Over the last months, I have been domesticating a feral cat into the household. Innocently, as part of our group training I started giving my three cats a small handful of Friskies Party Mix on a nightly basis thrown on the carpet. They all went wild for them and seemed to look forward to our little nightly "party". I thought the group activity seemed harmless enough.
Over the course of the last few weeks, I started to notice that appetites for regular food was dwindling. I am not sure if it is related or not, but my one y.o. Kinney abruptly stopped eating all canned food about a month ago - then was only eating kibble. I figured that was his choice and as long as he was eating, well OK:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204784
Then, quite suddenly all three of my cats have stopped eating kibble at all. I have since limited the quantity of Friskies Party Mix down to a few pieces or none nightly, but I am now having real issues with ALL THREE of my cats not eating.
Coby, the feral basically stopped eating almost everything but the treats. He is now at death's door, refusing to eat anything.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205291
Kinney, the one year old is at least hungry but is subsisting on baby food only (at least he has an appetite for that). Kevin, the 17 yo senior has a pretty robust appetite and is polishing off whole cans of canned food where he used to eat 1/4-1/2 can supplemented by the kibble (same brand he has eaten his whole life). Nobody will touch the kibble (we have three types) - where formerly it was a mainstay of their diets and was perfectly acceptable until recently.
I was telling the vet my story of Party Mix yesterday, while I had Coby in for an exam. Coby is an absolute Party Mix junkie and could show up for treats even in his illness. He is basically refusing to eat nothing else.
The vet thought that healthy cats should revert back to original eating patterns once the treats are withdrawn, but it is now about five days with very minimal treats (one-three pieces each nightly) and no go. As I said in my post relating to Coby's health, he is on death's door at this point and did have a positive urine test for infection so there may or may not be other issues there. He has gotten two injections of Cefovecin, and I told the doctor that I thought that either the Party Mix was the culprit or they were all sick with something contagious. The vet seemed to favor the idea of Coby being the only sick one, and the other two were just "holding out".
So, I have Coby not eating at all, Kinney deciding that he will live off of baby food, and Kevin gobbling down canned food trying to compensate for the kibble missing from his diet. Previously, the kibble I was serving was eagerly accepted by all three. Now, it just sits there. I do at least cycle it around twice a day so it is not deemed "stale" by the troops, but I'm just as confounded as I can be about this whole thing.
All three are indoor cats who had been healthy - kibble is taken from large bags, so it is not a bad batch or something - yes, I have tried mixing the Party Mix into the kibble bowls. What do you think Purina puts in this stuff, crack cocaine?
Over the course of the last few weeks, I started to notice that appetites for regular food was dwindling. I am not sure if it is related or not, but my one y.o. Kinney abruptly stopped eating all canned food about a month ago - then was only eating kibble. I figured that was his choice and as long as he was eating, well OK:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204784
Then, quite suddenly all three of my cats have stopped eating kibble at all. I have since limited the quantity of Friskies Party Mix down to a few pieces or none nightly, but I am now having real issues with ALL THREE of my cats not eating.
Coby, the feral basically stopped eating almost everything but the treats. He is now at death's door, refusing to eat anything.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205291
Kinney, the one year old is at least hungry but is subsisting on baby food only (at least he has an appetite for that). Kevin, the 17 yo senior has a pretty robust appetite and is polishing off whole cans of canned food where he used to eat 1/4-1/2 can supplemented by the kibble (same brand he has eaten his whole life). Nobody will touch the kibble (we have three types) - where formerly it was a mainstay of their diets and was perfectly acceptable until recently.
I was telling the vet my story of Party Mix yesterday, while I had Coby in for an exam. Coby is an absolute Party Mix junkie and could show up for treats even in his illness. He is basically refusing to eat nothing else.
The vet thought that healthy cats should revert back to original eating patterns once the treats are withdrawn, but it is now about five days with very minimal treats (one-three pieces each nightly) and no go. As I said in my post relating to Coby's health, he is on death's door at this point and did have a positive urine test for infection so there may or may not be other issues there. He has gotten two injections of Cefovecin, and I told the doctor that I thought that either the Party Mix was the culprit or they were all sick with something contagious. The vet seemed to favor the idea of Coby being the only sick one, and the other two were just "holding out".
So, I have Coby not eating at all, Kinney deciding that he will live off of baby food, and Kevin gobbling down canned food trying to compensate for the kibble missing from his diet. Previously, the kibble I was serving was eagerly accepted by all three. Now, it just sits there. I do at least cycle it around twice a day so it is not deemed "stale" by the troops, but I'm just as confounded as I can be about this whole thing.
All three are indoor cats who had been healthy - kibble is taken from large bags, so it is not a bad batch or something - yes, I have tried mixing the Party Mix into the kibble bowls. What do you think Purina puts in this stuff, crack cocaine?