#handrear

[unsettlingcreature]

so torn on my next skyrim oc, please help me decide (more info below cut)

Asta (Nord, she/her, mage)

Student at the College of Winterhold who's reached the rank of Apprentice and often helps as a teaching assistant to Tolfdir

Exchanges letters with her parents who live in Whiterun, with them sending her care packages. She goes to visit them shortly after Saarthal, needing a break from everything that happened with the Eye of Magnus (and if she manages to run into Orthorn, great!)

Ends up finding out she's dragonborn when Mirmulnir is left unchecked and he tries to attack the city itself

Shy but friendly, prefers to avoid conflict, is uncapable of saying no to people asking her for help (leading to all sorts of shenanigans)

Cesare (Imperial, he/him, unsure)

Nephew of Vittoria Vici, originally came to Skyrim because of her wedding but his family came too early and he got bored

Is willing to throw money around as needed, usually to secure a place on expeditions or to get into restricted places

"Oh, there are dragons? What do you think they look like? Do you think we'll see one? Where was it spotted? Father, I'm off to Falkreath Hold! Don't worry so much, I'll be sure to make it back in time for auntie's wedding!"

Cheerful, almost to the extreme, naïve to how dangerous the world is and how the political situation is very fragile. Even as he realises this, he tries to stay optimistic.

[flanbolt]

Screen time this week says Handrearing my kitten by meself put my screen time down about 40%. I was so tired this week and time was moving like molasses for me, because before it used to zoom past me like I had no control to slow it down. Which is nice because there is actually a lot of time in the day/night to do stuff than I thought

[eriisaam]

You ever have a moment messing with AU/lore stuff where you wrote several whump or conflict things individually that don't feel like huge things on their own, but when you look at everything altogether in chronological order it comes off way more brutal than you intended it to be?

Last night Bestie and I were messing around with things, and I ended up realizing I did an Alfonse pretty dirty more than I realized I did in the process in our shared AU.

Some notes: I will mention "that Alfonse" and "a Alfonse" and stuff alongside it a lot because in this summoner lore AU, it's a pretty regular occurrence for there to exist multiple different instances of the same like-hero even in the same world. Some might have different names telling the two apart (for instance there's Corrin and Kamui I mention on and off, Corrin being f-corn and Kamui being m-corn), and in this AU there's at least four different Alfonses, two of which remain such, one is a Lif, and one kinda has a foot in being both Alfonse, Lif, and not quite fully either (Lifonse). It's also not uncommon for there to be multiple iterations of a similar world, with very different circumstances (some canon drifting or splitting, some differences specific to the AU otherwise), and it's possible for characters who canonically came from the same continuity of a world to meet each other, each coming from different versions of that world from one another (the aforementioned Corrin and Kamui came from different World of Fates, and other examples include Sparrow's/Ephrel's Chrom not being from the same World of Awakening as Robin). Pretty much it works a lot like the Fell paralogue in Engage (though predating it) and how the different instances of the same character interact.

Summoners also tend to heavily lean on crossover ones, and two of the three summoners this involved both hailed from a variant "world of steel" type world with deep connections to Digimon (so World of Digimon might be closer of what to call it), but for the sake of this post it's not super necessary to know digimon too deeply and I'll try to fill in the blanks for those who aren't familiar.

===

So a bit of a lean explanation of two of my summoners, and one of my bestie's summoners (bestie being @mdzs-tgcf-svsss-fanblog ).

Ephrel is a somewhat established digimon handler (a tamer) just enough to at least bring over three partners around the time they were summoned to be this Alfonse's summoner. (Note: Although anime digidestined usually emphasize one partner (rarely two) per digidestined, tamers operate closer to rules fleshed out more in the games, and tamers regularly carry a team of three active monsters at a time with many more handreared in pens or ranch-like setups with the key difference between a digidestined and a tamer mostly being how significantly faster the former can turn their partner into stronger forms in a pinch compared to the slow and steady approach of the latter). Compared to a canon setup of the summoner showing up with a few immediately-summoned handful of heroes and then being turned loose with just The Order, Ephrel brought to the table three fairly powerful beatsticks to give The Order of Heroes an immediate edge. One of these beatsticks, it should be noted, has powers adjacent with Breidabliks of having strong associations with portals and opening them to other worlds and dimensions, and while I won't dig too deeply of it more than I need to for this post's sake, keep a pin on this.

