Cat only eats at evening/night, also troubling switching her to better food

Hiya!

So Nigella (my kitty) is currently lapping up her wet food as I speak. But it's 8pm, so this is normal for her. Any food consumption between 7am-7pm never goes on here. I'm not sure if it's because her internal clock is off (she sleeps all day and runs around at night, regardless of the season) but I'm not sure if I should be worried here. She's lost a bit of weight in the 5 weeks that I've been gone which is hopefully just a result of her long hair being shed as well as eating a bit less (I overfeed her). I'm just not sure if I should be concerned that she doesn't eat during the day. I leave like 3/4 of a 5.5oz can at night out for her and a hand's worth of dry food, all of which is eaten by the time I wake up. Not sure if that's enough. I'd go to the vet but the vet I'm currently using (who works at a Banfield hospital, which I know doesn't have the best reviews) but I'm about to drop $40 on getting a few mats out of her fur tomorrow and can't really afford any vet visits for another few weeks.

Also, Nigella is still on her shelter food (Friskies Chicken in filets and the occasional chicken and tuna in filets) as well as Purina Complete Chow. Definitely not the best food by any stretch of the imagination. I've wanted to switch her to Wellness in minced as she's apparently never taken to pate-style (which I know is healthier). I tried the slow introduction/mixing but found that once it started going into 50/50 of Friskies/Wellness, she would refuse to eat and I would of course, panic because she only eats at night anyways. The dry food was a complete bust as she's never really eaten a lot of dry food to begin with, so mixing was a failure. Would I be alright just trying to change her wet food and leaving her dry food as junk food? She's almost 3, so not exactly a young'un. Last time she was weighed, which was May, I believe, she was 10lbs, 5 ounces so not overweight or anything.

I'm interested in responses to this, too. I'm kind of in the same situation. My kitty prefers to eat in the morning (between 7 and 10am, depends what time I get up for class) and then won't eat a wet meal again until 10pm. She won't eat 'better quality' brands, I've got her on Fancy Feast and Friskies and I'm thinking this may just be reality and what I'll have to give her. If I mix in ratios (even tiny bits) she can smell it and won't touch the food. Although, I'd probably do the same thing if someone was taking away my favorite food and trying to make me eat brussel sprouts or something lol. She's eating the pate Friskies and FF now at least, but it took like 5 months to get to this point. And she won't eat them solid, I have to puree them in the blender until they're a smooth liquid and then add warm water to make it into soup. Then she'll lap up the whole bowl, but if I don't do this, she won't eat wet food at all. She used to only lick the gravy off the shreds and leave all the actual food. The pate versions are supposedly ok (although lower end) but maybe liquify a can of the pate kind and see if she'll eat it that way? At least that way it wouldn't have wheat gluten or whatever the shredded kinds have in the gravy. Mine won't touch non-grain dry food at all, she can absolutely tell and if I mix her kibble she'll only eat the Purina pieces and leave the rest. I'm still testing different grain free dry foods, but so far no luck. If she doesn't want it, she'll literally starve herself for 24+ hours and I'm not willing to do that. My cats growing up ate Friskies wet and Purina dry and lived to be 15+ (one's still alive actually) so I don't know how I feel about these brands and whether the switch to grain free will really be worth it. Plus, she just won't eat the better food?? Ugh. Cat's are so picky! I would keep doing the mixing ratio and slowly up it. And I mean slowlyyyy, like over the course of several months. This hasn't worked for me, but your kitty could get used to the taste and then eventually stop noticing. I'm just happy mine will eat any kind of wet at all now! Patience is key.

She really likes the chunks of the filet texture, I don't think she likes liquid-y stuff. It's worth a try, considering Friskies is so inexpensive.

I've been a bad pet mom and gave up on the switch when I went on vacation and had my grandfather petsit because he's way too easygoing/bad at following instructions. So I'm back to square one on the switching food saga. Later today Nigella's going to get her mats shaved off and I'll grab another box of Wellness minced and try again. I'm glad Wellness makes minced stuff. I do worry about switching her to Wellness only because in about a year, I'm planning on moving to the UK and taking her with me and they don't seem to carry ANY of the USA brands (other than Iams and Whiskas) which will involve another switch. *sigh*

Good luck with your kitty! And as you say, some cats do lead healthy, long lives on lower-end food - much like some humans. It's really hit or miss.

