Flies Laying Eggs on Feral Cat's Food

[spac]

I recently started feeding my feral cat Sheba pate food after he stopped eating Special Kitty (Walmart brand made by J.M. Smucker). What I noticed about these foods has me dumbfounded.

The cat left some of the Special Kitty food as well as two different flavors of the Sheba food on his plate (outside of course). While the flies swarmed around all three of these foods, within 30-60 minutes they had laid clusters of eggs in only one of them: the poultry flavor Sheba. I've never seen this before with wet food that's been left out for even a long time on a hot summer day. Should I be concerned with how quickly the flies laid eggs in this food? Or maybe the fact that the flies went after it means it doesn't have a bunch of preservatives in it? Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention as to whether this was the new Sheba food or the old food. I've never seen this in 30 years of caring for ferals and strays at the same house, so it's really surprising to me.

It's kind of annoying because typically I would leave the food sit out for a while in case another cat showed up. Sometimes I just didn't have time to wait for the cat to finish eating so I'd go off and then I'd forget about the food. But now I'm gonna have to do something with the food so the flies don't lay eggs in it. Just another hassle.

 

[fionasmom]

I don't have a conclusive answer for you and don't feed Sheba but your question is interesting. There are TNRed outdoor ferals who live on my property and their food is very close to my back door, on the back patio. I do check it, but don't necessarily pick it up right away because, as you say, they don't exactly all eat on a schedule. Later in the day, depending on the heat especially, I do get rid of all the wet food. I have never seen fly eggs at all on anything here.

 

[spac]

Now I'm not sure if it was flies laying the eggs or if it was a Yellow Jacket (there was a small, black and yellow bee). I'll have to keep a closer eye on which one is actually laying them. I found a website that gives instructions on how to kill yellow jackets with canned cat food, so I guess they must be attracted to it.

So I'm thinking it's the yellow jacket laying the eggs just because this is the first year I've seen them hanging around the cat plates. Still doesn't explain why it prefers the Sheba food. I know they prefer carbs, sweet foods and meat. In 2018, the Sheba pates were supposed to have less carbs than the Special Kitty pate. I hope that hasn't changed.

 

[white shadow]

.
Hi spac !

Maybe this could help you: Carbohydrate Calculator - felinenutrition.org
.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. This feeder wouldn't solve your problem with flies or yellow jackets, but maybe it would at least stop them from getting to the food?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C49GGC0/?tag=thecatsite

 

[kittychick]

Glad to hear it was likely one yellow jacket vs hundreds of flies producing the eggs (although NEITHER is a picture I'lll get out of my mind for awhile!).

FeebysOwner - what an interesting idea! I hadn't seen that one before (most I've seen need the animal to wear a collar that will then trigger the opening. If your feral is very fearful still - the movement of the opening might scare him. However - if he lets you get near, he might watch you work with it (which lets him see what's inside is yummy!) and eventually become less frightened. (If I thought our area raccoons wouldn't figure it out faster then our ferals I'd be all over it!) We use Sheba periodically with our TNR'd guys - - simply bc we have alot left over after losing an indoor guy who only ate Sheba. The ferals aren't thrilled with it (I keep reminding them that the Sheba has GOT to be better then the half-eaten stink bugs we find around!)....but we've never had an issue with it outside. We do pick our food up pretty quickly after feeding (particularly soft) to try to avoid just this thing (the flies are THICK here right now!). I will say (and sorry - this is icky) - in probably what's a coincidence, we accidentally opened 2 cans of Sheba instead of our normal one (hubby and I BOTH opened one w/o realizing the other had also opened one.) We put the opened, but totally unused (in fact - never even left the kitchen!) and immediately put it in a fresh ziplock bag (TOTALLY closed bc I'm a freak about...well...what happened). I went down to feed them a little snack (I'm a sap) at about 1 am, I open the ziplock - - - and am shocked that it's now a ziplock bag FULL of maggots! I'm kind of surprised neighbors didn't storm the house thinking I'd been shot! Complete and utter ICK. Just interesting it was Sheba too?

Hopefully it'll be your only experience - fall's coming fast most places and flies will start to lessen considerably. Fingers crossed for you!

 

[moxiewild]

Yellow jackets don’t lay eggs in food.

Is it possible that you have a bad batch of Sheba?

We’ve had food before that already had eggs in it upon arrival. Sometimes it was apparent upon opening, but other times it wasn’t until an hour or so if being left out (we knew it came like that as the food was indoors).

You could also adjust your feeding schedule to when flies are not or are less active. You will have to balance this with wildlife, and it might still require picking up the food though.

There is a short window where most nocturnal wildlife is not active when dark.

Currently for us, it’s been darker later in the mornings.

So our window to feed - before yellow jackets are out, but after wildlife has settled - was 6 - 6:45 am. Now that it’s staying dark for longer, that window has changed to from 6:20 - 7 am.

At night, we can put food out at 7 pm and wildlife typically doesn’t show up until after 10 pm, aside from an opossum here or there, which we’re not too worried about (we’re mainly trying to dodge coons, foxes, and skunks).

We’re battling yellow jackets though, and they’re up earlier than flies tend to be, so you’d likely have a longer window than we do.

Depending on how quickly kitty eats, they may be able to eat it before the flies arrive if you get it out early enough if you feed in the mornings.

If what you saw was a yellow jacket, then be careful. Look up how to tell the difference between a YJ and paper wasp. YJs can be big trouble.

Although if it is one and you don’t live in a particularly warm area, then they’ll likely stop being interested in the cat food soon. In the fall and winter they switch to sweet foods, protein in the spring and summer.

 

[kittychick]

moxiewild - I'm glad to hear (well, not glad, since it is disgusting) that you've had a similar experience to what I described above with bad food too. Like your experience - it had to have already contained the larvae already, since the container was only opened (in our home) for 2 or 3 minutes before being shoved into a tightly closed new ziplock bag - and within a few hours it was completely crawling. (This really might be one of the more disgusting things I've written about!).

But S spac - definitely be so carefully with yellow jackets - make sure you're not feeding near a nest. That could end up being bad news for all - - so if you see one again, you might see if you can figure out where he/they are coming from (but don't get too close! The sting is very painful and they can be awfully aggressive).

I'd be so surprised though if it wasn't a bad batch of pre-infested food - - -unless you leave your food out for some time. Probably the biggest help is to follow what moxiewild talked about (timing food placement and not leaving it out too long - especially in the heat). If you need to shift your timing, do so a little slowly, but trust me - your kitties will get used to any change in schedule. The need to eat is strong! (not unlike mine when eggs benedict is around)

Do keep us posted!