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- Mar 1, 2023
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This is nutrition based, but it's also partly behaviour. I guess the reason for posting this here is because the opinion of nutrition people is probably more useful in this case.
Firstly, everything posted here from the Good Tips to Get Your Cats To Eat sticky thread to the other info posted here to help others has all been really interesting. My wife and I have read through all of that. But it hasn't really provided us with any kind of path going forward. I will try to keep this straightforward as I can as I think both our brains are so jumbled with this and other issues that it runs the risk of coming out all garbled and confusing if I'm not more cautious about sticking to the point here... I'll forego their names to keep it simple, it'll just increase the potential for confusion.
Cat A:
11 years old. No health issues. Very behaviourally particular. Has not been the same diet-wise since the death of our last cat in April and even before that a year prior when that cat got sick and had to take medication every day. That whole situation flipped a switch in him that he hasn't fully recovered from.
- Eats wet food pretty exclusively. We need to get him eating 280 calories per day to be at a good weight for him of 13.5-14 lbs. But he has very little interest in the majority of foods. Even ones he likes only entice him for a few days.
- He likes only abour 3-4 different wet foods and for only about 3 days and then will no longer like it and we need to move forward in the rotation. We have tried over 20 brands of wet cat food.
- When we try wet foods we have to be careful because one try too many and he gets an upset stomach, and then won't eat the same food he was liking at all for about a day or so which massively affects his weight. Why do we try more than one? Because the longer it takes to find out what he'll eat the longer it takes to get him to eat properly and to get him back towards a weight that's more healthy.
- We are limited to about 10% roughly of what is in the market because he can not eat anything with gums, pulses of any kind, any kind of fish or tapioca starch without provoking diarrhea and even, though very rarely, bloody stool from irritation. He does not have IBD, it's just how sensitive he can be. And removing all those things removes about 90% of the wet foods in the market.
- The other problem this provokes is that chicken, turkey, even beef which is pretty much all we're left with for feeding him are all foods that are extremely low in calories per kg. So, since he won't eat a lot in grams, he hardly ever gets enough calories to make it to 280 per day and that makes him lose weight which we are constantly battling.
- He'll eat dry only as a novelty. Which is to say that if you serve him a dry and he happens to eat it, he will refuse to look at it in a few feedings and dry food only comes in massive bags that we will never get through so while we don't let money stop us from getting the best food possible, it becomes a financial burden to just waste money on a whole massive bag of dry cat food that ends up being useless. Why all dry foods don't offer sample packs or just 50g bags, I'll never understand. Aside from all that, we don't like dry food anyway as it is completely species inappropriate for cats. We were just trying it because it massively boosts his calorie intake.
Cat B:
Recently adopted, also 11. Granted he's got way more reason to be wonky right now with his diet as he only arrived here a little under a month ago. But the shelter was never able to get him to eat what he was apparently eating. They tried giving him something else that wasn't working. A dry food by Hill's. We won't feed our cats Hill's but we did to get him used to being in his new home. But he wouldn't take it anyway so we showed him a dry food we had by N&D and he ate. Fine. He wasn't getting any wet, but our vet recommended Purina Essential Care because "all cats eat it". Well, he does, but doesn't love it. He does need to lose weight, but isn't eating enough of the dry or wet and has absolutely refused about 10 different wet foods and any other dry. No interest. Not even nausea. Just, nope, not eating. He eventually gets 200 calories or so in him daily, but reluctantly and he should really be getting closer to 280 as well as our other cat despite needing to lose weight. Their introduction and living together has gone great, so that's not affecting either of them. No incidents at all. And they are free to roam all day and night.
Cat 1 needs to eat more. We don't know what to do.
Cat 2 needs to like different foods. We don't want him to be on this Purina forever, we'd prefer him on something better. And he doesn't love it anyway so we'd love to see him eating happily. And ideally off the dry altogether.
Treats and toppers work for neither of them. This isn't health related. This isn't a problem with their cohabitation. This is pickyness and two cats who seem to simply not care for food.
