Cat Has Become Picky And Won’t Eat Her Food?

[lacy2000]

My cat is 8 years old. She’s 11 pounds, a healthy weight for her size. She eats wet food and a handful (seriously a tiny amount) of grain-free dry food at night. She has been eating a 5.5oz can of friskies wet food a day (half in morning, half at night) , no specific texture or flavor.

All of a sudden, two days ago, she has decided that her food is not good enough. She will lick all the juice off the food and walk away. I have now tried a variety of brands, textures, and flavors and she sticks her nose up at all of them! And yet she still jumps on the counters and cries for food at night. She eats the tiny amount of dry food I put out for her. What can I do?? I don’t want her getting sick or fatty liver because she refuses to eat.

The only thing I can think of is that we just got a new puppy, so we had to move her food so the puppy wouldn’t bother her while eating. Do you think this is upsetting her?

 

[sargon]

IMO, you should increase the dry food given until your cat gets used to the change ( it may be less the new food location and more the new puppy, btw), and improve her water (if you aren't already giving filtered water in a fountain anyhow.)

Unless your cat has kidney issues or does not drink well, quality dry food is generally not the devil some make it out to be ( the huge difference mentioned between dry and wet mostly refers to cheap dry vs cheap wet ( and *that* difference is huge.)) If you want to feed quality wet food to your cat, that's fine, but whatever advantages wet food may give your cat vs dry are neglagible compared to the risks involved in your cat not eating. if all your cat will eat right now is dry food, feed your cat dry, and, once things calm down slowly reintroduce wet.

PSs. my cat doesn't like wet food (I finally gave up trying to fed it to her after a year), but she will eat exactly one wet food... Wellness CORE Signature Selects skipjack tuna and salmon. It is at most pet stores, so you could try it. Obviously an all fish diet isn't great long term, but as with all dry, starvation is far worse. other wet options to try are toppers (bonito flakes or purina forta flora both work for many cats) with the wet.

 

[yeva2292]

Could you try using some of her dry food as toppers for her wet food? Put a couple teaspoons of her wet food out (so you're not letting the entire can stay out) and press in a few pieces of kibble. If she eats that, repeat - or if she doesnt, try mixing in the kibble/increasing kibble amount.

It might also be that you just haven't found a food she's willing to eat just yet. As Sargon stated, feed her the kibble for now to make sure she's getting her required calories and meanwhile try out other brands and flavors until you find one that works. If you do notice though that she won't eat a lot of kibble, you should let her vet know. She may have an underlying condition or dental issue.

From my experience, my picky eater doesn't care about the location of her food. She only cares if its a flavor and texture she's willing to eat.

 

[lacy2000]

She isn’t particularly crazy about the dry food either. She’ll eat the handful that I give her but if there is any more than that she’ll leave it. The reason she can’t go on an all- dry diet is because she gets really bad dry skin from it and no matter how many special oils or dandruff solutions I give her, the only thing that seemed to stop it is transitioning to wet food a few years ago. Never had dry skin again. I actually did find a food, fancy feast, that she just ate, so perhaps that will work for her!

 

[Lalka]

What about freeze dried treats crumbles on top of her wet food? Are you always using the same wet food flavors (fish, chicken, tuna). You could try duck, turkey, rabbit or venison.
Friskies and Fancy feast do have menadione/ carrageenan / grains, etc...so maybe try a food without nasty additives to see if her tummy was upset. Also puppies are annoying ;x (sorry)

 

[prairiepanda]

Friskies and Fancy feast do have menadione/ carrageenan / grains, etc...so maybe try a food without nasty additives to see if her tummy was upset. Also puppies are annoying ;x (sorry)

There are a few flavors of the fancy feast that don't have any questionable ingredients other than meat by-products. You mostly just need to stay away from the fish flavors and ones with gravy.

Normally when a cat suddenly goes off food I would recommend bloodwork, but this because of the new puppy, though. Feed her whatever she's willing to eat for now and see if things improve as she adjusts. How have you been approaching the introduction of the puppy to the cat?

 

[lacy2000]

How have you been approaching the introduction of the puppy to the cat?

Well we’ve had the puppy since birth- we fostered her mother and siblings, and she is our foster fail. So the cat has always know the dog is here, it isn’t until we recently moved the puppy’s crate into the living room and out of the den room that Chessie (my cat) started skipping meals.

So far we’ve just let her sniff the puppy while the puppy is in her crate. And then when we let the puppy out, she is on a leash so she can’t maul our two cats (our other cat doesn’t seem fazed by the puppy). We are teaching the puppy not to bother the cat, but you know how it is with puppies- they get excited about everything!

 

[momof3b1g]

have you had her teeth cleaned? Cats stop eating when they have a problem with their teeth

 

[lacy2000]

have you had her teeth cleaned? Cats stop eating when they have a problem with their teeth

I clean her teeth with a finger brush once a week and when she went to the vet last year, he said her teeth looked good for her age. She has been eating fancy feast (it’s all she will eat I’m not really concerned about the ingredients) really well so I think she’s ok. Thanks for the reply! I’ll keep that in the back of my mind if this ever happens again.