Marshal is on his second bag of this new cat food I’m trying him on; Innova “Evo”. This is supposed to be the best dry cat food made, period, and as Marshal doesn’t like wet food this is the best I can do.
There are a few “rules of thumb” when it comes to cat food and most of them I learned from Wolf. The big one is that cats are carnivores and function best on a high protein diet, so your choice of cat food should have the highest crude protein percentages you can find…
I was feeding Marshal Purina “One” which is something like 34% crude protein and was the best stuff I could get at Petsmart. But like all “Petsmart” cat foods it is mostly rice and other grains which count as “protein”, but are harder to digest. This “Evo” stuff is 50% crude protein and contains no grain products, but it’s harder to get because it’s not from Purina…
in fact, the ingredients list reads like some strange kind of stew; potatoes, carots, tomoatoes, eggs, and apples, with stuff like herring and turkey too.
Fortunately I have a plethora of feed stores in my area (imagine that) and the place right over at the Safeway (“Buster’s”) carries Innova.
Anyways, Marshal has really perked up in the last 30 days on this food. He was getting pretty lethargic since the move and was just looking and sounding like he was unhappy all the time… Now he’s back to his old self, which makes me happy.
Marshal is kinda picky and will let you know he doesn’t like what you’ve put in his bowl pretty quick. So the folks at Buster’s discounted me the first 2 pound bag just to see if Marshal would eat it – he did and actually seemed to like it.
So now we’re on the second 2 pound bag. I’m on their list at Buster’s and after 11 bags I get one free… So at 1 bag a month it’ll be a while.
Marshal also got this cat water fountain thing last month… He had a 2-liter gravity-feed water bowl but even at the rates he goes through water it was getting stale about half way through. So this new piece of wizardry has a charcoal filter assembly in it and constantly circulates the 64 ounces of water it holds through the filters and makes a small waterfall back into the bowl.
Marshal was a bit unsure of this gizmo and kept looking at me as if to say my gaget-loving nerd-ness was not appreciated, but a few hours later he was really digging the ability to “drink from the faucet” as it were. So the new water bowl is a hit as well.
He’s also got a new cat tree, which is less “tree” and more “carpet covered concrete tube with holes in it”, but now that it is located about five feet from the fire place in the living room he spends a lot of time on top of it.
Yes, I spoil my cat.
But then again he’s the one who welcomes me home by singing my praises for about a half an hour, keeps my feet warm at night, watches TV with me, and sits on the back of my office chair and purrs while I’m on the computer. He knows when I’ve had a bad day and does everything a feline can do to make me feel better – so I try to reciprocate in kind and get him the best stuff I can.
Though next year there may be a dog entering his life – I don’t think he’ll find that as nice as a new cat tree.