After looking at the ingredients lists for some of the Soulistic and Tiki varieties, I would expect Harvey, who weighs in at 10.5-11 pounds and is a reasonably active senior cat, to be satisfied with 1/4-1/3 of a 5.5oz can twice daily.

I'll second this. With the quality foods, Finn (who is a food vacuum) doesn't actually need a whole lot. I'm trying to wean Eddie off the kibble he had from the shelter, which feels a bit like trying to wean a child who is used to Fruity Pebbles onto a diet of free-range chicken, whole grain bread and kale.

Thank you all for the suggestions re. Finn's matts! Bev, I will definitely give the letter opener a try before I subject him to the trim. His natural summer coat is plush but not long, and he doesn't have an undercoat. Basically, his coat consistency/behavior fits that of an Angora or Van. I suspect that he's got a good deal of one or the other in his ancestry.

Anyhow, he doesn't seem too traumatized, and enjoyed his morning brushing as usual.

One time, due to emergency circumstances, Darby had a bag of dog frootloops, aka Beneful. It took about a month to get her back to any king of regular feeding. Including a five day hunger strike.

Tiki is one of those brands that I have looked at and would buy if I could find any varieties with no fish, chicken, or beef.

What meat do you feed them?

Tiki makes one that's duck, but I think it's got chicken mixed with it.

I bought a new, healthier, grain-free dry food for Oz last month and he does not like it. He eats it, because he eats everything (he ate lemon curd the other night) but this is the most reluctant he's ever been to eat anything. I've got a some sample sizes of a couple of other types for him to try now. I just never imagined him being picky about anything.

What meat do you feed them?

Turkey, lamb, venison, pork, duck, pheasant. Brands include Natural Balance, Nature's Variety, Evanger's, Merrick, and Wellness. I prefer to keep a wide variety on hand and rotate between them. That way whenever I want to introduce a new food of similar quality I don't have to worry about gradually introducing it, because their digestive systems are accustomed to a variety. Also if ever any of their usual foods is unavailable because it is out of stock, or heaven forbid, another massive recall, I can immediately switch to something new. Here prices range between $1.29-2.09 per can. I find myself disappointed that Blue Buffalo offers mostly fish and chicken and no buffalo. Harvey tolerated beef quite nicely up until the last few months, and I suspect that it has more to do with age-related digestion problems - rather than causing itching, it just wouldn't stay down. So maybe buffalo is no easier to digest.

And Harvey could use some anti-inflamatory ~ma. This morning he was walking slowly, couldn't extend his hind legs as usual, and the muscles in his hind legs were shuddering when I picked him up. So as per vet's instructions, I gave him one of the special-for-cats-NSAIDs leftover from December before the cortisone injection. (And called the vet's office to update them).

Sue, when I first started feeding Harvey better quality foods out of medical necessity, he went through a brief period of refusing to eat. (He had done ok with the food during the gradual switch-over, so I knew it was not because there was a real problem with the food) At one point, Sammie gave him this look that said plain as day, "Come on, Daddy, you have to eat." He went to his dish and ate. And once he got used to eating quality food, he became more enthusiastic about it. I figured it was like making a kid who was used to chicken nuggets and mac & cheese every day eat freshly prepared meals from scratch - at first there would be resistence and things wouldn't taste as good because there was less salt, but after a period of adjustment the kid would be able to really taste things and enjoy them.

Leo ate nothing but Wellness and actual-meat canned food for the first three years of his life. Then I got Percy, poor skinny neglected Percy, and he came with a bag of Purina Indoor. I kept him in the spare bedroom, planning to slowly get him off the junk food and onto the Wellness (that plan worked), and I figured Leo would ignore the junk food because it's mostly corn -- yuck, right? Oh no. Leo found the Purina and ate it like a Kashi kid just discovering Sugar Corn Pops. He didn't seem to suffer any noticeable health problems except barfing, which didn't deter him from gnawing through the bag of Purina to get more. My little corn-addict cat.

No help on the cats, but all this talk reminds me of a story from Wolf Haven - which is not too many hours drive from where I live. One old wolf they brought into the refuge had been horribly abused. When he came in, he just lay down and refused to eat. And after he had not eaten for two days, the alpha female wolf came up and started nipping him and nuzzling him and licking him. But in with the affection she never stopped the painful nips.She just would not let him lay down and die. And eventually she nagged him to the point where he got up, ambled over to where the food was laid out and ate some. And she nagged him every day into eating until eventually he got back into eating without being prompted. And he ended up living a fairly long life in the refuge.

Aw, Typo, that's a wonderful story.