I give up. broke buying all this food

jack always ate purina indoor wet food till stomach issues. so since purina has bad issues and my vet suspected the food. i changed with lots of research. at first he loved the simply nourish now he want touch it. i got so desperate i gave him purina. he ate this morning but afraid to give again. i bought 3.oo of 1 can of instincts rabbit. hated it. what do I do. he only wants fish canned by purina and hes getting to much fish food. someone please tell me how to get him eating again. did well till yesterday. hes picky but healthy. i'm not rich. how can i trust purina again. i will buy it if he will eat it. have to buy at petsmart or walmart. he overdoes fish. how do i convert him. help. lost

What specific Purina canned food were you feeding? Do you have the best by date and the first 8 numbers from the bottom of the can?

best by dec 2016 saucy seafood bake. friskies indoor along with chicken cassarole. and meow crab. friskies chicken liver etc. numbers on last can was 43471161. lsga50516

If he is not feeling well then he will not eat, just went through 3 years of this. You have to figure out whether he is really being picky or if he just doesn't feel well and is avoiding food. The important thing is to feed him good food without the additives that can trigger responses in cars which can be bad. Look for food on this page and even if your cat doesn't have IBD these should be easy on his stomach. http://www.ibdkitties.net/wetfood.html One food that most cats like is Fancy Feast so you can try the Classic formulas and see how they work out... https://www.fancyfeast.com/gourmet-cat-products/wet-cat-food/classic

How are his stools? Does everything else seem to be working properly? What I had to do is find a bunch of different foods my liked and then rotate through them every few days so his stomach didn't get used to one food. If nothing else try little bits of different food to see if he will eat it and then feed him the stuff he likes to keep him eating.

i tried fancy feast tonite classic he ate the whole can last night ocean fish tuna. today he want touch any. but i had a little of meow wet good crab meat and he ate it up. he did eat some dry rabbit kibbles from simply nourish out of my hand. he only does 1 or 2 big pees a day and seems to move stools every 2nd or 3rd day. i did not do a slow dry food switch and day before yesterday was soft stools. still waiting for another movement. i think he is just really picky but cant eat fish flavored all the time i understand that can hurt him. i am so worried which food. if he were sick i don't think he would have ate the meow crab. and if i opened a can of fresh human tuna he would eat it pretty sure but if i wait him out he could also get sick.

Keep a diary of what foods you have tried. Purina food is not consistent from batch to batch...IMO.
Your concern is too much fish? Try mixing a little bit of the new food in with the old. Keep increasing the new food over 10 days. Some cats you may need to do it longer.
There should be nothing wrong with the chicken if your cat will eat that unless you feel the grains are causing the problem with his tummy. Since he seems so finicky then mix the foods for a while. Take as long as your cat needs.
Is he on any medication?

Purina can codes go like this:
43471161

4= year 2014
347= Julian date...347th day of the year
1161= plant the food is made. There are 27 plants in the USA

no meds. he will eat about 1/3rd cup of the grain free rabbit dry food right from my hand if i mix it with purina to break him in he want touch it. so i have to go full strength. may get diarreah. all the food i switched him to is grain free. i think i will leave him on simply nouris dry food rabbit but maybe go in morning and get blu spa and maybe organix or wellness. mix it up. my sisters cats lived vet free 20 yrs on any dry food on sale. weird maybe i am making more out of it than necessary. he might thrive on meow mix and foods. who knows. is it true to many canned fish foods can hurt him?

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods#Commercial_Foods

http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/

ok today I got blue spa tuna. a wellness pouch. natural balance platefuls pouches. pride by instint lucky lamb &dare devils duck and evangers chickin lickin. i offered chickin lickin. wellness. and meow mix crab. he snubbed them all but he will always eat the blu spa tuna which i offered him last. so i cant give him tuna all the time. i did buy 3 recipes of natl balance turkey salmon chicken. and duck chicken pumpkin s nd macketal sardine not offered yet. poopy firm today. he seems to enjoy the simply nourish rabbit dry food. do you All think he is just picky ? how much blue spa tuna or canned fish can he eat? and i see i can buy frozen chicken an beef raw for him. how do i convert?

I was wondering if you have ever tried putting PureBites crumbled on top of the food that you want him to eat? It is freeze dried chicken breast treats, you can find them at Petsmart. I get the bigger bag found in the dog treat section. My cat is very picky and also suffers from IBD and allergies to fish and fish oil but those are the foods she loves, anything with fish in it.

My cat also has never eaten any kind of treat in the 7 years I have had her. I bought these treats actually to give my feral cats but Peaches loves it so now when I have trouble getting her to eat I crumble this on her wet food and she licks her bowl clean.

Good luck, I know how hard it is to find a food they will eat and that they can handle on the tummy.

Snugglecat said:

 
I was wondering if you have ever tried putting PureBites crumbled on top of the food that you want him to eat? It is freeze dried chicken breast treats, you can find them at Petsmart. I get the bigger bag found in the dog treat section. My cat is very picky and also suffers from IBD and allergies to fish and fish oil but those are the foods she loves, anything with fish in it.

My cat also has never eaten any kind of treat in the 7 years I have had her. I bought these treats actually to give my feral cats but Peaches loves it so now when I have trouble getting her to eat I crumble this on her wet food and she licks her bowl clean.

Good luck, I know how hard it is to find a food they will eat and that they can handle on the tummy.

