Cat's Frustrating Eating Habits

Hi all

We recently switched our male manx kitty from a 90% wet diet to a 100% wet diet. It's not going so smoothly because my cat just doesn't have an appetite  :/ 

He is constantly leaving no more than t half of the can behind and he rarely finishes a portion. His stool size has decreased and he is not always going once a day (that or I am missing it due to someone beating me to scooping the box). I figured the stool seize decrease was due to less carbs in his diet now but the less frequent movements have me worried. 

Twice a day, he'll get a 3oz can or half a 5.5oz of wet We rotate brands and flavors because god forbid he get the same flavor in one day. His rotation includes: Fancy Feast Classics (poultry only), Wellness TruFood (chicken, turkey, pumpkin), Nature's Variety Pride and Instinct (no fish), Weruva (salmon occasionally but almost always the poultry), Merrick (LIDs and occasionally Backcountry and Gourmet Shreds), Nature's Logic (only rabbit so far), Koha (Brushtail and Kangaroo), ZiwiPeak, Feline Naturals, Fussie Cat (chicken/duck only so far), and sometimes Performatrin Ultra. 

Usually, sprinkling some freeze dried raw on top would get him to eat some if he stopped after eating only a bit but now he sniffs it and then does the "covering up" motion. I've tried cutting the portions into smaller size, I've tried playing with him before meals when I can, and I've tried heating the wet food and adding water. All these methods only worked a little while before he got wise to my antics. 

He is a 12-13lbs cat but lean. A few weeks ago he had a vet check up and the vet did not make a remark towards his weight, leading me to believe he is of a good weight. He isn't skinny, no protruding spine or ribs. But his eating habits make so paranoid and stressed! :c I just want him to finish his portions. I feel like he isn't getting enough to eat. I thought the hunger from not having his usual midday kibble snack would entice him to finish a can but he just stubbornly lets it get dry. Don't get me wrong, he still eats his treats and the occasional slice of deli turkey, so he is not off food entirely.

One thing I thought it may be is that he used to be indoor/outdoor but is now entirely indoor. He is easily distracted by opening doors or windows as he thinks he is going out. But this kind of distraction wouldn't trump hunger, would it?

Your cat's appetite sounds a little like our cat Ireland's used to be: she ate enough but wasn't an enthusiastic eater. She, too, didn't always finish her food and I often had to sprinkle Pure Bites on her food to get her to finish it.

Ireland seemed like she might just be a picky cat but I began wondering if she might have a minor nausea problem: she occasionally licked her lips too much and would sometimes hover over her food as if she wanted to eat, but then walk away. She was a little thin -- lean, like your cat -- but not quite thin enough that I was worried. (I would have been worried, though, if she'd lost any weight at all.) Reading this page on the Food Fur Life site was helpful because I began connecting her perceived pickiness with what were apparently mild but real symptoms.

I read that page because I'd been considering adding homemade food, made with EZcomplete, to the cats' diet. I've made two changes to the cats' diet in the last four or five months: gradually reducing their canned foods with various gums in them and feeding one meal of cooked EZcomplete food a day. Something there has made a huge difference for Ireland: she now eats all her meals as eagerly and quickly as her piglet sister (she runs to eat, something she didn't do before!) and she's put on a little weight. I tend to think it's the EZcomplete and wondered if it might be the digestive enzymes in the supplement but the vet thinks it's the pancreas in the supplement. Then again, gums can cause problems in some cats, so cutting back on those might have made a difference. In any case, Ireland looks great and is a much happier, more relaxed cat now, less on edge.

I don't know how old your cat is or how well he used to eat but would definitely suggest watching him for signs of nausea. I feel like we were very lucky to find a way to improve Ireland's appetite with diet only, rather than resorting to medications: the last thing I wanted to do was have to dose her with Pepcid every day!

Good luck!

Manx,

Answering your last paragraph, 2nd sentence, sounds a little like my boy. He does get distracted easily by sounds. Whenever he hears sounds, he stop eating and look at the direction wher the sound is coming from. Especially if sounds of plastic bags, opening of doors and foot steps.
Then he'll bolt off to check it out and leave portion of his food behind. So we call him to ask him to finish his food but he wouldn't. Even when we tried carrying him to his food, he sniff and also did the covering up motion and just walk away. BUT we left the food there and in a short while, he returned and finish up.

