Getting a picky eater to gain weight

trixiekitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
29
Purraise
12
Location
Illinois
Hello! One of my three cats, Trixie, is my pickiest eater of the bunch, and she is also the smallest in weight. She's a tiny four to five pounds. She's a fluffy Ragdoll, so it's a bit hard to see how skinny she is, but every time I pet her or rub her belly I always feel her ribs and spine. She isn't starving, but I'd like to put a little more weight on her. I'm also trying to transition her to wet, but she turns her nose up at what I've tried so far (I'll list them later). Up until about a month ago all three of my cats, including her, were eating EVO Herring and Salmon dry food. With the recalls recently I took them off EVO and switched two of them to Taste Of The Wild with Trout and Smoked Salmon dry and the other one (Diana) to wet. Diana now eats a mixture of wet food: Wellness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Fancy Feast (not as often), and Tiki Cat. I plan on adding a couple more brands to her eating routine when I next go to the store.

For the two eating the dry (Honey and Trixie), I figured because they liked to fish EVO that they'd also like the fish TOTW. They love it, but I'm going to try to get them on the other TOTW dry cat food, the one with the venison, because I've heard too much fish isn't good for them. I normally add Gerber chicken or turkey baby food, which they LOVE.

Anyway, hope that all made sense! Now, on to my real question: How can I get Trixie to gain a little more weight? Should I feed her a little bit of kitten food? Increase the number of meals she gets a day? I have yet to find a wet food she'll even sniff. I've tried the ones listed above that Diana has along with Weruva and Fussie Cat. I've tried different flavors for each of the brands, and she refuses to sniff them. I'd love to get her to eat wet food (along with Honey, but she seems to only like anything with tuna, which I know isn't the best for her to be having all the time), and would transitioning her to wet also help her gain a little weight? My other two are at an ideal weight (Diana is around 8-9 pounds and Honey's at 10. I have little Ragdolls, haha!).

Thank you so much for reading! I hope everything made sense.
 

raintyger

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
1,690
Purraise
139
Location
Long Beach, CA
Hi TrixieKitty,

One thing I've noticed is that your cat food choices all have varying calorie count. Weruva, Fussie Cat, and Tiki Cat have lower calories per can. Wellness and I THINK EVO are on the higher end. So please be aware of how much you are feeding in relation to calories per can. I'd try to get Trixie to eat the higher calorie foods. Kitten food is higher calorie. You may need to mix dry with wet in order to transition her. There are other transitional tips at www.catinfo.org. if she turns out to be a stubborn kibble addict.

See if Trixie just needs more time to eat her meals, and then see about feeding her more meals, but with a larger total volume than with one meal. In other words, if one meal is 2 oz., then try two 1.25- or 1.5-ounce meals.

You can try toppers to entice her to try the wet food or eat more. Fortiflora is a probiotic that has animal digest, the stuff they spray on dry food. Since Trixie likes dry food, maybe this is a good choice.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...field-keywords=fortiflora&tag=&tag=thecatsite
 

franksmom

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
1,159
Purraise
34
I too have a small and picky ragdoll. He is super small for a male at 9 pounds. Have you tried mixing treats into the wet? If the will eat baby food start putting some wet food in the baby food and start increasing the amount of wet you put in the baby food.

My picky ragdoll really likes the new natures variety instinct pride. I have come to terms with the fact that I will have to feed him a lot of little meals a day because he doesn't like to eat a lot in one setting.
 

aprilprey

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 14, 2013
Messages
327
Purraise
24
I recently transitioned my kibble-addict to a combo of canned/home made raw.  Sounds like a similar cat - my Boo is also on the small side and I am trying to get her to eat more.

Like your cat, Boo likes fish flavors.  I am having some luck with finely chopped bonito flake treats sprinkled on a pate texture cat food, especially one with no fish.  If you have some patience and a sharp chopping knife, you can chop the bonito flakes into dust.  A pinch of the dust on the canned might entice her to start eating.

We also found that Boo will eat more "competitively" - if she is eating next to our younger cat that eats like a vacuum cleaner, it seems to encourage her to eat more.

ETA: like the poster above, we used baby food as part of the transistion.  If she likes that, start giving her a half and half mix of cat food and baby food.
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

trixiekitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
29
Purraise
12
Location
Illinois
Wow, you guys are quick! Thank you for the replies! :)

Raintyger: Just wanted to clarify, in case what I wrote was confusing
: I don't feed Weruva or Fussie Cat because Diana seemed to prefer the Tiki Cat. So I feed her some Tiki Cat chicken along with one of the other wet foods I mentioned. When I found out that Tiki Cat was a lower calorie food, I started adding a second brand. So, in one meal Diana gets some Tiki Cat along with either Wellness, Fancy Feast, or Nature's Variety Instinct. I realize that I forgot to post that, oops! Is that OK for Diana and possibly Trixie down the road?

