Persian Cat Feeding Issues, any tips?

Hi all,

We have a 4 month old Persian kitten. She's been a great cat for us. When it comes to eating , we're trying to find to find ways in which she can eat food by herself. Currently, we have to help her eat by staying by her food bowl during every meal and re-piling the food so that she can access it. Over a period of months, it does because a little bit of a time drain, but we've been keeping up with it.

We have dishes of all sorts. Plates. Semi-bowls. Tilted bowls. Elevated bowls.

Right now she is used to eating Fancy Feast Classic, which is a pasty texture pate dish. She gobbles that up fine as long as we keep piling it up for her after every few bites. If we do nothing, so will only take a few bites and then flatten it out and walk away. Another issue is that food seems to "glide away" from her as she is feeding. We currently don't know of any bowls that have grips on the bottom, but we are also not completely sure if that would help.

For dry food, we don't feed her much of it. More or less just a snack when we are away from home for long periods of time. But right now we have some little grain-free pellet shape food. She eats what she can of it, but the size of the pellet is obviously hard for her to eat because most of it ends up on the floor scattered around.

She seems to be a licker mostly, and not so much of a biter (though, she does bite her food when it's at the right angle). I've ordered some Royal Canine for Persian Kittens and may work that in if she can easily "lick" it up.

We're trying to think of ways in which she can eat autonomously. Here are some ideas we had, but we'd be open to other ideas if you've had the same issues:

1) Try different cat food that is more like human-like in which there are pieces and strands of meat/vegetables instead of pasty texture stuff. Brands like Tiki Cat or Fussie Cat comes to mind. Cons: this food is pretty expensive, and it does take some effort because we would have to slowly work it into her diet in order for her to not have diarrhea, and it also couldn't work!

2) Stick fancy feast in a blender and add water to make it "soupy" so she can easily lick it up. Maybe add a little bit of egg yoke to sweeten the deal? Cons: Nothing really that I can think of, other than making it soupy implies likely adding a lot of water!

3) Some other bowl/plate that we don't know about that could help?

4) Trying the Royal Canine Persian Dry food. If she can easily eat those, then great. We would be able to feed that to her mostly, then hand-feed her once in awhile with wet food.

5) Keep up with assist-feeding her because this will "go away" as she grows older. Not sure if that's true or not true.

Thanks all, hopefully to learn some tips and tricks!

I have never had a Persian cat or first hand experience of this but am aware they often experience a lot of difficulty with feeding due to the shape of their face and jaw line - hence special foods and special bowls with flatter sides, sloped and with little ridges on to try and keep the food stable for them as well as sides not catching their whiskers.

It sounds like you have been very resourceful and come up with many things to try already and your young kitten is lucky to be with people who are as resourceful as you are.  I hope that others with Persian cats or similar who have come up with solutions will see your question and be able to come up with something that works for her.  

If you want to try something to stabilize her bowls or plates on, something as simple as a little piece of anti-slip matting from a furniture or homewares store should do this.   The washable net style or silicone ones are best for obvious reasons.   Ikea used to stock the net style kind quite cheeply - check though as some of the net ones can have a funny smell which might put a cat off eating.

Mouse is able to feed independently but doesn't like to very much.  I don't think he has a great sense of smell, and finds food far more appealing when it's on the move so will sit and stare at me until I give in and throw his dry kibble for him to chase around.   It does take a long time and means a lot more cleaning up for me, but it is part of our play and interaction so I have got used to his idea of fun and feeding - it's been going on now for more than 4 years.      He only eats out of his bowl if he's starving and on his own.

I don't have a lot of advice here, but I do have two thoughts.

One, I was able to find stainless steel bowls with a silicon grip on the bottom on Amazon. They've been helpful for my cat.

Two, adding water to her food and making it soupy could be good for her. Water intake is an issue for lots of cats.

Let us know what else you find out. Good luck!

Hi @MissPersian  Welcome to The Cat Site.

My Doll Faced Persian has a similar problem when eating, most of his food used to end up spread all over the floor. I got a bowl for him that has one side of the rim higher than the other. The higher side has a kind of lip on the inside that stops the food being pushed out. I think it's supposed to be a dog bowl rather than a cat bowl, but it works for him too.

It's not this one, but it's this shape with an overhanging lip on the inside.

 

My cat loves the texture of hard boiled eggs.  I chop them and add them to about 1/2 can of wet food.  Texture and "mouth feel" apparently are important to my kitten.  When I gave her pate for the first time, she wasn't enthused about it and took her sweet time to finish it.  Consequently, I decided to chop or "mix" the pate and from then on she has no hesitation whatsoever about eating pate.  Adding an egg provides a big boost of protein and gives the cat variety in its menu.

@MissPersian

I have 2 Persians (doll faced) and these are the dishes they use (as does Henry- our DSH boy. It might be the oval design but they don't have any of the issues that you mentioned. 


@TheGreyStalker

Eggs are fine but only in moderation. I would not feed them daily

http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/cat-health-can-cats-eat-eggs-ask-a-vet-food-tips

From the article:

"So, in my opinion, eggs are good. Period. They taste good, they are nutritious, they are healthy for people, and they are safe for cats in moderation.

But let me end with a note about moderation. If you think that feeding your cat an egg a day is moderation, then think again. One egg per day in a 10-pound cat translates roughly to 15 eggs a day in an average-sized adult human. When one does more precise calculations, considering our differing metabolic rates, one egg for a cat translates to around eight eggs for a person. That, in my opinion, is not moderation."

I agree that a boiled egg should be given to your cat only a few times weekly; not every day.