spoiled kitten?

I have baby girl 6 month old. When I got her a month ago the first problem was that she refused to eat science diet for kittens, she ate just a little bit. I did not want her to be very skinny, so I started to feed her turkey, chiken or beef meat, and also wet food like friskies and whiskies, cat milk, she is eating now better and growing only does not want to eat dry food. How to make her to eat dry food again? She loves to eat turkey meat the most, do I have to mix turkey and dry food together?

I had a similar situation where I had an injured older cat who I had switched over to wet food and had to switch him back to mainly dry. I mixed the food together slowly increasing the amount of dry food. I was lucky that he was an (and still is) an old man so he was used to the dry food. He made the switch okay. Good luck.

Viki, unfortunately, this kitten has trained you well LOL. Although things such as turkey, beef or chicken can be given in very small amounts occassionally as a treat, it shouldn't make up the bulk of a kitten or cat's diet. Also, there are other brands that are a bit better than Friskies or Whiskas for cats such as Innova, Nutro, Petguard, Chicken Soup, Wellness and Felidae, many of which make a canned kitten food. It's fine to just feed her canned food at the moment, she may come to like dry food as she gets a bit older. You will need to switch her food slowly, adding a little of the new food to the old and gradually increasing the amount of new food each day until she is eating just the new food. Something else you can try is mixing a few of the dry kibbles into the wet food and see if she likes that.

From being a kitten Rosie has always been a fusspot when it comes to her food!.

She wouldn't and still wont eat fresh fish, chicken, or turkey, and the various moist foods i would give her she would lick all the gravy and jelly off and leave the meat, plus she wouldn't touch her kibbles!.

I mentioned it to my vet who said to start by giving her the kibbles, but when i said she wouldn't eat them either?!, she said she will if she's hungry!.

True enough she did!

It wasn't until she turned two years old that i finally found a moist food she would eat, it's more expensive but as long as she eats it i don't mind paying the price. Both her and Sophie get the moist food in the morning for breakfast then a little more just before bed but they always have a bowl of kibbles throughout the day.

Sophies the opposite!, she'll eat anything!

I tryed to mix dry food and wet together, but she did not eat it well enough, so I gave her meat and she could eat meat as twice much than dry and wet food together. Perhabs I have to cook turkey only for her. I do not mind to spend money on her only if she eats. I do not want her to suffer if she dislike dry food. She refused to eat shreamp treats, only if it mixed with wet food.

Viki,
I think Tania's advice is perfect...please realize you will harm your kitten if all you feed her is turkey meat. It doesn't contain enough of what she needs to grow up to be a healthy adult.

Look for turkey based canned foods - Petguard has one, turkey and rice - and Wysong has it's Turkey Au Jus...which is just turkey, turkey liver and heart with water for processing (Wysong notes that feeding this "just turkey" would require supplementation, the petguard turkey and rice is a complete and balanced food) - and mix this with a turkey based dry food such as Innova (first listed ingredient is turkey, though it also has chicken and various veggies).
Dealing with this, getting her into an appropriate diet is something you need to accomplish before she's any older, imho.

You can chop up the turkey she likes and mix it with some of the canned food you want her to eat and gradually reduce the amount of turkey until she is on the canned. Even if she eats a little less at first, she will get enough. If you are worried that she won't eat enough, weigh her weekly so that you see that she is gaining weight. As long as she gains a little bit every week or two she is eating enough. And her intake will naturally slow down at her age. She isn't growing so fast any more. Becky

I have to say that I've found Nutro foods (especially "roasted chicken" flavor) both dry and wet go over with all four of my finicky felines! I followed directions for changing food by adding a little of the Nutro to their other brand (which was ProPlan) and they all ended up picking out the Nutro kibbles and leaving all the ProPlan behind. As for wet, they only get about a tablespoon or two each a day to keep them happy and they'll eat just about any brand, though I stay away from the cheapie wal-mart type wet foods. Good luck with your little princess.

Ok, I see that I have to put her on cat food only. I do not mind to buy her any cat food only if she will eat it. I still have purina pro plan for kittens sitting without use. When I got Jewel, science diet for kitten was giving with her, she supposted to eat science diet, I saw her eating it couple of times. When she "asked" me to feed her beef, turkey, or chiken I felt sorry for poor kitten. Now she refuses to eat any cat food, do not have a choice, have to leave dry food for her and other wet cat food that she must eat. How much 6 months old kitten have to eat? I feed her 4 times for a day, she eats about 1 tea spoon not more. She is growing, and need more protein. I did not have such situation with pesian kitten before. My parents have sinior female persian Zosya who ate like "a pig", plates of food several times for a day when she was at 6 months old, she got huge, large cat, not fat, in size of bigger than small dogs, she never have any health problems, she eats everything in big amounts. When we took Zosya for check up to vet, he told that never saw such huge cat before. She ussually gave birth 8 kittens at the same time like a dog.
That is why I have doubts about Jewel, and gave her some meats from my plate in order to stimulate her desire to eat. Persians need to eat protein, I think that meat treat without spoiling can be fine for her, but now she doesn' t want to eat cat food.

