Cat doesn't eat a lot

[peppermintplant]

I have one cat who has never really eaten much. When she was on dry food, even weight control dry, she never lost any weight despite only eating a bit here and there, so I didn't really worry about it. Now that I've switched all the cats to wet food only, she is eating about the same volume, but I think a lot less calories due to some of the foods I'm using being low-cal plus the higher moisture content. She's been losing weight for the first time, and at a good pace — so far, not dangerously fast (a little under 2% per week), but I would like to slow it down just a little and get her eating a little more enthusiastically.

The problem is, while she enjoys most of the foods I'm giving them, she doesn't enjoy them enough to scarf them down — she'll eat a few bites and then wander away, and won't touch food that's been out for a while. So she's probably eating about 2-4 ounces of food a day, depending on how hungry she is and how much she likes that day's menu. She weighs 10 pounds now and should be about 7.5, so maybe that's a good amount for her? But I worry she's not getting enough.

I'm not sure what to do. Should I separate her and give her some dry food or wet food with fish every day? I'd prefer to avoid that because she has some constipation issues. I know she LOVES fish — it's the only human food she will eat other than plain chicken — and she's never had any bladder issues, but I also know that fish is not good for cats and should only be an occasional treat. Or should I just let her go as she has been and worry if she starts getting too skinny?

 

[tulosai]

How old is she?

First, are you sure she should be 7.5 pounds (by which I mean, has a vet told you that?) Most domestic cats should weigh around 8-10 pounds though it can vary based on frame and breed. 7.5 pounds sounds low to me for most cats.  Now I am speaking only in very broad and general terms, so if this is something your vet has told you carry on and don't mind me.  

I personally would not feed her fish daily.  Others can probably talk at more length about why specifically that's a bad idea.

In answer to your question about how much she should be eating, you need to figure out how many calories are in the foods you are feeding her.  The average indoor cat needs about 20 calories per pound per day to maintain weight.  If she weighs 10 pounds currently, she'd need around 200 calories to maintain that weight.  Outdoor or partly outdoor cats tend to need more to maintain weight.

To lose weight it is generally advised that you feed about 15 calories per pound per day, so in your case around 150 calories. To figure out how much that is, you will need to figure out how many calories are in the foods you are feeding.  In broad terms though, 2 ounces a day is probably not enough, no, but depending on the food 4 ounces might be.

Is there any way you can feed her more frequent meals throughout the day if she won't eat much at once? I know it's not always possible/ideal but this strikes me as one potential solution.

 

[peppermintplant]

Her vet told me she thinks Klio should be about 7.5-8 pounds, but to get her to 9 and then we'll re-evaluate. She's a tiny, fat cat, lol. She's 7 1/2 years old now. She was ~10 lbs. when I adopted her at 8 months, and was overweight with a little pot belly. She got up to 12.3 when I had a roommate who would leave dry food out 24/7, and got back down to between 10.6 and 10.8 (it fluctuates) after I moved out. She's hovered there for four years despite being on portion-controlled, weight control dry. After six weeks on all-wet food, she's down to 10.3 lbs.

As far as feeding, I am making 6 oz. of food available to her each day over the course of 3-4 meals (all of my cats get small, frequent meals unless I'm going to be out for most of the day, because I've found that my cat with IBD does much better that way than eating large amounts at once). She only eats about half that, even if it's food she likes. Sometimes she'll eat a little more, sometimes it's a little less. She was like that on the dry, too, but since her weight stayed the same I didn't worry about it.

I wasn't planning on giving her fish-based food more than 3 oz. once or twice a week, and it would be a fish/chicken mix (in fact, she was the main reason I was asking about giving it as a treat in another thread). I know it's not safe for cats. But I also know she really, really loves fish, and I want something she will chow down on occasionally to make sure she is getting enough calories. I'm trying to figure out whether it would be worse to give her fishy food a couple times a week, or to give her dry food a couple of times a week, given her constipation issues on dry.

