Monday, January 23, 2012

Mancats wear collars

Some of the mancats in the house are now wearing collars.  Smokey started wearing his special collar in October...
 It took him a while to get the hang of it...his collar has a magnet on the front, and it opens the door into the cage where his special food is kept. 
 Smokey needs to gain weight, but a certain orange boy in the house does not!  This was the only way we could guarantee that Tanner could not get inside to eat the higher calorie food. 
 It took Smokey about a month to really get the hang of the door...now he goes in and out like a champ!  We still need to help him remember to eat several times a day...but if you take him to the room, he goes right on in.  Smokey now weighs 9 pounds.  He had lost down to 8.4 in December, so we are pleased with his progress.  We did have to start him back on his anti-anxiety meds too...Smokey is a worrier, and stresses over things internally.  This has helped him to not worry, and just enjoy life.  He is very laid back now, and we can see the true Smokey personality!

Some of you with older cats may be experiencing this same problem...weight loss, forgetting to eat, not wanting dry food, etc...With Smokey, we simply take him to the cage several times a day to help him remember to eat.  We serve high calorie canned food (AD, Authority, ProPlan, etc...).  Dry food is more calorie dense, but he isn't loving on that right now, so we grind it to a powder and add it to the canned food, with some extra water.  There is also a bowl a dry in the cage, so if he wants it, it is there.

In early December we used a couple of appetite stimulants on him, and they helped him to remember that he was hungry and should eat.  Since going back on the anti-anxiety meds, we haven't had to use the appetite stimulants...so we are thankful.
 Tanner is wearing a special collar of a different kind...his is a Calming Collar.  It contains pheromones and I hope it will help him not be so nervous.  I put it on last night, and he is doing well.  It was a big heavy at first, but once he got used to it, he was a snuggle bug.  This morning, he went over to Pirate and bopped him, and simply walked away...while I don't condone bullying, this is an improvement.  Normally, Tanner would bop Pirate, and then get all nervous and squeal like Pirate was attacking him!  So if this collar helps him to feel brave then that is great!  I want my boys to feel comfortable at home, and I hope this will help Tanner.

Has anyone else tried the Calming Collar?  Have you seen a difference, or felt like it was helping?
Devon is just laughing at everyone else because he doesn't have to wear a collar!

8 comments:

  1. Awwwww Smokey! Good for you!! So glad he is adopting to his collar and remembering to eat! He must eat! :-) Yay!

    Tanner is just such a bright personality! Glad his calming collar seems to be working!

    Devon is just lovely! Hugs to Pirate too! take care
    x

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  2. WOW, the magnet collar is pure genius!!! What a great plan to keep his food separate.

    I know that Wendy from LOL Cats uses calming collars on two of her kitties. I don't use them but I do use the Feliway plug-ins, one upstairs and one on the main floor. They are supposed to release calming pheromones also and I think they make a difference or at least I always notice a lot of thundering around the house when I need to change the refills.

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  3. That was a great idea with the foodbox with a catflap for just Smokey !
    Glad to hear that he had put on some weight again :)
    Have no experience of Calming collars , I´m not even sure that we have them in Sweden ??

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  4. Smokey's collar is pure genius! What a great solution.
    We have used calming collars, but I didn't notice a huge difference...but my crowd didn't calm down with Feliway, either.

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  5. OMC, this is an awesome idea to isolate food! My human is already thinking of getting a cage to keep me safe from Binga's hogging while I'm eating. If I could come and go as I please, that would be the coolest thing ever! Was it hard to put together?

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  6. Wow, that's a great idea to get Smokey to eat his foods!! Mom tried the calming collar on Zoey and she chewed it off!! So mom hasn't tried again. Good luck with Tanner!!

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  7. Smokey's private restaurant is a great idea.
    We hope Tanner's calming collar helps him too.

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