So my question is, when your kitty did not finish his food, did you remove it or still left it there? If you left it there for some time and did not eat, maybe he is already full. You did not mention the age of your cat. I understand that cats reaches adult stage eat less. But I know of some cats before they reach adult age is eating less and also less times. My boy is only 9 months old and he eats quite a bit. So I'm expecting him to slow down even later when he passes age one year.

Maybe you can try leaving it out for a longer time to see if he continues to eat later if you haven't tried this way.

Other than that, I can't tell what is wrong with his not finishing his food.

Please keep us posted.

LisaHE said:

Your cat's appetite sounds a little like our cat Ireland's used to be: she ate enough but wasn't an enthusiastic eater. She, too, didn't always finish her food and I often had to sprinkle Pure Bites on her food to get her to finish it.

Ireland seemed like she might just be a picky cat but I began wondering if she might have a minor nausea problem: she occasionally licked her lips too much and would sometimes hover over her food as if she wanted to eat, but then walk away. She was a little thin -- lean, like your cat -- but not quite thin enough that I was worried. (I would have been worried, though, if she'd lost any weight at all.) Reading this page on the Food Fur Life site was helpful because I began connecting her perceived pickiness with what were apparently mild but real symptoms.

I read that page because I'd been considering adding homemade food, made with EZcomplete, to the cats' diet. I've made two changes to the cats' diet in the last four or five months: gradually reducing their canned foods with various gums in them and feeding one meal of cooked EZcomplete food a day. Something there has made a huge difference for Ireland: she now eats all her meals as eagerly and quickly as her piglet sister (she runs to eat, something she didn't do before!) and she's put on a little weight. I tend to think it's the EZcomplete and wondered if it might be the digestive enzymes in the supplement but the vet thinks it's the pancreas in the supplement. Then again, gums can cause problems in some cats, so cutting back on those might have made a difference. In any case, Ireland looks great and is a much happier, more relaxed cat now, less on edge.

I don't know how old your cat is or how well he used to eat but would definitely suggest watching him for signs of nausea. I feel like we were very lucky to find a way to improve Ireland's appetite with diet only, rather than resorting to medications: the last thing I wanted to do was have to dose her with Pepcid every day!

Good luck!

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Wow, that was a very interesting and enlightening read. Thank you for that. This may very well be the issue.

This gives me more reason to integrate FD raw into my cats diet. I'd do raw, but I simply do not have the refrigeration space. Also, my cat is so damg picky he won't eat the FD rehydrated! Still working on that....

As for age, he is 4.5-5 years old now. And no, I usually leave the wet food out until he's eaten it or it has dried too much. I know it's not recommended but sometimes I will rehydrate it with warm water and sprinkle FD raw on top in the hopes he'll finish it.

I will eliminate peas from his diet. I still need to do wet, so I will need to exclude gums. The article said all gums, but there are few without gums. Are some gums better than others? I know carrageenan is bad, but a lot of his staple foods have guar, xantham, locust bean, and agar-agar gums.

I'll also try to include a probiotic in his diet and elevate his feeding dish. What probiotics do you recommend? My only hesitation is that because he is so picky, he will refuse to eat due to the powder's flavor.

@Manx, this is just one cat's story but I hope something there might help yours! Just to be clear, we were already feeding a lot of raw food to the cats before I made the changes in their diet, which is why I attribute the improvement to either the EZcomplete or the reduction of the gums.

Eliminating peas and reducing carbs--potato, tapioca, etc.--is a good start because that can have a definite effect. Yes, you're right that there aren't many foods (at all!) without gums--the canned foods on the menu are reduced to Tiki Cat and some Weruva, flavors with gums that are getting phased out. I don't know if any gums are "better" than others; I just decided to get rid of them all.

I don't use probiotics but know a lot of other TCS members do; @missmimz might have some ideas, plus she's very knowledgeable about various types of raw foods, too. Most of all, I think I'd suggest starting by watching for signs of nausea and make cuts in carbs.

The problem is, so many of his "favorite" foods are use either potato starch or some form of gum :/

Nature's Logic is the only one I found besides Feline Naturals that has no gums and no peas, potato, or tapioca. Koha uses pumpkin and gums in their LID pates, but their new stews have no potato, no grain, no tapioca, and no gums but has chickpeas? Are chickpeas a more preferred alternative? I also noticed some of the more expensive pea/potato/tapioca free foods use agar-agar, such as Ziwipeak. I could stick to agar-agar and try eliminating carageenan and peas or such. I can't just not give him his food Some of  his most tolerated Weruva flavors have tapioca or potato starch :c I'll have to try the Tiki Cat chicken and chicken and duck. 