I don't think she's losing weight too fast (unless my math is way off), and she's still acting like her normal self. I'm just a little concerned she's not eating as much as she needs to because she leaves so much food behind.

 

[peppermintplant]

Also, for what it's worth, I tried separating her from the other two with her normal portion of dry food when I went to work, and when I came back to let her out on my lunch break, she'd eaten all of it, so it doesn't seem to be a loss of appetite. I think she just doesn't like wet food, at least not the chicken/turkey/duck I give the cats. She likes the Tiki Cat a lot, but otherwise is just not that interested, and even that is hit and miss — she'll eat her whole portion one meal, then only eat half the next.

 

[gravekandi]

Perhaps she doesn't like the texture? Cats can be quite peculiar in what they like. Try different textures such as pate, chunks, minced, sliced etc. Also experiment with flavors, chicken, venison, beef, etc. Perhaps she just doesn't like what your feeding. Another thing you can do is entice her into eating more with toppers. Such as fish flakes, crushed freeze dried treats, her regular favorite treats and even her beloved kibble on top! Either crushed or as is. Also experiment with the temperature of the food, perhaps she prefers the food to be warmed up? Either by microwave or hot water mixed in. I wouldn't really recommend going the fish route, all though I would recommend giving her one sardine a week! Great source of nutriants and kittys seem to love it and they do wonders for their coats. Just make sure its sardines in water. 

 

[peppermintplant]

I've tried a few different textures and she seems to prefer the pate. I know she likes the Fancy Feast Classic Chicken — it's the only thing she's ever eaten all of when I put it down other than the Shredded Turkey Halo, which she doesn't like anymore — but that has fish in it. :/

Maybe I'll try the fish flakes or some crumbled Temptations on top and see if that helps. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[gravekandi]

@PeppermintPlant  

Luckily its the FF Classics line which happen to be grain free Her favorite Classic Chicken is also fish free which is even better (: I recommend you keep giving her that one if its the only one she likes. Also does she tend to prefer chicken? Perhaps try different brands of chicken, a great grain&fish free option that's not too expensive would be soulistic. Its exclusively sold at PetCo. They sell Soulistic in cans and pouches. In cans you have the option of either gravy or gelee. In the pouches you can only get gravy. I think this is a great option and a step above FF Classics. My kitten loves them, specially in the pouches. You will notice the quality difference between Soulistic and FF Classics. The texture of it in the pouches is in shreds. You mentioned in the original posting that she likes plain chicken so its a great chance she will like Soulistic in pouches. The canned version with gravy is also shredded. You can look at my reviews on the Soulistic products here. I provide photo differences between the 3.
http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...at-food-in-gelee-various-flavors/reviews/4083
http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...at-food-in-gravy-various-flavors/reviews/4082
http://www.thecatsite.com/products/soulistic-grain-free-adult-cat-food-pouches/reviews/4077

 

[peppermintplant]

Update: I picked up some Sheba pate and she is really liking that. I kind of don't, though; I know that they're grain-free, but I really dislike that both brands use meat byproducts. I would love to find a similar pate without the byproducts. I tried Wellness Chicken — she came over to eat, got one whiff, and backed away like her food dish had turned into a rabid weasel. She loved the Nature's Variety LID Duck — all three loved that — but I just don't have the money to feed it full-time. I can do premium, but not $2.50-$3 a can premium.

So is there a pate that is similar consistency to FF and Sheba, but that doesn't use the meat byproducts? Is the Soulistic food a pate? I wanted to get over to Petco and grab a few cans this weekend but never made it. If Sheba and FF is all she'll eat, I'll feed it to her, I'd just love to get her on something that doesn't have questionable ingredients. I'm debating trying a (commercial) raw diet to see if she'll eat that, but I've got a lot of unreasonable food hangups so I don't know.