However, unfortunately for Ephrel, they also wound up being involved in some rather unfortunate mishaps, leading to not just being mortally wounded and The Order of Heroes losing contact with Ephrel, dooming them to a painful death, but the accident was catastrophic enough that their Breidablik was the weapon that ultimately killed them, and the accident was brutal enough to further kill one of the aforementioned three partners along with them. This led to their Breidablik reversing polarity on its power through the circumstance Ephrel died, not so much iskekai'ing a hero to them but isekai'ing Ephrel's soul to another world (what led to a version of The World of Awakening), meeting, marrying, and dying in the arms of Chrom there, and a whole lot to unpack of this particular point well past what's relevant to this post, but just know Ephrel was involved with the Chrom of that world, died for the second time in that world likewise, and their connection with Chrom during this point combined with the aforementioned digimon partner's Breidablik-adjacent power played a huge role in screwing up Ephrel's Breidablik and where the hell it even is or who it belongs to at this point, and the best way to sum it up is it passed its connection with Ephrel to bridging with Chrom as well, making him a technical next summoner after them.

To further explain some more details as briefly as possible, this version of the World of Awakening was heavily, heavily ravaged by an outside influence from the digimon side of this crossover-dense lore, known as the kenzoku, who are borderline a race of creatures adjacent to properties similar to digimon (and arguably risen), but not remotely either, and the key things that should be prefaced of them is they are incredibly dangerous to fight as human units (it easily tore through many digimon human characters, albeit most weren't weapon-skilled, magic-inlcined, and were often aged between teens or preteens by comparison to battle hardened heroes of fire emblem verse), and they have abilities to attack brutally and repeatedly in a sudden deadly burst, often obscured in sudden fog, and they can manipulate their voices, appearances and manners to resemble familiar figures to catch people off their guard before brutally murdering them. Chrom and Ephrel are the sole survivors of this iteration of Yillise due to the kenzoku wiping literally everyone else out through uneven power scaling and these exact traps, and Ephrel of the two took their life anyways when a crockpot of Grima's power, their broken and glitched connection to their previous partners, Freyja, and Breidablik, combined in the worst ways leading to a disconnected zombified iteration of them turning loose and fleeing after across and throughout different worlds. (dubbed Mirage Grima.)

So that brings me to Sparrow, another of my summoner hailing from the same world and circumstance Ephrel had, and who - through just how fucked everything connected to Ephrel or various extensions thereof of them at this point - wound up crossing wires in Sparrow's life, where she wound up inheriting not just Ephrel's digimon-related estate of sorts (rather than start her own account and management of her own new ranch, what was originally left behind of Ephrel's is passed to her instead, including the account handle of "Sparrow"). This also had the initially unforeseen consequence of her also inheriting a massive target on her back by the same kenzoku that murdered Ephrel the first time in Zenith (between Askran and Emblan territory), then again in Yilisse along with everyone but Chrom (although specifically Plegia, at Grima's shrine).

The kenzoku immediately brutally attacked her, left her within an inch of her life on purpose, tried to use a combination of her and their manipulation tactics to lure Chrom out to finish him off, and throughout this entire mess not only did manage to lure Chrom out and attack (but not kill) him, but Mirage Grima and Ephrel's remaining two surviving digimon partners as well, causing not only a huge, vicious, bloody mess, but the fallout of which dumped Chrom, Sparrow, and Ephrel's digimon back into the same Zenith that Ephrel initially died the first time in.

Sparrow's first instance of being in Zenith was to very nearly die immediately upon arrival, and it just happened to be pure luck this Zenith bridged connection with a different one via their Aether Resort, already made a distress call to arms to borrow the summoners and heroes already there, and said summoners, chief among them Erin and her supports including Ryoma and Camilla among eventual others, that Chrom and Sparrow happened to find a summoner directly associated with a family of one-quarter healers and with even more healer retainers that both avoided dying on the spot.

That being said, for a very brief moment, Sparrow came so close to death if not actually temporarily died, that this Breidablik that's been playing hot potato across three different summoners now panic-summoned a new summoner and a new Breidablik, thinking she also needed a replacement as well.

Which led to the summoning of the fourth summoner involved in this mess, Xiliang (Bestie's summoner), and a Zenith that was later governed by two active summoners, eventually three.