I want to give him variety and not constrain him to the two foods without gums and peas/potato/tapioca. I am still trying to figure out how to get him to eat the Nature's Variety Raw Market and Primal Pork I got him. Maybe I am rehydrating it wrong? I use a tablespoon of filtered water and let it soak on the crumbles for a few minutes before sprinkling some dry FD on top. He won't finish these either...

Something I've thought of using is the HomeoPet Feline Digestive Upset. I keep it on hand in case of a stomach bug. One of my regulars at work had a cat that threw up after every meal but ever since they've added this to the food beforehand, they haven't had a single incident. 

I know, it can be very difficult to try to sort out what food might be causing a problem for a cat! We've been very lucky that chance helped us figure things out for both our cats' stomach quirks. I wonder, too, if there might be another reason your cat isn't eating very heartily: is his appetite something you mentioned at his last vet appointment? I'd probably want to run some routine blood tests, just to be sure there's nothing obvious going on. If nothing else, it can be very useful to have baseline results in the file. (I'm glad we had them done for our cats, just to be sure nothing was way off.)

I don't honestly know what would be best to suggest... I'd probably do something like you're considering, like sticking with one gum but cutting carrageenan. In Ireland's case, I really do think it was the addition of the homemade food supplement that made the difference for her. In Edwina's case, taking all the potato out of her diet keeps her from vomiting. The cats' diet is largely raw food (three meals a day), plus the homemade meal, and one canned meal. All of it is very low-carb, no potato, no peas, no chickpeas, no carrots, hardly any fish, no agar-agar, etc. Both our cats have sensitive stomachs--they're Siamese mixes, and Siamese are apparently known for digestive issues--and that combination of foods works very well for them, at least for the time being!

Good luck!

I don't have any issues with agar-agar in wet foods. There's no evidence that it's as harmful as carrageenan. I'm not sure I'd suggest adding a probiotic in his wet food at this point when he's already having issues eating it. Perhaps he's not really a wet food fan. Have you tried freeze dried foods? Or raw like Rad Cat? 

missmimz said:

I don't have any issues with agar-agar in wet foods. There's no evidence that it's as harmful as carrageenan. I'm not sure I'd suggest adding a probiotic in his wet food at this point when he's already having issues eating it. Perhaps he's not really a wet food fan. Have you tried freeze dried foods? Or raw like Rad Cat? 

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I'd love to incorporate FD raw and normal raw into his diet. But as we discussed in a previous thread, he is not interested :/

He did, however, recently eat an entire portion of the Primal Pork rehydrated! I was very surprised. But I wonder if it because he was very hungry and there was nothing else or if genuinely liked it. When I gave him the NV Raw Market rehydrated, he left a 1/3 of it behind and then wouldn't touch it. In the next few weeks, I'll be buying the 5.5oz of the Primal Pork or Turkey to see if he'd be willing to eat it regularly.

As for Rad Cat, I still have a tub of the chicken in my fridge. He only gave it a couple licks after sprinkling with dehydrated FD raw and warming it a little, and ignored it mixed in with Fancy Feast. If he'd eat the Rad Cat, I'd be more than happy to give it to him.

I'd greatly appreciate tips and tricks on how to get him to eat the FD and normal raw.

As for his digestive habits, his stool size decreased but is still well formed and moist enough to stick to litter. Not sure if he is going once a day, though. He doesn't puke or have hairballs, I think he's had two his whole life. No excessive gas or particularly offensive gas either. He still likes his treats but just doesn't finish meals! Sometimes he'll even stick his nose up at treats!


Either way, I am going to exclude carrageenan, whole potatoes and sweet potatoes, peas, pea starch, and pea protein from his diet. Weruva and Tiki Cat use a lot of gums and potato/tapioca starch, so I'll see how he does on those.

How do you feel about pumpkin? Its usually touted as a great supplement for digestive upsets. Koha uses pumpkin in their LID foods.

I will be buying more Feline Naturals and Nature's Logic when I get more cat food, as these have no gums or potato/pea/tapioca.

