Hello everyone! It's Jennifer, Sasha and Snowy here . . .
I'm hoping some of you out there could shed some light on my Snowy's
strange eating behavior. (To those of you who don't know or don't
remember, my 5 yr. old albino Snowy was put on what appears to be a
rather high dose of prednisolone this past March when he was 'supposedly'
diagnosed with insulinoma BUT over the past two months, his doctor and I
have been slowly weaning him off the Pred because he may not be
insulinomic after all. Therefore, his rollercoaster ride with the
medicine might be contributing to his eating behavior but then again,
maybe not.)
At any rate ... After having him about a month, I concluded that he was
blind and I wonder if that has anything to do with the WAY he now eats??
The furkids have a dish of dry kibble inside their cage which they are
free to graze on at any time but I also give them a "treat" of my special
sugar-free chicken gravy recipe about once every other day (I began doing
this because of Snowball's initial diagnosis and also when Sasha suffered
from her heatstroke and could only eat liquid foods).
Well, whenever I actually place Snowball in front of the gravy dish, he
stiffens up like a cat arching his back and quickly jumps back like he is
SCARED of the food! He won't go near the saucer on his own, unless I
keep dipping my finger in the gravy to coax him closer and closer to the
food. Eventually, I can usually get him to be so close to the gravy that
he practically has his entire face in the saucer but even then (when his
whiskers are touching the gravy!), about 50% of the time he still will
NOT lap up the gravy himself but he will keep licking it off my finger
while my finger is IN the gravy!!! Then, if I stop putting my 'gravy
finger' up to his mouth, he backs away from the saucer and leaves, as if
he's not hungry (but will continue to eat and eat if he's licking it from
my finger!)
This is just crazy and I've been trying to analyze his behavior, thinking
that because he can't SEE the food, he's apprehensive and rightfully so
but his incredibly great sense of smell definitely makes up for that so
that theory doesn't make sense. (I know he relies on his smell sense
because I've seen Snowy zip all the way across the living room for a
treat!) Another thing I thought of is that maybe he feels "threatened" by
Sasha eating at the same time, in the same dish (and boy is SHE an eater)
but that doesn't make sense either because Sasha has NEVER (in all the
time I've had them) EVER displayed any kind of aggression or hoarding
during meal time. Sasha's so busy scarfing up the yummies that she pays
absolutely no attention to ANYTHING else but the gravy - I mean her
entire face is covered practically and she doesn't even hardly take a
breath between all the gulping so I don't know why Snowball would feel
like his food amount or supply is being "threatened." (Most often what
eventually happens is that Snowy will go back to the saucer, once Sasha
has left, to eat the 'leftovers' but Sasha usually eats most of it so
there's not much left - poor Snowy!)
My final theory is that maybe Snowball's old, tartered canine tooth on
the right front side is hurting him and that is why he backs away after
a few initial licks and also squints his eyes and kinda 'grimaces' when
he's eating the gravy. Funny thing, though, is that he does't 'grimace'
(almost as if he's in pain?) when he's eating the kibble - he just
munches away.
I do believe that Sasha is the Alpha but Snowball really holds his own,
esp. when they are playing, and Snowy isn't really all that passive and
meek - that's why this mealtime behavior is really perplexing to me.
Anyone have ANY ideas? Please feel free to email me directly with your
comments and suggestions at [log in to unmask] but also PLEASE CC: me
at [log in to unmask] (I'm in the process of switching addresses and
want to make doubly sure I get all my messages)
Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions anyone can provide . . . .
Fuzzie hugs and kisses, Jen, Sasha & Snowball
[Posted in FML issue 4324]
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