I know I need to be patient, I just switched them in November. I just want to find them good food that they'll eat and that I can afford! lol

 

[gravekandi]

 
Update: I picked up some Sheba pate and she is really liking that. I kind of don't, though; I know that they're grain-free, but I really dislike that both brands use meat byproducts. I would love to find a similar pate without the byproducts. I tried Wellness Chicken — she came over to eat, got one whiff, and backed away like her food dish had turned into a rabid weasel. She loved the Nature's Variety LID Duck — all three loved that — but I just don't have the money to feed it full-time. I can do premium, but not $2.50-$3 a can premium.

So is there a pate that is similar consistency to FF and Sheba, but that doesn't use the meat byproducts? Is the Soulistic food a pate? I wanted to get over to Petco and grab a few cans this weekend but never made it. If Sheba and FF is all she'll eat, I'll feed it to her, I'd just love to get her on something that doesn't have questionable ingredients. I'm debating trying a (commercial) raw diet to see if she'll eat that, but I've got a lot of unreasonable food hangups so I don't know.

I know I need to be patient, I just switched them in November. I just want to find them good food that they'll eat and that I can afford! lol

The way I see it is that in the wild cats consume everything so a little of meat by product isn't too big of a deal breaker for me. If you look at the link I provided I also posted photos of all 3 types of Soulistic available so you can see the difference in texture (etc.) I believe that when it comes to pate, Soulistic Gelee is the closest you will get.

http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...at-food-in-gelee-various-flavors/reviews/4083

 

[peppermintplant]

 
The way I see it is that in the wild cats consume everything so a little of meat by product isn't too big of a deal breaker for me. If you look at the link I provided I also posted photos of all 3 types of Soulistic available so you can see the difference in texture (etc.) I believe that when it comes to pate, Soulistic Gelee is the closest you will get.

http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...at-food-in-gelee-various-flavors/reviews/4083

Oh, my bad! I didn't realize that there were photos farther down (I have an older browser and it breaks for a few inches right after the text. I just didn't scroll enough.)

Thank you so much for all of the help and advice. I will try the Soulistic in gelee.

 

[night wing]

Just curious.

The photos of the Soulistic Chicken and Chicken & Pumpkin flavor, does anyone know what those orange colored pieces are in those photos? It looks like carrots, but looking over the ingredients, there are no carrots in it.

 

[betsygee]

 
Just curious.

The photos of the Soulistic Chicken and Chicken & Pumpkin flavor, does anyone know what those orange colored pieces are in those photos? It looks like carrots, but looking over the ingredients, there are no carrots in it.

It's pumpkin.  I buy that for my kitties.  

 

[gravekandi]

 
Just curious.

The photos of the Soulistic Chicken and Chicken & Pumpkin flavor, does anyone know what those orange colored pieces are in those photos? It looks like carrots, but looking over the ingredients, there are no carrots in it.

It's Pumpkin (:
 

 
Oh, my bad! I didn't realize that there were photos farther down (I have an older browser and it breaks for a few inches right after the text. I just didn't scroll enough.)

Thank you so much for all of the help and advice. I will try the Soulistic in gelee.

Its quite alright i had to double check just to make sure the photos were their &that I posted them 

 I hope your kitty likes it!

 

[peppermintplant]

She was eating the Fancy Feast and Sheba chicken and turkey flavors pretty well (never two whole 3 oz. cans per day, even if I split them into a bunch of meals, but most of it), and even tried a little of the Nature's Variety Duck I've been giving the other two on occasion, so I was starting to be relieved, but yesterday and today she refuses to eat wet food at all. I got her to eat a little with crushed treats yesterday, but she won't even do that today. I caved and gave her more of the leftover kibble. She inhaled the first serving this morning, but is picking at it now. The only wet food she's been super enthusiastic about since the first few weeks after the switch is a can of FF salmon I gave her on Tuesday to see if she'd eat it.

