Cat being very picky with eating

For quite a few weeks now, my cat has developed a very picky way of eating - sometimes she comes to her bowl normally and eats like she literally hasn't eaten anything EVER and on other occasions, she just sniffs the food and turns around looking at me trying to make me open a new can for her or give her some raw meat (preferably for her, the latter) after which she starts to eat.

It's not that she has poor appetite - quite contrary, when she starts, she usually eats a lot! Sometimes, though, she just eats, say, half a can in one sitting after which she doesn't want to touch the food from that can at all and just goes to her bowl or to me trying to force me to give her something different. It's not unusual for her to have three different cans opened at once because so it happens that at time X she'll only eat food Y and won't even look at Z or Z2 (even though she was devouring it like crazy a few hours earlier!).

Those are not dental problems either cause she eats whatever you may name - raw chicken breast, liver, canned chunks, canned pate, ham from somebody just having breakfast or eating sandwiches for dinner. It's just that she tends to want to mix it up _very_ frequently (though on some days she doesn't and just eats normally) which makes it really hard to constantly keep up with her taste.

Why is that so? Is it just that I have spoilt her by opening a new can anytime she doesn't want to eat what's left in the previous one or giving her raw meat if she refuses to eat canned?

Any time your cat has any appetite change the first thing you need to do is take her to the vet and rule out a medical issue. Being "picky" is sometimes a sign of a medical problem. Could be something simple or something more serious but you need to get her checked out before you assume she's just being picky. 

The thing is, her appetite isn't worse at all - she still eats as much as she used to but I just have to do way more to be sure she does...

To show you even better what I'm talking about, I'll tell you a situation from yesterday: she ate a whole can of food in the morning. Then, she came to eat around 9PM so I gave her a new can - she didn't touch it, just smelled, turned around and kept looking at me. An hour later - the same thing. I tried adding a tablespoon of another can to the one lying in the bowl - to no avail. Finally I decided to take some food out of the bowl and lay it down beside it - on the table. Then she promptly started eating and ate everything that was previously in the bowl... When she went away, I put some more in the bowl and also went to do my business.

And here's the kicker - she came back an hour later and ate everything I put in the bowl plus more, even ate half another can from the bowl after she finished what had been in the bowl and licked it clean.

Why the bowl was unacceptably bad an hour prior? Beats me. She just sometimes doesn't want to eat the same food from the bowl and wants to have it from the can directly or from a plate and a short time later the bowl is cool again and she devours everything from it as if nothing happened. Doing all those acrobatics with her eating is really tiring cause I want the best for her but you just never know if she's gonna eat from the bowl, the can or not at all at a given time...

Greezee said:

 
The thing is, her appetite isn't worse at all - she still eats as much as she used to but I just have to do way more to be sure she does...

To show you even better what I'm talking about, I'll tell you a situation from yesterday: she ate a whole can of food in the morning. Then, she came to eat around 9PM so I gave her a new can - she didn't touch it, just smelled, turned around and kept looking at me. An hour later - the same thing. I tried adding a tablespoon of another can to the one lying in the bowl - to no avail. Finally I decided to take some food out of the bowl and lay it down beside it - on the table. Then she promptly started eating and ate everything that was previously in the bowl... When she went away, I put some more in the bowl and also went to do my business.

And here's the kicker - she came back an hour later and ate everything I put in the bowl plus more, even ate half another can from the bowl after she finished what had been in the bowl and licked it clean.

Why the bowl was unacceptably bad an hour prior? Beats me. She just sometimes doesn't want to eat the same food from the bowl and wants to have it from the can directly or from a plate and a short time later the bowl is cool again and she devours everything from it as if nothing happened. Doing all those acrobatics with her eating is really tiring cause I want the best for her but you just never know if she's gonna eat from the bowl, the can or not at all at a given time...

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Maybe she wasn't hungry when you fed her. My cat does that sometimes. I would suggest you take her to the vet still to rule out a medical issue. That's still an appetite change, in my opinion, and even something as subtle as what you're describing can be the beginning of a medical problem.