eating behavior

[franklinsmother]

I’ve been having trouble with feeding my cat for a little bit now. I will give him a new food and he will eat it mostly the first time. The second time I give it to him he will barely eat it. This happens with almost every food I give. It started with him refusing his normal rotation so I brought in new options. I do not feed him dry food, but I put it out sometimes just so he eats. However, he is still not eating enough of it even with how high calories it is and he doesn’t tend to drink water when he eats dry food. He still is pretty playful and going to the bathroom normally. Does this sound like nausea? I was told he could be picky, but this seems beyond picky. Are there any tests I should ask to be done? I’ve been following my vets lead this whole time, but it’s getting quite expensive for food and vet care (I do have insurance and just met the deductible though), and not really helping. Sorry for all the posts.

 

[VAMama]

I'm not a vet, so I don't know for sure, but these are my thoughts.

If he had nausea, he wouldn't eat a new food the first time he saw it, and he'd show signs of discomfort after eating.

How old is he? When did this start? Any changes in the household? Stressful events?

 

[di and bob]

I really think it is a matter of finally finding what he likes. write down what he will eat and rotate it in after trying others for a while. The main way to see if he is getting enough, he may be, is to look at him. Is he skinny, can you easily feel his ribs? Look down at his back from above, is his waist too indented, is his rib cage and hip bones sticking out? If not he may be fine, just picky. :eave hard food out so he doesn't starve and try different brands and textures of cat food. my outside cats will only eat shredded. Some cats prefer pate, some like bits. Don't forget inexpensive food too, like Friskies shredded turkey and cheese, that is one favorite here, has to have the cheese! my inside cats like Tractor Supply's Untamed food, no added grains. Try different flavors too, fish, chicken, turkey, salmon. Fancy Feast is another favorite in the bits.

 

[Alldara]

Magnus needs to rotate through different foods or he won't eat.

Is your cats food elevated a bit?

 

[DanielleRose]

I had a similar scenario with my boy Obi, he had an issue with his teeth, but would try all new foods I gave him as he was hungry. He would eat on one side of his mouth and drop bits of food when trying to eat. Just thought I would mention it just in case.

Are the food bowls elevated, I noticed a difference in my cats eating habits once I introduced bowls that were not on the ground. They also don’t usually like eating near litter trays just in case you have one.

My mum has a cat who is incredibly picky (my current boy will also turn down 99% of foods besides one brand) so she needs a good handful of brands to rotate. Also textures can be an issue- some cats like chunks, some prefer shredded or pate etc. None of my cats would only eat wet food in jelly only gravy so if you’re only trying one type there perhaps you could try the opposite.

You can also get food toppers that are supposed to encourage cats to eat, might be worth looking at.

Just some ideas I had

 

[FeebysOwner]

As asked above, how old is he? When was his last through check up, including blood work?

Nausea is a possibility - some cats will associate their food with the cause of their nausea and therefore eat another food thinking it won't have the same effect - and, then it does because it is not the food at all. And, for some reason I fail to understand this seems to happen more often with wet food than dry, so that could explain why he will eat the dry more so than repeating wet foods.

If there is nothing going on health wise that would explain if it could be nausea, then you might want to talk to the vet about putting him on some sort of anti-nausea med and see if that helps. Sometimes, cats are given an appetite stimulant in addition to the anti-nausea med to help with encouraging them to eat.

All of that said, he could just be very picky, and has to have a wide rotation of foods to keep him eating them. My cat has a rotation of 7-10 different foods so none are repeated any more often than that. If I would try to give her one of them closer together, she tends to reject it. Very frustrating for sure, but at least this approach seems to work most of the time. She does have a few health issues, so I cannot rule out them having an impact on her pickiness.

 

[franklinsmother]

I'm not a vet, so I don't know for sure, but these are my thoughts.

If he had nausea, he wouldn't eat a new food the first time he saw it, and he'd show signs of discomfort after eating.

How old is he? When did this start? Any changes in the household? Stressful events?

he’s 4. it started probably 3 weeks ago. no changes i can think of

 

[franklinsmother]

Magnus needs to rotate through different foods or he won't eat.

Is your cats food elevated a bit?

yes it’s elevated

 

[franklinsmother]

As asked above, how old is he? When was his last through check up, including blood work?

Nausea is a possibility - some cats will associate their food with the cause of their nausea and therefore eat another food thinking it won't have the same effect - and, then it does because it is not the food at all. And, for some reason I fail to understand this seems to happen more often with wet food than dry, so that could explain why he will eat the dry more so than repeating wet foods.

If there is nothing going on health wise that would explain if it could be nausea, then you might want to talk to the vet about putting him on some sort of anti-nausea med and see if that helps. Sometimes, cats are given an appetite stimulant in addition to the anti-nausea med to help with encouraging them to eat.

All of that said, he could just be very picky, and has to have a wide rotation of foods to keep him eating them. My cat has a rotation of 7-10 different foods so none are repeated any more often than that. If I would try to give her one of them closer together, she tends to reject it. Very frustrating for sure, but at least this approach seems to work most of the time. She does have a few health issues, so I cannot rule out them having an impact on her pickiness.

he was on an appetite stimulant but it didn’t seem to help much. it only helped for like a few hours and then he seemed to not touch his food anymore. his bloodwork was end of january. it didn’t include everything for bloodwork but included what young cats get

 

[franklinsmother]

he started to only eat at like 6am and 10pm. i used to feed him like 4 small meals a day but he started to not touch the meals during the day. is this normal?

 

[Alldara]

How much are you feeding him each time?

 

[franklinsmother]

How much are you feeding him each time?

I started feeding him a lot each time so he gets his calories in for the day. But previously I would give him 1/2 of a can of wet food at a time. he’s currently only eating dry food. I started putting small amounts out through the day but he ignored the ones in the middle of the day so I made the morning and night portions big.

 

[di and bob]

That sounds fine. As long as he is eating some wet and his dry, he will be fine. If he starts looking skinny give him some treats that would fatten him up.