Eating

I got a new cat in January, and she has been a fussy eater pretty much the whole time i have had her. I got told today (by someone who owns a cat but isnt cat mad like us) that i should have just put her food down and left it till she ate it (she is only touching dry food at the moment). now i have always put wet food down and it doesnt get moved till the next meal (she seems to prefer it when it is a bit stale), but i cant see a cat going longer than a day without eating, but i have been told that cats wont starve themselves, they will eat eventually as long as you dont keep changing their foods. I disagreed with this, as she would have gone all day yesterday on 5 biscuits and 5 pieces of chicken if i hadnt remembered i had some biscuits in that she used to eat. She had a dental last week, and when she was weighed she had lost nearly 1/2kg in 6 weeks, so i need to get her to put on weight.

any advice/suggestions/tips/experience? If you want more details just ask, am in a rush so might have missed somehting.

Cats CAN certainly starve themselves to death. Unlike dogs, cats can suffer hepatic lipidosis if they go too long without eating. It is good that she is eating her dry food. I would try some different brands/flavours of wet and set her taste test them. Some cats prefer chunks-in-gravy and some prefer pate style food. You may want to try feeding her a good quality kitten food for awhile to increase her calories.
Also you can try warming it up slightly in the microwave- just test for hot spots with your finger before you give it to her.
I'm sure more people will post with ideas as well. Good luck.

I knew about hepatic lipidosis, as i have had a cat with liver probs, and everytime i did research it came up, had just forgotten how serious it could be (it was Dec when i read this stuff). She tried saying that it is against their instinct to starve themselves, but after watching my cat go 2 days without food till i finger fed her a/d (was concerned about hepatitc lipidosis) i thought she is the kind of cat that would refuse food cos she doesnt like it. When she came to me, she would only eat dry food, i managed to get her to eat some gourmet wet food, after trying about 9 different types of food (i have never liked cats to eat purely dry food) but it was in gravy, so i searched round for one in jelly to alternate (stop her having a dodgy tummy). This worked well for a while, then she started going off her food. I initially put it down to the weather as we had a few really warm days (unusual in the UK!!), but she didnt start eating after that, and i was told in Jan she would need a dental at some point, so i booked her in. She ate really well the first night home, and then barely touched food wed and thurs, so Thurs eve she was back at the vet who gave her a painkiller injection and again, she ate brilliantly that night, gave her 4 different kinds of wet food Fri and she woudlnt touch any, even the one she wolfed Thurs eve. she has barely been eating dry food since, although i gave her some different ones last night and today and they have gone down well, so hopefully she was just fed up of her old ones. I was trying to give her cat milk to boost her weight, but will try the kitten food, i have some in at the moment. Dont think she would go for warm food, as she tends to leave her food a few hours before eating it. Did try warming the a/d up, the first time she loved it the second time she wouldnt touch it. She does like being hand fed though, it is just me that doesnt like it!!

In addition to what was already suggested, you can give her baby food meats - plain beef or turkey or chicken (just please check the label and be sure it does not include onions as they are harmful for cats to consume) in addition as extra calories and a way of stimulating her appetite a bit.

Plain boiled chicken, cooled and shredded is another treat she might like (and it doesn't have to be expensive chicken breasts..thighs, wings if you don't mind taking the time to get the meat off the wing).

I bought some baby food for my previous cat to get her eating, but my vet told me that i shouldnt feed it to her (she did have liver problems though), so am reluctant to try that.

she is very fussy with chicken unfortunately. Bought some ready cooked, sliced chicken for her at weekend as i am a vegetarian and really dislike cooking and handling meat for the cats, and she will eat some pieces but not others!! No idea why, and they all look the same to me, so cant tell till you feed her and she doesnt eat which ones she will eat.

will give her kitten food for breakfast, and might try handfeeding her wet food tomorrow, really dislike it, but it might just be enough to get her over it.

Originally Posted by booktigger

I bought some baby food for my previous cat to get her eating, but my vet told me that i shouldnt feed it to her (she did have liver problems though), so am reluctant to try that.
<snip>

Click to expand...

I can say that baby food meat in the US is just that, only plain meat..so it's not a complete food, and it is a high protein treat, but as a treat, I would think it's not a problem for most cats. Perhaps your vet advised you of this based on the brands in your country if they all use onion? Baby food is one of the staples of folks who show cats as well, as it makes such a portable treat that cats like as a reward in between being handled by the judges and I use it often with my kitty in kidney failure, just to get a bit of extra nutrition into him on a day when he's not eating well.

I wanted to try some baby food with Mellie, who won't eat her wet food. I went to the grocery store and started reading labels. Every single meat blend except one had onion powder in it. And the one that didn't was mostly corn starch.

That's lousy! I use Gerber Second Foods...their beef/veal/turkey/lamb/chicken. There is corn starch in some or all of these, which I didn't mind.

I use earths best ..organic baby... beech nut stage 2.. tender harvest( gerbers organic) .. and some regular gerbers...

i did go to the local shop and looked at labels, and there were no pure meat ones, and loads of them had onion in it, so that could be why.

Put kitten food down for her this morning, and she wouldnt touch it!!

As she is a fussy eater I would get her to eat anything!

yes but it is finding foods that she will eat!! Since Fri, she has had 5 different kinds of wet food (in gravy, in jelly, pate, complimentary, kitten), cooked chicken which she is fussy about, and 4 different kinds of dry food. She hasnt eaten any of the wet food, even though the day before she ate the food in jelly and the food in gravy, she will eat bits of chicken, but only certain ones, and she will only properly eat one kind of biscuit that i have run out of but am getting more today, and if you give her the normal biscuits she eats she will eat about 5 pieces and then give up. i am going to get some different cat milk today to try her on as well.

Got her some Purina One biscuits yesterday, and she wolfed nearly 20gr in a very short space of time!! She never ate so many biscuits in one go on the previous kind, cant remember why i stopped buying her the Purina One biscuits. She didnt eat the second 20gr too quickly, but has eaten quite a bit this morning so am pleased. Still wont touch wet food though!!

I have four cats. One of them absolutely refuses to touch wet food of any kind. I have tried several super premium brands (as well as grocery store type brands). She is healthy and at a perfect weight for her, so I guess I'm not going to worry about it too much. My cats also all really like Purina One. I have tried several super premium brands (Eagle Pack, Wellness, Felidae, Natural Balance). The only one that they really ate as well as the Purina One was the Natural Balance. Unfortunately, it's a 45 minute drive (one way) to get the Natural Balance so I don't always get to the pet store before we run out. The Purina One isn't as good (ingredient wise), but at least I can find it locally in just about every store. With your cat I think I would feed her whatever brand she would eat!

I'm just glad she's eating something...I agree that at this point, whatever she'll eat.