Cat Will Starve But Won't Eat Cat Food

Help! My beloved 4 months tuxedo male is healthy and playful, had all vaccinations. However I suspect he was weaned on human food only (the previous owner did not want to disclose information) and he refuses to eat cat food. I've had him for two months now. I've had cats before and never seen anything like it.
He will starve but will not eat supermarket cat food. I have 6 brands of unwanted catfood here at home - kitten dry food, kitten pouches, adult dry food, adult pouches, treat sauces, dreamies. He will not touch a single particle of it.
He keeps 'covering' it as it was poo - even although the litter tray is far away.
All he eats is boiled chicken. I was successful with ham before but the vet told me to stop due to the salt, so I boil plain chicken every day for this cat.
He likes milk, too. I give him goats milk and he likes it. I was also successful with the occasional salmon skin. So far I found 2 things that he would eat plus milk.
However I don't think that a diet only on goats milk and boiled chicken can be healthy. I leave him the whole day with fresh supermarket food straight from the packet and he will starve, but won't eat. I've forced him a few times, he cleans his snout but will not eat it.
Any advice? He has no interest in tuna or mince beef either.
My dream is for him to eat supermarket cat food, so I don't have to cook for him anymore.

Its difficult when they wont eat the food they are supposed to. He will need to eat a complete cat food to get the vitimins etc that he needs. Although wet food is better for them have you tried him on a good dry food? If he will eat that its a start. It may take a while to retrain his taste buds so be patient. I'm sure others members will post advice for you soon.

Hi - and WOW!! The only thing I know to suggest is to take some canned foods right now and place a little bit smashed up with a lot of chicken. If you can get him to eat that, then over time you can reduce the amount of chicken and increase the canned food, and so on.

It is not a long term solution, but it might be another thing to try with the chicken and that would be Gerber baby food meats (no additives).

As far as the goat's milk - how about if you dilute it just a bit at a time with water?

I am sure other members will come along soon and offer some good tips for you - just be patient and hang in there!

There's a supplement you can purchase for taurine, and there's also something like E Z Complete that could help with this.

What about something in this list as toppers/enticements to get him interested in cat food? ...apologies for any duplicates of things you've tried already

Try feeding in different locations - really, completely different, and utilize different heights. For example put a couple of books underneath the dish, next time use two thick phone books, or a small-ish box so the heights are varied....

Double check with your vet that these are ok - hopefully there's something that helps.

Try some raw egg yolk. Egg white must always be cooked, and some people cook the white and make a slurry of sorts by adding in the raw yolk.

Also you could try some Nutri-cal or similar product.

Try making these recipes - they're just as viable for an adult cat as for kittens;
Kitten-Rescue.com

These below can be used on their own or combined with food, other than your excellent results with the baby food . Also, if you heat the food a little - stir it so there aren't any hot spots from the microwave.

Or you could heat some water, about a tablespoon, and add that to canned food. A small glass works to stir it all up.

• Chicken, beef or ham flavored (pureed) baby food such as Gerber Stage 2 - make sure there is no garlic or onions in the ingredients

• Tuna and/or the juice, a low mercury/low/no sodium brand is called SafeCatch

• Salmon, mackerel

• Sardines (make sure there are no bones)

• boiled cut up chicken or turkey with no seasonings

• canned kitten food any brand

• Try mixing in Kitten Milk Replacer - there are recipes on the internet or store bought

• Fish, tuna or BBQ flavored canned wet food (I personally have never seen BBQ flavors, but...)

• Lickable cat treats or pouch treat 'gravy' poured over the food

• kitten glop (recipes in website link above)
• Bonito flakes
• fortiflora
• fish oil
• green beans, asparagus mushed up, lettuce, applesauce, mashed chickpeas, black olives
• whipped topping such as reddiwhip
• dry pasta

• goat milk, or no lactose cow milk
• whole cooked eggs (the white must always be cooked) or raw egg yolk now and then
• broth with no salt and no garlic or onion or seasonings of any kind
• There are also commercial toppers, Applaws is a brand that can work well as a topper
  
• Some good treats would be freeze dried Purebites, Orijen, Meowtinis, Meowables, Only Natural Pet, Primal

• There are also Lickimats that you could spread types of soft food onto, even plain unflavored yogurt, and even freeze it. The LickiMat - Food Puzzles for Cats
• shredded cheddar cheese, string cheese

My cat Lydia won't eat most things at the supermarket. Literally the only food I've found at Wal-Mart that she likes is Sheba. She also hates tuna, so it might be the food itself. If you have a pet shop you can get food from, try some shredded chicken varieties that have no fish. I've found that unnamed fish is usually the reason she won't try a food.

