adopted a cat from a hoarding situation

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Timmer

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I don't know if this helps with your anxiety at all, but this is my journey so far:

We used to have a BIG metal bowl of Iams that was available 24/7 to our 2 cats.
Loki (ginger boy) would nibble on them if he was hungry before mealtimes.
Moxxi (tortie girl) was a dry food fiend.

Then (for health reasons covered in other threads) I totally removed the bowl of Iams and stopped feeding them any Iams at all. They were both put on 100% commercial wet food.
Moxxi was not impressed in the least.
Now I would like to state here that what I did was totally the wrong way to do it, and if I had to do it again would definitely make the change a gradual one, but what's done is done and she still loves me.
Moxxi lost her excess chub (I didn't even realise that she was overweight) and is happily eating wet food and is chock full of energy. She is 9 years old and 2 nights ago had an hour long zoomies session all over the house. Nutty girl.
It's been a week since I posted this and since then I've tried to take an objective view of how she eats. She does eat wet food. She doesn't eat much but she will eat it. I think if the second cat weren't coming along eventually and sucking up her left overs, she might eat all that I give her. But she doesn't understand mealtimes so she eats what she can when I give them breakfast and supper. Then she has dry when she wants. I usually hear her eating that in the middle of the night.
The other issue I have is wet or dry - if she eats too fast, she throws it up. I feel so bad for her. I think she is trying! I'm going to try not to stress her out and myself. She eats. Period. I will keep working with her but just be happy she is eating.
 

misty8723

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It's been a week since I posted this and since then I've tried to take an objective view of how she eats. She does eat wet food. She doesn't eat much but she will eat it. I think if the second cat weren't coming along eventually and sucking up her left overs, she might eat all that I give her. But she doesn't understand mealtimes so she eats what she can when I give them breakfast and supper. Then she has dry when she wants. I usually hear her eating that in the middle of the night.
The other issue I have is wet or dry - if she eats too fast, she throws it up. I feel so bad for her. I think she is trying! I'm going to try not to stress her out and myself. She eats. Period. I will keep working with her but just be happy she is eating.
She is a grazer. both of mine are. Fortunately they dont eat each others, wet food so I can leave it down for them. As long as she eats its all good.
 

ladytimedramon

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I wound up getting microchip feeders. I invested and got the "connected" model, which sends me reports of when my cats are going to their bowls. Before the microchip feeders they were both into each others food and I couldn't track how much they were eating (one needs to lose weight, the other needs to gain weight). Now that both are adjusted to the bowls, I've discovered that my newer cat definitely seems to be a grazer (and yes, in the rare event that my other cat left food, she would graze on that as well, which is why I have 2 microchip feeders).
 

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It's been a week since I posted this and since then I've tried to take an objective view of how she eats. She does eat wet food. She doesn't eat much but she will eat it. I think if the second cat weren't coming along eventually and sucking up her left overs, she might eat all that I give her. But she doesn't understand mealtimes so she eats what she can when I give them breakfast and supper. Then she has dry when she wants. I usually hear her eating that in the middle of the night.
The other issue I have is wet or dry - if she eats too fast, she throws it up. I feel so bad for her. I think she is trying! I'm going to try not to stress her out and myself. She eats. Period. I will keep working with her but just be happy she is eating.
I also adopted a cat who was rescued as an adult from a hoarding situation. He also has food issues which I believe directly stem from his experience. He's affectionate and generally happy, but when it comes to food, he is a fussy, nervous eater. He is most comfortable eating when my husband or I are close by, preferably within arm's reach. Most of all he LOVES being hand fed!!! It makes him feel happy and secure. I hold out the food on my fingertip or palm, or I put his food on a small china saucer and hold it up near his mouth. Once he gets started he'll often finish the meal by himself, though he likes us to stay nearby. At the shelter he was given Hills kibble, but, like you, I wanted to switch him at least partially to wet food. He was a fart monster on dry food!
I tried many times to give him wet food, but he would always lick the gravy off and leave the meat. I solved this problem by pureeing his food in the blender! It worked well. I experimented with different flavours and brands until I found a few types he'd accept. I usually blend up a few batches of food he likes and keep small containers in the freezer and thaw them in the microwave as needed.
We are a single cat household but due to his previous experiences he gets nervous and distressed about having leftovers out where other (hypothetical) cats might muscle in and steal them. He will frantically paw at the floor to try to cover his food, or he'll try to hide the food by dropping toys on top of it. To minimise leftovers I give him four distinct meals a day. If there are any leftovers I put them in the fridge or dispose of them. His usual daily diet is 85g chicken wet food (pureed), 85g fish or beef wet food (pureed), 70g diced lean beef and 80-90g Hills kibble. He very occasionally asks for extra food which I give to him on request. He gets regular vet checks and maintains a healthy body weight: body condition 6 on the 10 point scale.
I really hope this information helps.
 