I normally leave out Trixie's food all day since she sometimes goes over to take a few bites throughout the day. I feed them twice a day and Trixie eats most of the food at those times but never completely finishes it off by the next mealtime.

Thank you for the Fortiflora link! I recognize the box and realize that I actually may have some, but I'm not sure if it's good. I got a box from the vet a while ago (maybe three years ago?), when one of the cats were sick. Would it still be good?

Franksmom: In the past I've tried putting a very small spoonful of wet onto a separate paper plate for her to try and then generously covered it with the baby food. That did not work, but I probably put too much wet food down. I'll try with less wet food. Trixie likes the freeze-dried chicken treats that we get once in a while. I'll see if she'll like it if I also sprinkle some on top.

aprilprey: I've never heard of the bonito flakes, but I'll see if the local pet store has them. If not there are a few other places around here that I can try too.

Thank you guys again! I really appreciate it!
 

aprilprey

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 14, 2013
Messages
327
Purraise
24
Why don't you try re-hydrating the freeze dried treats she likes?  Maybe half way so they still have a little crunch?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

trixiekitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
29
Purraise
12
Location
Illinois
I'll try that! Thank you for the idea :)

Also, I forgot to add this to my last post, but it seems like a lot of members here use petfooddirect.com. For anyone that uses it, do you find it to be cheaper to order your food off of there with shipping rather than going to a store?
 

raintyger

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
1,690
Purraise
139
Location
Long Beach, CA
Wow, you guys are quick! Thank you for the replies! :)

Raintyger: Just wanted to clarify, in case what I wrote was confusing
: I don't feed Weruva or Fussie Cat because Diana seemed to prefer the Tiki Cat. So I feed her some Tiki Cat chicken along with one of the other wet foods I mentioned. When I found out that Tiki Cat was a lower calorie food, I started adding a second brand. So, in one meal Diana gets some Tiki Cat along with either Wellness, Fancy Feast, or Nature's Variety Instinct. I realize that I forgot to post that, oops! Is that OK for Diana and possibly Trixie down the road?

I normally leave out Trixie's food all day since she sometimes goes over to take a few bites throughout the day. I feed them twice a day and Trixie eats most of the food at those times but never completely finishes it off by the next mealtime.

Thank you for the Fortiflora link! I recognize the box and realize that I actually may have some, but I'm not sure if it's good. I got a box from the vet a while ago (maybe three years ago?), when one of the cats were sick. Would it still be good?

Franksmom: In the past I've tried putting a very small spoonful of wet onto a separate paper plate for her to try and then generously covered it with the baby food. That did not work, but I probably put too much wet food down. I'll try with less wet food. Trixie likes the freeze-dried chicken treats that we get once in a while. I'll see if she'll like it if I also sprinkle some on top.

aprilprey: I've never heard of the bonito flakes, but I'll see if the local pet store has them. If not there are a few other places around here that I can try too.

Thank you guys again! I really appreciate it!
I don't see why it wouldn't be all right to feed different wet foods. I know many of the members here buy different brands and flavors to add variety and lessen the chance of developing pickiness.

If you're using Fortiflora as a probiotic, then 3 years is probably too old. But I know the catinfo.org website says that expired Fortiflora if only used as flavor enhancer is OK.

Bonito flakes I've seen in the pet store, but you can also find it in Asian supermarkets if you live in a high population area.
 

vball91

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
Messages
3,853
Purraise
252
Location
CO, USA
Many online pet stores do have more competitive prices than local stores (and sometimes wider availability of brand choices depending on where you live). However, I find that you need to buy enough to get free shipping (usually $49 min order) to make it worthwhile.
 

raintyger

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
1,690
Purraise
139
Location
Long Beach, CA
If you order from Amazon, see if they sell your brand(s) with the Super Saver Shipping. It's only $25 order minimum. Plus, some food you can buy under the Subscribe & Save program, which means no minimums and a slight price deduction if you sign up for recurring auto shipment. They send you an e-mail saying that your order is about to ship and you can cancel the order if you don't need it.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #11

trixiekitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Messages
29
Purraise
12
Location
Illinois
Great! Thank you so much. I'll do some comparing online. I didn't know about the Super Saver shipping, but I'll definitely look into that!
 
Top