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- Jan 18, 2017
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Hi, I had posted a month or two ago about my struggles with feeding my very picky hungry cat. I got lots of good advice and I've been able to get both my cats back on a feeding schedule. Picky Tabby weighs 10lbs and Orange Tabby weighs about 14lbs. Both are 5 years old.
I mentioned in the last post that they had both been to the vet earlier this year and that everything looked good. I have mentioned to the vet every year that Picky Tabby acts exceptionally hungry compared to Orange Tabby and that he never seems to gain any weight. He never seems truly satisfied the whole day no matter how much I feed him. He loves to reject higher quality foods and he gets tired of repetitive foods. This is how I got into the previous bad situation of throwing food at them constantly and wasting a lot of food. He does vomit occasionally, especially if he gets super hungry because he refused a meal. He has small hairballs once every week or two. He has occasional diarrhea.
Up until this year, vet said Picky Tabby behavior doesn't sound particularly concerning and standard bloodwork looked good. Earlier this year they decided to do extra blood work to rule out thyroid and diabetes issues. Everything came back normal.
Both cats are sharing one 5.5oz can at 8am and one 5.5oz can at 6pm, plus they are getting about 1/4 cup of dry food at 2am in an auto feeder. I am trying to make sure the cans are higher calorie (180+ calories). I'm mostly feeding a mix of Friskies, Wellness, Dave's. I am rotating chicken, turkey, seafood and rabbit flavors at each meal. Dry food is either Wellness Core or Dr. Elsey Clean Protein. I mix in a Fancy Feast broth pouch into the can if they are being extra picky. I read here that they should be eating 480 calories or so on average considering their weights. They do a few minutes of chasing and playing most days and they also have a screened in catio. They sleep most of the day and night. This has overall been working well, they are finishing the wet food over the course of several hours and there is usually dry food left over in the morning. They get a few treats throughout the day also. Please let me know if you think this is not right!
The last few days Picky Tabby has refused his dry food and also had trouble eating his treats, just letting them fall out of his mouth and not chewing. He is super hungry and vomiting in the mornings because he isn't eating the 2am meal. He is eating his wet food normally. Litter box normal also.
I decided to take him to the vet to rule out dental pain. It was a new person I haven't seen before. They noted that he has lost weight at every single visit since 2019. He was almost 11 and now he is exactly 10lbs. This is the first time that this was mentioned to me. They want to do an ultrasound for IBD next. I'm kind of upset that this is now coming up after I've been bringing up that his eating behaviors are concerning/exhausting me over the years and they are only now wanting to look deeper. What do you all think?
I mentioned in the last post that they had both been to the vet earlier this year and that everything looked good. I have mentioned to the vet every year that Picky Tabby acts exceptionally hungry compared to Orange Tabby and that he never seems to gain any weight. He never seems truly satisfied the whole day no matter how much I feed him. He loves to reject higher quality foods and he gets tired of repetitive foods. This is how I got into the previous bad situation of throwing food at them constantly and wasting a lot of food. He does vomit occasionally, especially if he gets super hungry because he refused a meal. He has small hairballs once every week or two. He has occasional diarrhea.
Up until this year, vet said Picky Tabby behavior doesn't sound particularly concerning and standard bloodwork looked good. Earlier this year they decided to do extra blood work to rule out thyroid and diabetes issues. Everything came back normal.
Both cats are sharing one 5.5oz can at 8am and one 5.5oz can at 6pm, plus they are getting about 1/4 cup of dry food at 2am in an auto feeder. I am trying to make sure the cans are higher calorie (180+ calories). I'm mostly feeding a mix of Friskies, Wellness, Dave's. I am rotating chicken, turkey, seafood and rabbit flavors at each meal. Dry food is either Wellness Core or Dr. Elsey Clean Protein. I mix in a Fancy Feast broth pouch into the can if they are being extra picky. I read here that they should be eating 480 calories or so on average considering their weights. They do a few minutes of chasing and playing most days and they also have a screened in catio. They sleep most of the day and night. This has overall been working well, they are finishing the wet food over the course of several hours and there is usually dry food left over in the morning. They get a few treats throughout the day also. Please let me know if you think this is not right!
The last few days Picky Tabby has refused his dry food and also had trouble eating his treats, just letting them fall out of his mouth and not chewing. He is super hungry and vomiting in the mornings because he isn't eating the 2am meal. He is eating his wet food normally. Litter box normal also.
I decided to take him to the vet to rule out dental pain. It was a new person I haven't seen before. They noted that he has lost weight at every single visit since 2019. He was almost 11 and now he is exactly 10lbs. This is the first time that this was mentioned to me. They want to do an ultrasound for IBD next. I'm kind of upset that this is now coming up after I've been bringing up that his eating behaviors are concerning/exhausting me over the years and they are only now wanting to look deeper. What do you all think?