Mittens loved her food - and now she wont eat it.

myrnafaye

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Sheesh!  It was Nature's Variety RABBIT!  she loved it when I started feeding it to her and Obi about a month ago, she would clean her bowl.  Now she wont touch it.  What's up with this?  I went out and got her some Weruva chicken in gravy, and she likes that but its really low in fat and she is quite petite.  Is this just the infamous "finicky-ness" of a cat?
 

whiskylollipop

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I would think cats, like humans, get tired of eating the same thing over and over again. Vary her diet! Get a few different flavours and rotate them every meal.
 
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myrnafaye

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Yes, I guess that is what I will do.  She has never been a big eater...Obi will eat almost anything, with gusto.  Mittens just LOVED the rabbit food when I got it...Now she is not interested.  Next:  salmon.
 

abbyntim

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I've noticed three different formulations of the rabbit recently, one of which my cats would not touch. It was labeled as having 7.5% fat. As I am still weaning Tim off cisapride and don't want to mess with his diet yet, you can imagine my displeasure. Check your labels, maybe it's a different formula than what they are used to?
 

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I've got the same here: the Rogue, nearly 20 lbs now (
), will eat anything including raw spinach that I placed on the counter for myself. My Grisou is the same age and I'm struggling to keep him at 10 lbs. He did love Royal Canin kitten instinctive when I got him, and now it gets a lick if it's lucky. For some time then he liked the Wellness pouches, or some of them, but now he seems to prefer fuzzy rats (please... I need another sale going on for fuzzy rats!).

What I'm saying is, clearly finicky kitty syndrome


My solution is: having a bunch of ferals outside who eat any leftovers, running after him with food whenever I can, trying different kinds of food or toppers, even an appetite stimulant which apparently tastes awful and gives him runny poop but seems to help in a minimal way.
 

denice

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Some kitties want a variety, some don't even want the same thing two days in a row, and others will happily eat the same thing day after day.  I think there is only an issue when kitties get to the point that there are very few things that they will eat even with a frequent rotation.

Ferals will pretty much eat anything.  They know when food is available they need to eat, they know what it is to have nothing to eat.
 
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myrnafaye

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Obi was not feral, but I think early in life he was a barn cat, and he has always been a bit hysterical about his food; he is always interested in eating, and looks for food; my trash can area has a baby lock on it because he will go into the garbage.

I did check the label on the NV rabbit, and it is still the same, as far as I can tell.  4.5% fat.  I am switching her to the NV Salmon flavor to see if she likes that, and to the Ivo Instinct formula, chicken/turkey, she likes that.  It has carageenan in it, and I dont like that, but she is quite healthy and I dont think it will hurt her any.

I was told that its not good to change a cat's food around, that if their food is changed, it is often upsetting to their tummies, but frankly, I have never seen that happen.  I think it might be a myth.  Unless the cat is ill.
 

denice

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Wet food isn't as prone to upsetting tummies when it is switched as dry food is.  Dry food has to be switched gradually, wet food usually doesn't need to be.  Actually switching up proteins with wet food is good because it helps with avoiding protein allergies.  I fed chicken almost exclusively for quite some time and I now have a kitty with a chicken allergy.
 
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myrnafaye

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Denise, that is very interesting; do you think it was the chicken or the additives that your kitty because allergic to?  how did you find out she had a poultry allergy?  For the last many years I have fed my cats canned food exclusively.  Ever since the efficacy of dry food in maintaining teeth was repudiated, I felt there was no reason to feed dry.  It seemed more important to feed a diet that was closer to what is natural for cats, and, equally important, a diet where I did not have to be as concerned about water intake. 
 

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Wet food isn't as prone to upsetting tummies when it is switched as dry food is.  Dry food has to be switched gradually, wet food usually doesn't need to be.  Actually switching up proteins with wet food is good because it helps with avoiding protein allergies.  I fed chicken almost exclusively for quite some time and I now have a kitty with a chicken allergy.
Completely agree with Denice.

I, too, am paying the price for almost exclusive chicken feeding and fear Tim may have either a chicken allergy or intolerance. For Tim, occasional vomiting became more frequent, then in early February he vomited every time he ate. Visits to our regular vet and the emergency vet yielded nothing. Out of desperation, and because each drug they prescribed caused a new problem, I decided to try a novel protein; after a couple of days of no chicken and no vomit, I fed chicken, which he vomited. I fed various brands, all of which he vomited. After a couple of months on a rotation of turkey and duck, we fed a small amount of chicken. He did not vomit, but had an asthma-like coughing fit, which he used to have regularly, but did not have when not eating chicken.

This is partly why I am so uncomfortable feeding Tim only rabbit right now. But we're so close to being off cisapride now, and I'll introduce other proteins and foods once he's done and I'm sure he is having regular BMs.
 
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myrnafaye

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Poor Tim!  What about a fish, does he vomit that too?  yikes.  Have you thought about those diets where the protein has been hydrolyzed so that the protein cannot be distinguished by the cat?  if not, I could understand your reluctance.    I hesitated to do that to Obi when we thought he had food allergies.  But it might be worth a try.  Question:  does he react the same way to plain, boiled chicken that you prepare?
 

denice

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Denise, that is very interesting; do you think it was the chicken or the additives that your kitty because allergic to?  how did you find out she had a poultry allergy?  For the last many years I have fed my cats canned food exclusively.  Ever since the efficacy of dry food in maintaining teeth was repudiated, I felt there was no reason to feed dry.  It seemed more important to feed a diet that was closer to what is natural for cats, and, equally important, a diet where I did not have to be as concerned about water intake. 
I fed different foods so they had different additives but they were all chicken.  He developed a yeast infection in his ears, the vet said that it was a secondary food allergy.  I gave him drops to clear it up, quit feeding chicken and it hasn't come back.  I even questioned the diagnoses as far as cause goes and tried chicken again.  The next day he was scratching at his ears again so no more chicken.
 
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myrnafaye

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Awww!  no chicken for Tim...  :  (   
 

abbyntim

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Poor Tim!  What about a fish, does he vomit that too?  yikes.  Have you thought about those diets where the protein has been hydrolyzed so that the protein cannot be distinguished by the cat?  if not, I could understand your reluctance.    I hesitated to do that to Obi when we thought he had food allergies.  But it might be worth a try.  Question:  does he react the same way to plain, boiled chicken that you prepare?
No fish for Tim. At least not regularly. He developed struvite crystals at the end of January that cleared when we stopped fish. He is definitely a cat with issues. But he is doing so well right now; I just have to hang on for another month or so until he's off cisapride and he's been having regular BMs for a while. Then we'll try other foods, including raw, to see how he does. Because I suspect chicken, he doesn't eat any. Not even plain, boiled.
 
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