Some times Smokey Joe eats the wet food too fast, then regurgitates it back up. I started researching for a way to slow him down. There were a lot of ideas, but it seemed like the easiest one to implement would be a lick mat. (It has grooves designed to hold the wet food. Instead of inhaling it, Kitty has to lick up.)
Instead of immediately heading to the pet store, I figured out we already had something in the house that might work. From the far back of the plastic container cabinet I pulled out a shallow plastic bowl originally designed to hold leftovers. It had ridges to allow air to circulate underneath things when they were reheated in the microwave.
Smokey Joe's portion of wet food covers almost the entire bottom of the container, and it has really slowed him down. His lunch now takes five minutes instead of 30 seconds, and there has been no need to deal with upchuck.
Five years ago: The Slice Of Pie Is Getting Larger
How clever! Both the concept of a lick mat (which I've never heard of before) and the fact you didn't have to buy one!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was tickled to figure out a solution.
DeleteYou do come up with good ideas. Susie is a nibbled except for the wet food. She mostly likes the gravy. She's going through a " thing" with her meals. Food she used to like, she now won't touch but in a few days, she'll be eating it again.
ReplyDeleteWe have never had a finicky eater. Not sure what I would do.
DeleteAwesome
ReplyDeleteMy grandson feeds his lab in a dish similar to this. it really works. How neat that you found something you already had that would work great.
ReplyDeleteFinding the bowl meant I could immediately put the plan into action, instead of waiting for a trip to the pet store.
DeleteVery good! -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWow that is clever!
ReplyDeleteOne of my cats is a little pig, but he manages to keep his food down just fine. Good idea.
ReplyDeleteWe've had gobblers before, but never had a regurgitation issue.
DeleteWonderful! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteWith a spoon press the wet food into the grooves - he'll take longer to lick it up.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That's what I do. I guess I was so excited by finding a solution I didn't do a good job of describing the process.
DeleteHe probably comes out of an environment where it was first come first served, and very cat for itself. If he doesn't scarf it down quickly, he doesn't get fed. We've seen this behavior in feral cats.
ReplyDeleteWe can only guess at his life before he ended up at an animal control.
DeleteI've never seen one of those bowls before. Awesome post title.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't seen one either. Thank goodness for the Internet!
DeleteSometimes the hardest part of putting together a post is coming up with a title.
Brilliant idea and much cheaper than buying a custom-made bowl.
ReplyDeleteI have three lick mats that we use to calm the canines when we have to leave them home for most of the day. I use peanut butter. They are on a camera and we can watch them. It seems to tire them out and they nap most of time after all that licking! Now with a cat in the house, things have changed. Kevin is beginning to think he is one of the dogs and I will need to get a lick mat for him. He eats dogfood when he can find a spot at one of their bowls. Glad you had a solution on hand!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that Kevin is fitting in with the rest of the pack.
DeleteOh gosh... I'm glad you found a solution to slow him down.
ReplyDelete