Thanks to Covid-19 cat lovers are finding it hard to get their hands on their feline's favourite food.
Because it is imported, some supermarket shelves are empty of cat food due to Covid-related supply issues.
Wattie's has said demand for cat food in particular is up almost 20 per cent on this time last year.
Steph Redhill of 9 Lives Orphanage says they are struggling with a lot of their regular foods and items they try to keep as consistent feed.
"We're struggling with the basics at this point. Even things like Chef sachets for instance. There's a lot of supermarkets that aren't able to get it into stock now, so we're having to look at other options," she said.
"Changing food on them at short notice can cause things like gastric upsets and potentially even behavioural changes because the animal's feeling unwell.
"It's important to us if we can keep things as consistent as possible."
Remuera Vets' Samantha Salmond said they are finding it hard to supply food for cats that are diabetic or have renal and urinary issues.
Cat owners are also having trouble. Debbie Eagle said she was having to turn to treats such as Temptations to appease her fussy felines.
Breanna Barraclough's cat Ellie normally gets a mixture of two different brands.
"When they're both out, that's when I start to get a little bit worried. It means I'm running around the city trying to find her food because you've got to do what the cat wants."
Dr Stacey Tremain of The Pet Vet in Rotorua said trying to get a hold of a cat's regular food is a real stress. He told Breakfast cats are fussy and people are not imagining it.
Dr Stacey Tremain of The Pet Vet has some advice in the face of Covid-related supply issues (Source: Breakfast)
"You know that look, when they look at you, they look at the food, and they do it five times and just walk off. It's actually based on evolution because cats have developed a neophobia or fear of new things because their range of what they can eat and their taste range is so narrow," he explained.
"The danger of eating something maybe they shouldn't could cause an upset stomach in the wild, so that puts you in danger. It is fussiness, but there is a pretty good evolutionary reason for it. One of the things that kind of puts them in that position is they only have roundabout 440 to 470 tastebuds. We've got over 5000. So again that restriction of what their tastes are is quite narrow.
"The other thing is they don't have genes that code for anything sweet. They're hyper sensitive to bitter things, so we can't go near that end of the spectrum either, so we're stuck right in the middle. It's a rock and a hard place unfortunately."
Tremain said only exposing a cat to a single source of protein, such as chicken or fish, creates a little bit of dependency on it.
"You do want to vary those proteins. The other thing we've got to remember with cats especially is that they are obligate carnivores, which is just a flash way of saying they only need protein and fat."
He had the following "tricks" for cat lovers to help their cats transition to a new brand or diet:
- Temptations can be crumbled up and used as a bit of a "tasting powder" over the new food
- Make sure if there is more than one cat in a household to separate their feeding areas
- Make sure a cat's food dish is not next to its water bowl
- Make sure a cat's food and water is at least 2m away from its litter tray
- Feed them on a surface which is higher up. They feel safer
- Choose a new brand which has roughly a protein to fat content of 2 to 1. The energy content cats get from protein has to be the same as fat. Fat has twice as much energy in it, so 2 to 1
- Feed a cat new food in small volumes — multiple "snacks" of it five or six times per day if you can. Make sure to pick up the dish if they don't eat it. Introducing a new food slowly reduces the chance of diarrhoea
"It's hard. I'm a vet, I find it hard," Tremain said.
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