This filtered list may give you a starting point:

https://www.chewy.com/s?sort=popula...-Free,FoodTexture:Shredded,FoodFlavor:Chicken

FeebysOwner said:

Hi - and WOW!! The only thing I know to suggest is to take some canned foods right now and place a little bit smashed up with a lot of chicken. If you can get him to eat that, then over time you can reduce the amount of chicken and increase the canned food, and so on.

Click to expand...

I was just thinking this too! We had a kibble-only adult cat and he would eat canned cat food only if we shredded a lot of cooked chicken and put it on top of the food. He would start eating the chicken and just keep going on the pate once he reached the end.

In addition, you can start with canned food that is as close to chicken as possible. Lotus Just Juicy Stew, Miko, Tiki Cat After Dark, and even the supplemental Applaws pouches are all very chicken-like. Other than the Applaws, they are also all complete cat foods.

I'd also recommend getting a sample of Life's Abundance from their website. Life's Abundance It is a pate canned food, but one of the only foods that our kibble cats would eat at first. It seems to be highly popular, and maybe worth a try.

Maybe he's just being a smart kitty most supermarket cat food are not of a good quality in my opinion. Maybe he'll be more interested in eating well balanced raw food rather than canned if this is something that you would consider preparing/buying for him?

These might be of help:
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Choosing The Right Food For Your Cat - Part 2

thank you so much for your replies!

I have tried most foods suggested. I tried three different brands of dry food, one for kitten, one normal, and one 'super tasty' that was prescribed by the vet, dry food. No luck! Not touching it.

I have been mixing the boiled chicken with dry and wet food, canned and pouches. He won't eat the chicken if it's mixed. :/
He has no interest in tuna or mince (again I have never seen this before, and I used to rescue cats - never seen a fussy cat before, and to what extent!) I will try Sheba and Life Abundance, plus a few more suggestions I haven't tried yet Furballsmom - thank you! I have tried maybe half of your list but will follow on the rest of your suggestions!
I look forward to find a solution hopefully! soon!

hang in there!

Piggybacking off of Furballsmom ...you can get a free sample of EZ complete from their website. It works with raw or cooked meat and makes it a complete meal so your boy isn't deficient in any important vitamins and minerals!

Please keep us posted!! I want to hear what works - as I KNOW you will find something that will!

I would also add to the list of foods that look like people food: Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken canned wet food. It is canned shredded chicken. It tastes like plain chicken breast, though it's chewier/tougher and unfortunately not as moist and tender as freshly cooked chicken. (I know because I taste-tested it myself because I was curious. LOL)

Belinda123 , I wonder, since you mentioned "dreamies" and "mince" if you are in the UK? Just checking, so you don't get inundated with food suggestions that you can't find since brands vary so much all around the world.

My best suggestion would be like B Bird 's: to find something as close as possible to plain shreds of chicken. Weruva is definitely like that -- our cats like "Quick 'n' Quirky," which is turkey and chicken shreds with an unassuming sauce -- and I think it's available in the UK. I would also stop even attempting to feed the little guy -- what's his name, by the way? -- dry food if he's not eating it at all. Since it's too different from the plain chicken he likes, I'd focus on chicken wet food, preferably in shreds.

I would also suggest having a heart-to-heart with the vet about how to get nutrients into your kitten. Since he's growing and developing, it's really important that he gets enough. Furballsmom mentioned taurine, which is especially important for the heart, and can be purchased in pharmacies. Furballsmom also mentioned supplements but let us know where you live since I'm not sure where the two I use are available.

