1 yr old barely eating

violetxx

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Hi all,

We have this one yr old cat that we are fostering until she is spayed and then we plan on adopting her. We also have two other cats (her sister who we've adopted and a 9yr old). When we brought them home about a month ago, we switched them from Iams to Now dry food and they both ate it no problem. Then a couple days later we noticed that she would start eating fewer and fewer and if we tried to feed her alone, she would eat may be a few crunchies fearfully and then stop. I have taken them off the dry food and put the sister on Before Grain wet and she absolutely loves to it (and I am pretty sure lives to eat), whereas the other one won't touch any poultry wet food sometimes we can get her to eat our other cats venison or a really fishy food. However, she may eat about the size of a toonie (yes I am Canadian) off her plate and then won't eat anymore of it. Right now we rotate between kitten food, which sometimes she'll eat and sometimes she won't and wet venison mixed with either mackeral or with a chicken and tuna wet. We've tried so many food brands and she either eats two licks or refuses to eat at all. Currently she is 2.2kg (4.8 Ibs), she is extremely active and we were told she was healthy by the vet before we brought her home.

I am starting to wonder if maybe its her teeth or if she's ill. We are going to bring her into the vet next week to talk about it and see what the vet thinks, because if she doesn't put on weight we cannot get her spayed nor can we adopt her and we are desperately trying everything we can think of.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated


Here is a picture of our babygirl (she is the whiter one)
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momofmany

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Oh my she looks to be a princess! What a beautiful girl!!!

It sounds like you are trying to feed her better quality foods and I totally support that. I would ask the folks at the shelter if she was eating good while there. If she was eating Iams there, switch her back to it for a little while, but mix in better brands with the Iams until you've transitioned her off of it.

Switching cat foods can be hard on some cats. It may be that they don't like the taste as well, or the new food might be upsetting their stomachs, which reduces their appetite. Whenever you transition from one dry food to another, you should start with 75% old food with 25% new food for a week (or more), then go 50-50 for another week, then 25-75 for another week.

If you have a pet health store in your area, see if they will give you packets of food samples. When I tried to switch mine from Science Diet years ago, I dropped a sample packet of about 6 different foods in bowls where I fed them to see which ones disappeared the fastest. If you do this, separate your baby girl from the others so that she tells you what she likes.

Vets will spay a cat in the U.S. when they reach 2 pounds (usually about 8 weeks old) so her weight shouldn't be the issue. But if the weight loss is due to an illness, you will want to get her healthy before the spay surgery.
 
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violetxx

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Thanks for the reply! We brought her to the vet and she's 100% healthy, thank goodness. The vet thinks its likely hormonal, but they de-wormed her again and that evening she threw up this thick white cartilage, which we think may have been remanents of a worm and now she's eating again! Phew.

Were hoping to get her on the spay list ASAP. For some reason, they require that cats are 2.2-2.3kg for spaying which is odd, but our vet said she'd talk to them if need be.
 
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