To note: Like mentioned above of it being fairly common of multiple different iterations of a world and/or hero, it's also possible for Breidablik to 'duplicate' itself, rather than simply pass itself on directly, with varying circumstances leading to why, some less or more consistently or obviously than others. This lines up with, for instance, how in Book III, Lif could carry the Breidablik of his doomed summoner's, and this Breidablik is a different one from the Breidablik present-day Kiran would've owned, and this is the same case here where Ephrel's/Sparrow's Breidablik are one in the same, but Xiliang's is not.

---

So, to put everything above in chronological order, here's why this particular Alfonse's life sucked the most miserable ass in ways my shortsighted urge to make my summoners suffer / Bestie and I combining worlds wound up causing:

Remember too, when Alfonse started off on canonical terms, Askr was already actively being pressed by Embla, led by Veronica making stronger pushes against the then very fragile Order of Heroes, and sending Anna out to bring forth a summoner as a way to get literally any edge they can scramble to get to push back against Embla then and there, and this was a plan that Alfonse and Anna reserved a slight sense of doubt as a plan that might work, and not fall through and leave them even worse off.

When he established The Order of Heroes and he and Sharena joined, this was also a time his self-confidence and assertiveness were fragile or keep-at-a-distance sake, due to having a lot of his confidence stomped on, questioned, or outright slammed by Gustav repeatedly and consistently. (Yes, he became far more scarily assertive, pragmatic, and a chaotic force to be reckoned with eventually, but remember his initial foundations versus how he's going present day took a lot of building, mending, and fortifying between "how it started" and "how it's going" and "how it started" was still relatively frail and budding at this point.)

More, remember too, when Alfonse started, his sense of confidence, trust, and willingness to open up was already heavily strained and challenged between having opened up first to an unspecified, unknown hero who ended up abandoning him to return to their own world, then having "Zacharias" befriend both him and Sharena closely and outright train them, only to similarly abandon them without word or reason out of the blue afterwards (the context of Bruno's curse from Embla was a later revelation).

So this Alfonse and Sharena hold their own as best as they can to buy Anna time, Anna summons Ephrel successfully, even better for them Ephrel hails from the World of Digimon where even three high-levelled, highly trained digimon far and well outclassed the initial kit canon Kiran would've had in the handful of initial hero units, and things look better than ideal for a typical Alfonse to start with in this scenario already.

And then some how, some way, Alfonse and co managed to not only watch Ephrel be brutally attacked, but failed them in a critical point enough to lead to both their summoner's death, and the death of one of these three beatstick units, all before Book I at this point progressed much at all.

Mind, it's not uncommon for summoners to die in the service of whichever part of Zenith they became wards to, especially in this AUverse with a lot of notable, historical summoners who recorded in history how they died in tragic, going-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory circumstances on their way out that had huge rippling effects on both Zenith and sometimes their home world of origin.

Alfonse literally just got his summoner, and he somehow got them killed almost as soon as he got it. The circumstances were by no means his fault, and much like mentioned above of how easily it laid waste to Chrom's world soon after this so only Chrom was left, if the entirety of Yillise couldn't outlast the kenzoku, The Order of Heroes in its really early and small stages of life were rather grimly lucky Ephrel was their only casualty at the time.

But bear in mind with him having already had his role stepping up as among the figureheads of The Order of Heroes painted in doubts and dismissal of Gustav from the start, getting and then losing both Ephrel and one of their digimon somehow was really difficult for Alfonse not to take this personally as a loss directly related to his failure as a leader.

And in an accidental kicking-him-while-he's-down moment, due to Ephrel's circumstances being largely out of sight of Zenith's scope and notice, and eventually involving Ephrel's surviving other two digimon, this later meant that at some point these two digimon - who Ephrel was specifically responsible for bringing to Askr's aid, and for all Alfonse knew Ephrel was their contingency for staying in their service - suddenly left them as well.

The real reason was because they sensed what went on with Ephrel's other life (and death), realized they had a widow and now that widow and another party were left in critical condition, and their previous tamer was in a really bad, disjointed state, and they held a part in what later transported everyone back to Zenith to gain aid. But Alfonse had no reason in the moment to otherwise assume both digimon blamed Alfonse for the death of their tamer, defected from him and The Order over a vote of no confidence, and leave The Order back where they started if not worse off.

His only win he got out of all of this is finding out his world's Aether Resort happened to be connected to a different iteration of Zenith, with an Alfonse significantly better off (and fighting the intrusive thoughts of "and more competent than me by miles"), and as soon as he discovered it, he had to immediately call for their aid and lean heavily on them just so his Askr doesn't get immediately curbstomped off the map by Veronica.

