Oscar seems to love the broth and jelly...

... but doesn't touch the actual bits.

He goes at the food I just laid down for him and licks any of the broth/jelly (depending on which food I am feeding him) and just leaves the actual bits.

He eats the bonito flakes I top his food with, but he's not eating the actual food. Needless to say, I'm a tad worried.

I noticed this was pretty common with kidney cats. I'm guessing it may just be common with sick kitties in general (especially those with appetite issues). In my sixteen-day marathon that I had with Lucky, I'd read about blending the food. His appetite was almost completely gone by that point, but it did help to just completely liquefy his food for a day. He was in end-stage renal failure though; you'd probably have better luck.

As mentioned, a pate would also be good to try. Might add a bit of water to it to thin it out more, just a tablespoon should be enough to make a nice gruel. Also try heating up what you feed him, just a bit though to bring out the scent more. Make sure it's not too hot though.

Linking to this for anyone not aware http://www.thecatsite.com/t/312609/oscar-is-really-really-sick

I love that little face on Oscar, reminds me so much of my ol' boy Tiger that I used to have.

Donutte said:

I noticed this was pretty common with kidney cats. I'm guessing it may just be common with sick kitties in general (especially those with appetite issues). In my sixteen-day marathon that I had with Lucky, I'd read about blending the food. His appetite was almost completely gone by that point, but it did help to just completely liquefy his food for a day. He was in end-stage renal failure though; you'd probably have better luck.

As mentioned, a pate would also be good to try. Might add a bit of water to it to thin it out more, just a tablespoon should be enough to make a nice gruel. Also try heating up what you feed him, just a bit though to bring out the scent more. Make sure it's not too hot though.

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I totally agree: our previous cat did this, too, in her last months, when she was very sick and wouldn't/couldn't eat much. I blended food, too, in a mini-processor, often adding water (often hot, too, like Donutte mentions, to bring out the food's luscious aroma), and it really helped. Pates are good to blend and some shreds worked well, too, particularly Weruva Cats in the Kitchen's Fowl Ball, which has the added advantage of low carbs (6% dry matter) and only moderate phosphorous (.89% dry matter).

Thank you for that donutte :bigthumb:

rionkatt I am SO sorry I've deleted my first post as it wasn't at all appropriate.

Paté style foods are a good choice, and I agree that warming them can be a big help.

I've found that hand feeding can really help with sick cats - my old chf boy was almost entirely hand fed in his last few months. Left to himself he'd barely eat, but if I picked up individual flakes or shreds he'd eat them from my fingers. I also found that it sometimes helped to put a small piece in his mouth - once he'd got a taste of it it seemed to stimulate his appetite.

If you want to stick with toppers, FortiFlora can work brilliantly. A lot of members swear by it to get cats eating again.

I don't know how it would work with his diabetes, but Hill's a/d is truly wonderful for sick cats. It's calorie dense and highly palatable, and is also the best choice for syringe feeding (which is, of course, another option for Oscar at this stage).

I hope you find something that works for him :cross:

Columbine said:

I've found that hand feeding can really help with sick cats - my old chf boy was almost entirely hand fed in his last few months. Left to himself he'd barely eat, but if I picked up individual flakes or shreds he'd eat them from my fingers. I also found that it sometimes helped to put a small piece in his mouth - once he'd got a taste of it it seemed to stimulate his appetite.

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I'm glad you mentioned this! Hand-feeding helped with Brooksie, too: it was odd but she thoroughly enjoyed eating off a fork in those months, something she adamantly refused to do when she was healthy.

It is tough because he's a sick kitty and I know you want to get him eating. Do you think he has something going on with his mouth maybe or swallowing? Something that would put him off actually eating the bigger bits? Or maybe he's just that way - my cat Wiggies is a licker. He doesn't like to bite or chew his food much, so we have to make his wet really soft so he can lap it up. Still eats his kibble though.

RionKatt said:

I should probably specify that I mean this kind of flaked tuna. Not the wet ones that some of you may think.

I've also been thinking about switching to Tiki Cat instead of Fancy Feast. Any thoughts or opinions?

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I'm inclined to suggest you feed Oscar any food that he will eat. You may have to puree it for him. I mix my cats' food with boiled water and squish it up into a easily licked up pate (just a bit of water does the trick so it's not too hot, plus it really brings out the aroma which helps stimulate cat's appetite).

Phew. So I tried going back to Nature's Recipe (the past couple of days I'd been trying to feed him other brands to see if he'd bite. He turns his nose up at Blue Buffalo and Soulistic.) and he ate all of it, barring a couple of leftover scraps.

I'm a lot less worried now.

That's great! I know how scary it is when they won't eat.

Yay! You just have to have a smorgasbord available for those days he decides he doesn't like what you're giving him.

Donutte said:

Yay! You just have to have a smorgasbord available for those days he decides he doesn't like what you're giving him.

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Ha ha that's everyday with my cats and they are pretty healthy!

bonepicker said:

Ha ha that's everyday with my cats and they are pretty healthy!

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Same here!  We have a ridiculous number of foods for our cats because otherwise they just won't eat.

You can also get some meat baby food, like Gerber 2nd step. It comes in turkey, chicken, beef, and ham (which I think just means pork, as it doesn't have extra sodium). The chicken kind has the most calories. Anyway, it's not a balanced food but most cats like it, it's already pureed, it's an easy 100 calories and all protein, so when you have a sick cat that needs more calories, it can be pretty useful.

Note: make sure the baby food doesn't have any onion or garlic. I've never seen a brand of baby food with those ingredients in the US, but who knows? So just take a quick peek at the ingredient list.

bonepicker said:

Donutte said:

Yay! You just have to have a smorgasbord available for those days he decides he doesn't like what you're giving him.

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Ha ha that's everyday with my cats and they are pretty healthy!

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You should see my kitchen right now, I have about a dozen different foods out there.

I STILL had more variety when Lucky was sick. Only the quantity was smaller. I quite literally picked up at least three varieties of every brand they had!

Willowy said:

You can also get some meat baby food, like Gerber 2nd step. It comes in turkey, chicken, beef, and ham (which I think just means pork, as it doesn't have extra sodium). The chicken kind has the most calories. Anyway, it's not a balanced food but most cats like it, it's already pureed, it's an easy 100 calories and all protein, so when you have a sick cat that needs more calories, it can be pretty useful.

Note: make sure the baby food doesn't have any onion or garlic. I've never seen a brand of baby food with those ingredients in the US, but who knows? So just take a quick peek at the ingredient list.

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I bought Beechnut for our cat last month when she was sick: there weren't many kinds at our local store and that was the only one that was just meat. We were lucky that it was just for a short time (a cat ate a plant and got very sick) but both cats loved the turkey and chicken. I have to admit I was surprised how much they liked it, despite people saying on here that they've used it for cats who've lost their appetites.

These are the safe baby foods to feed: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/225595/anyone-else-have-an-only-gravy-licker/60#post_3749885

A pate canned food would be better than anything in broth or jelly. Even watered down, your cat is still getting food instead of leaving pieces in the bowl.