cat too skinny

Hello! this is my first post here, I hope I am doing it right but I really need some advice from experienced cat owners

I'm Ana and I have 11 cats, they are all healthy and well, but one....the skinny one, Jessi, she is driving me crazy

I feed them Taste of the wild and Go Care + raw chicken meat and also boiled fish, everybody eats, everything is fine, but Jessi eats too little and she is very very skinny.....she is healthy, the vet checked her, just some skin problems, everything seems all right

so....how can I make this nasty cat of mine eat more? she is so very very picky also....what do you think about supplements or vitamins to raise her appetite?

more, everybody is sterilised and from time to time I give them something for the immune system (when they sneeze ) they go outside, play, fight, destroy the furniture and sleep on my pillow and all over me, things like normal cats do 

I hope I wasn't boring with my long post, but I really don't know what to do with this crazy cat who eats too little

Thank you!

Have you tried toppers on her food like dried bonito flakes or something like that?  Here's a thread where some members were discussing different kinds of toppers for cat food:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/301839/any-suggestions-for-food-toppers-or-appetite-simulators-for-cat

Welcome to TCS @Ana Moody

How old is Jessi? Has she always been skinny or is this a relatively recent thing? Has the vet run any blood work? 

If all is well physically, I wonder if it could possibly be that with 10 other cats feeding around her maybe she feels a bit intimidated and doesn't eat enough? Have you tried feeding her in a different location, separately from the other cats?

Anne said:

If all is well physically, I wonder if it could possibly be that with 10 other cats feeding around her maybe she feels a bit intimidated and doesn't eat enough? Have you tried feeding her in a different location, separately from the other cats?

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Ditto on this. My little grey boy eats his food SO SLOWLY that if I feed him around the other cats, they finish then steal what he has left. I put him in the bathroom so he can take his time eating. Also, once he was very sick for awhile and lost weight so for awhile I was giving him kitten canned food to increase the calories he was getting. 

They do sell high-calorie goo (think like hairball goo) that you can give cats, though that was pretty unpopular in my house. 

You also didn't mention if you use canned or dry Taste of the Wild.  I think Go Care only comes in dry.  She may not do well on dry food, and most dry foods are too low in fat.  The best proportion is 3:2 protein to fat, and very few dry foods provide that ratio.  The original IAMS and Science Diet did.  IAMS now has a 2:1 ratio, Hills Optimal Care still has a 3:2 ratio (but I am not crazy about its ingredients).  An excellent HIGH CALORIE food is Evo 95% Checken & Turkey CANNED food.  It is grain free, extremely soft pate, and has higher fat content than any other food. It is excellent for old cats or small kittens who need extra calories and may not be able to eat much food.  Unfortunately, like most of the foods I have liked, it was sold to Proctor & Gamble, a company I have boycotted as much as possible over the years because of their animal testing, but I am unwilling to give up this food, and so far, they haven't changed the basic composition or ingredients.  I get it by the case from Chewy.com because that is less expensive than buying it by the can at the few pet stores that carry it locally.

If your skinny cat is picky or not used to canned food, one way to make it appealing is to take some treats (assuming your cat likes treats), put them in a baggie and crush them with a hammer, and then sprinkle that on top of the food.  After a few feedings, you can use less and less sprinkles because the cat will be used to the food and actuallty like it.  Around here, neither PetSmart nor Petco carry it, but Pet Supermarket does.  You could try just a few cans to see if he likes it and if so, I bet he will ut on weight if you feed him this (separately from the other cats) several times a day.  It is very rich so when begining, feeding small amounts 4 times a day is better than feeding large amounts which might be too rich for his stomach.

I always feed my skinny cats lots of boiled chicken 3 times a day and or I feed them baby food. Just with baby food stick with the meat ones or the squash or sweet potato ones are all good. Just check the label and make sure it says nothing like onion or garlic, these will make your cat sick. You can also coat baby food over some high calorie dry food to make them more interested in it as well.  

hello and thank you for your answers.

well...I always feed her separated from the others, she is 3 years old, always skinny, but not as much as lately (I took her to the vet a few times these months - she is very stressed about this and I think that's why she eats even less and got so skinny) ...

I mostly give my cats dry food, but also boiled fish and raw chicken....she seems ok with the dry food and with chicken breasts only. lately I  started to feed her  wet food (PetKult, Nuevo and Brit), but my fussy cat only prefers the ones with fish and more sauce and still eats too little

I can't find Evo in my country, but I'll try Iams and Hills and some more chicken breasts and maybe some relaxation because I think that she might be also stressed because of me insisting so much on her to eat, can that be true? ( I am the crazy kind parent with this particular cat )

though she might like the food, she refuses to eat sometimes, especially during the day, only late at night she eats a little bit more

I don't know about toppers and I am afraid she will not like that either. I am trying to feed them all something close to  healthy, which I don't know what is anymore ... I used to feed them purina, which they all loved, but lately I learned that's not good for them, so we switched

I read somewhere about salmon oil for cats with problems...what do you think about that?

thank you again!

ps: this is Jessi, the brat that's not eating