My kitten does not want to eat her soft food.

My little one Kiki is acting like she does not like her soft food anymore. I feed her the Whiskas soft food and kitten chow. I give her fresh hard food daily so she can munch on it when she wants. As for the soft food I give her half in the morning and half in the evening. She used to love it. She would come running. Now she just looks at me like I am stupid when I give it to her. It is kinda like she is saying "do you expect me to eat that." She will walk up and smell it and walk away. I have no idea what to do. She is eating her hard food as usual. Is it possible that she is just tired of this stuff? I was going to try a new kind but I am afraid of upsetting her tummy. I got her from a barn when she was a kitten and she was eating ground up corn, so her system was very upset and when she started eating normal cat food she threw-up all the time for the first week. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciatedd.

Well, I think everyone here knows that I am not a Whiskas fan. I use Nutro Max Naturals kitten and my kitty loves it. Maybe he suddenly had a change in taste? People do, you never know.

alicat613, I am new to the board and if you don't mind me asking, Why do you not like Whiskas?

It's a possibility that she doesn't like wet food anymore. You could test this theory by trying another brand of wet food.

Although it's not necessary that she eats wet food. Dry food is much better for their teeth.

About Whiskas, I'm not sure Alicat's reasoning but I don't care for it since it seems to be a trend with cats who eat it and cronic UTI's and blockages. I don't think there's any documented research on it but A hefty percentage of cats who come into the clinic where I work that have UTI problems and blockage problems eat Whiskas.

I know the kittens I have right now, are all like "yippie dry food! I feel so grown up cause I'm crunching on something momma eats" lol

I offer them wet food, but they'd much rather be in there eating mommas food, so I keep them in seperate rooms for feeding times.

Some cats will wind up prefering dry food, there's nothing wrong with them, just the way they are, and its better for their teeth I believe.

If your kitty doesn't like wet food anymore, it's not necessarily something to worry about. Just be sure that she gets enough fluids. A main reason to give cats wet food (besides the fact that lots of cats love the stuff ), is to make sure that they stay hydrated. Most cats aren't big water drinkers.

If your kitty drinks enough water, she should be ok with eating only dry food meant for her age group.

My cats don't like wet food. Ophelia will lick the gravy off, and Trent just sniffs it and walks away. These two drink a lot of water, though, so I'm not worried about them. Just thought it was interesting that neither of them like any kind of wet food. We've tried almost all of them.

I feed wet food rarely if at all. The only time I make allowances is when the kitty is sick and in need of special food. But my cats all eat dry food and are perfectly healthy and happy to do this.

My cats get wet food twice a day and love it!

Oh, and my comment on Whiskas....well, I think its a brand with not so much good stuff for kitties. I'm not a fan of grocery store brands or their overpriced Purina cousins like ProPlan. I'd actually like to make my kitty food, but I'm not so sure how they'd like it. They won't eat plain meat! A lot of brands use parts of animals that don't really have any nutrition, but they can still say its beef or chicken. It's just not that great for the cat, I think.

Whiskas appears to me to be a grain-based diet with its first and third ingredients being corn ingredients,cats are carnivores.Iron Oxide gives a nice red coloring to this food but cats dont care what color their food is, this ingredient is added solely to catch the interest of the consumer.JMO
AngelzOO - I think you may find this of interest in regards to dry food and clean teeth.
http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

My aunt had a cat which ate alot of raw vegetables, her vet told her that it wasn't healthy for her cat to eat only the vegetables so she started feeding him hard cat food. He loved it and pretty soon all he ate was the hard cat food. When he died shortly after the vet told her that the kitty had gotten a urinary tract infection from eating too much hard cat food. Just thought I would throw in this little bit of info, because some one on the board said that soft cat food caused UTI and I was a little confused?

Thanks for reading,
Dado6

There has never been a speceific study on food causing any urinary problems. Cats can just don't have the proper chemical balance in thier urine. There are several different urinary problems and they all have thier own treatment. The theory behind feeding wet food to help prevent problems is that they get more water and lessens the chance of crystals. If you feed your cat a food made for urinary tract problems, it may lower the PH and if the cat doesn't have any problems it can lead to crystals forming. The only thing that has even been speculated is that if you increase the acidity of the urine, it will decrease the chances. The only formulas I have ever seen to specificly do this are actually made by Alpo, Purina or a prescription through the vet.

You're right Sandie there has never been a study done(although I think they should I think the results would be interesting) but a diet high in magnesium and phosphorus is known to cause urinary problems in cats.

I've been told this is the case with Whiskas and thus the tendency of these problems in cats who eat it. This would probably be why some cats who eat any food that has fish has this problem as well. I'm not sure if Whiskas brand of cat food has more of these two ingredients in it or not and since there has been no study on whether or not food does cause UTI's and blockages I'd just rather stay away from it till I know for sure.

But if Whiskas or any other "bad" brand is and has been working for the cat then keep her on it. I've seen plenty of healthy 20 year olds that have eaten Whiskas or fancy feast their whole lives with no trouble. They must be doing something right.

Cats can get bored with their food, some cats actually enjoy the crunch of dry food. Sometimes foods will change their formula with out telling you or listing it on the lable first, causing your cat to possibly not eat it, or getting sick from eating something they are not used to.

Authority is pretty cheap for the buck if you can get to a petsmart.

Thank You to everyone for such great information. I really appreciate it. Now I have some major thinking to do. I am really considering changing Kiki's food. We have an appointment with the vet this week for a check-up, so I think I will ask for his opinion on this matter too. Thanks so much everyoned.