I need advice.....

Addie is too little. At 8 months, she's stopped gaining and actually lost 0.3 lbs in the last month. She didn't go from a quickly growing cat to a sudden loss or anything. She is regularly seen by the vet. There is no indication of any health issue other than being picky and not hungry. She gained as long as she was really growing, but as she approaches the 1 year mark, her growth rate has slowed considerably. We expect she won't get much bigger, as she's about the size of her mother now. She is very slight. Her frame is small but there is just no fat on her. She doesn't like to eat. She'll eat dry food, but not much at a time which makes it hard to give her the kitten food, because we have to feed her that separately so that our other cats don't eat that. Right now she's on Royal Cannin kitten and also is permitted to eat Natural Balance dry from the other cats' dishes. She just has a very small appetite.

She doesn't like wet food. She'll sniff, but won't eat. Same goes for KMR. I don't know what to give her that will get her to eat more. At this point, I'm looking for something that has a high nutritional content so that she'll get more benefit without eating much. Is there such thing as dietary supplements for cats? Like, kitty equivalent of a powerbar? One store recommended some sort of paste?

I've tried several kinds of high end wet food for her and none has been successful.

Any advice will be appreciated!

I know Drs Foster and Smith sell nutritional supplements, you might want to check out their website http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...?N=2002+113617
it was probably nutri-cal that was suggested by the store.

I don't know what to tell you to increase her appetite except keep trying different brands of dry until you find one she loves, I never have this problem, my kitties are piglets!!

i agree with the maybe try different foods ... my Zoey is on the thin side but I keep her on kitten food ( she is three) she maintains./...

you may want to look into foods like EVO which are high protein and fat and calories

Have you tried raw chicken, beef or lamb. I give raw meat to Blossom nearly every nite with her kitten food? She loves it.

Persi just quit growing much earlier than I had expected, also. He weighs 11 pounds at 11 months of age. He seemed to quite growing at about 9 months which is when we got the second cat. But this cannot be a food issue because they both eat freely all the dried food they want. Persi's mother is 14 pounds so I would have expected Persi to be in the 15-18 pound range. I have also read that cats can continue to put on weight until around 15 months. Maybe they are just taking a break, and will put on some more weight? During this same time, Alley has gained two pounds but this is easy to understand since she came from the streets.

Luna is small too. She comes in at about 10 lbs and she's 2 1/2.

Some cats are just small. IF she's healthy I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

She's 5 lbs exactly as of last tuesday and almost 9 months old. It's not so much size as body mass index......meaning that all her weight is bone and muscle, basically no good fat layers on her anywhere. She's just so thin. I don't expect her to ever be large, but I'd like to get another pound or so on her. At this point, it's a health issue because we can't pursue a spay until she's fattened up. With her reaction to her previous surgery attempt, we're going to have to look at other options, but the vet feels her weight should be the first thing addressed anyway.

I will try feeding her some raw meat and see how she likes it.