And then when they did return, they brought back a new summoner, and that summoner was already dying as soon as he got them as well. And that summoner called in a third one in direct response to very barely avoiding dying on him even sooner than the first one.

So Alfonse, at this point, cycled through three different summoners (technically four, but as Chrom was already a hero, and didn't really embrace being a summoner in any obvious sense at the time, everyone easily missed the signs he came after Ephrel then before Sparrow), one died because of his (perceived) failures, the other almost died directly behind his first failure, and the third he had a pile of evidence he could very well wind up killing too if he so much as breathed on them wrong.

He barely started Book I that far, chronologically, and he already managed to fuck up two summoners (secretly three), and possibly will fuck up a third(/fourth), all while having to call on a better, cooler Alfonse who managed to retain three summoners of their own at the time (Erin, Kyo, and Teru, Eclair came way later on), none of whom that Alfonse managed to kill off or incapacitate in any way first. Erin's Lif and Kyo's Lifonse beg to differ but Alfonse suffered enough and is already tunnel-visioned of that Alfonse as it is.

On top of that? This Alfonse was an Alfonse destined to become Lif, and one of the tells between him and Erin's Alfonse is hers has yellow sideburn highlights, while this one has white.

---

To this Alfonse's credit, things did eventually work out for him, however.

Ephrel may have died twice, but lived three times, and barring Freyja nearly getting them killed for the third time, their third life actually stuck, Mirage Grima sorted itself up in a way that led them to become Tangie, and for the most part picked up where they left off give or take taking a more supportive role over an active one between them, Chrom, Sparrow, and the like.

Sparrow not only got better, stronger, and took an engaged role shared between Xiliang and then Ephrel and Suming (another of Bestie's summoners), but outright became a support with Ephrel on top of Ephrel and Chrom picking up where they left off and the supports that came during and after.

And after spending a good chunk of the rest of Book I and then some where he and the rest of the order kept approaching Xiliang like breathing on him wrong would cause him to spontaneously combust, and by and large spending much of the time with him doing this:

that Alfonse eventually ended up not only not dooming Xiliang to a horrible sudden death, but eventually became Xiliang's support. And because as mentioned earlier, Erin and Kyo already had some flavor of Lif (Erin supports Lif, Kyo supports Lifonse), both read ahead of the script, "fuck that noise"'d the whole of Book III with solutions they already built in their own Book III run, and kept that iteration of Hel from pulling the rug under this poor suffering Alfonse after finally getting to know peace again.

Alfonse we're so sorry. But also kind of not really.

[roseate-felidae]

This year I went to Norfolk.

I saw two hares.

A yearling leveret on the way to dinner in a field and an adult hare in a field by a main motorway.

I've only seen three (living) in my lifetime, the first was a young leveret named "Rudy", they were handreared at Ruda in Croyde, Devon. Not scared of people they were grazing on a playground with children.

But only once have I been able to photograph them. By using my camera at max zoom (an old canon ixus) and then going online to sharpen the image.

Here are those images, they are really poor quality. But I was over the moon that I got anything.

[breitzbachbea]

Apis Bull mention and all I can think is Man he must be such a cute thing ... handreared ... trusty of his humans ...

[kjstark21]

Castiel now compared to when he was a little kitten (along with his brother Pippin - RIP). #Furbabies #MyFurBabies #Handrear #HandRearedKittens #Castiel #Pippin #CastielAndPippin #YoungerAndNow #Kittens #Cute #CuteCats #Cats #Adorable #AdorableCats #AdorableKittens https://www.instagram.com/p/BumobqngU7N/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7z29go8ueduo

[onlineantiques]

I miss Boris but #goodmemories #housemartins #fleglings #wildlife #wildliferescue #housemartinrescue #housemartinfledgling ##migratorybirds #handrearing #❤️ #birds https://www.instagram.com/p/CgDF7ijoEzA/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bum-nifty-i-look]

Sooty the Cat

(1? Nov? 2008 - 22 Feb 2018)

Beginnings

I found him in a tuft of long grass near a small tunnel drain at TAFE, with his mother, a tabby, and 1 black, 2 tabby siblings. He was the smaller of the bunch, black with short hair. 

Between classes (was studying Design Fundamentals) I'd keep an eye on them for a week or so, keeping my distance, noticing the mother would leave into the drain for a while before returning. Then one day, on my morning break, I noticed the kittens had moved, to the entrance of the small drain, but without their mother. I saw a large rock blocking the drain entrance.

