Indy’s milestone

By chankahyein, on Saturday, July 31st, 2021 11:07 am

I have been force feeding Indy for half a month now. It started with him having some GI issues and that was settled after about a week. Since then, he has been his usual active self but the only thing is that he refuses to eat by himself.

It was no longer a medical problem. It was more of an attitude problem.

But while I was prepared to force feed Indy for life, force feeding isn’t a pleasant experience. It’s not hand-feeding, but force feeding where I have to open his jaw, put the food into his mouth and close his jaw to make him swallow. Why would any cat want to go through that three times a day?

And it’s not that Indy cannot eat. He is more than willing to eat junk food, he just doesn’t want to eat his proper food. How can he survive on junk food alone? So I continued force feeding him and hoped that one day, he might eat on his own again. It was quite frustrating.

I’ve been talking to him every day as well. I know cats probably don’t understand our words, but I am quite sure they can read our thoughts. That made no difference to Indy as well. He would just walk away from his bowl of food. If I let him starve, he will get GI issues again and we don’t want that to happen.

Two days ago, I decided to do something a little drastic. For dinner, I locked Indy in the cage with his food. I know this might not work; he could become even more rebellious. But doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity.

I didn’t expect him to eat, knowing how stubborn and strong-willed he can be, and if he didn’t, I would just have to force feed him again.

But within minutes, he went to lick the food. Just a little.

That was all.

I waited for awhile more and I brought out the dehydrated chicken treats again (which I’ve tried and failed many times now). I sprinkled some onto his food and…

This time, by sheer luck, he began to eat! I could not believe it! Indy was eating his raw food on his own. I had to keep sprinkling the treats on top and he ate quite a bit.

Yesterday, I offered him his bowl of food with the treats again for breakfast. This time, no locking in the cage. Indy ate.

The same happened for lunch and dinner too. Indy ate all by himself. So, yesterday marks the first day after two weeks that Indy ate his three meals all by himself. No force feeding for the whole day. No caging as well.

It’s a milestone!