This lovely letter came to the good folks at Weruva, who shared it with me. Just had to pass it along!
My rescued, beautiful black cat (“Elizabeth Taylor”) has been in our family for 8 years. For 2/3 of that time, she has become obsessed licking her stomach to the point of now having no hair on her belly. Over the years, we took her to the vet who diagnosed her as “stressed” and “self-mutilating” herself. Kitty-aromatherapy was their solution. Needless to say, it didn’t work. Then I discovered Cat Chat®. I talked to Tracie in December of last year and she said, before we attack the licking problem, change her food to an all wet, canned food. The kitty had been on an all dry, kibble diet from the beginning.
Well, it took a few days to get her changed to all wet food. I went to Tracie’s list of recommended foods on her website and discovered Weruva. It took a little doing to find it locally, but I now have a supplier 5 minutes away.
** The End of the Story?? **
*SHE IS A NEW KITTY!!* She has NOT thrown up since changing her food, she has STOPPED LICKING HER BELLY, she is happier and can’t get enough of the food!! Apparently, all these years, she was trying to tell us that her stomach hurt and I truly believe that was why she was licking it all the time — it was sore! She couldn’t be happier, and neither am I. She’s a big fan of Paw Lickin’ chicken and the MidEast Feast, and grudgingly gobbles Mack and Jack from time to time.
Thank you – thank you for being so conscientious about what we feed our kitties and for giving them no less than we give ourselves.
Bless you – “Elizabeth Taylor Kitty”
Tags: paw lickin' chicken, self-mutilating, stressed, weruva
You are lucky that the transition only took a few days. This transition is usually made over a course of at least 2 or 3 weeks. My very stubborn gizmo took over 6 months to get him off the kitty crack. I used to feed him dry kibble and when he developed lower urinary tract disease and cost me a fortune at the vet, I got educated on proper feline nutritin which I wish I would have done beforehand. He still is very picky. I had been feeding him wellness grain free, but 2 weeks ago I picked up a can of bff….and gizmo and gadget went nuts on it. Finally a wet food that he will lick the bowl clean! Make sure the canned food you feed is grain free…My only beef with bff food is that it contains potato starch which is a carbohydrate which cats do not need in their diet because they are carnivores, However, i have not found a cat food that meets every single requirement but bff is the closest I’ve found, wellness says its grain free but it contains vegetables that have grain, so yea, there is a few things I don’t like about wellness, but kudos to you, because any wet food is far better for your cat than dry kibble. The few extra bucks you spend on better food, the less you have to spend on the vet for the urinary problems, kidney failure, and diabetes…..gadget is still a baby so I have learned from my mistakes with gizmo and now I’m bringing up gadget right! And I have taught him how to play fetch, sit, lay down and roll over……and still teaching him. Cats are amazing!!!!
OH, and I forgot to mention the vet recommended royal canin urinary so….dry kibble for his problem…haha what a joke!!! I think they get paid to sponsor that crap!!!! Feeding a low grade canned food will be better than paying 25 dollars for prescription dry kibble….Don’t fall for it people!!!
Thank you so much for your smart observations – and for doing the right thing for your kitties!