The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja.

After another morning of failing to please my feline with my canned offerings, I have begun to fear for my safety, as most of my relationships with cats until now has involved me avoiding becoming their next meal. I know I am now inside of a mostly human body, but part of me is still pixie, and I am afraid that is she continues to dislike her food, she may realize that that pixie part is indeed here, and she might decide I am tasty.

So, I turned to the Internet, and there discovered an idea about feeding cats and dogs raw food. This makes a lot of sense to me, as until now I have not seen a cat eat anything but raw foods. She is being so picky, it did not really seem to be of any harm to try, though I am a little wary of keeping raw meat on plates in my kitchen. However, the Internet advisors are quite helpful, and the health benefits to the cat seem to be many, so I have decided to try it.

After using my cell phone to call several animal supply stores that are within my radius, I found one called the Dog’s Meow, which is a most confusing name indeed, and they said they can help me feed my cat a raw diet, and explained that it really is the healthiest thing for her.

Healthy is great, but I’m mostly interested in her not eating me, thank you very much. They said she would probably take to eating raw food very easily. It seemed the girl on the phone believed I was joking, which actually may be a good thing. I have noticed my perception of how things work is not the same as the humans around me, and I might be found too odd if everything I said was taken seriously.

It is getting quite warm here, probably close to summer, though it is hard to know for sure without the festival season. Has it happened yet? Tell me all about it if anyone knows, I do so enjoy a good festival.

But, yes, feeding.

I put on another small shift because it is pleasant to wear in the heat, and some sandals and walked the short way to the pet food store. I passed by the small grocery store, and I waved to Ryan, but for some reason my throat closed up and my face felt too hot for me to go in and talk to him. Perhaps another one of those allergies I seem to have? I decided I should wait until I was able to speak without feeling funny, and so I kept walking to the pet food store.

There, the woman I’d spoken to on the phone greeted me. She has dyed hair – how funny humans dye their hair natural shades. We pixies normally have pinks and purples and blues and all kinds of colors in our hair, but humans are limited to the colors of dirt, earth, and sun. I myself now have pale yellow hair, and though I miss the blue it is funny to have such a different color. If I were to go to the effort of changing the color of my hair, I would choose a color that cannot happen naturally for humans, yet they seem to prefer to stay within the confines of their natural spectrum. Pity.

She led me to several large freezers that we’re filled with several kinds of pre-prepared and balanced cat foods, all from different kinds of meats and with different things added, but she assured me that they all had the nutrients cats need to stay healthy (apparently, cats need a very specific and boring list of things that can be removed from their food when it is cooked) . She also told me about all kinds of additions I could put in with the food, and after more research (I am beyond sick of research) I have decided upon a few things to try adding to see what happens, but this will happen later, and I will update this post as I try them.

I bought some beef kind, since beef are large animals and I thought maybe fewer would have to die to satisfy my cat over time, and some fish oil (does one press fish to get oil like with olives, or is it some other way?), and then a little catnip plant because the woman insisted that cats love the stuff. She also advised me to grow the cat some grass to eat.

I mean, if anyone is getting grass grown for them to eat, it ought to be me.

I paid for the food and walked home. This time, just getting close to the small shop made me feel that allergy come on, but I walked past again and hovered in the door a minute. I mumbled about my new house cat through the odd lump-like feeling in my throat and Ryan told me he likes cats, which is odd but probably a good thing. I excused myself before the allergy could make me do something strange, telling him the meat in my bag might melt, then went home feeling odd and still flushed, perhaps it was from showing too much skin in the heat. Luckily, my neighbors were too busy yelling inside of the house to bother me more. I wanted to get the cat fed as soon as possible.

How to feed a cat raw food:

You will need:

• A cat
• Raw food prepared to the specific needs of the animals. I chose a brand called instinct, but another that was recommended was called rad cat.
• Warm water for defrosting
• Warm water to mix in the food
• Any food supplements you choose to add – these include raw egg yolk (never use the clear part they call whites, they are bad for animals), fish oil, and some powders and things you can buy. For now, I want to begin with the food as it is simplest.
• A fork to mix the food and water
• A container to store the prepared food

Thaw a small portion of food in warm water. If it is unwrapped then just use warm water and mix it with the food as it melts. If you chose some that is in a container, thaw it with a bowl of water. Or if aren’t in as large of a hurry as I am, then I suppose you can thaw it in the refrigerator.

 

Mix the thawed food with water until it is a fairly thin consistency, the woman from the shop said “like grits” but I have to guess, because I cannot imagine what grits might be. A bowl of muddy sand, maybe? I did decide to add some of the fish oil at this point, because cats like fish and I thought she might like it.

Offer only a little at first. Changing an animal’s diet too quickly can upset their stomach. I was reckless in my anxiety to not be eaten, so I threw this bit of caution to the wind, but I imagine it is better to be cautious and go slow.

Stand back and watch the cat sniff the food, weigh if she wants to eat it, then try some, wander away, come back, and then decide to eat it in earnest.

Sigh in relief.

I think it’s probably good to offer this in small amounts if you can, but some of the websites recommend feeding twice. I am sure your animal will educate you as to what works best for her.

Make sure to store the rest of the food in refrigerator. It would probably spoil if left on the counter and the cat would reject it.

So that is raw food. She seems to like it much better than the canned stuff, and now I can relax and get to planning my next endeavor in cleaning my house. I cannot help but look at it now as if it were going to be seen by him, particularly my bed, which is most disturbing, and a little exciting.

Also, I believe I have found a solution to my backyard weed problem.