11 week old kitten - VERY picky!

ares · May 17, 2013

Hello! I've been lurking here for awhile now, and finally decided it was time to make an account. I have a few questions concerning my new little boy, Ares. I've owned cats for most of my life, but it was always my mother taking care of them. I moved into my first place last year, and decided it was time for a companion. It's been a hard first few weeks - he came to us with parasites, then got a fever not a few days later. He's feeling much better now, fever gone but still on medication, and just finished his parasite medication. (PHEW!)

Now for his diet - which has been exceedingly hard. I've tried over 12 brands of cat food, and more then 8 types of kitten food. He was eating wellness pouches for awhile, but once I gave him weruva cats in the kitchen chicken and pumpkin soup, he wont touch wellness. I want to be feeding him the best I can buy (willing to pay 1.70 a can) but I just can't get him to eat anything. Is it alright to continue to feed him Chicken and Pumpkin soup by weruva? Is it enough for him as an 11 week old kitten?

Oh, and he wont touch anything that is Pate.

Thanks so much in advance!

pinkman · May 17, 2013

The Cats in the Kitchen should be alright, but I'd be concerned if he only ate two of those a day. He's a kitten, he needs the calories. Weruva is known to be pretty low calorie.

Wellness has other canned foods that are not pate that your kitten might like. They have sliced, cubed, and minced entrees and I think they are coming with what I would call shredded in gravy formula.

The thing with shredded/gravy/pouch foods is that they are higher in carbs but lower in calories for the most part. Pate is most "meatiest" canned food. Have you tried feeding pate with warm water mixed in it to make gravy? Some cats will eat pate if it's at a gravy-consistency.

You might wanna check out Merrick, I know they have somewhat of a bad rep but I've never had a problem with them. They revamped their cat food selection so there are a lot more flavors and textures out there now.

If your kitten likes shredded, I used to feed my cat Tiki Cat Puka Puka before I switched to raw. It is pricey though.

Finally, you might want to start mixing other foods with the Weruva if you plan to stick with it. A variety of foods is always good, in case he gets bored of that food too.

ares · May 17, 2013

pinkman said:
The Cats in the Kitchen should be alright, but I'd be concerned if he only ate two of those a day. He's a kitten, he needs the calories. Weruva is known to be pretty low calorie.

Wellness has other canned foods that are not pate that your kitten might like. They have sliced, cubed, and minced entrees and I think they are coming with what I would call shredded in gravy formula.

The thing with shredded/gravy/pouch foods is that they are higher in carbs but lower in calories for the most part. Pate is most "meatiest" canned food. Have you tried feeding pate with warm water mixed in it to make gravy? Some cats will eat pate if it's at a gravy-consistency.

You might wanna check out Merrick, I know they have somewhat of a bad rep but I've never had a problem with them. They revamped their cat food selection so there are a lot more flavors and textures out there now.

If your kitten likes shredded, I used to feed my cat Tiki Cat Puka Puka before I switched to raw. It is pricey though.

Finally, you might want to start mixing other foods with the Weruva if you plan to stick with it. A variety of foods is always good, in case he gets bored of that food too.

Thank you so much for the reply!

I've tried mixing pate with water, but still no luck. He sticks his nose up and tried to cover it. I had also tried merrick, but again, no luck. I'll look into more wellness - hopefully I'll find something he likes. What types of things should I be looking for on the back of foods that are important for kitten health? Most kitten food I find is pate, so he wont touch it.

franksmom · May 17, 2013

My picky eater liked weruva but is obsessed with tiki cat chicken (though he still does not eat more than half a 3oz can). I am on my phone but I am pretty sure tiki cats has more calories and less carbs. Specific kitten food is kind of an advertising ploy and regular cat food is fine if they are eating enough. Two packets won't be enough so you will have to feed him more wet food or supplement with raw or dry food. I am not a fan of dry but it is really hard to get enough calories into kittens. I feed my new kitten tiki cat or weruva twice a day (she eats about half a can at each meal), some raw food once or twice a day and have a bowel with blue wilderness kitten food and ziwipeak freeze dried raw for her to snack on all day when I am at work. I want to get her on an all raw food diet at some point but she just doesn't eat enough in one setting yet.

ares · May 17, 2013

Franksmom said:
My picky eater liked weruva but is obsessed with tiki cat chicken (though he still does not eat more than half a 3oz can). I am on my phone but I am pretty sure tiki cats has more calories and less carbs. Specific kitten food is kind of an advertising ploy and regular cat food is fine if they are eating enough. Two packets won't be enough so you will have to feed him more wet food or supplement with raw or dry food. I am not a fan of dry but it is really hard to get enough calories into kittens. I feed my new kitten tiki cat or weruva twice a day (she eats about half a can at each meal), some raw food once or twice a day and have a bowel with blue wilderness kitten food and ziwipeak freeze dried raw for her to snack on all day when I am at work. I want to get her on an all raw food diet at some point but she just doesn't eat enough in one setting yet.

Thank you for the info! I want to give Tiki a try, but I can't find it in any pet stores - even the ones that carry cats in the kitchen and Merrick.

I do have MaxCat Kitten dry food out for in between feedings, but he nibbles on it only a little bit. I'll try to look for food that has more calories in it - it's just super hard when he wont touch most food!

That, and he has a little bit of a cold right now, have him on some antibiotics - it might be whats messing up his smell, but he was picky before the cold too.

pinkman · May 17, 2013

Can you get some bonito flakes? Sometimes all a cat needs is a topper to start eating food.

ares · May 17, 2013

I didn't even know they had those - I will go and look tomorrow, along with trying to find a kitten food he will eat.

ares · May 19, 2013

Hey! Got back from a pet store today that suggested a mixed some raw goats milk in his food to get him to try it - worked! I can put a teaspoon of goat milk in any pate now and he will inhale it. I'll slowly start to take the goats milk out, but I've read that it's actually pretty good for him!

Next issue on this list is his congestion issues. I brought him to the vet, and they gave me Biomox for a URI - great. He has three more days on the meds, but his eyes are watery and his nose is super stuffy. I've been in and out of a steam filled bathroom with him to help him out a little, and I even went out and bought Earth Animal Couch, weezing, and sneezing herbal meds. I just add it too his feed and he doesn't even notice. Hopefully it will clear up soon! He's still eating and running around like a mad man, so I'm not too worried.

catspaw66 · May 19, 2013

i would suggest starting him on l-lysine, 250mg twice a day. It sounds like he is having a FHV flare-up.

11 week old kitten - VERY picky!

ares

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pinkman

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ares

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franksmom

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ares

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