Hi Lisahe, yes you are right, I'm in the UK... and true, I started looking at all those brands and most of them are not for sale here. Not even the Gerber baby food is available here.

What I tried so far is:

Sheba pate - nope
Tesco kitten complete dry food - nope
Felix sauce treat - nope
Dreamies (a very popular cat treat in the UK) - nope
Virbac kitten dry food (vet prescribed) - nope
Iams delight kitten pouches - nope
Purina gourmet cat pouches - nope

Mince beef - nope
Tuna - nope

Ham - yes but due to salt, not giving him anymore
Goats milk - yes
Water - yes (he drinks water daily so I didn't think I needed to dilute the goats milk)
Salmon skin - yes but expensive, so occasionally when I have a salmon fillet myself I give him the skin and he eats it.
Boiled chicken - always yes (so it's his main food at the moment).

I have changed his bowl's location, height and direction. nope.
I will try to see visit some stores this weekend and see what else I can find. I haven't tried eggs yet, will do that.

He sipped my oats milk the other day, which I was surprised. I read online that oatmeal minus the cows lactose was safe for cats so I gave him a little oats milk. He drank a bit.

I'm a foodie person and eat all sorts of foods at home, he never gets interested in absolutely anything I eat (unless it's ham).

That's it, so far. right now, as I type this, he's tried to 'cover' the Sheba pate that has big chunks of chicken on top. It's poo for him.

Mega-fussy kitty!

If there are any brands in the UK that may convince fussy cats, please let me know...

I just hate wasting food, basically. And accumulating all these brands at home that he won't eat. Throwing it away every time it goes off.
The cat shelter will have a good food donation from me soon, surely...

For different reasons but I've been there with lots of refused foods too

I'm not sure if I will be of any help but I'll share my favourite European pet food online shop:
www.zooplus.co.uk
My and my cats personal favourite food: GranataPet, Grau, MACs, Catz Finefood, Feringa. My cats are fussy in a way, because the more expensive the food, the more they like it Also, they only seem to like pate style. Their absolute favourite was Catz Finefood Kangaroo
catz finefood Purrrr Can Mixed Trial Pack 6 x 200g
If your cat like chicken maybe he'll like Almo Nature but this is only supplemental food.
Hopefully you'll find something on this site?

EDITED to add:
maybe they will like something in the snacks department first? My cats liked:
Vitakraft Cat Liquid Snack with Chicken & Taurine
6 x 6g Vitakraft Mini Cat Sticks - 5 + 1 Free!*

Whenever I wanted them to eat something they didn't want, I was adding these snacks and often it worked.

Belinda123 said:

I just hate wasting food, basically. And accumulating all these brands at home that he won't eat. Throwing it away every time it goes off.
The cat shelter will have a good food donation from me soon, surely...

Click to expand...

I know, it's awful to waste the food! We've been through that, too. (At least you have some that can go to the shelter -- we've done that, too!)

Since you mentioned Sheba and since I just looked at the Sheba selection when I went shopping this afternoon: can you get Sheba "cuts in gravy" or something similar at your store? I see on their UK site that they have "Prime Cuts" line packaged in "domes," but they're only complementary, as well as some sort of meat chunks in gravy. There's also Whiskas, which makes poultry foods for kittens but those ingredients aren't the best, either, since they have "cereals," which aren't the best for cats and get away from this kitten's mission to eat only chicken. He's so right to want that since he's a carnivore but he really needs the nutrients that are in complete foods! At this point, though, the most important thing is to get any kind of complete food into him.

She's a witch , I hope Zooplus might help! @Columbine, might you have any ideas of shredded chicken foods that this little guy could try?

Good luck, Belinda123 !

P.S. I almost forgot to post this link about feeding eggs!

My cat is crazy about freeze dried chicken. You can buy them in small snack puches in the cat section or get huge bags from the dog section which are way cheaper. What I do is mix water with pumpkin powder, then I grind the hardfood she likes in a coffeegrinder and mix it up and then sprinkle some of the chicken stuff over that soup after I crumbled it into small pieces. That attracts her and then she eats the rest of the soup too. I mostly do that to make her eat fiber but maybe it helps if your cat likes those dried chicken pieces