Jeeves update

Right now Jeeves is on my lap (which is small, since I'm sitting at my desk, but he's determined), purring up a storm while he works on finding just the best angle to park his very cold nose in the crook of my elbow without impairing his breathing. He's in a happy mood today; his usual self.

That hasn't always been the case in this last week; the vet wants us to convert him to an all-wet-food diet for a while -- a can a day, plus 1/4 cup of kibble -- but didn't set a limit on what kind of food we should choose. I'd had some Frisk.ies in the cupboard, so we issued that for a while, and then I bought a bunch of cans of the adult version of what the Humane Society gives me for kittens; it's supposed to have more veggies and fewer 'fillers' in it.

That may all be very well, but I don't think it works well with Jeeves' system. Either that, or it tastes bad enough that he just won't eat it. While we've been serving it as their food source, at around 6 or 7pm we find him meatloafed somewhere, with this strange, out-of-it look in his eye. He won't move, and he doesn't react to much of anything, and if you pick him up and move him, he stays wherever you put him. If he does move, his tail is tucked between his legs, and he slinks low to the ground. The only thing that seems to make him move is me going into the walk-in closet downstairs, which is where their kibble is kept, and where there's a broom which he's had an ongoing forbidden love-nibble relationship with.

When he's in this state, even if we park food right in front of him, he's not interested; he just sits there, "bonked", as we say. This happened 3 days in a row; most of the time he'd *eventually* find some interest in the food and eat a bit of it, and a half-hour later he'd perk up, eat a bit more, and be normal again. One evening he made a particularly strong dash for the broom, so I offered him some kitty grass, and he devoured it, which made me wonder if the problem was in his stomach, as IIRC, cats sometimes eat grass to aid digestion (though I know they also will eat it because they think it's tasty).

So two days ago I put them back on their all-kibble schedule, with their timed food bowl (though now with a new cat fountain in operation -- and in use!). That evening, Jeeves seemed to *expect* to bonk, but didn't. The next two evenings he was back to normal, and didn't bonk at all. Last night I gave them a plate of Fris.kies as their evening meal, and they cleaned the plate. Tonight I'm going to give them a plate of the other type of wet food. If they don't devour it, I'm going to donate the cans and go back to Fris.kies. From there, I'll work on making wet food a higher percentage of their diet again, and keep an eye out.

Pooping and peeing, including frequency and quantity, seems to be normal, which (according to online literature) seems to suggest that it's not a diabetes-related issue.

We're seriously considering getting Jeeves a blood test, though, just in case. Google, who is more active, didn't have a problem on the same schedule. But at least we've been able to change factors at home and got our old Jeeves back, so I think there's some hope for finding a good balance without meds.

Please comment if you've had any experience regarding this kind of problem.