Hi everyone. Two months ago I adopted a 5 year old female cat (Fiona) from the shelter who came from a cat hoarding situation. She had been at the shelter for five months before she could be adopted out. She is one of the most loving cats I've ever had. The problem is I'm not feeling confident about how I'm feeding her. Maybe she is fine with it and it's ME that has the issue. When I first brought her home with the Hills Science Diet food the shelter gave me, that was OK but her stomach was digesting so loud I got her something else. She isn't used to canned food, but I and our vet felt she should try to get on that. He told me go slow. It's been two months and she still isn't really getting the hang of it with the canned food. She won't even eat a tablespoon of it. Doesn't matter what flavor. Doesn't matter if it's gravy or not. She nibbles at it, paws at it, eats a little, and leaves it.
I'm thinking:
She probably never had canned food.
She was probably never fed consistently. Rather than wolf it down, she picks at it.
She likes to graze or free feed, and has no concept of "meal time". I don't think that's necessarily bad. However, whatever wet food she doesn't eat, the other cat I have does eat and now she's getting fat.
I guess what I want is some kind of reassurance that if she isn't going to eat the canned food, to just forget it, and feed her dry. She gets a good quality, sensitive stomach dry food. She is not throwing it up. I guess I would just feel guilty for some reason if I didn't give her canned. But if she's not eating it...what's the point?
And if you have any experience with cats that came from a hoarding background, please share with me what you are doing.
Thank you.
I'm thinking:
She probably never had canned food.
She was probably never fed consistently. Rather than wolf it down, she picks at it.
She likes to graze or free feed, and has no concept of "meal time". I don't think that's necessarily bad. However, whatever wet food she doesn't eat, the other cat I have does eat and now she's getting fat.
I guess what I want is some kind of reassurance that if she isn't going to eat the canned food, to just forget it, and feed her dry. She gets a good quality, sensitive stomach dry food. She is not throwing it up. I guess I would just feel guilty for some reason if I didn't give her canned. But if she's not eating it...what's the point?
And if you have any experience with cats that came from a hoarding background, please share with me what you are doing.
Thank you.