She is SUCH a spaz when she eats!

ldg

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I don't know how many of you have messy eaters, but little Flowerbelle is just oo funny when it comes to eating. She takes a mouthful of kibble, steps back from the bowl, then shakes her head violently. (Got to kill it first!). All but one piece of kibble goes flying everywhere - half of it wet and sticky. Yuck! What makes it so comical is that she always looks so shocked when the little bits go flying - and sometimes she's so surprised, she drops the one in her mouth to go chasing after one of the ones that just flew away, LOL!


(Of course I still get a kick out of Sheldon - every time he's done eating he "buries" his food by pawing the air over it. The funniest thing is that not too long ago he took to "unburying" it before he eats, LOL!)
 

valanhb

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I wish I could see both of them doing that!!

Ophelia also has to "kill" her kibble. She only has to kill the first piece, though. Which is always dropped on the floor in front of the dish, never to be touched again.
 

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Laurie, knowing the care this little one is getting, this is probably a moot question, but could she be having some sort of tooth or gum problem?
 

hell603

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No wonder she is such a feather weight.
The amount of energy she spends eating dosen't leave her with spare calories!!!
 

sicycat

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What is with the shaking of the head thing??? Both mine shake their head quickly when they first get to the bowl and take a bite of kibble
 

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LOL Ty, our youngest (a male) does the head shake thing, while eating just about everything. Though in his case I think it's beccause he likes eating lizards that much, and he brings the behavior to the "dinner table". Anna, our youngest, on the other hand, brings a mouthfull of food from the dish to wherever my wife and I happen to be while she eats. I'm guessing she prefers the company. It's the cutest thing until she forgets a mouthful of food and wanders off.
 
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ldg

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Thanks for asking, MA.
The answer is nope, I don't think so. When we were in GA in Sept. they all had a dental check up. (The vet keeps complete and separate files on the dental work). Everyone looked great - healthy teeth and gums - and everyone but Flowerbelle had their teeth cleaned (she wouldn't need it being so young).

Personally, I actually think it's like attention deficit disorder (maybe due to her terrible malnutrition by the time she was rescued?). She never eats a "meal" - not even Whiska's cat milk or wet food. And, quite honestly, she does the same thing with the wet food that she does with the dry! Occassionally, like the other cats, she'll lick at it a little bit - but she usually grabs a bite, steps back from the bowl, shakes her head - and with the wet food she'll eat the bit in her mouth and then go eat some of the food that flew off the bite she took out of the bowl. (Sorry - I'm laughing. It really is just too funny. Messy, but funny). She'll do this maybe one or two more times - then she'll wander around to check out the other cats eating, try to get into their bowls - and when she has no success, she'll head back to her own. And do the same thing again. And again. By the next time she tries - the rest have eaten their food, LOL!

Milk, fortunately, she doesn't try to kill.
BUT - she'll take a few licks, look up, jump from that platform on the cat tree to the other one, walk around, look around, and go back for a few more licks. The cat milk she'll finish (and I'm talking a teaspoon - MAYBE tablespoon sized amount) with three or four interruptions like this.

This herpes virus, however, is the problem with her eye, is causing problems in her sinuses and lungs, so perhaps it's affecting her gums (although she's always eaten like this). We did make a vet appointment for next week to talk about the eye (Gary's open to the idea of having it removed at this point), so we'll have him take a look at her teeth and gums. Something certainly could have developed since the end of September (although we sure can't detect anything).

I hope he doesn't find anything - and I really don't expect him to. I think she just doesn't have the patience for it! She never eats much at a time - but she'll eat a little bit about a million times a day. They all get wet food once a day (in the evening) - and as Tuxedo can't eat any wet food but his own, we don't leave the wet food out. She eats maybe a teaspoon out of the 1/4 can of wet food she gets once a day in the 20 minutes we leave it out (the others gobble up all of theirs in about five minutes - if).
 
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ldg

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Sicy, I think it's the hunting thing. Disorienting the mouse they just caught - getting a good grip - snapping its neck...????????
 
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ldg

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erictk originall wrote:
Anna, our youngest, on the other hand, brings a mouthfull of food from the dish to wherever my wife and I happen to be while she eats. I'm guessing she prefers the company. It's the cutest thing until she forgets a mouthful of food and wanders off.
LOL! That is sooooooo cute! (We've got quite a bit of a mess to clean up almost constantly, so you're not getting any sympathy from me!)
 

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I've got a couple of messy eaters. My Senior cat Snoopy dips his paw into his wet food like a spoon, then brings it up to his mouth and eats it that way. Then he shakes his paw to get the excess food off. I always have to go around cleaning the floor boards because of all the spots of food he gets everywhere. My 6 year old cat Shane, always tips the dry food all over the floor. For some reason he doesn't like to eat in a bowl.
 

sicycat

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Originally posted by LDG
Sicy, I think it's the hunting thing. Disorienting the mouse they just caught - getting a good grip - snapping its neck...????????
It's so weird though because Saki doesnt do that when he chases his toy mice! lol.

Zoey will also take a bite of dry food then drop it on the floor next to the bowl and eat it there.. what the heck? lol! BUT she only does this when the bowl is FULL.
When its half full or almost empty she eats straight out of the bowl. Weirdo!
 
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ldg

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LOL! The kibble bowls gets spilled pretty regularly around here - but that's mostly because when five cats get romping in a small space....and one of them doesn't see too well.....


Helen - that's a great thought, but because of the way we feed her I know that's not the case. Because we could never decide what was "the best" food, we buy 4 different kinds of kitten food and mix it up. It's all different shapes, sizes and colors. What I didn't mention is that she sniffs around in the bowl and always targets one kind of food. The only time she eats the other stuff is when she shakes it out of her mouth and eats it out of the bowl. BUT - she's not exhibiting this behavior because she's a finicky eater: when we give her a bowl that's only her favorite food, she eats the same way.
 
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ldg

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Sicycat originally wrote:
Zoey will also take a bite of dry food then drop it on the floor next to the bowl and eat it there.. what the heck? lol! BUT she only does this when the bowl is FULL. When its half full or almost empty she eats straight out of the bowl. Weirdo!
I wonder what that's about?

And why Saki doesn't kill the mice - a mystery! Maybe because they're "just toys," not food he's going to eat? (Guess he likes to eat dead food, and play with "live" things - like if he were an outside cat he wouldn't kill a mouse he didn't intend to eat - just to play with....??????)
 

sicycat

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Originally posted by LDG


I wonder what that's about?

And why Saki doesn't kill the mice - a mystery! Maybe because they're "just toys," not food he's going to eat? (Guess he likes to eat dead food, and play with "live" things - like if he were an outside cat he wouldn't kill a mouse he didn't intend to eat - just to play with....??????)
LOL that sounds about right
 

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Cute little Flowerbelle! How can you get mad at her for doing anything vaguely wrong like leaving a little mess!?!?!

Perhaps we need to start a picture thread on our messy eaters, or at least the mess they walk away from after a meal????

btw....Shep does the same head shake thing since her stomatitus has gotten chronic with old age (she should have surgery but is too old to go thru it). MA is right about that one! I pick up her kibble at least 10 times a day as she likes to "snack" and not "eat".
 
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