Healthy cats on food strike!

I have two 7 year old cats, both male 15-16 pounds. They have always been good, not picky eaters. I've always fed them a mix of dry (Costco brand) and canned (mostly Fancy Feast Elegant Medley). I decided they needed to lose weight so I wanted to go to grain free and low carb food. I gradually mixed their dry with Wellness Core Turkey and Duck. They liked it and ate it and my one cat who tends to chew his fur off, suddenly stopped chewing and his hair grew back. I started feeding them more canned food....mostly grain free..tried many brands and flavors and continued to rotate some fancy feast elegant medley. All was going good until about a week ago. Now neither boy will hardly any dry food and very little of ANY kind of canned food....I'll have 5 cans open trying to find one they will eat. I know they aren't getting enough calories. They feel good and look forward to dinner time.....they just won't eat but a couple of bites. I'm feeding them 3-4 Times a day. At most they eat 1-1 1/2 of the 3 oz cans each day ...not each, total. Any suggestions? My first post...

Hi there and welcome to TCS

The fact that they're both on a hunger strike suggests it isn't a medical issue.  I hate to suggest this, and others here in Nutrition who know more may say something different, but you may want to consider briefly going back to their original foods.  If they're splitting 3-4.5oz of food total then they are not getting enough nutrition.  But they are going to loose weight!  you just don't want them loosing weight too quickly or they become at risk for a dangerous liver disease called hepatic lipidosis and that illness actually takes away what little appetite they may have, and then it gets very serious.

Another variation on this idea of returning to the old food is only going back to the old dry food and see if they will eat some of that, or try some different dry food brands.

Stephen

I think they got burnout like got bored of the food you have try a different brand of wet dont get fancy feast for awhile and try a different brand of no grain dry if they dont eat that mix some old dry in the new dry and see what happens and always make sure they have water available at all times

Have you tried the FF classic?  Those are better for them and most picky eaters will eat them. What brands are you feeding them now?

Thanks for all the comments. I have put their old dry food back out instead of the new Wellness Core....they eat a few bites but not much. I was putting out 1/2 cup of dry at night....it would all be gone by the next night...now, maybe 1/4 of it is gone...even going back to their "original" food. I have tried the Fancy Feast Classic....they "like" it... but they won't eat more than 1/4 a 3 oz can ...total, not each...at a time. They eat with gusto for a few bites then act full and walk away. I think I've tried most brands I can find, most textures (they prefer pate), most proteins--they don't like chicken.....some they like enough to eat, some they won't even try. In some ways I think maybe I did overwhelm them with too much variety/choice....I turned my non-picky eaters into spoiled brats! I just need to find a couple that they like the best and back off some on the variety...I just want to make sure they are getting the minimal calories to prevent the fatty liver problem.

or you can try just sticking with one flavor of wet for like 3 days and see what happens instead of switching all the time if they dont start eating healthy like they used to after awhile I say have them seen by a vet

My Sammy has been doing the same thing. He loves a food once, then he will only eat a few bites of it. Everyday, he will dance around at food time, super excited, then only eat 3 or 4 bites. It is so annoying to have a bunch of open cans in the fridge.
Lately, I have been crushing up his favorite treat, Temptations, on top of his canned food. He eats more of the canned food while he is gobbling up the bits of treats. Sometimes, he gets going and will finish the whole bowl. Temptations are carby junk food, so they may not be good for your kitty who sounds like he has an allergy of some sort. But they are nutritionally complete and apparently irresistible to most cats, so it is better than nothing. Other toppers may work, too, like freeze dried meat treats or maybe even raw egg. I'd try their favorite treat first and do some experimenting.
I hope you can figure out something that works for your guys!

@Zoocat, just like @happybird said, putting a tasty "topper on the food can help too.  Bonito fish flakes from a pet store are often irresistible.  But I agree, its starting to sound like you now have finicky eaters.  If you;re concerned about fatty liver (lipidosis) your vet can do a blood test and it can be detected at early stages before you see clinical signs.  My older cat had early H.Lipidosis simply as a result of poor nutrient absorption due to inflammatory bowel disease and he had a good appetite.

This would also be a great time to invest in a baby scale so you can track your weight.

Stephen

Thanks, Stephen....I know my boys are due for a vet visit within the next month or two and I'll for sure ask her to do the blood test to check on the fatty liver.   I do have a scale and have been weighing them about once a month but I haven't weighed them since they've gone on strike, so I need to do that soon to see what impact this has had on weight.   If I can't get them to start eating more soon and/or if they are losing too much weight, I'll speed up the vet visit.  And I'll try the food topping ideas. 

@Zoocat ok that sounds like a plan.  Good to weight them now so you have a better baseline to work with.  i don't think I would want to see them loose more than 1/4 to 1/2 lb per month and even1/2 lb a month sounds high unless very short term.

I know this sounds weird, but every spring, my cats start eating less, and when I mentioned this last year while shopping for new food to try, the sales clerk said everyone was having the same issue   So....is it unseasonably hot where you are, or anything like that?  I was really panicking last year when this happened, but thankfully it only lasted a few days and I was able to supplement everyone with freeze dried raw "treats" (Stella and Chewy's nuggets) to get enough in them that I was somewhat comfortable, but I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown .

Since it's both of your boys, I seriously doubt it's a medical problem, which is a good thing .  But you definitely  need to see if you can get more food into them, somehow.  All the suggestion given are good ones.  I just recently found a food that even my pickiest eater loves, which is Nutro Natural Choice canned catfish!  It's pate and I think one 3 oz can has 111 calories, so it's pretty dense.  Since it's catfish vs ocean fish, I feel pretty comfortable feeding it. (although I DO switch brands and flavors with every meal)   It's grain free and pretty low in carbs as well. .

Another think you could do is feed them freeze dried meats like Purebites or WholeLife.  These aren't 100% nutritionally complete, but most cats can't resist them and at least they are natural food to keep them going for a few days.  They make great toppers too.  I usually buy them in the dog size bags and have chicken, turkey, beef, liver, cod and salmon here right now.  Needless to say, my furbabies are spoiled rotten

Mrsgreenjeens, thank you for your suggestions.....I'm going to see if I can find the catfish. I had wondered if it might be weather/season related. I'm not sure I would have paid so much attention if I hadn't been trying to change their diet to something more healthy. In the past I just filled up the dry food bowl when it got low and gave them about a half a 3 oz can of wet food a day....didn't really "measure" the amount they were eating. Now that I'm reading and getting more knowledgeable, I'm getting paranoid! A little information is a dangerous thing.