“You are what you eat”.
I remember this phrase from my grade school health class and say it often to myself when making questionable food choices. I’ve repeated it to my young son more times than I can count. But what about our furry kids?
Meet Obi Wan Kitobi, our second feline addition to the family and your typical Bengal cat. Extremely intelligent, rambunctious, loving, ornery, energetic, and devious, he keeps us on our toes daily.
When he isn’t jumping from the floor to the top of the refrigerator (or INSIDE it), he’s chasing his big “sister” Roxy around the house or laying in wait under the couch for unsuspecting toes to walk by.
The thing people usually notice about Bengals are their beautiful spotted coat, but once you run your fingers through it, you realize this beautiful coat isn’t just fur, it’s a pelt. Lush, soft, thick with sprinkles of gold dust – it feels nothing like a domestic cat’s coat.
The Bengal breed of cat is much closer to it’s wild descendants than the typical domestic breeds so they tend to exhibit more extreme behaviors. Dog-like in nature, Obi is not afraid of water (he is actually attracted to it and will jump into the shower with you!), loves to play fetch, rolls over to have his belly rubbed and enjoys going for walks outside on a leash.
All of this never-ending energy requires us to provide fuel that can keep up with him. Obi was the largest kitten of his litter and at just 6 months old already outweighed and outsized our first cat Roxy, at 4 years old. All of a sudden the amount of cat food I was buying had skyrocketed, and since Roxy had a sensitive stomach, I was buying a lot of very expensive food often. So I tried to reduce costs by switching to a grocery store brand.
After just a month or so on this run-of-the-mill food, I could visibly see the difference in both cat’s coats and overall demeanor. Their coats had lost their shine, they had begun shedding (this breed is known for very minimal shedding, if at all) profuse amounts of hair and the their energy levels had taken a sharp decline. While some would have been happy to have the devil removed from their cats, I knew it was a sign that they were not getting the nutrition they needed. Especially Obi, who just did’t seem as happy as he used to be.
It was around this time that Purina reached out about a partnership. After doing some research on Purina ONE®, I decided to give the 28 Day Challenge a try. Purina ONE® is reasonably priced, contains zero fillers, is easy to digest, and promotes high nutrient absorption – all of which are very important to me. I was also very pleased to see that they offered a Sensitive Stomach variety!
By providing purposely selected full nutrition, we hoped we would see visible differences like bright eyes, healthy energy and a healthy skin and coat during the course of the challenge.
During the first week, we followed the directions for integrating and eventually replacing the old food we were feeding with only Purina ONE®. Obi hasn’t been known to be terribly picky about what he eats, but he was extremely excited any time he heard the crinkling of the bag at meal time. Our other cat Roxy is a total food snob, and also was immediately excited about eating this new food.
By day 14, Obi was back to his old energy levels and getting into trouble as often as possible. He was clearly feeling more energetic and seeking ways to release his excitement.
By day 21, we couldn’t help but notice the beautiful pelt and bright eyes we fell in love with when we first met Obi were back. We also weren’t finding piles of hair in his sleeping spots.
By day 28, Obi is looking healthier and happier than we’ve ever seen him (Roxy too!) and we’ve so thankful to have discovered Purina ONE® when we did. It feels good to have found a food I can feel good about feeding the kitties, without having to spend crazy amounts of money.