I'm going to bring her to the vet tomorrow to make sure there's nothing else going on because she is still losing weight a little fast in my opinion, even for the small amount she's eating. Her teeth have always been bad but they've gotten really awful lately, so that may be part of the problem. She was getting a cleaning next month when my vet does half-price, but I'll do it now if it's needed.

I'm just not really sure where to go from here if she continues to absolutely refuse to eat wet food. I'm worried that she might, especially now that she's been getting some dry, but she has to eat something. A high quality dry with as much wet food as I can get in her might be the best I can do. I'll try her on the Soulistic when it's delivered but I'm not sure she'll eat it.

They were all doing so well at first, I was hoping I would avoid these kinds of problems.

 

[peppermintplant]

I feel like I'm using this thread like my personal cat diary, lol.

Anyway, Klio went to the vet, and the vet is a bit concerned about the weight loss. She agrees that her teeth may be the problem (her gums actually, the vet doesn't think her teeth are abnormally bad, but her gums are very irritated), so we moved her cleaning up to Friday. But she's also in agreement that she is showing some symptoms that could be kidney-related, so we're going to do a full blood panel and check-up on Friday morning before she goes under for the cleaning. That way, they can make sure her kidneys and liver are good and she doesn't have anything else obvious going on.

In the meantime, the vet wants me to keep giving her as much wet as she will eat, but to supplement with a low-residue, high-protein dry food once a day just until we figure out what's going on, since she seems much more interested in eating the dry food than the wet. End-game is still to get her on 100-percent wet. So we're going to do that for now and get her teeth cleaned, then see where she is in a month and move on from there (unless she has high kidney numbers, in which case we'll treat her and get that under control before we worry about her teeth).

Thank you guys for the advice in this thread. I'm going to go do dry food research and hit the pet store, but if anyone has a recommendation for a good dry food, I would love to hear it!

 

[gravekandi]

 
I feel like I'm using this thread like my personal cat diary, lol.

Anyway, Klio went to the vet, and the vet is a bit concerned about the weight loss. She agrees that her teeth may be the problem (her gums actually, the vet doesn't think her teeth are abnormally bad, but her gums are very irritated), so we moved her cleaning up to Friday. But she's also in agreement that she is showing some symptoms that could be kidney-related, so we're going to do a full blood panel and check-up on Friday morning before she goes under for the cleaning. That way, they can make sure her kidneys and liver are good and she doesn't have anything else obvious going on.

In the meantime, the vet wants me to keep giving her as much wet as she will eat, but to supplement with a low-residue, high-protein dry food once a day just until we figure out what's going on, since she seems much more interested in eating the dry food than the wet. End-game is still to get her on 100-percent wet. So we're going to do that for now and get her teeth cleaned, then see where she is in a month and move on from there (unless she has high kidney numbers, in which case we'll treat her and get that under control before we worry about her teeth).

Thank you guys for the advice in this thread. I'm going to go do dry food research and hit the pet store, but if anyone has a recommendation for a good dry food, I would love to hear it!

Well I hope a teeth clearing fixes everything for Klio! I send good vibes your way 

I think its a good idea to try to get her to eat more before we worry about an entirely wet diet.

As for a dry suggestion The dry my kitten enjoys a lot is Wellness Core Original.

http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...d-fowl-adult-cat-and-kitten-food/reviews/3987

(review I left it forever ago when I first started using it)
Its an easy to come by grain and gluten free dry kibble. Its pretty high in protein and if you go to this thread I started I post a link to a Wellness coupon. I suggest getting a 2lb bag to try out, they should be on sale at PetCo right now so if you use the coupon their for a 2lb you should be able to get it for about half the price at PetCo.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/269630/cat-bargains-deals

 

[oneandahalfcats]

@PeppermintPlant : Some other good grain-free dry food brands to look at are ORIJEN and ACANA which are both made by Champion here in Canada but available in the states. Here are links to the individual websites for both in case you want to have a look at the ingredients and guaranteed analysis data

ACANA : http://www.acana.com/products/regionals/

ORIJEN : http://www.orijen.ca/cat-food/

There is also Petcurean's GO Brand which is another grain-free dry food made here in Canada but available in the states. Here is a link to the GO Website : http://www.petcurean.com/for-cats/go/

Hope everything goes really  well with Klio's teeth cleaning!

