Cat eating habits

[cowsrcute]

I am so confused with my cat and very worried. I use to free feed her because I thought portioning her food to the amount it says on the bag would be fine. She would eat a few kibbles and leave and come back and by the end of the night. there would be only a little bit left. However, she is extremely picky now. I read that it is okay for cats to be picky since they can eat 10-20 different things a day so I am fine with having a lot of different foods for her. However, the problem is when I give her new food, she will eat it for about 3 days and then get sick of it for like ever. I bought 7 different bags of cat food for her trying to swap them around everyday which worked for a while but now she is sick of all of it. The only thing she will eat is this canned cat food but I try to only give her that no more then once a week since I don't want her to get sick of it too. She will literally not eat until I give her the canned food. Once she didn't eat for three days. Now I switched her to a scheduled feeding schedule since my vet told me that is the problem. The problem is now she keeps eating everything like she is out of food but when I feed her, she will still only eat a tiny bit of kibbles. Like she knocks over the trash, eats paper, eats plastic, eats my cords, and ate some plaster. I know she isn't starving because I am feeding her 5 times a day (for now but I want to get it down to 2) and she has went for 3 days without eating. And when I give her her food, she only eats a little bit. I've been at this for 5 days. Is it to early for her to understand the scheduled feeding time? She is pretty smart. She learned the command "sit," "wait," and sort of to come when I call her (she's a cat so she doesn't always listen. lol) in about 2 weeks. I am scared I am going about this wrong since she is my first cat so I am not familiar with cat behavior. Tricks are easy since I have had dogs since I was little.

I'm not to worried about her eating random stuff since I work from home so I can get to her right away and I've been locking up everything she's been eating. The problem is I am leaving in May and I need to either get her to a 2 time feeding schedule (since my husband will have to feed her and he works) or switch back to her free feeding which I am worried about since she might go back to her picky habits and my husband will be to busy so I am worried she might not be eating but he might not notice and I don't want her to starve. On the upside, since I got her off free feeding, she is a lot more playful now which I am loving.

 

[janneb]

How long did you free feed her, and how old is she? If she has only known free feeding her whole life it will probably take a while for her to adjust. I'm sorry she has been such a picky eater, but give the feeding schedule some time. Also, if you can't get it down to 2 times a day by May, some ppl use timed feeders successfully so that could be your back up. She literally went three days without eating a bite?

 

[cowsrcute]

She is around 6-8 years old. Not sure since when I adopted her they said she was around 4-6. And yea, good point. Now that you mention it, she was free fed at the shelter too. And great idea with the time feeder. =DD Thank you so much. I really do want her to get on a time schedule so I'll do what it takes. She just seems so much happier and active since the switch (might be because she is out looking for stuff to eat). And yea, I live in a two bedroom apartment so I can hear when she eats. Also, she makes little snout marks in the food when she eats which I didn't see. I gave in that time and gave her canned food since going that long can't be good for her stomach.

 

[giselleann]

If she likes the canned food, why not just feed her that?  Cats are obligate carnivores, that means that their nutritional needs are met by eating animal protein.  That dry kibble is not good for kitty and in the long term is going to harm her.  I don't know how old your girl is, but if she's still a kitten, you can feed her like 3 times a day.  I would suggest a good quality high protein wet food.  My cats are 3 and 2 years old and they never eat dry food.  They eat twice a day (1 can a day for each cat).  If you stick to a strict schedule, by May she should be accustomed to it.  When you feed her at the scheduled time, don't leave the food out any longer than 30 minutes or so.  She'll catch on.  Good luck!  

 

[cowsrcute]

I don't want to give her the wet food all the time because she will probably get sick of it too. And yea, I know cat's are carnivores. I know this is bad but she likes junk food I think. When I first got her, she was on a hypoallergenic blend since the shelter said their vet recommended it for her because of food allergies. But she kept puking anyways and I took her to a different vet. After going to the vet a few times, I decided they weren't really helping and kept prescribing all this food that wasn't helping her. I took her off of it and I started giving her Nature's Instinct dry and wet since it is high in protien (80-90%). The dry was duck and the wet were different ones. I think she is allergic to chicken. I gave her mostly dry and once a week since I read that cats can develop allergies if they eat the same stuff to much which is why I think she is allergic to chicken. That worked for a while but then she suddenly started eating less and less and puking again. So I weaned her into Blue Buffalo since it was also high in protein. She ate that for about 2 weeks before she stopped eating. But she wasn't puking anymore. I tried to see if she would eat the Nature's Instinct again which she did but she puked again. So I bought Whiskas (which is not made with good meat) but I wanted to blend it in with her blue or Nature's Instinct. She only ate the whiskas. It was chicken but she isn't puking anymore from it so that was good. She spent a few months on that before she slowed down and stopped eating. So I bought 5 different bags of food and she spent 3 days to a week eating each of them before she stopped eating any of it. She won't eat certain canned foods either. Only whiskas beef or duck. She doesn't like fish at all. Not kibble or canned. So that is why I don't want to keep giving her wet food. She gets bored or sick of eating the same thing to much and I don't want to end up closing the door on everything for her.

 

[janneb]

Maybe you could try for this month just giving her mouthfuls in her bowl several times a day, don't fill up the dish. Then gradually build up the amounts and lessen the frequency? I've been clicker training my Boba and using his wet food as a treat. When he eats it as a reward after repeating a trick, he eats way more than if I just put it in his dish altogether. Also, I've used chicken broth before to get one of our cats to eat when he was sick. You just put a little on their food or even heat it up, but I'm not sure how sustainable that is considering the hassle and the salt content. Have you tried those toys that have the food inside and they have to figure out how to get it out? That might be fun for her and make the food worth her time. You can do canned or dry for that.
Also re: The wet food, canned food is a lot easier to keep a variety of on hand and wouldn't be as easy for her to get sick of since the cans don't last long. How many varieties have you tried? Both shreds and pate?