Hello,

First of all, I live in Europe and I order most of the cat food online. However, due to food legislation issues, European countries do not import USA brands like Wellness or Nature's Variety. Here is a good source of information http://www.zooplus.co.uk/ on what kind of food you can find.

I do have similar issues like you - one of my cats eats most of her food at night, but that doesn't bother me as

1. it is very hot here these days and if I am not at home to turn on the AC the cats sleep all day and

2. I am currently working on introducing scheduled feedings so the night munchies will soon come to an end.

I try to monitor her calorie intake, using the basic guidelines that she should eat 20 calories for every lb.

The biggest problem is her fussiness - she will only have complementary wet food (Applaws, Schesir and Almo Nature), only the chicken varieties and only if the chicken looks like chicken, no way the  pate version or anything that does not meet the princess' requirements. 

This thread was recommended to me: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239771/...lucky-bugsy-and-hope-to-raw-challenges-galore Very interesting information here, even though we do not plan to switch to raw.

I live in France and I buy all my catfood (except the special vet diet for one of them) online from Zooplus. For the last year or so I have been getting Bozita grain-free wet and Sanabelle Urinary dry, which both seem good quality and they all like it, though we did have a few stomach upsets at the beginning. The Bozita has versions with jelly or with gravy. But there are lots of good brands to choose from, both wet and dry. In the UK you can go to the Pets at Home shops, which are all over the place and they do a good selection at quite reasonable prices.

Lots of cats will only eat once a day, it is what most wild cats do. Mine have a small meal in t he morning and a larger one at night, though it is not uncommon for someone to decide to ignore breakfast. The difficulty comes when they want lunch instead, especially if I am cooking something! I try to keep to regular mealtimes with occasional treats.

Just a note for information purposes. Pets at Home in the UK bought out PetSmart in 1999. They have continued to open new stores and were recently bought out by Private Equity Corp. for 955 million pounds. (About 1.5 billion dollars) They now have 340 stores in the UK

jennyranson said:

Lots of cats will only eat once a day, it is what most wild cats do. Mine have a small meal in t he morning and a larger one at night, though it is not uncommon for someone to decide to ignore breakfast. The difficulty comes when they want lunch instead, especially if I am cooking something! I try to keep to regular mealtimes with occasional treats.

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This.  Her eating once a day is no problem, and many cat owners only feed their adult cats once a day. Is there a reason you don't give her the whole 5.5 ounce can though? Will she not eat that much? I think that would be a 'healthier' amount for most cats to eat (though of course I don't know your specific kitty).

At three, she actually is still pretty much a young'un

Regarding mixing, if she starts to balk, always just take a step back instead of giving up.  Switching foods can take months and months.  If she gets to 50 50 and will not eat, go back to 45/55, and stay there for a few weeks.  Then try 50/50 again.  If she balks, go back to 45/55 and stay there for a few weeks.  Yeah, it is really annoying and time consuming, but it almost always eventually works. Have you tried sprinkling something appealing on top of it? I have never done that but I feel like some members here were mentioning this in a different food thread?

tulosai said:

This.  Her eating once a day is no problem, and many cat owners only feed their adult cats once a day. Is there a reason you don't give her the whole 5.5 ounce can though? Will she not eat that much? I think that would be a 'healthier' amount for most cats to eat (though of course I don't know your specific kitty).

At three, she actually is still pretty much a young'un

Regarding mixing, if she starts to balk, always just take a step back instead of giving up.  Switching foods can take months and months.  If she gets to 50 50 and will not eat, go back to 45/55, and stay there for a few weeks.  Then try 50/50 again.  If she balks, go back to 45/55 and stay there for a few weeks.  Yeah, it is really annoying and time consuming, but it almost always eventually works. Have you tried sprinkling something appealing on top of it? I have never done that but I feel like some members here were mentioning this in a different food thread?

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I used to give her the full can, but found that she didn't eat all of it and I found that by morning, it was dry and unappealing anyway. She does get some dry food which she eats nightly so I hope that makes up for her calorie deficiency. Dry food isn't her favourite but she does like a handful of it so I figure that's ok.

I really do need to persevere. I guess I've just become hesitant because I'm terrified that she'll get used to the Wellness JUST as we're moving and then I'll have to figure out how to bring Wellness cans in my checked luggage to wean her off that/introduce her to a new brand.