@Manx, just to get back to the possibility of nausea, here's a post from Catcentric that includes a fair bit of detail about symptoms. (The link is here!) That post is written by Laurie Goldstein, one of the founders of Food Fur Life, so some of the information is very similar to what I linked to from the FFL site, but there's more about symptoms on Catcentric. In Ireland's case, she only had the lip licking, acting hungry but walking away from food, licking/sniffing at food, and loss of appetite. Like your cat, she never vomited, got gassy, or had hairballs; she did have a diarrhea issue at one point (this was long ago, I think when we were switching up the cats' foods) but it went away on its own.

Now that she's eating well again, I can see how persistent Ireland's seemingly minor symptoms were! I mention the possibility of nausea again because it can be so difficult to sort through ingredients to find what's bothering a cat (and that on its own might not even completely resolve the problem) and vet help would be useful if you can't get at the problem fairly soon.

It is good news that your cat -- what is his name, by the way!? -- ate the Primal pork. Our cats like that food, too, and would definitely recommend it over the turkey, which they began rejecting. (It seems like the turkey was more inconsistent.)  And I definitely think eliminating Weruva is a good idea: I'm glad to be phasing it out because of all the gums, and their use of potato starch is just ridiculous! Tiki's "luau" and Gourmet Carnivore foods don't have gums or potato so they're good ones to feed. Our cats get a lot of those in their night canned food rotation! They love shreds.

Pumpkin seems to help a lot of cats with varying digestive issues and I'm not sure it's a coincidence that Ireland's diarrhea went away after I fed her some Weruva chicken/pumpkin food. I fed her the pouch food with tapioca, a food I don't much like feeding because of the high carbs!

Anyway, good luck again. It's really no fun -- and even rather stressful -- when a seemingly healthy cat won't eat well.

Oh and I've looked into some slippery elm supplements, and all the pet ones have magnesium in them? Is this safe?

@LisaHE thank you for the link!

My cat does chew on my spider plant sometimes, and I will keep an eye out for the "unhappy" loaf posture.

I'll be getting the Puka Puka Luau next time too, and asking if the store could order the Gourmet Carnivore for me. Also the new flavors of the Koha LID.

Do you have any other recommendations for FD raw brands? I'll have to see if my local store has the Feline Naturals one because my cat loved the canned version. I've read that Stella and Chewy's is a bit high in bone.

And his name is Weasely, and he's the love of my (pet) life

Manx,

Weasely is so handsome! [emoji]10084[/emoji]️

Weasely is very handsome! He looks like a happy cat, rolling around like that!

As for freeze-dried brands, we feed our two cats Primal pork, Northwest Naturals turkey, and Feline Natural chicken/lamb. We used to feed a little bit of Stella & Chewy's but I was never thrilled about it because of the high phosphorus... and then they added some pea ingredient or other so out it went! There are some other brands--@LisaMarie12 has fed her cats Fresh Is Best, for example--but those three seem to be working well and when it ain't broke with feeding these two, I don't try to fix it!

Thank you for the compliments! <3

I just talked with my mother, and she says she hasn't been scooping out a lot of poop either. So my kitty is definitely not pooping regularly (several sources said a cat should defecate once a day).

Is this just because he's not eating much? Or is he constipated? He does not meow or cry when he goes, and his urine output is wonderfully healthy (nice big clumps!).  When I touch his colon area/lower tummy, he does not react in pain and I don't feel a mass or something. Maybe he is nauseous because he is constipated? Although, when he was on 90% dry food, he pooped rather regularly. 

Vet's Best Hairball Relief and Digestive Aid  has slippery elm, marshmallow root, digestive enzymes, and probiotics. It's crunchy, so maybe my cat would eat it. If not, I could grind it into powder and mix into wet food along with the HomeoPet Feline Digestive Relief. My only concern is the magnesium stearate. Is this safe? 

Manx said:

I'd love to incorporate FD raw and normal raw into his diet. But as we discussed in a previous thread, he is not interested :/

He did, however, recently eat an entire portion of the Primal Pork rehydrated! I was very surprised. But I wonder if it because he was very hungry and there was nothing else or if genuinely liked it. When I gave him the NV Raw Market rehydrated, he left a 1/3 of it behind and then wouldn't touch it. In the next few weeks, I'll be buying the 5.5oz of the Primal Pork or Turkey to see if he'd be willing to eat it regularly.

