Placebo effect!

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Not only human beings experience placebo effect!

I have recently adopted a castaway kitten. It will leave a very small amount of food in the feeding bowl while going nutz when I put some new food in. I have been questioning myself that is there a freshness thing in this "dry" food. Being not very hard and thus they should not act like biscuit which will become soft after they exposed to the air. I don't think the jar that holds the food is air tight, and so if we assume the food will go stale quickly after putting in the open then the food inside the jar should also go stale. How does the kitten tell what's fresh and what's not?

Just moments ago, he was playing "hide and seek" with me so I try to lure him out with feeding signal. He does not respond to my call, so I use the sound of the feeding bowl and shake the jar. Still no response, I put some food in the bowl and make sure the noise of food dropping into the bowl is audible. He finally come out and look at the bowl, he DID NOT eat the food I just added nor did he go nutz circling around the bowl! Why? This is new food! So I pick up just a little more food from the jar and drop them into the bowl, he go nutz right the way and bite on the food. Wow even a kitten experience placebo effect!

 

[44santababy]

sounds like the CAT is training you...no worries, been there

 

[KathyC]

I was lucky enough to meet Wingo's new kitten this past weekend..he is sooooo cute and I have no doubt he will have a wonderful & happy life with Wingo :cat:

Wingo - what your kitten is doing is common behavior in cats..all of mine do the same, even if they have just recently eaten, if I add more food to the bowl, they come running back over and eat again.
I would have to think the food coming from the container might have at least a stronger scent and as a cats sense of smell is so stong, that is likely what attracts them?

You should post a pic of the little guy

 

[Reef Fixations]

Hi Wingo,

Congrats on the new acoption!!! I have a rescue dog that needs a home if you r feeling uber-generous.

I don't know much about cats or cat behavior but as far as your question about cat kibble & freshness is concerned, I can offer up a little bit of experience. I stopped feeding kibbles years ago but to the best of recollection, once bags of kibble are opened they are only good for 3 months at best if kept in a cool, dry place. So we aren't supposed to buy any more than our pets can consume in 3 months time and if hi temps and humiditiy are an issue, kibble can go rancid in a month OR less.

On another note... getting a little off topic. A few years back, when I started looking into how long kibble stays good is eventually what lead me to the links I provided down below.

Kibbles can cause serious health issues for all pets so if you are more inclined to buy smaller amounts of kibbles to make sure it is fresh (which ends up costing more) than you may want to consider alternatives that may cost the same and possibly even less and in the end have a much healthier pet.

Healthier pets usually end up costing less in terms of vet bills too so I may pay a little more every month for my dogs' diets but I'm hoping that my dogs won't cost me as much with vet bills which so far has positively proven to be the case.

It was half depressing when I found out that what I thought was good food for my pups was more or less along the lines of poison.

Check out the link: http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html

PS..... even after u read this link on the benifits of Iams or Science Diet, just know that they are really bad too.

Raw vs. Cooked: http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm

The uglier truth: http://www.rense.com/general70/dead.htm

...and the more you dig, the worse it gets.

Now I feed granulated (not as processed as kibbles) & raw foods. Best part aside from the obvious is so much less to clean up.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

It could be worse Wingo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KRBH21IvSrc

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

I used to have the same issue with my cat, rescued him as a tiny kitten and ended up buying one of those air tight pet food containers and it's worked like a charm ever since...he now usually cleans his bowl. If there is any leftovers...which is sometimes about a tablespoon or two...I dump it and put fresh.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

You should post a pic of the little guy

I paid big money to have my kitten modeled in a National Website(In fact, I see 232 users is online right now)! He will be a star!

I am refreshing my browsing every couple seconds and hope the commercial with him shows up for like half hour already. But hmm I am still waiting.

I hope he is on by evening then.