Desperate: need virtually liquid diet for cat - or another solution

ericjt

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
3
Purraise
10
Hi,

My cat Max is 13, in good health except that he cannot have dry food any more due to constipation issues that arose two months ago. He has only his lower fangs now as the others were removed to to weak enamel leading to decay. 

The problem is that he is now a bit picky about foods AND he is a licker, so anything that isn't like thick gravy with virtually no solids is very laborious for him to eat and he gives up after half to 2/3 of what he should be eating. He has lost 2 or so pounds and is getting a bit bony. I'm very concerned. I've found a few foods he likes, but they have meat solids the can't lick up and he just licks the food "dry" of juices and leaves the meat bits in the bowl. 

I would love it if I could teach him to pick up the food to eat it. My other cat has no teeth at all and eats fast and easily. I'm wondering if his lower fangs make it hard for him to pick up food. He ate his dry food without any problem. Should I have them removed? Ikd why the vet left them in at all. 

Short of that, I need to know how to prepare cat food or modify canned cat food to have the consistency of baby food, with a gravy like body to it that will be easily licked up. I've got a food processor but the blades miss a lot of the bits and there are a lot of solids he won't lick up. I could buy one of those bullet-like food processors as they might do a better job. 

Open to all suggestions.
 

vball91

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
Messages
3,851
Purraise
250
Location
CO, USA
I would blend the pate-style foods with a little water to make it a thick gravy consistency. He should have no issues licking that up. There are more healthy pate options anyway. The shredded/chunky ones with gravy usually have a much high carb content which you don't want. Some good pate options are EVO, Hound & Gatos, Wellness, Nature's Variety Instinct. Less expensive options include Fancy Feast classic pates and Friskies pates only.
 

goholistic

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
3,306
Purraise
370
Location
Northeast USA
I also have a pate-only senior cat. He hates chunks will shake his head at any miniscule solid or bone in the food. (He's all up-to-date on dental work and health check).

I buy the finest pates and add additional water so that it is almost "soupy." I use Wellness grain-free pates, EVO 95% pates, Natural Balance limited ingredient diet (LID) pates, Nutro Natural Choice Soft Loaf pates, and Merrick Before Grain 96% pates (I found the Purrfect Bistro line to be too gelatinous and he had trouble lapping it up).

Many of the fish flavors contain a bunch of tiny bones. The only exception I found was the Wellness Chicken & Herring; it is a very smooth pate.
 

pinkman

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
607
Purraise
44
Location
BRKLYN
Having a blender will help in this case.

I had to syringe feed a sinus-blocked kitten a couple weeks ago and I took whatever food with water/kmr and blended it. You can use ANY food really, if you have a blender. In fact I used Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried raw with water... They key is to leave the blender going for a while but it's not too difficult to get a food to a puree consistency. 
 

peaches08

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
4,884
Purraise
290
Location
GA
The bullet blenders work great! I used one when I had to syringe feed my CRF kitty.
 

snugglecat

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Messages
718
Purraise
116
Location
Washington state
My cat is really picky and wants her canned food very smooth and creamy. I have been using Wellness but some cans are a little grainy and she won't eat those ones but I found out that there are two different plants that make the food. I know this might sound weird but I have to go through all little cans and look for the ones that have MW on the bottom of the can. The ones that have 7W on the bottom she will not eat because it's grainy. I recently bought a 12.5 can and it seemed really creamy. I also add water because my cat suffers from constipation as well.
 

mrsgreenjeens

Every Life Should Have Nine Cats
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
16,449
Purraise
7,234
Location
Arizona
Mine likes  hers soupy as well, so I use my Magic Bullet, add some water, and I also add some cooked egg whites to make up for that water.  What I do is cook some egg whites in the microwave for about 15-30 seconds (I use the eggwhites only in the carton - making sure they are not seasoned with anything....some of those in the carton contain onion powder...don't use those for cats)   By adding in the egg whites, it adds in extra protein.  You can add in the entire egg if you want, as egg yolks are great for cats...my cats just should not eat the yolks for medical reasons.  Anyway, the Magic Bullet is wonderful for blending up things, even small chunks of feed.  Merricks Cowboy Cookout used to be  pate with a few small chunks, and their new version is now mostly small chunks, so I toss it in the Magic Bullet and make it all "gravy".  Plus, I've found with Wellness, for example, if I just stir in some water, my girl will lick it to death and still be able to leave some meat in the bowl, but if I blend in the Magic Bullet, she can't lick the liquid out.  What is left, if any, is still the blended stuff, not just dried meat.
 
Last edited:

aprilprey

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 14, 2013
Messages
327
Purraise
24
 
I also have a pate-only senior cat. He hates chunks will shake his head at any miniscule solid or bone in the food. (He's all up-to-date on dental work and health check).

I buy the finest pates and add additional water so that it is almost "soupy." I use Wellness grain-free pates, EVO 95% pates, Natural Balance limited ingredient diet (LID) pates, Nutro Natural Choice Soft Loaf pates, and Merrick Before Grain 96% pates (I found the Purrfect Bistro line to be too gelatinous and he had trouble lapping it up).

Many of the fish flavors contain a bunch of tiny bones. The only exception I found was the Wellness Chicken & Herring; it is a very smooth pate.
Let me second Nutro Natural Choice Soft Loaf pates - they are the creamiest, softest pates I have found.  I have a similar situation with a cat I am trying to put a little weight on.  Be sure to look at calorie content - try and get 3 oz cans that are 100 calories (Nutro Soft Loaf Duck, Catfish, Turkey+Cod are the highest) or 5.5 oz cans at 100 calories.  Also, will your cat eat anything with salmon oil on it?  Some salmon oil will add more calories as well, and will "liquify" the food a bit while adding more calories than water.
 
Last edited:

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
26,070
Purraise
10,773
Location
Sweden
Also, goat milk is useful for cats. You can surely use it too as one of alternatives.
 

red top rescue

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4,466
Purraise
1,486
Location
Acworth GA, USA
If Max is losing weight, you might try using the food A/D, which you can only get from your vet.  It is high fat and high calorie and the consistency of baby food, it is easy to mix with water or goats milk or even KMR to create a high calorie liquid diet for weight gain.
 

durk durkin

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
1
Purraise
1
My cat is about 17 years old and was down to less then 3 lbs, I thought he was a goner.He basically had quite eating all together. But praying and giving him muscle milk brought him back to eating again and about 6 lbs so far. I had to use a syringe at first and some times he would lick it from the dish, but it did add weight. Because it cause more of running pooping I was concerned but the weight was important. So I started taking cheese and rolling tiny little cheese balls and popped them down his throat so he wouldn't spit it back out. This also helped putting weight back on him and back to solid pooping as well.. I am always looking for new ways to get nutrition in to him
 
Top