If you can think of ANYthing, we're all ears. I'll tell you if it's something we've already tried. But it probably will be.
Firstly, everything posted here from the Good Tips to Get Your Cats To Eat sticky thread to the other info posted here to help others has all been really interesting. My wife and I have read through all of that. But it hasn't really provided us with any kind of path going forward. I will try to keep this straightforward as I can as I think both our brains are so jumbled with this and other issues that it runs the risk of coming out all garbled and confusing if I'm not more cautious about sticking to the point here... I'll forego their names to keep it simple, it'll just increase the potential for confusion.
Cat A:
11 years old. No health issues. Very behaviourally particular. Has not been the same diet-wise since the death of our last cat in April and even before that a year prior when that cat got sick and had to take medication every day. That whole situation flipped a switch in him that he hasn't fully recovered from.
- Eats wet food pretty exclusively. We need to get him eating 280 calories per day to be at a good weight for him of 13.5-14 lbs. But he has very little interest in the majority of foods. Even ones he likes only entice him for a few days.
- He likes only abour 3-4 different wet foods and for only about 3 days and then will no longer like it and we need to move forward in the rotation. We have tried over 20 brands of wet cat food.
- When we try wet foods we have to be careful because one try too many and he gets an upset stomach, and then won't eat the same food he was liking at all for about a day or so which massively affects his weight. Why do we try more than one? Because the longer it takes to find out what he'll eat the longer it takes to get him to eat properly and to get him back towards a weight that's more healthy.
- We are limited to about 10% roughly of what is in the market because he can not eat anything with gums, pulses of any kind, any kind of fish or tapioca starch without provoking diarrhea and even, though very rarely, bloody stool from irritation. He does not have IBD, it's just how sensitive he can be. And removing all those things removes about 90% of the wet foods in the market.
- The other problem this provokes is that chicken, turkey, even beef which is pretty much all we're left with for feeding him are all foods that are extremely low in calories per kg. So, since he won't eat a lot in grams, he hardly ever gets enough calories to make it to 280 per day and that makes him lose weight which we are constantly battling.
- He'll eat dry only as a novelty. Which is to say that if you serve him a dry and he happens to eat it, he will refuse to look at it in a few feedings and dry food only comes in massive bags that we will never get through so while we don't let money stop us from getting the best food possible, it becomes a financial burden to just waste money on a whole massive bag of dry cat food that ends up being useless. Why all dry foods don't offer sample packs or just 50g bags, I'll never understand. Aside from all that, we don't like dry food anyway as it is completely species inappropriate for cats. We were just trying it because it massively boosts his calorie intake.
Cat B:
Recently adopted, also 11. Granted he's got way more reason to be wonky right now with his diet as he only arrived here a little under a month ago. But the shelter was never able to get him to eat what he was apparently eating. They tried giving him something else that wasn't working. A dry food by Hill's. We won't feed our cats Hill's but we did to get him used to being in his new home. But he wouldn't take it anyway so we showed him a dry food we had by N&D and he ate. Fine. He wasn't getting any wet, but our vet recommended Purina Essential Care because "all cats eat it". Well, he does, but doesn't love it. He does need to lose weight, but isn't eating enough of the dry or wet and has absolutely refused about 10 different wet foods and any other dry. No interest. Not even nausea. Just, nope, not eating. He eventually gets 200 calories or so in him daily, but reluctantly and he should really be getting closer to 280 as well as our other cat despite needing to lose weight. Their introduction and living together has gone great, so that's not affecting either of them. No incidents at all. And they are free to roam all day and night.
Cat 1 needs to eat more. We don't know what to do.
Cat 2 needs to like different foods. We don't want him to be on this Purina forever, we'd prefer him on something better. And he doesn't love it anyway so we'd love to see him eating happily. And ideally off the dry altogether.
Treats and toppers work for neither of them. This isn't health related. This isn't a problem with their cohabitation. This is pickyness and two cats who seem to simply not care for food.
If you can think of ANYthing, we're all ears. I'll tell you if it's something we've already tried. But it probably will be.