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I use the Pure Bites treats too. You can get a MUCH better deal on them from Amazon BTW. I also use Stella and Chewy's freeze dried Tummy Ticklin Turkey as a topper crumbled onto their food and sometimes Purina Fortiflora if they are being particularly fussy.

Phew! sounds like my house! I have about six brands of cat food in 12 flavors in the kitchen cabinet right now.

One thing to note is that most canned food lists water as the first ingredient (80% water is what I have heard). And, "fish" food usually contains chicken or pork by-products in the first few ingredients, too. Assuming ingredients are listed in most to least order (like human food), your cat may not be getting as much fish as you fear.

Everything that I've seen about the "fish is bad for your cat" talks about steadily feeding your cat raw fish or human grade fish. Raw and human grade fish contains a chemical that is bad for cats in large doses or after long exposure. It may relieve your mind to read these articles:

http://www.petmd.com/blogs/nutritionnuggets/cat/jcoates/2013/july/is-fish-bad-for-cats-30648

http://catsndogsnaturally.com/?p=1217

In short, they say that pre-prepared canned feline fish food is fine for cats if they don't have an allergic reaction to fish.

Another thing to note is that cats are "obligate carnivores", which means they get their "veggies" from the stomachs of the prey they eat. We humans have a tendency to treat our pets like ourselves, so we've started feeding them peas, rice, carrots, blueberries, etc. From what I've read, cats don't have the right kind of enzymes in their stomachs to digest these foods.

One of my vets recommended Fortiflora to encourage my cat to eat. It didn't work, but it might work for your little guy. I think it's only available from the vet.

Finally, this may freak out some readers, so look away now if you have a queasy stomach. If any cat food manufacturers are reading these posts, I want to ask you a question...since cats didn't evolve eating fish, beef, turkey, etc. but ate voles, mice, small birds, etc. why don't we have mouse flavored cat food? Are we humans too picky, maybe?

I've often wondered that myself why there's no squirrel casserole canned foods out there. No pet parent would buy it. They don't want Fluffy eating vermin. They have become far too evolved for that in most owners' eyes.

I bought Fortiflora from Amazon. A box of 30 count 1 gram packets for $19.99. Free shipping if you have prime. It works on Sophie but Lilith isn't a fan and neither is Henry. He's not my problem eater so it's OK. Lilith is the pickiest of all 3.

i will try the toppers. i got him to eat a 4th of the natural balance pouch food tonite duck chicken pumkin now i am hoping he will finish it before 11 pm. thanks for everyone's advice i m feeling really worried. since i fed him purina all this time and he got so sick and had a day of throwing up. bloodwork. good xray showed slightly thicken small intestine then exploded at vets office diarreah. but been a month none of that now. jst finicky. i hope i can straighten his tummy out. he is not eating enough i fear

just wondering if he is only eating only about 4 0z wet food a day. few treats maybe a few kibbles. will he be ok till we get it resolved. he is indoor only ragdoll. staying away worrying.

mema62 said:

just wondering if he is only eating only about 4 0z wet food a day. few treats maybe a few kibbles. will he be ok till we get it resolved. he is indoor only ragdoll. staying away worrying.

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How much does he weigh and what does the feeding guide for the food say he should be eating? It is really hard to say without that information unless I missed it somewhere. Having lots of different food is important and with my old guy I usually had no less than 20 different types of food and much of it went to waste.

well he is originally 16 lbs needed to lose a couple, but he is a male ragdoll neutered., he is about 15 1/2 now. but i can't get him hardly finish anything, if I open a 3 oz can, he may eat half, and half later on in the day, then tonight he ate about 1/2 a pouch which I add water so he gets enough water. i am just about whipped. he likes it one day, hates it the next. He would love for me to open a can of human tuna, I know it would eat half a can without a problem.  the vet is going to weigh him after 2 wks, which his next Monday.,

Kat0121 said:

I've often wondered that myself why there's no squirrel casserole canned foods out there. No pet parent would buy it. They don't want Fluffy eating vermin. They have become far too evolved for that in most owners' eyes. :lol3:

I bought Fortiflora from Amazon. A box of 30 count 1 gram packets for $19.99. Free shipping if you have prime. It works on Sophie but Lilith isn't a fan and neither is Henry. He's not my problem eater so it's OK. Lilith is the pickiest of all 3.

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OK the fortiflora arrived this morning. cross your fingers I am offering it at lunch today. I guess amazon want take it back right? maybe purina would if not agreeable. i did try the pure bites freeze dried chicken. he ate all his food with it in it. and half his dinner last night. might be i can add it along with fortiflora. guessing i should add 1/2 pack am. and pm the other half

question Jack does not have diarreah but does a poopy about every 3rd day o i guess fortiflora says for diarreah its still ok to give him? i want it as a stimulant

mema62 said:

OK the fortiflora arrived this morning. cross your fingers I am offering it at lunch today. I guess amazon want take it back right? maybe purina would if not agreeable. i did try the pure bites freeze dried chicken. he ate all his food with it in it. and half his dinner last night. might be i can add it along with fortiflora. guessing i should add 1/2 pack am. and pm the other half

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Good luck with it. I think Amazon will take it back. Their customer service is pretty great. I bought a case of Weruva cat food from them a while back and I was afraid that my picky eaters would reject it and Henry (my good eater) wasn't with us yet. I contacted Amazon through their online chat and the rep told me that while they do not take back opened cases of cat food she hinted that if something was "wrong" with it, they would happily take it back and give me a replacement or full refund so according to them they will but you have to give the "right" explanation of why you need to return it.