Try not to feed from your plate. Feed before or after your meal, do not give into the begging as it only leads to more begging. As as mentioned already, only feeding people food such as strictly turkey is going to end up doing more harm then good because it lacks all the various things a cat needs, especially a kitten. If you have to, you might even feed the cat in a seperate room while you eat your dinner to get her used to the idea of eating her own food and not yours if it is a big problem. Your bigger then she is, it might break your heart but you do have a choice as to what she gets to eat every day. Be strong, be firm and love your kitty the right way so she grows up healthy and happy as can be Good luck with your little bundle of fur!

I left this evening for her plate of proplan food, cat milk, SD, she did not eat it. I hope tommorow she will eat dry food, becouse I am not going to feed her turkey all day. I want her to be healthy happy kitten. Thank you all for advices

Viki,
I do have one concern, that I don't think has been mentioned here...she can not be allowed to go without eating at all for more than a day or two max...cats can quickly develop a condition called Hepatic Lipidosis...link describing Hepatic Lipidosis

So now, I know you are going to feel frustrated...but the point I am trying to make is that while you work to transition her to a balanced cat diet, she must eat *something*. It would be better for you to, as one member suggested, give her a small amt. of turkey diced into the canned food you've chosen, try turkey baby food (onion free...Gerber 2nd stage would be fine) mixed in with a canned food you want her to try. It seems to me, if I am not mis-remembering, she's been pretty consistent in refusing the Proplan and the SD. Why not try other brands?

California Natural Chicken and Rice dry has very few ingredients, and what it has are quality ingredients - here is a link to the ingredients page
and there is also a canned version. This site has a retail store locator so that if you want to try this, you can locate a store near you.

Consider trying Petguard, Active Life if you can find it - the chunky chicken or the chicken pate fricassee would probably be quite palatable to her -the chunky has real chunks of chicken as if you cooked it yourself, supplement with the vitamins and minerals she needs, the pate has a blended pate texture..
Or consider a home cooked diet (as your vet for a balanced recipe - if they don't have any to recommend, let me know as I can look up a few). The pluses to a homecooked diet (so long as you are careful to do the needed additives called for ) would allow you to choose fresh turkey as her protein.

So...the confusing bottom line is...she shouldn't be fed at the table, she shouldn't get just turkey, and she can't be allowed to just not eat at all - she seems pretty clear on rejecting the proplan and science diet - both of which contain by-products, and a quick look at the proplan chicken and rice shows it also uses whole corn, soy protein isolate...things she may well be reacting to.

Here is an article on hypoallergenic carbs for cats (and dogs)...I think you'd find it interesting to read: hypoallergenic carbs

I hope some of the above is helpful, I know right now this problem probably seems a bit overwhelming, but with a bit of detective work and persistence, you can get this gal eating what is good for her!

I won't repeat what has already been stated several times in this thread, but I will give you some tips on how to stimulate her appetite:

microwave her canned food a few seconds to wake up the flavor:
sprinkle her food with a small amount of grated cheese
before feeding, give her a small amount of loose catnip in a pile (stimulates their appetite)
mix the food with the juice from tuna
buy acidolpholus capsules, break open a capsule, pour the contents on a plate, wet your little finger, dip it in the powder, then rub it on her gums
try dotting her food with small amounts of cream cheese
if you can find cheese in a can, spray some cheese on her food
if you leave her food down for a long period of time, it causes her appetite to diminish. Leave it down only 30 minutes, let her understand she needs to eat it or it will vanish. Give her food in small amounts about 5 times a day, but don't leave it down all the time.
You have trained her to be finicky, now you have to undo this damage by presenting her with quality food that she has to eat.

I mixed dry and wet food with turkey this mornining she ate a little, drank catmilk and that was all. You all gave very good advices, I will follow them. I saw her in the begining eating SD, but not recently, she got spoiled by meat, that is why I think she can not have allergy on SD or ProPlan. I hope that soon she will eat normal. I ussually buy food for her in petsmart, never saw anything like Chikensoup for cats, do not remember seeing Nutra too. I can buy her something different to try if I see no improvement.

Viki,

I'm glad she ate something this morning If you wanted to try the calfiornia natural chicken and rice, there is that store locator function on the website I gave you a link to, but in the mean time...foods at Petsmart that I could recommend would be Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care (dry) or their store brand, Authority.

Still waking up here...time for a cup of coffee!!

I have for Jewel so many dry food that it will last for the next year. I fed her 4 times already and everytime she ate like a bird, she is about 4 lb in 6 months. For the last month she got twice bigger than she was before. I will buy dry nutra if she go on to refuse from what I have already.

I totally agree about not letting your kitty go very long without eating. Perhaps she doesnt' like ProPlan? I know that cats will eventually eat what's put in front of them; no cat will starve. But how would I like to be forced to eat something I found disgusting? Not much! maybe you can get several samples or small bags of cat food and see which one she eats first? Some pet stores will take returns of mostly unused bags of food if your pet refuses to eat it. Good luck!

No way I will make my baby starving. She needs some adjustments with time. I mix what she ussually likes to eat with cat food, she dislikes to eat cat food only if there are some pieces of meat from my table. One thing that she loves is catmild, drinks it everyday. Also if she does not want to eat what I put in front of her I have to feed her by hands, if this doesn not work I put chiken or turkey, it is big work to make her eat, at least she ask for food. She does not undestand catnup yet, tryed to put it on her Pro plan, does not work, she ate a little bit Pro plan when it was mixed with turkey meat. Now she got more food than me!