Eat what’s on your plate or you can go hungry
You know how kids are. Or some kids are.
I’m not hungry.
Or I’m full.
Or spaghetti looks like worms.
I don’t like it.
I don’t like onions. I don’ t like tomatos. I don’t like green peppers. I don’t like anything.
Sometimes kids don’t even know what they like because they haven’t tried it. But they still don’t like it.
My mother used to tell me our house wasn’t a restaurant, and to eat what I was given. Finicky critiques of her sometimes experimental cooking were not allowed.
My brother and I became inventive in ways to avoid finishing our food. Tip to parents: don’t leave the room while your kids are eating.
My cat children have decided they aren’t going to eat their food.
And I tried the tough parent tactic on them. Well, you’re not going to get any more. You’d better eat what you’re given or you’ll go hungry.
I wasn’t very tough. I didn’t last very long. I started worrying about my eldest cat, Stinky, who has no fat to lose, unlike the other two.
A few weeks ago, a work friend gave me a bag of all-natural cat food. Because her cats wouldn’t eat it.
That should’ve been my first clue.
But I gamely imagined that my cats would not be as finicky as hers. I also thought that surely my cats would love something all-natural.
Maybe the all-natural is all-pooh. I don’t know. I didn’t look at it that closely. I just know that they won’t touch it.
I didn’t know for sure whether they were eating it at first. I mixed it in with their regular cat food gradually, partly because my cats are so sensitive when it comes to changing their diet.
And they seemed to just eat around the dark, all-natural stuff. But surely they were eating some.
Uh, no.
I ran out of their good food, which is quite expensive. I thought surely they wouldn’t mind finishing off that natural food.
Uh, no.
They meowed every time I went into the kitchen. That’s normal. But my guilt was pressing down on me. And they kept rubbing against my leg. But my guilt told me they were starving.
Merlin began displaying his huge, sad eyes ala scary kids paintings in Todd and Dawn’s old bathroom. Think Precious Moments but not so cloyingly cute and creepy.
They started digging for small morsels they might’ve missed of the other food. They started pushing around the cat food feeder, trying to look for anything they could eat.
I gave in one night, and fed them some canned cat food. They only get it rarely because it’s not that good for them.
The next night, I resolved not to give in. They were going to eat it, or go hungry. There are plenty of feral cats hanging around that I could give it to. I wouldn’t have to send their uneaten food to an impoverished African nation.
But then I thought of my skeletal cat, Stinky. The other two … they could afford to tough it out. But Stinky is elderly and thin.
Another can of cat food.
I then gave in and went to the store next day. Bought them their usual expensive and undoubtedly less natural food. And they were very happy to see it.
I had to throw away all of the natural food in their feeder. But I still have some left in the bag. It seems like a waste to throw it out. That’s what my friend said; that’s why she gave it to me.
But apparently my cats won’t eat it.
I wonder if it’s a scam. I wonder if the company lures people who are interested in feeding their pets all-natural products, but then only sell one bag to them. That doesn’t seem like a good way to get repeat business, though. I wonder how many people tough it out with their cats. Or mix it in with canned cat food to make it palatable.
I didn’t think my cats were that finicky. Especially not the gluttonous boy cats.
But I guess even they will draw the line somewhere.
I love how you take your cats’ eating habits and compare them to children’s! It’s oh so true. Dogs are as finicky as cats. But my favorite finicky story is with a friend’s son. The kid once saw Mom preparing a Thanksgiving turkey (gutting it and stuffing it) and the 7-year-old proclaimed himself to be a vegetarian. And no, he wouldn’t touch the turkey that Thanksgiving. This worried Mom. She didn’t think a 7-year-old should be without protein. But the next day, she asked him what he wanted for lunch. He responded that he wanted mac and cheese and a hot dog. She gave him a quizzical look but didn’t ask. He didn’t need to know where hot dogs come from. But for a year, he would dutifully chow down on hamburgers from McDonald’s and chicken nuggets from Wendy’s; all the while telling the cashiers that he was a vegetarian. And Mom just makes sure he doesn’t see raw meat anymore.
Shel, a better tactic would be to take the kid to a meat processing plant or a factory farm and let him see where those hot dogs and chicken nuggets come from. I think anything that gets kids to eat more veggies and less processed meats is probably a good thing.
That said, though I was a reluctant hunter growing up, knowing how a deer is skinned and butchered didn’t stop me from eating it. But I don’t think I could bear to know how chickens wind up in those clean packages at the market.
On the subject of cats, my cat eats her super-nutritional Iams, but she still drives me nuts wanting Fancy Feast. Every time I open the pantry door, no matter where she is in the house, she is suddenly winding around my ankles meowing for Fancy Feast.
I don’t think I would EVER want to visit a meat processing plant myself … much less take a kid there! It reminds me of that movie “Supersize Me” or the book “Fast Food Nation.” Didn’t want to know any of that either!
What a lovely funny post to read as I sit drinking my cafe au lait at Cabin Fever tonight! Granted, I’m supposed to be here WRITING, but it’s nice to read your blog. Oh, and as for those creepy kid pictures of ours, we have one up in the half-bathroom in our new place, the picture of the girl with the cat. I need to relocate the really creepy abandoned-waif-in-a-war-torn-city picture and put that one up too…
Bruce ate Iams for some time, but then I switched over to Hill’s Science Diet, feeling a strange allegience to that brand from my year working for a vet. I think he should probably be on the weight reduction variety, but he probably wouldn’t eat that.
I am dying to see the creepy in this bathroom, Dawn! You must post some pictures.
When the girls changed from Purina to Science Diet, it really took Sophie a while to adjust. In fact, she never would eat poultry wet food until Cleo came to live with us. Cleo, on the other hand, will eat anything.
My cats get Science Diet too. I go between Sensitive Stomach and Adult and Indoor Cat. The only one that didn’t seem to cause temporary digestional issues was indoor cat, for whatever reason. And right now, their rare supply of canned cat food is Iams. But I just don’t like to give them much of it.
I always thought my cats would anything, but I guess I was wrong. They do draw the line somewhere.
I even thought of mixing in the icky natural food with wet food to see if I could get them to eat some of it, and then I thought it would be too much effort and probably a waste of canned food as well. I’ve never seen my cats pick around food until now.
I sometimes long for the days of cheap Meow Mix or Cat Chow. But apparently neither of my boy cats digest that well, if you know what I mean.
I sure know what you mean.
Give your cats the good stuff Mel!
Oh, Mel, I know exactly what you mean. Having the wrong food digested can be dangerous. Just ask Cleo!