After dealing with this for a month or so I finally am caving in and making a thread about this.
Lox is a three year old female, her last weigh-in was at 7 pounds. I've had her for a year and a half, and for the past eight months I have been feeding her the following:
Lox is now a grazer. She used to be real food crazy when I got her a year and a half ago, but now not only she takes forever to finish one meal, she is getting EXTREMELY picky. Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated? I've tried various things such as toppers (bonito flakes, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried green tripe, to name a few) and even have tried adding canned food again (Nutro Natural Choice chunky pates, Tiki Cat Chicken, Trader Joe's Turkey and Giblets, Trader Joe's Tuna for Cats, Wellness Turkey come to my head) but she is still not as gutso of an eater anymore. She WILL finish her meals eventually, she hasn't lost weight, she just takes forever. And picky. Oh, I also fed her CoTW infused chicken a couple times - she was slow at eating that also (plus CoTW has high Iodine now, so I am not sure how often I will use that).
I'm sorta at a loss what to do. I used to feed three meals a day, but because of a pet sitter I have coming during the holidays now I have set up 2.5 meals - two meals and a snack at night. This worked for a while, but she's becoming slow at eating again. The canned food trick worked for a while, but it's starting to wear off its magic. I also tried a fresh restart where I "fasted" for a day - like in Dr. Pierson's advice. I also got a Feliway plugin a couple weeks ago - it helped a lot once I got it but I am not sure how effective it is at the moment.
I highly doubt this is medical, as this behavior pretty much started once Bagel (six month old male) has entered the bratty stage of trying to be real macho n' stuff. I always fed Lox first, high above, where she can still see Bagel but Bagel can not reach her. The reason for this is because I wanted both cats to know that their presence = food/goodstuffs when I was introducing them back in August. Now Lox will not touch her food even if she is fed first - should I give the two more distance when feeding? Any tips will be awesome.
How can I get her to be more of a gutso eater again? I want her to enjoy her meals. I also do worry about when Bagel becomes older, he will try to steal her food. Is being a grazer on raw a bad thing? I actually miss her being all food-motivated back when we first got her. At the same time I want to make sure the two cattes can co-exist, knowing that each of their presence = goodstuffs.
May the veteran raw feeders bring me hope and chime in! /bows
Lox is a three year old female, her last weigh-in was at 7 pounds. I've had her for a year and a half, and for the past eight months I have been feeding her the following:
- Chicken ground w/ Alnutrin
- Turkey ground w/ Alnutrin
- Rabbit ground w/ Alnutrin
- Pheasant ground w/ Alnutrin
- Duck ground w/ Alnutrin
- Quail ground w/ Alnutrin
- Stella & Chewy's Duck Duck Goose Freeze-dried cat food
Lox is now a grazer. She used to be real food crazy when I got her a year and a half ago, but now not only she takes forever to finish one meal, she is getting EXTREMELY picky. Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated? I've tried various things such as toppers (bonito flakes, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried green tripe, to name a few) and even have tried adding canned food again (Nutro Natural Choice chunky pates, Tiki Cat Chicken, Trader Joe's Turkey and Giblets, Trader Joe's Tuna for Cats, Wellness Turkey come to my head) but she is still not as gutso of an eater anymore. She WILL finish her meals eventually, she hasn't lost weight, she just takes forever. And picky. Oh, I also fed her CoTW infused chicken a couple times - she was slow at eating that also (plus CoTW has high Iodine now, so I am not sure how often I will use that).
I'm sorta at a loss what to do. I used to feed three meals a day, but because of a pet sitter I have coming during the holidays now I have set up 2.5 meals - two meals and a snack at night. This worked for a while, but she's becoming slow at eating again. The canned food trick worked for a while, but it's starting to wear off its magic. I also tried a fresh restart where I "fasted" for a day - like in Dr. Pierson's advice. I also got a Feliway plugin a couple weeks ago - it helped a lot once I got it but I am not sure how effective it is at the moment.
I highly doubt this is medical, as this behavior pretty much started once Bagel (six month old male) has entered the bratty stage of trying to be real macho n' stuff. I always fed Lox first, high above, where she can still see Bagel but Bagel can not reach her. The reason for this is because I wanted both cats to know that their presence = food/goodstuffs when I was introducing them back in August. Now Lox will not touch her food even if she is fed first - should I give the two more distance when feeding? Any tips will be awesome.
How can I get her to be more of a gutso eater again? I want her to enjoy her meals. I also do worry about when Bagel becomes older, he will try to steal her food. Is being a grazer on raw a bad thing? I actually miss her being all food-motivated back when we first got her. At the same time I want to make sure the two cattes can co-exist, knowing that each of their presence = goodstuffs.
May the veteran raw feeders bring me hope and chime in! /bows