Anxious that the mother wouldn't return, I kept a closer eye on the kittens. The recent rain had made the dirt muddy and cold there, adding further concern.

In my second break, I returned to find only two kittens remained near the blocked drain, but still no mother. Convinced the mother must be relocating, I figured I needn't intervene.

At home time(class finished early), I made a last check, to find only the one kitten, the small black one, was left in the mud, meowing. So, I sat nearby, but not too close, while i waited for my pickup later,and waited for the mother's return.

Vet weighed him, and deduced him to be around 3 weeks old. Asked if we wanted to surrender him, I decided I wanted to keep him. I named him Sooty.

20 minutes...

40 minutes...

Over an hour had past, with no sign of her. The kitten isn't meowing as much anymore. So I picked it up, and walked out of the campus. He felt cold and damp and a bit muddy, and fleas were crawling on his pot-belly. I held him close to warm him up a bit.

When my ride arrived I put him in an old hungry jacks paper bag from in the car, and we took him to the vet. The vet weighed him, and deduced him to be around 3 weeks old. Asked if we wanted to surrender him to the RSPCA, I decided to keep him. I named him Sooty. 

So, they gave him some flea treatment, de-worming, and gave us a box of cat milk replacement powder and bottle. Given his young age, they instructed us to feed him every 3-4 hours, and wipe his butt and doodle with a damp tissue, to replicate the mother licking him so he would do his business.

[deweydecimalchickens]

It never occurred to me that if you're handrearing marsupials THEY'D NEED A SPECIAL CUDDLY POUCH but OF COURSE they would and I think my heart just exploded. Okay the world is big and scary back in the pouch.

“Chester coming out of the pouch for his first hop. He doesn’t stay out long, but he was brave and that was a great first hop.”

The Kangaroo Sanctuary

[taibhsearachd]

So I have a theory that coyotes are self-domesticating over generations and generations. There's a particular TikTok user that I think serves as evidence of this, and I was pointing him out to Mags... but in that process, I went through videos I hadn't watched before.

And frankly. In most cases, I think anyone who treats an undomesticated animal as a pet should be questioned about their reasons for doing so. (...look, frankly, I can't claim it's never correct, because if that were true we wouldn't have the domesticated animals we have today. Domestication is a thing that happens, and I'm cool with it. Most of the time, the problem I have with people who keep wild animals in domestic settings is that they treat them as already domesticated when they are, at best, tamed, and frequently unhappy bc their lifestyles and social structures don't vibe with what humans are able to provide.) In this case (and in another well-known case), it seems to be "got a coyote as a puppy, no family, would have died without handrearing, did so, released it into the wild, and the coyote continued to live outside as a wild animal but still come home and visit and snuggle and sometimes get medical treatment" because it recognizes those as benefits. That's how domestication works, and I believe coyotes are actively in the process of doing it to themselves.

...anyway. Usually I'd raise many concerns about someone inviting a wild animal into their house. But I believe domestication is an ongoing process, and some animals are self-domesticating, as cats - as far as we can tell - were, and coyotes are one of them.

So frankly, the greatest concern this person's videos raise for me is that they have an outdoor cat. I oppose outdoor cats in general, but especially when you're creating an environment in which you have an outdoor cat that knows One Coyote, at least, Is Safe... wow, you are literally just feeding your cats to the local wildlife, huh? Continue to interact with the local wildlife, bc the local wildlife seems to be pretty fond of you, but... hey maybe don't convince your small prey animals that the local predators are safe to be around if you're letting it outside. For fuck's sake.

[sebbysheepie]

I once saw an episode of Fatal Attractions that showed the risk of cattle as pets. One of the people with this experience I believe was a dairy sanctuary farmer who once handreared a dairy bull named Lucky. One day Lucky wouldn’t leave a cow in heat so the guy I believe whipped him and Lucky almost killed him. Lucky had to leave as a result and the guy said he wouldn’t handrear another dairy bull but it seems fishy because if Lucky was castrated, this particular incident probably wouldn’t have happened and lashing out at him for not listening wasn’t the right move.

First off. As a sanctuary why did he remove the animal? I thought that was a forever home? Just sending him to a new place to harm someone else isn’t a wise idea for that owner.

