Cat that won't eat...

Hello everyone,

I have a near 10 month old female kitten who does not care to eat. When I first got her back when she was around six weeks old, she was eating Nutro. Then, she gave up on it. I have tried Iams, Eukanuba, Bil Jac, and Purina Kitten Chow. The Kitten Chow is about the only thing she will eat. But she'll only eat it in small amounts. She will also take a little wet food, but she's very picky about that as well. We took her into a vet to get her spayed when she turned six months old but the vet said she was to skinny then. And since then, she has not put on any weight. I want to take her in to get her spayed but I doubt the vet will do it because of her weight.

What should I do? Is there any food out there that cats absolutely love? It worries me because we had a kitten that was her companio (not related) that had passed away of FIP. She doesn't have any of the symptoms besides the weight loss but that's because she doesn't touch the food. She's very active, runs around a lot, sleeps a lot. I'm just lost right now. The only other option I guess would be to take her to the vets to see what they have to say.

Here's a pic of her. Her name is Powdered Donut and she's deaf.

The fist thing I would do is ask the vet to do a blood test on her. Have them do a CBC and Chemistry panel. Also, was she tested for FIV or FELV? If not, you should have them check that too.
By looking at the picture, she looks like an Oriental Shorthair. If this is the case, it's normal for them to be "thinner" than a normal cat. One thing you should do is try to measure the amount she eats. If you can only put a specified amount in, and see how long it takes her to eat it.
To try and get her to eat either the dry or wet food, you can put some (a little) tuna juice on it. It usually does the trick.

Have you tried warming the food up? It may sound a little crazy if you've never done it before, but I have a cat with CRF & some days it's the only way I can get her to eat. Since my cat doesn't eat wet food (refuses to touch the stuff), I take about a 1/4 cup of her dry food & put it on a plate & put just enough water on it to cover it, then put it in the micro wave for 20 seconds. Another tip is if she likes things like tuna juice or something of that sort try mixing it in with her food it may encourage her to eat more. I've heard some cats like garlic & sprinkling a little galic powder on their food helps. I would suggest if you think she might have FIP that you should have her tested. I'm not that farmiliar with it, but if for nothing else than your own mental health I think it's important to know. If your looking for other things to try to get your cat to eat, I suggest going to some sites on sick cats. I know the CRF sites had a lot of good suggestions on how to get the cat to eat. Good luck & keep us posted.

One of her siblings was tested for Felv/FIV and that test came back negative. And as far as testing for FIP, the only actual way to test for that is to do an organ biopsy and right now we don't have the money for that.

I will try the tuna juice and I will try to warm it up to. She just acts like this super model, strutting her stuff around the apartment acting like she's better than everyone. I have to laugh though cause she has high cheek bones and it seems like shee's watching her weight because she doesn't want to get fat.

As for her being oriental, she might have it in her. Our other cat kuroneko, the black one, has a lot of oriental in him. He's extremely long and vocal!

I did find out that she doesn't care for wet cat food after ts been in the fridge. So from now on I will only buy the small cans of cat food.

Hi there, my Harry was a very fussy kitten and would have starved himself if I didn't try every food on the market! Here's what worked: fancy feast for his wet food and Royal Canin formula for sensitive (fussy) cats for the dry food. Give it a try!

How do I get to the CRF website?

bio-

Go here and scroll down, you will see the listing.

Meowhoo

I concure, that you should do all the test possible to make sure she is phsyically sound. That is a stricking photo of your 2 cats together, I'm in love with that picture for some reason.
I've thought about it before, and now I'm even more convinced that my Tagies might have some orinetal in him somewhere as well.

He has the same face, and the same body structure.

Have you though about researching a RAW/BARF diet for your cat? If your cat enjoys your foods, or table scraps, this might be the diet for her. And of course speak with your vet about it as well.

One of my clients had a dog, who I practically helped raise too since he was a 8 week old pup until he was about 1 year old. We always had a very hard time to get him to eat ANYTHING. Well, he'd take a lot of treats
Eventually I gave her some information on a raw/barf diet, and that did the trick, the dog started to eat, and enjoyed every last bit of it during meal times! He was a healthy young JRT pup and they need quiet a bit of healthy food to maintain their energy levels, not to mention just needing to grow!

Actually the black cat Kuroneko is on the BARF diet. He has a food sensitivity towards grains (corn, rice, etc.). So there is no commercial cat food out there that he can handle. It cause him to bloat up, get sick, and have foul smeeling fecal matter.

But Neko will eat anything that falls on the floor so when we introduced him to raw food he gobbled it up no problem. The only thing that Donut will eat raw is tuna. She ignores the meat, she won't even touch it.

It just amazes me because Neko and Donut are both the same age, one day apart for each of their birthdays. But Neko is just huge and Donut is this dainty little cat who weighs nothing compared to Neko. We will have to get her into the vets though. See what they have to say, or if they have any suggestions.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. I will let you know what the vet says.

Ok - how much does she weigh now? She could not weigh less than three pounds? The reason I am asking is that that I fostered 3 kittens and all of them were spayed/neutered by age 3 months. The only requirement was that they weighed at least 3 pounds. All of them are doing great!!! I know not all vets do it and you might have to call around. But if she is healthy there really should not be a problem getting her spayed.

Helen

I noticed you mentioned about the FIP test being a biopsy- you don't have FIP DNA blood tests where you live? Very strange! Also, there is a canned food by Hill's called A/D which is very 'tasty' and packed full of calories for kitties who aren't eating much or are sick.

I don't really have any more suggestions than what has been posted here, but I had to jump in to say that it is very risky to let your cat go without eating for even a few days, since cats can develop hepatic lipidosis when they haven't eaten, even in just a few days. It is more common in obese cats, but just the same, I would never take the approach that I take with dogs that 'if they don't eat this, they don't eat, they won't starve themselves' because you can't really be sure your cat won't develop hepatic lipidosis.

I too have a very picky cat, and she also happens to be totally white, not deaf though. As a kitten, she would eat just about anything, but as she got older, she started getting more and more picky. These days, there are a few dry food brands she likes to eat, a few she will eat if the "better" ones aren't served, but she won't eat canned foods (one exception- certain brand and certain flavor) and certainly not any treats, or "real foods". She's now 5 yrs old, and basically even though I always try to get her to eat the things she won't eat, she's more stubborn than I am, and since I won't let her go without eating for a few days, she gets her way as long as she's eating something. With this cat, I've had to resort to this nutrient gel a few times, it has all the nutrients cats need (at least that's what they say), and the reason was that after she hadn't eaten for a few days, she totally lost her appetite, and wouldn't eat even the things she normally eats. After giving her the gel a few times, she got her appetite back. I've been told this isn't uncommon in cats. Oh yeah, forgot to say, even though I don't really like free feeding, I always do it with this cat, because she always eats tiny amounts at a time, so I make sure she has food available whenever she feels like eating. She just won't eat more at a time if I try to establish feeding times.

Cats can be "difficult" about food, but I'm sure you'll learn what your cat will eat and how, it's just a matter of trying out what works. Some cats are just more picky than others (my younger cat will eat just about anything, she's the total opposite of my picky one!) and sometimes there's not much you can do about it except feed them the foods they will eat.