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It's been a week since I posted this and since then I've tried to take an objective view of how she eats. She does eat wet food. She doesn't eat much but she will eat it. I think if the second cat weren't coming along eventually and sucking up her left overs, she might eat all that I give her. But she doesn't understand mealtimes so she eats what she can when I give them breakfast and supper. Then she has dry when she wants. I usually hear her eating that in the middle of the night.
The other issue I have is wet or dry - if she eats too fast, she throws it up. I feel so bad for her. I think she is trying! I'm going to try not to stress her out and myself. She eats. Period. I will keep working with her but just be happy she is eating.
Hi Timmer! It sounds like you've made good progress already and that you've received some excellent advice so far. I'll add some other tidbits to try if you think they'll work for your house:

- Can she eat on a raised surface from your other cat and/or in another room with a shut door? If she's timid, she may feel too "bullied" to eat. (Even if she's not being bullied!) Magnus eats on top of the deep freezer while the other two are on the floor.

- If your other cat is getting too much weight, you can try feeders or treat dispensers for some of the dry food. This really helps to balance Calcifer and Magnus's eating habits here. Calcifer has to work for his food, and Magnus has a calmer snuffle mat he can pick at.

- wet food treats: there's so many options now but it really helped to transition our old man cat to more wet food. He's a dry addict. He gave up eating for two days after dental surgery.

- will she eat watered down dry food? I used to put water until the dry food puffed up. Another transition trick. Lily did like the freeze dried, so we fed that to our late cat. Nobel won't touch it. FreshPet also has some soft kibble, she liked those too.

- if you're feeding her in a bowl, try a dish. Also try raising the dish up. I find the cardboard that wet cat food comes in is an excellent height. And you can toss it after a few weeks. Raised feeders are SUPER helpful for many cats with digestive issues. It's also helpful for senior cats.
 

tiggerwillow

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My Tigger came from a hoarding situation, she would gulp down everything she could get her mouth around when she first came to me (you snooze, you lose, was how it was in her previous home)

As a result, she will eat most brands of cat food, but refuses point blank to eat people-food.

I made sure she got used to the concept of food becoming available just before I went to work, then again when I got home from work, she would get fed seperately from my Ebony, just so Tigger didn't feel like she had to eat fast otherwise lose her food to Ebony)

Ebony was a good girl, she was on a special diet and she would stick to her food, even in the event of Tigger daring to leave a few licks of food in the other bowl <3
 
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Timmer

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Thanks for all the recent replies! I forgot I even posted this. It's been 10 months since I adopted them and Fiona unfortunately has IBS. So, that's another thing I'm dealing with. I did manage to get her switched over totally to wet food.
I did a food trial over the summer with rabbit and it worked for awhile but then she decided she didn't want it anymore and was actually losing weight on it, so she's back eating Fancy Feast. I've tried all kinds of brands of foods and basically it's me opening a can, and throwing it all out. She eats the FF and she eats chicken that I cook for her. She's gained some weight back and has stopped vomiting.
 

TardisDance

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I have a cat from a hoarding situation too. She’ll eat some wet food but mostly prefers dry and she’s weird about eating around people; she’ll eat if she’s around me only but she gets weird if my husband is around. She has dental disease that we are monitoring with our vet but oddly enough she always prefers dry food. She’s a good drinker though. Our second cat loves all and any wet food so it’s made things easier as far as trying new foods because he’ll just eat it if she doesn’t want it.

I’d love to keep them both on a wet diet, but with her eating habits, we’ll always have dry available because she’d rather starve than eat all wet. When we just had her only before our second cat, our vet instructed us for wet only for her dental extractions and she went on a hunger strike despite even soaking her dry food in water.
 

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TardisDance TardisDance My cat did the same hunger strike after a dental! When he went for his dental follow up, she noted he had lost weight too quickly but we already discussed the hunger strike so she said it was likely that.
He was allowed dry food after the appointment.
 
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Timmer

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I'm just happy to see them eat. Fiona has now switched to eating canned and she will snack on dry but I don't leave much out because my second cat gobbles whatever is out there.
 
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