Hand raising animals helps them see us as providers and companions. However that also removes a lot of fear they have of us and in sone cases any respect the animal should have. An animal should have a healthy respect for its family and carers. In the wild they will have pecking orders. Follow the leader or boss. Whom they respect. To fight them is to challenge them for that position. In this case the bull was doing what was natural to it. It was a female in heat. And this person decide to just make the bull stop. That bull had no respect or fear of the man and was doing what instinct told him to do. Remove or chase off the rival. Only we humans think in terms of “if they love me they won’t hurt me”. And “I’ve never harmed him or has he known harm so why would he turn on me?” This is human thinking! Not animal! As an animal they can be thinking “today is the day I’m going to be boss, I want the bucket of feed and I want it now without sharing. I’ll push him over, I have a sore foot and I’m annoyed so if I’m touched I’ll kick”

That’s more animal thinking. You can’t take it personally either. They are not people. He kicked you yesterday. Doesn’t mean he’s going to kick you today. He doesn’t hate you. He just has different thinking.

Honestly. A Holstein dairy bull. Utterly the worst animal to try and treat like a baby. They are huge. They are mean. And they turn on and off like a light. I’ve worked with a ton of breeds and while I adore Holsteins. The bulls are always one to be respected and treated with the utmost care. We don’t even keep them on the farm due to needing specialized gates and chutes to care for them and to keep us safe. Salior bull? No issue! I’ll walk in the pen and take him out while watching his mood. But a Holstein? Nu uh. He’s gonna be penned. He’s gonna have his space and no way am I going in alone with his space and with a lady cow in there? Nope. That bull can be 1500 pounds plus. I’ve personally seen one that was 2300 pounds and most of that was muscle. He breaks out of the pen and you think I want people getting hurt as well as him? No. Therefore I will ensure my animals all have the proper safeguards. Respectful of me. Respectful of them. I will not be making “friends” with an animal that once it knows it’s stronger then I am will use that to get its way whenever it wants. I’ll love on it and give it all the care in the world. But when I need him to stop. He needs that healthy level of “oh she’s the boss. She’s stronger and tougher then me so I’d better get going”.

[roseate-felidae]

Sad news and giving up the rabbit hobby

Rest in peace Jack and Hairoo!

Recently my Netherland dwarfs Jack and Hairoo have died. We suspect the cause to be rabbit calcivirus (RHD).

This disease is spread by midges, mosquitoes or flies. We had a lot of humid weather and unfortunately they paid the price.

We cannot keep them inside (My asthma) and out vets do not have the right vaccines.

Sadly this means I will need to give up the rabbit hobby. It is unfair to the rabbits and I to constantly have risk of them catching this highly fatal disease.

I am moving on to guinea pigs.

They have similar needs and behaviours to rabbits without the diseases.

If you live in an area with wild rabbits and can't get your rabbits vaccinated or keep them inside; I strongly suggest you choose guinea pigs aswell, too avoid heartache

*Update - Caramel seems to have not escaped and will most likely die today.*

Ps. Hairoo's babies are doing fine, the four little angels (a blue Dutch mark, a blue self, a black self and a black otter) are being handreared by a lovely Woman.

When they come back they will be inside until sold to protect them.

Rest in peace Jack, Hairoo and Caramel!

[dono-harm-totonystark]

Genuinely not trying to come off confrontational at all but I’m also autistic so forgive me if my tone is wrong lol but. I saw your reblog about cat care/behavior and was genuinely confused by the “unless your cat is a glutton who’s dealt with food scarcity you can free feed and they’ll regulate themselves thing” could you elaborate on that? My oldest cat I got from a shelter at about 3 months old and I free fed her kibble for years and she just. Binge ate until she was 2+ pounds overweight. From what I understand this is a bigger risk when feeding kibble vs canned food to cats with the bigger issue being free feeding because sometimes an animal will just gorge themselves when possible. I used to be a certified vet tech but am happy to hear more about cat eating habits/nutrition from a vets standpoint whenever possible, I just always saw free feeding as generally a bad thing unless you know for sure your cat won’t over eat or if they’re already struggling to keep on weight

Don't worry, you don't come off confrontational at all!