 

[peppermintplant]

 
Well I hope a teeth clearing fixes everything for Klio! I send good vibes your way 

I think its a good idea to try to get her to eat more before we worry about an entirely wet diet.

As for a dry suggestion The dry my kitten enjoys a lot is Wellness Core Original.

http://www.thecatsite.com/products/...d-fowl-adult-cat-and-kitten-food/reviews/3987

(review I left it forever ago when I first started using it)
Its an easy to come by grain and gluten free dry kibble. Its pretty high in protein and if you go to this thread I started I post a link to a Wellness coupon. I suggest getting a 2lb bag to try out, they should be on sale at PetCo right now so if you use the coupon their for a 2lb you should be able to get it for about half the price at PetCo.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/269630/cat-bargains-deals

Thank you for the good vibes! I hope that's the main problem. And I'm glad you suggested the Wellness Core Original - that's what I ended up grabbing at Petco. I didn't know about the coupon, but she loves it, so I can do that next time. I'm giving her a quarter cup of that in the morning, another quarter when I go to work, and 3 oz. of Fancy Feast at night, and she seems to be eating a lot more. I'll try to get her down to one dry meal and two wet and then I think I'll just let her do that for a couple of months and see how she does.

 
@PeppermintPlant : Some other good grain-free dry food brands to look at are ORIJEN and ACANA which are both made by Champion here in Canada but available in the states. Here are links to the individual websites for both in case you want to have a look at the ingredients and guaranteed analysis data

ACANA : http://www.acana.com/products/regionals/

ORIJEN : http://www.orijen.ca/cat-food/

There is also Petcurean's GO Brand which is another grain-free dry food made here in Canada but available in the states. Here is a link to the GO Website : http://www.petcurean.com/for-cats/go/

Hope everything goes really  well with Klio's teeth cleaning!

Thank you! I hope so too. And if she decides to go on strike from the Wellness, I'll try one of those. Thanks for the links.

 

[gravekandi]

 
Thank you for the good vibes! I hope that's the main problem. And I'm glad you suggested the Wellness Core Original - that's what I ended up grabbing at Petco. I didn't know about the coupon, but she loves it, so I can do that next time. I'm giving her a quarter cup of that in the morning, another quarter when I go to work, and 3 oz. of Fancy Feast at night, and she seems to be eating a lot more. I'll try to get her down to one dry meal and two wet and then I think I'll just let her do that for a couple of months and see how she does.

How is she doing? 

 

[peppermintplant]

 
How is she doing? 

Still pretty much inhaling the Wellness dry (like eating it out of the scoop as I am scooping it into her bowl), and eating more of the wet food in the process, too (half a cup of dry plus almost an entire 3 oz. can of wet today). So at least she's eating. If there's anything more going on, I should know Friday when they do the blood panel. They're going to give her a T4 and free T4, too, so I'm hoping if there IS anything wrong, it's that and not kidney issues or anything worse.

But she's eating, so that's good! Thank you for checking up on her. I am just keeping my fingers crossed and praying to the cat gods that everything will go well Friday.

EDIT: I got my order of Soulistic this morning - she likes the chicken and pumpkin but not the gravy in the Harvest Sunrise, but once Sparrow had licked all the gravy off of her dish and moved on to Klio's, Klio went and ate Sparrow's leftover chicken, so that's promising. I will try the Aromatic Chicken for her 3 oz. can tomorrow and see if she likes the gelee better. She's eaten normal-sized portions for the past three days, so I'm not super worried about getting her to eat more right this minute.