Kitten won't eat alone

[datranch37]

Hello friends!

I have a 4.5 months old kitten (adopted him when he was 2 months old), and we still have trouble feeding him.
He eats Royal Canin for British Shorthair (dry food).
My issue is that he still doesn't go to eat on his own. Even when it's been a while since his last meal, I have to physically take him to my bedroom (where his food bowl is) and stay with him to eat. If I leave the room, he will stop eating and follow me.
He's comfortable with the room, it's where he sleeps. I previously had his food in the kitchen, moved it to the hallway, and then to my room and we've had the same problem regardless of the location.
Other than physically taking him to his bowl and staying with him, he tends to eat a very small quantity and then stop. If I feed him from my hand, he will finish his meal, but if I don't hand feed him, he will only eat a bit and stop.
I've tried free feeding, I've tried scheduled feeding 3 times a day, same output.
I'm mostly worried that if I leave him and expect him to go to his bowl alone and eat alone, he will become malnourished and lose weight. He's currently 2.5 Kgs which I think is normal for his age, but I don't want him to lose weight or stop growing.

Thanks for your help!

 

[danteshuman]

A pound per month is normal/average until they hit teenage hood and their growth starts slowing down. So yes his weight sounds perfectly normal to me. Most cats are done growing by 18-24 months. (In their teenage months they still need extra food & like our teenagers, their minds are still growing.

It sounds like he had trained you. I do know you are rewarding his behavior by picking him up/moving him. Perhaps someone with more experience can advice you on how to break him of his habit.

My gut instinct is to free feed him kitten dry & offer him wet food once a day in the room where you are during that time & to completely ignore him. That said is a vet check in order? Could he be nauseous? Provided he is hydrated (start practicing the scruff squeeze test now) I would feel safe with him not eating for a few days. (I give my twerp a 1/4 cup of dry at a time in small amounts.

 

[maggie101]

Since my cat was 3 months,now 6 yrs old, she will not eat unless I am there. If not she will leave then my other 2 cats will eat her food. I wish she wasn't such a slow eater!

 

[jen]

He eats Royal Canin for British Shorthair (dry food).

Ohhhhh such a scam. I greatly dislike RC for this. IMO.

Anyway, I would put the food in the kitchen or somewhere you are more often. Why is it in the bedroom? He wants to be around you. He will surely eat when he gets hungry. Either put it in a room you are in more often or just let him be and he will eat when he gets to the point that eating is more important than attention. Also he needs to be eating canned food more than dry. Males who only eat dry are dehydrated and can get a urinary blockage.

 

[datranch37]

Ohhhhh such a scam. I greatly dislike RC for this. IMO.

Anyway, I would put the food in the kitchen or somewhere you are more often. Why is it in the bedroom? He wants to be around you. He will surely eat when he gets hungry. Either put it in a room you are in more often or just let him be and he will eat when he gets to the point that eating is more important than attention. Also he needs to be eating canned food more than dry. Males who only eat dry are dehydrated and can get a urinary blockage.

Why do you dislike RC? Our animal shelters use it and say that it's the recommended brand for cats.

I moved the food into the kitchen, he seems to be eating more often now. He drinks a lot of water regularly, so I don't think he's dehydrated. Which canned food brand do you recommend? And how often?

 

[jen]

Because of the fact that they have food designated for specific breeds. Great marketing ploy, just like grain free food lol. It is a joke.

Vets recommend it because it is easy and readily available. Vets are not nutritionists. If they have a popular brand of easy to find food that is working for a pet and can also be standard across all vet clinics, its the same, that is much easier than having people go searching on their own for a food to meet their pets dietary restrictions. Then they can take the time to focus on other things.

The fact that he is drinking a lot of water regularly tells me he is dehydrated. Cats are supposed to get their hydration from their food, it is unnatural for them to drink from bowls. If they are they are dehyrated as a general rule. Cats are designed to eat raw meat with plenty of protein, moisture and some fats. We feed them completely dry hard kibbles of highly processed, carb filled, plus all the extra unnecessary ingredients and expect cats to be healthy on that. Cats aren't meant to eat carbs. We give that to them in bulk quantities in their dry food, it raises their sugar levels, then they get fat from all the carbs and become diabetic. Cats are little carnivorous furry death machines and we are expecting them to thrive on cereal.

Plus male cats get blocked so easily and water is the key thing that keeps that from happening and I don't know why people risk it. Recently we had 2 emergency corrective surgeries that cost around $2,000 each on blocked cats, plus 2 others euthanized (one was only 2.5 years old) because they owner couldn't afford that surgery after the pet was hospitalized for days with a catheter hoping that would help. All these people refused to feed canned food at minimum because it is too expensive or dry is fine...

 

[danteshuman]

Jen “carnivores furry death machines” will forever be stuck in my head!

BTW 5 out of 5 cats all love the freeze dried salmon if I tear it into small pieces. You can try crumbling some onto the kitten’s food to help encourage kitty to have more gusto in eating while alone. People also recommend freeze dried brine shrimp or other toppers.

That said there is a reason my twerp gets fed 3-4 wet meals a day (2 cans or pouches a day (pouches I serve the whole thing.) Plus 1/4 cup of dry food or less per day. Currently he is pigging out (on up to 1/2 dry food and all the wet I can feed him in 3 meals a day.) Since Nana’s cats eat more dry. We should be back home in a week where I can recuperate (& Jackie can go back into his mainly wet diet.) Even though I limit his dry I still feed grain free ...... mainly because many cats are allergic to corn & wheat. After Dante died at least partly from severe asthma (caused by allergies!!!) I’m extra careful to try to avoid my kitten developing allergies (Jackie the new kitten, is a siamese mix & siamese are prone to allergies.)

So yes different cats & different breeds have have different needs.

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

The whole thing with " number 1 vet recommend " number 1 pediatrician recommend " etc is because these big companies actually give free products to vets to give to their patients. We then in turn use the product which increases sales of said product.