Meowing for canned food

[wolfsoul]

I've been bugging my mom to buy canned food for Sara, because Sara is older and doesn't have many teeth. The wet foods are so expensive, but my mom has this sudden obsession with the discount bin where they are really cheap. So she's been buying them alot, and Sara, who never used to like this food, suddenly LOVES it.

The thing is, we can't buy it all the time. So when we run out, she's left with her dry food. And because of this, she will meow and meow and meow and she will NOT be quiet!! She follows me around, and I even accidentally shut the door on her head (couldn't hear the bell on her collar, I was listening to my discman)! She's sitting at my feet right now meowing. If I pet her, but she just keeps meowing, and licking my arms and legs, so I've been ignoring her, trying to get her to understand. It's driving everyone nuts and my mom says that now she is reluctant to feed Sara wet food. But I still want her on wet food because it won't hurt her gums and she likes it, which is important to me. I just dont know what to do to get her to stop meowing.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance!

Jordan

[RedHedd]

Aww! Sara! Mitzi says Hi - Does Sara have a crackly, funny meow? Mitzi does - it's a funny croaking mew. I don't know how to solve your problem -- I usually just sing along with my two, which usually confuses the heck out of them and they shut up.

Mew, Meow Sara

[wolfsoul]

Hehe, actually sara's meow is very clear and loud. She has a great singing voice! Just gets so darn annoying after a while..

Whenever my friend came over and Sara started meowing at her, my friend would start screaming like a cat in a fight, and Sara would run away with her ears back lol. If I try it, I just hurt my ears! And if I meow normally she just meows back at me lol. She's very talkative.

[jenluckenbach]

If you are simply feeding her a can of food, try insted to take 1/4 of the can and mixing it into a small bowl of her reuglar dry food. Cap the can and it will last through 4 meals. It will give her a treat and should last longer.

[slick]

My theory is that the cheap canned cat food has something in it like a drug or something that gets cats addicted. I can contest to that because Max was brought up on junk canned food. When I adopted him 6 yrs ago it took months for me wean him off it for his morning meal. I tried to get him to eat the good stuff at night without the Fancy Fiest but no luck. So now my 10 yr old Max gets high-quality wet food mixed with high-quality dry with just a smidge of FF on top. Then he will eat the whole thing.

And yes, he meows continuously as well, but I think it more of a "Mommy where have you been....we've been starving all day. Now gimme dinner......NOW!"

[wolfsoul]

I do mix it in with her dry food. She just eats the wet chunks and licks what she can off of the dry stuff, then leaves it. I guess the only thing to do is stop feeding her canned. No good..

[musicmaker]

maby you can take some of the dry food and mix something wet with it that she likes to soften it. i love my cats to and do all i can to keep them happy. lol

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

When I have rescued kittens, and they are old enough to eat solid food, I put some dry food in a saucer, and pour some hot water over and leave for about 5 mins - the water is absorbed and the dry food is soft. It doesn't LOOK too appetising, but I would assume it wouldn't do any harm, especially for an old cat with few teeth! The kittens seem to like it OK!

[wolfsoul]

I'll try that, thanks! My worry would be that Sara wouldn't eat it right away and would become infested with bacteria. I'll have to see if she'll eat it right away.