Does anybody else have a junkie cat?

[zanana1]

I give my cats "Femalt", which helps with hairballs. One of my cats (I'll call him Sammy for confidential puposes) absolutely needs his Femalt fix more than once a day. He's supposed to have 1/4 of an inch once a week, but he gets so desperate for it he climbs up on me, puts his paws on my shouders, looks me right in the eye and meows like he's about to die. It's pathetic. I've been looking everywhere for some malt flavored treats, but I can't find any. (Femalt is just a combination of malt flavoring and vaseline).
Any recipes with malt flavoring would be greatly appreciated. At this point, his all-consuming addiction is making me desperate, too.

[HopeHoops]

1. Grow catnip. Endless supply of kitty drugs. They don't give a shit about anything else.

[GoCubsGo]

2. My junkie is deceased.

Last edited Sat May 26, 2012, 01:51 PM - Edit history (2)

She adored hairball remedy as much as Sammy does. I home-brew, and the malt extracts I buy often come in plastic bags. She used to love to lick the bags clean after I emptied them. I miss her.

I don't have any specific recipes for treats using malt. However, one can buy malt extract and incorporate it in some of the various recipes out there. It comes in powder and syrup forms. If you go the malt powder route, use the non-diastatic form. Don't get the malted milk powder. Depending on the brand, it might have all sorts of other things in it that might not be good for kitties. The syrup has the same consistency as molasses or honey.

Here's a source of various malt products:

http://search.kingarthurflour.com/search.jsp?N=0&rt=p&Ntt=malt&x=0&y=0

If you have a health food store in town, you can probably find either the powder or the syrup there, or both. It would likely be with the baking supplies.

You can also get it from a home brew supply. I recommend getting the lightest version you can get. Be sure you get it unhopped. The powdered form is hydrophilic, and if you don't keep it airtight between uses, you can wind up with a big hard chunk of extract that will take forever to dissolve. I suppose that if you found some sort of cat treat-size molds, you could spoon powdered extract into them, give them a very light spray of water, and let them sit for a few days to harden. Sammy could spend the day licking them, like a Slo-Poke sucker.

[zanana1]

3. Sammy will be forever grateful.

And so will I.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Just don't let him have too much.

Too much sugar. You don't want him becoming fat and/or diabetic.

Off to give my current kitty her fave: cantaloupe.

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. cat-Mandu is a catnip junkie

but Lilith likes butter. I leave small amounts out for her, she thinks she is stealing it LOL