As for Rad Cat, I still have a tub of the chicken in my fridge. He only gave it a couple licks after sprinkling with dehydrated FD raw and warming it a little, and ignored it mixed in with Fancy Feast. If he'd eat the Rad Cat, I'd be more than happy to give it to him.

I'd greatly appreciate tips and tricks on how to get him to eat the FD and normal raw.

As for his digestive habits, his stool size decreased but is still well formed and moist enough to stick to litter. Not sure if he is going once a day, though. He doesn't puke or have hairballs, I think he's had two his whole life. No excessive gas or particularly offensive gas either. He still likes his treats but just doesn't finish meals! Sometimes he'll even stick his nose up at treats!


Either way, I am going to exclude carrageenan, whole potatoes and sweet potatoes, peas, pea starch, and pea protein from his diet. Weruva and Tiki Cat use a lot of gums and potato/tapioca starch, so I'll see how he does on those.

How do you feel about pumpkin? Its usually touted as a great supplement for digestive upsets. Koha uses pumpkin in their LID foods.

I will be buying more Feline Naturals and Nature's Logic when I get more cat food, as these have no gums or potato/pea/tapioca.

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Go with what he likes, if that's Primal Pork that's just fine. The fact he's nibbling on these foods is a great start, just be patient. Use a lot of different toppers for raw to help entice him. I don't use pumpkin, i use probiotics and slippery elm for digestive upset. I Feline Naturals. I'm looking forward to getting some cans hopefully soon. 

missmimz said:

Go with what he likes, if that's Primal Pork that's just fine. The fact he's nibbling on these foods is a great start, just be patient. Use a lot of different toppers for raw to help entice him. I don't use pumpkin, i use probiotics and slippery elm for digestive upset. I Feline Naturals. I'm looking forward to getting some cans hopefully soon. 

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Thank you!

I rehydrated another cube last night and then sprinkled some dry FD raw on top. He gave it a lick or two to get the dry crunchies off. I figured he'd eat it overnight like last time so I left it for him. But this morning it was still there and all dried up :/

What slippery elm supplements do you use? The one I found (my last post) also contained probiotics and digestive enzymes and has a flavor, which may entice my kitty. Human supplements I fear may taste bitter or such.

I wanted to give him a dollop of Rad Cat this morning, but it had gone rancid :X I wish it weren't so pricey so I could get another tub to experiment. I will stick with getting him on FD raw for now.

Just an update

Weasely is doing great on his 90% wet/10% raw diet. I bought a bag of Primal Pork and he's been eating his cubes regularly. However, he won't eat it if it's fully hydrated. I crumble up the cube, add a tablespoon of water, and serve right away. He gobbles the whole thing down in one sitting-something he rarely does! He licks up the water in the dish along with the dry crumbs so he's still getting the water with his food. Is this okay? Or should I get him to eat the food completely hydrated?

I will also be getting a bag of the Feline Naturals FD Chicken and Venison as soon as I get the $10 credit at my local independent pet shop. Hopefully my kitty will like it!

Since he licked up all his food and water this way, better stay on like this as you mentioned that he does not like it fully hydrated. And he is still having water in his meal, so it's ok.

Manx said:

Just an update

Weasely is doing great on his 90% wet/10% raw diet. I bought a bag of Primal Pork and he's been eating his cubes regularly. However, he won't eat it if it's fully hydrated. I crumble up the cube, add a tablespoon of water, and serve right away. He gobbles the whole thing down in one sitting-something he rarely does! He licks up the water in the dish along with the dry crumbs so he's still getting the water with his food. Is this okay? Or should I get him to eat the food completely hydrated?

I will also be getting a bag of the Feline Naturals FD Chicken and Venison as soon as I get the $10 credit at my local independent pet shop. Hopefully my kitty will like it!

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That's perfectly okay. This is how I trained my cat to eat freeze dried foods by drizzling the water on top so that is sinks to the bottom and then he'd lick up all the water too. The important part is that he gets the water, and it sounds like he is. Just make an effort to slowly add more water if you can. 

Feline Natural's actually just released a canned food line that has almost identical ingredients to their freeze dried. I'm told that Chewy is going to have it available next week. I've been trying to get my hands on it for awhile because I think it's going to be a really good option for my furkids, as they do like the FD foods too but I'm looking for another canned food to use as a snack.