food motivated

7 Comments December 27, 2012 peacelovefoster

I know what you’re thinking… more cats? Seriously!? But when you’re not fostering and you’re traveling and the only four legged subjects you have to take photos of are cats, then cats are going to have to take up some time on the blog. I don’t mind it actually – taking pictures of kitties is a nice change of pace from photographing dogs.

Cats are notorious for being a big pain in the you know what to photograph. They’re usually not like dogs in that they’re not particularly inclined to give you their attention for more than about .06 seconds. You have to get seriously creative to capture their attention for long enough to take those dreamy eye shots. For dogs, you can often just use a treat or a squeaker toy. For cats, you have to pull out all the stops – toys, weird noises, sparkly ribbon, cat nip. . . you name it, I’m sure a photographer somewhere has tried it.

I’m lucky with my Aunt’s rescued kitties, Cosmo and Angus, because they’re actually pretty food motivated and a few pieces of kitty candy can sort of hold their attention. It’s brief though, because once they realize you’re not going to give them the candy every time you hold it in front of their face, they pretty much tell you to f-off. Such characters.

Their love for food helped me capture a few decent shots, though you can tell I was working as fast as possible because some faces aren’t quite as crisp as I want them – but they were the best I ended up with. In the end, Cosmo (the grey one) vomited because I gave him too much kitty candy and Angus (the black one) fell into a deep food coma, but it was a fun photo shoot and a deeper introduction into kitty photography. Enjoy!

18 Comments May 1, 2012 peacelovefoster

Otis can be hard to figure out. Sometimes I think he was deprived of oxygen as a pup or something (just kidding) because he can be a little… slow, but other times he catches on and figures things out quickly. I just don’t get him.

When he finally stopped being finicky about his meals, I started introducing the Kong in hopes that fishing for the kibble would give Otis an outlet for some mental energy. Turns out, the kong-with-kibble combo is not one Otis will pick up on quickly. The poor dude is totally clueless when it comes to figuring out how to get the kibble out when it doesn’t just fall out.

That means once Honey Bunches is done with any kibble that happens to fall out during consumption, he abandons the project all together. I’ve tried showing him that moving it makes the food fall out, but no luck (duh). Any ideas on how to increase his desire to play these games? He isn’t really the best at nose puzzles, which I think is one road block here.

I’m hoping maybe some more desirable treats in there will motivate him to put effort into getting them out; aka the point of the activity. He only worked hard for the kibble when he watched it go out of his reach (pictured below). If I put kibble out of his sight when he is not around he is totally clueless to it’s presence when he returns. I want to give him puzzles and work his brain a little, but I can only do so much until it’s up to him… any ideas?!