So basically as I said their natural setting is to eat little and often, however:

if the cat used to be feral and by itself and was at one point in its life going hungry, it may be eating anything in its sight because it knows food scarcity

if the cat used to live as part of a feral colony which was struggling with resources, it'll have learnt that food is scarce and therefore you should eat however much you can whenever you can

if the cat was part of an 'owned' colony - such as in a kennel - where it or other cats in its vicinity was fed on a certain schedule it will have learnt that food happens twice daily, you have to eat it then 'cause it won't happen again so it'll eat all of it

and sometimes even if the MUM was fed twice daily, and the kitten stayed with her long enough (usually about 2-4 months is when they learnt the most from their environment), it may have learnt the schedule is such and that's it

some cats are just food-oriented gluttons naturally and you can't stop them!

So in your cat's case, I imagine she spent a week or two in the kennels during her most formative age (or it was a handrear which is also part of it), and she had a schedule in there (as kennels do), so she never learnt that food is just... there. all the time. you don't have to gorge it, it'll still be there in an hour.

Kittens from a breeder are different because if the breeder is feeding appropriate complete 'starter' diet to the kittens and the mum then the dosing chart does say to feed ad lib during the lactation - those kittens will see their mum having food available to her ALL the time and they will therefore also have it available when they're ready to have it, so as long as the breeder doesn't put them on a schedule later on -- which they shouldn't as most of them get rehomed just as they come off the Starter diet -- they can develop the natural behaviours. But again, if the mum or the kittens are on a diet or if the breeder is unable to provide food being there all the time they may feel the 'scarcity of resources' and that's when the 'abnormal' behaviour of food-orientation & gluttony starts forming.

Now, it doesn't cause them any metabolic or clinical issues if they're fed on a schedule as long as they don't go above their daily allowance. And for most people who work & otherwise aren't able to control what their cats are doing with their food, it's the only way it works out. Also, if you have more than one cat, you won't be able to make sure they're all eating their appropriate amounts and nobody's stealing anybody else's food, and of course they're more likely to feel the scarcity of food if there are more of them 'competing' for it.

In comparison, my oldest, Loki (mentioned in the original post as well) used to be a grazer, I'd put down half her kibble in the morning and then another half in the afternoon and the bowl was almost never empty. And all was well and good until my roommate got a cat of her own who used to be a half-feral stray and she was very gluttonous and we had to shift them both onto twice daily feedings as otherwise neither of them would get their appropriate amount of food.

Basically, the grazing idea is that you still give them their 'appropriate' dosage of food per day (as specified by the producer), but you put it down once or twice and instead of eating the whole thing in one go, they spread it over their whole day just like they would if they were feral and hunting (as most small predators do, actually).

That being said, it is possible to retrain a cat back into the grazing behaviour, it just takes a lot of effort and attention. You basically put down tiny amounts of food more often, so you go from twice daily to 3x daily, then 5x daily, then 7x daily, and when you get to about 10-12x daily you slowly try to make sure there's always some food in the bowl until the cat is leaving it behind after it's eaten. But again: lots of time & effort and usually doesn't work for more than 1 cat.

As for the risk it's less about the cat (kibble puffs up in the stomach so ends up being the same amount as wet food) and more about the owners who are far more likely to leave more kibble than approved because it 'looks like it's just so little', to quote my mother......

So you are absolutely right in that it does depend on the cat a lot and some do already come to you already gluttony and you're very unlikely to keep them from doing that! Ultimately you can't control what your cat does to herself unless you're watching her literally 24/7 which is obviously next to impossible.

Hope this clarifies things a bit!

[just2fluffy]

Barry (4 months old) has started going through his first molt and has green feathers coming through 🦜 I tried to get good pictures of them while he was distracted eating his lunch chop, he’s so cuddly I just love him to bits 🥰 Lunch chop : broccoli, Brussel sprout, capsicum, corn, peas, chilli and cauliflower ———————————————————— #ringneck #ringneckparrot #parrots #parrotsofinstagram #bird #babybird #handrearing #growingup #healthy #barry #parakeet #indianringneck #healthyeating #birdsofinstagram #birds #parrot https://www.instagram.com/p/BuaN0eqnqg_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ql8t51xozbso

[onlineantiques]

Still waiting for Boris to return home #🙏🏻 #housemartins #migration #migratorybirds #birds #wildlife #fledglings #handrearing https://www.instagram.com/p/CdIKbawIEHw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[drferox]

This is Butter! He’s fat but he’s on a diet and gets exercise every day. He was abandoned by his mom at 3 weeks old so I handreared him, he went from runt to chonker because 11-year-olds are not good at handrearing animals. but I’m fixing my mistakes now!

Listen, if you can get a 3 week old kitten through to adulthood then that is actually good at handrearing the animal.