Newton Archives - Page 34 of 138

Thanksgiving Preparations

Newton: * SNIFF * * SNIFF *

orange tabby cat with plush turkey

Newton: I don’t think so, little guy. You haven’t done a very good job growing up since last year.

orange tabby cat with plush turkey

Pierre: What are you doing, Newt? You’re supposed to be getting ready to be thankful.

Newton: I was ready to be thankful for turkey for dinner, but look at this rude bird! He is way too small to feed us. He should at least look at me when I talk to him.

orange tabby cat and gray tabby cat with plush turkey

Newton: It’s bad enough that we have had him in the house for a whole year and he hasn’t grown at all. What good is he going to do us for Thanksgiving dinner at this size?

Pierre: That’s not the kind of being thankful you’re supposed to be doing.

orange tabby cat and gray tabby cat with plush turkey

Newton: * WHISPERS * I’m onto you, little turkey. When the humans go out to eat with friends tomorrow, we’re going to have a little “talk” about thankfulness.

orange tabby cat with plush turkey

Pierre: While Newton figures out the real meaning of Thanksgiving, we want you to know that we are thankful for you, our readers. Your friendship brings us smiles and joy all year round. Happy Thanksgiving!

gray tabby cat with plush turkey

The Dreaded Dingleberry Problem

Ashton: Oh, boy, Newton.

Newton: What are you doing back there?

Ashton: You’ve got a dingleberry back here. You better not sit on the bed like this or you’re going to be in trouble.

brown tabby cat sniffs orange tabby cat butt

Newton: This is so embarrassing.

Orange tabby cat looks annoyed

Part of having plush fur like Newton means that sometimes dingleberries hang on while he’s taking care of his business in the litter box. And Newton is right, dingleberries can be really embarrassing, not to mention messy if they make it to the furniture.

That means when you see a dingleberry, you’d better take action to clean it up in a hurry.

That’s where earthbath tushy wipes come in.

one-eyed brown tabby cat and Earthbath Tushy Wipes

Before nice people at earthbath sent earthbath tushy wipes for review, I always reached for a baby wipe when there was a dingleberry alert in the house. But products made for babies aren’t meant for cats. For something to be safe for a baby, there are different considerations than there are for cats. Babies don’t lick themselves all over, after all.

So I was pretty excited that instead of being a baby wipe, earthbath tushy wipes are intended for use on pets. They’re safe, and they don’t have a bunch of scary-sounding, unpronounceable chemicals in them. The baby wipes I had in the house included ingredients which can irritate skin and even cause carcinogenic effects with long-term use. I don’t want Newton licking a chemical like that!

I didn’t have to worry about Newton grooming his fur after I used the earthbath wipes to clean up his dingleberry. The most unpronounceable chemical in the wipes is saccharomyces ferment filtrate, a type of yeast that helps neutralize unpleasant odors.

Also unlike thin baby wipes, earthbath wipes are thick and textured, so your fingers are safe from the dingleberries when you’re cleaning them off.

Earthbath Tushy Wipes

Newton: Look, everyone! No dingleberries! Thanks, earthbath!

orange tabby cat and Earthbath Tushy Wipes

FTC Disclosure: We were compensated to review earthbath wipes, but tthe opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by any outsider.

The Newton Update

Several of you have asked for a Newton update after his urinalysis, and I was stalling on one until I could sound a little less frustrated with the situation. So here we are.

For three weeks, Newton ate his raw diet, and the only treats he had were some freeze-dried Bravo turkey treats (100% meat), and some pinches of unseasoned, grilled chicken breast (also 100% meat).

With the crunchy treats gone from his diet, his pH numbers should look better, right?

orange tabby cat reads test results

His pH was still stubbornly 8.5. That’s crazy high for a raw fed cat.

The vet blamed the raw food and insisted on a prescription diet for life.

The local company I have been buying prepared raw food from blamed the freeze-dried treats.

I was ready to pull my hair out in frustration at the blame game.

orange tabby cat pauses while bathing

I agreed to put Newton on a prescription diet for a while while I figured out what the best long-term dietary move would be. I put off writing an update here until I had a plan.

Newton hates the renal diet. I’m not impressed with the ingredients in it, but he’ll be all right on it for a few weeks.

orange tabby cat

After some research, I took another hard look at the food Newton has been eating. Because life has been stressful, it has been easier for me to buy raw food rather than make it, and the local company who makes the raw food makes primarily raw for dogs, just like all pet food manufacturers do.

I sat down with the ingredient list and for some reason, I saw something I had questioned months ago and then put out of my mind: The food is made with chicken necks.

Newton tastes the wind-up chick

The USDA says that chicken necks are 27% bone.

Turkey thighs are 14% bone. The recipe I use to make my own raw food, from Dr. Lisa Pierson, uses poultry thigh with half of the bones removed, so that lowers the bone level to 10% or less.

Rodents are roughly 5% bone and rabbits are a little less than 10% bone.

There isn’t much way around it, Newton’s diet has too much bone in it.

orange tabby cat grabs the skeleton hand

Adding calcium to your diet can raise your urinary pH. Humans actually do this on purpose with calcium supplements to make their urine more alkaline.

Newton’s high urine pH may be the fault of my getting complacent and not making raw food at home and instead buying food that is too high in calcium.

So I think that’s the next step: We’ll leave Newton on the prescription food for a couple more weeks to get a new baseline on his urinary pH on that food, then I’m going to have to make time to make raw for him myself.

Then we’ll see if that allows him to eat high quality, species-appropriate ingredients and have his urine look the way it is supposed to.

orange tabby cat looks out of frame