Fussy Eating Kitten..... Any Ideas On How To Make Her Less So?

[TommoLB]

I have a 10 week old kitten that has turned her nose up at anything other than Lily's Kitchen Kitten food.

When I went to visit the kitten a few weeks ago, I was told she was eating Felix and Royal Canin dried kitten food, but when picking her up at 10 weeks, was told she'd stopped touching the dried food and stopped eating Felix. She was eating Lily's Kitchen wet though, so I continued with this.

I have since tried the little diva with IAMS wet kitten food and Whiskers, as well as Royal Canin and Lily's Kitchen dried food, all to no avail. She simply turns her nose up everything else, even if she is crying at me complaining she is hungry.

I tried mixing in the two dried foods above in with her Kily's Kitchen with no success (an idea suggested to me by my vets)

Now, on one level Lily's Kitchen wet kitten food is a high quality mixture, high in meat content and low in the rubbish you find in Whiskers and Felix etc. But I do worry that Lily's Kitchen is a small brand that might not be around forever and also wish to have a kitten that can/will eat a wide range of foods, both wet and dry.

I was also hoping to ideally move her to eating dried food primarily, with wet food as a supplement/treat. Doesn't look like that will happen.

The kitten is a very good eater, she wolfs down Lily's Kitchen wet food like no tomorrow and she has gained body weight in the 6 days I have owned her (from 0.91kg to 1.05kg).

It might be that Lily's Kitchen wet food has a strong smell to it, while other foods don't smell as nice? If so, what other strong smelling kitten foods are on the market?

Does anyone have any ideas on the strategy to adopt to getting my little girl to eat other foods and not just Lily's Kitchen wet? Should I be buying one packet of every kitten food on the market and see if she will eat anything other that what she does currently? Should I be leaving other foods out and denying her access to Lily's Kitchen wet? Should I, as some sites suggest, put down less Lily's Kitchen wet and leave out another food alongside it?

 

[She's a witch]

Have you tried offering other high quality (high protein, low carbs) canned, rather than Iams etc? I agree it’d be best to have a variety of options, but maybe she simply knows that high protein is better for her and prefers it I’d buy some other high protein options and keep offering to her, either separately or mixed, you’ll see what works for your cat.

She’s also being a smart girl when it comes to dry food; it’s really heavily processed with lots of carbs, and while it’s ok to feed it to the growing kitten to ensure the constant access to the food, it’s really not the best choice for an adult cat, especially if a cat is not fond of if, like in your case. Really you could consider yourself lucky that you won’t have to go through the process of transitioning a kibble addict to wet food

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Here is a thread on how to get a cat to eat, but do keep in mind that since you are dealing with a young kitten, not everything in that thread will be appropriate: Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

I have an extremely picky eater myself and he's been that way his entire life. I just keep plugging away and sometimes he'll eat with gusto and sometimes not. Today, for instance, he only ate a few bites of his breakfast and now he's my constant shadow because he's very hungry. But you know what, I'll just bet you that here in a few minutes when I feed them lunch, my picky guy will NOT eat. When he has days like this, he just gets bullish. But by dinner time, he'll do the same thing, dance around, dig around his bowl, and then finally, after about 15 minutes, he'll dig in. This is his routine probably every 4 or 5 days. And he only eats wet food. He has no idea what dry food is because one day I decided I'd had it and was just going to put down kibble again to see what would happen (he hasn't had kibble for nine years). He sniffed it and walked away. ALL of the cats did . I was pleasantly surprised! Anyway, with my guy, I'm still trying to find new foods he'll like. I think cats are like people, they change their minds about foods they like and/or dislike because with both of mine, they'll appear to like something, so I'll order a case of it, and then they won't ever eat another can and I'm stuck with the case Our local shelters love me because they are always getting food donations from me

 

[TommoLB]

I had a search of 3 supermarkets and 2 different pet places and boy, the lack of kitten food choices is disappointing. If you have an adult cat, you have about 20+ different brands/types of wet food choices. If you're looking for kitten food, then the supermarkets only sell 2 brands (Whiskers and Felix), while the pet food stores aren't much better (4-5).

Anyway, I found some high quality products and have started to mix a little of one of them in to the Lily's brand food. So far, some success with my little 'diva' eating it. I'll very very slowly up the amount to hope that I can get the stage where she will eat 2 different brands at least.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

It's a start

 

[lisahe]

She’s also being a smart girl when it comes to dry food; it’s really heavily processed with lots of carbs, and while it’s ok to feed it to the growing kitten to ensure the constant access to the food, it’s really not the best choice for an adult cat, especially if a cat is not fond of if, like in your case. Really you could consider yourself lucky that you won’t have to go through the process of transitioning a kibble addict to wet food

I couldn't agree more with this! Lily's Kitchen looks like very good food (I only looked at a few of the tinned recipes) so you're very lucky that's what your kitten likes. Lots of meat protein is extremely important for kittens, so it's much better that she's taken a liking to that than to dry food! (Switching our cats from dry to wet took a month or so -- it wasn't awful but it did take some effort.)

I think you must be in the UK, is that correct, TommoLB ? I'm not sure how cat foods are labeled there but in the US they mention what life stages foods are appropriate for. Anything with "for all life stages" (or something similar) on the label would be fine to feed, though kitten foods are usually more calorie-dense, making them a convenient choice.

 

[She's a witch]

I had a search of 3 supermarkets and 2 different pet places and boy, the lack of kitten food choices is disappointing. If you have an adult cat, you have about 20+ different brands/types of wet food choices. If you're looking for kitten food, then the supermarkets only sell 2 brands (Whiskers and Felix), while the pet food stores aren't much better (4-5).

Anyway, I found some high quality products and have started to mix a little of one of them in to the Lily's brand food. So far, some success with my little 'diva' eating it. I'll very very slowly up the amount to hope that I can get the stage where she will eat 2 different brands at least.

If you’re looking for best quality food, I don’t think youll find it in supermarkets. If you’re indeed in the UK, check out zooplus.co.uk options. I highly recommend brands: Granata Pet, Grau, Catz Finefood, MACs, Feringa. These are high in protein, low in carbs, and some of them have kitten options. Good luck!