loosing appetite? WHATS going on?

my himalayan-Pillo is used to being hand fed her dry food.
which i mean i put each biscuit thing into her mouth and she eats it.
she eats two kinds of food Iams fish adult and Science diet Hairball control light.
recently i have stopped hand feeding her, hoping that she will eat on her own and break the habit.
But now i have started hand feeding her again.
i have noticed that when i feed her she chews and little bits of food falls out of her mouth and saliva.
and sometimes she spits the food out
IS this loss of appetite?
Why is this happening?

THANKYOUUU TO ALL REPLIES

dear jean44
thankyou for your reply and i'm sorry about your Palekana.
It doesnt seem she's having trouble swallowing her food, its more of chewing to me.
No she does not look like she is in pain.
I started hand feeding her since she was small. i was trying to train her to do tricks and sit down before she ate. therefore i fed her with by hand and she became used to it.
Yes it may be her teeth or gums.
she has yellow stuff or gunk stuck to the side of her teeth.
im thinking of taking her to the vet to get her teeth washed. the one when they put her on anisthetic and she goes to sleep while they wash her teeth.

Do you think this is a good idea????

pillo already had it once, and ppl say its not a good idea to put a cat on anesthetic unless its necessary.

Do you know any other ways to clean her teeth?

thankyou and bless you and your lovely kittties

Actually, it's probably what she'll have to have. It may have gone beyond a cleaning, though, and you might have to have her on antibiotics before they'll do the cleaning. It does sound like it's her teeth and/or gums, though, so I'd take her to a vet soon. The fortunate thing is, you probably won't have to spend a lot of money trying to figure out what's wrong with her.

As a side note, if you have a Banfield near you (the PetSmart vets) they have a health plan that you can put the cat on, and you may want to consider this.. it's about $30 a month, and $70 to join.. but $100 a to join with $30 a month might be a way to cut down the expense.. and it includes a tooth cleaning and free vet visits.. and then discounts on things like meds and other stuff. They do have cheaper plans, but this one includes the yearly teeth cleaning.

Anyway.. good luck and it looks like a fairly fixable problem (hopefully!)

Keep us updated!