you're making us smile REALLY big, Miss Connie. Thank you so much for all of your support, information and advice. You've been a great resource to us during this change.
DeleteFor those of you commenting that are not familiar with Connie's blog, Tails from the Foster Kittens, she not only shares absolutely adorable photos and stories of the foster kittens, but she is incredibly passionate, educated and informed about feline nutrition and raw feeding. You can visit Tails from the Foster Kittens to learn more.
We're so glad you're doing better, Katie ! Your mom is lucky to have a small store that sells ready-to-eat raw food to help her ! Purrs
ReplyDeleteWow Katie dat's pawsum. Where on earff do yous all live? We sure wish we kuld get ow noms locally. Mommy wuld luv fur us too eat raw food or even cooked good food. Yous sure hav sum pawsum choices. Weez'll be purrayin' dat all goes well and da diet works fur boff of ya'.
ReplyDeleteLuv ya'
Dezi and Lexi
Hi Dezi and Lexi!
DeleteWe like in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's got the perfect mix of big city and small town. Maybe that's why they call it the Minni-Apple. ; ) We feel very lucky to have so many choices available to us.
: )
I am glad you are doing so much better on your new diet Katie. Can you believe I have never seen a Cheeto let alone tasted one!
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful information. When Tara was so sick raw food was suggested to me and I gave it a try. Unfortunately, she just didn't take to it, and at that point it was more important to her quality of life that she eat food she liked and was familiar with than trying to get her to eat something she just didn't like.
ReplyDeleteI'm SO happy it's working for you, Katie...you could not be in better hands!
Good noms are good noms. The healthier for us the better.
ReplyDeleteWe're glad you're feeling better Katie! Our mommy would like us to eat whole foods but we don't have a pet deli and she's clueless on how to do it but we'll look into it more!
ReplyDeleteIt took Kitty Wampus almost 2 months to transition to raw food. For a while I just gave her the cooked since that's so much better than most commercial food anyway. Then one day it became very clear that she wanted the raw. She was eating the raw and leaving the bits of cooked food in the bowl. Patience paid off. Luckily they're so helpful at Woody's and make transitioning so much easier!
ReplyDeleteAnd a HUGE thanks to you, Kris! You're the one that told us about Woody's to begin with. It took us a while to start trying it out, but we are so glad we did. You're right about even the cooked being better than most commercial food too. Now that Katie is digging the cooked, we can try out a teensy bit of the raw with it. Sometimes it just takes time for any cat to realize that a new food is actually... food. ; )
DeleteWe're really happy that you are feeling better each day, Katie. Moosey, Gracie and Zoe want to know what these "Cheetos" things are...
ReplyDeleteLiving in a small city, we have nothing even resembling Woody's. We are happy that this is helping to keep Katie healthy. That's the most important thing. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear your new diet is working for you Katie! Our Jelly Bean has occasional bowel issues, and we will be trying a kibble that is supplemented with freeze-dried raw bits, to see if this helps him out. We have 4 kitties, so a full transition to a raw diet isn't fiscally possible for us, but we'll do what we can! Punkin agrees with Waffles on the Cheetos issue, but, like Waffles, she has to go without (so do I, LOL). Pwincess and Kirby say "Meow" as well.
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