Cat Will Starve But Won't Eat Cat Food

[maggie101]

My cat MUST have her toppers or she won't eat her canned food. I use canidae duck/chicken, weruva double dip beef and chicken, weruva mackeral.

 

[verna davies]

One of mine is a picky eater but yesterday I picked up a single tin of Gourmet Savoury Cake and he devoured it. They sell them singularly in Tesco and are in salmon,tuna, beef or chicken. At least you would only waste 1 tin and not a box of 12.

 

[Columbine]

Hi Belinda123 . If your guy likes chicken, try him on Thrive Complete canned kitten food. Its pricey, but is the closest I've found to actual chicken. You can get it online, from Amazon, Zooplus, Pets at Home or Thrive's own site. I've yet to meet a cat that doesn't like it!

Alternatively, Tesco have a food called Blink, and they do a plain chicken version. Its pate style, but very recognisably chicken. You might want to try Nature's Menu kitten too, which is a pure chicken food that looks more like pate cat food, but is very stinky and (apparently) yummy. Pets at Home Purely Holistic is another chicken pate that is recognisably chicken. Blink and Purely Holistic are adult foods, but will be better nutritionally than the unbalanced diet you're feeding right now. I have a box of the Purely Holistic, and I'd be happy to send you a sachet to try before you buy a whole box of it. Thrive, Nature's Menu and Blink can be bought in single cans/sachets, so are slightly safer to take a gamble on when buying. There's nothing worse than ending up with a whole box of food the cat won't touch!

One off-the-wall thought is Pure. It's a dehydrated food that you make up with water. Looks pretty horrible, but might be worth a try. I can gladly send you a portion or two of that as well. (Can you tell I have a sick guy that needs tempting right now, and have my own food mountain?!?). I'm happy to send you a single of Adult Thrive too, and a handful each of several dry foods. Message me if you're interested in any of this

You might want to consider a supplement, too, to boost essential nutrients whilst hes not eating a complete food. VetIQ Nutri-Vit Plus is my fallback for fussy eaters, and it's fine for both kittens and adult cats. I get it on Amazon, though I'm sure other places have it too.

Oh, and for treats/food toppers, try Cosma Snackies (Zooplus) or Thrive treats(Amazon, Zooplus, Pets at Home etc) in chicken. They're just freeze dried chicken breast, and seem to be pretty irresistible. Again, I can send you a few to try.

I hope at least some of that helps, and that you find a food your guy approves of very soon.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I think if you are still interested in trying baby food meats (no additives), are one of these brands available to you: Heinz, Boots, Hipp Organic, Ella's Kitchen and Organix?

 

[lisahe]

Thank you so very much, Columbine, for answering my page, giving such great suggestions, and even offering food to the OP!

Since someone else mentioned freeze-dried toppers I'll add that they're a crucial part of feeding our cats, too. We buy big bags of chicken treats, Pure Bites, which may not be available in the UK but maybe there's something equivalent that's just plain chicken breast? The great thing about Pure Bites is that they can be crumbled into very small pieces, even dust, and make everything taste good. At least to a cat! They're not complete food, of course, but at least they might make a complete food more appealing to the kitten!

 

[Columbine]

I think if you are still interested in trying baby food meats (no additives), are one of these brands available to you: Heinz, Boots, Hipp Organic, Ella's Kitchen and Organix?

Yep, those brands are all readily available nationwide. The problem is that we don't tend to have plain meat baby food here, it's all blends of meat, veggies and potatoes/pasta/rice. Totally sucks when it comes to feeding fussy cats

 

[Furballsmom]

Possibly try puree-ing some chicken or low sodium ham?

 

[Belinda123]

Hi Columbine I will accept your offer, thank you! I will message you now. I had problems with my car today (MOT fail) so I can't drive to the shops until I sort this out. But will try to go to the shops sometime this week.

I adopted him from a nice lady, she had a tortie mom with a very cute litter. No litter tray or catfood training, she said - she was leaving absorbent mats and human food for them. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal as I used to rescue cats before - always fed them rice boiled with sardines and whiskas. I think I looked after maybe 30 cats in my life and they were always happy to eat what I gave them.

But this one has been different. As soon as I took him home I showed him the litter tray, he was happy to use it straight away for the first time. That was easy.

Then I gave him some supermarket kitten food as the natural thing to do but nope. Then I texted the lady again, and she said 'ham and chicken'; ham had to be discontinued because of the salt so it's only chicken now. However I remember that she lived above a kebab house - could she possibly have weaned the kittens on kebab scraps...????? If so that would explain his love for ham and not having interest in any other food....? I texted the lady again but she didn't answered anymore. And then she never answered any of my texts ever again.

I don't know, I'll keep trying brands that sell single portions until I find something.

 

[Belinda123]

Furballsmom , I haven't seen low-sodium ham before, but if I see, I will try!

 

[Furballsmom]

I think even rinsing the ham could help lower the sodium, or soaking it?

 

[Furballsmom]

I don't know if I should call it low-sodium, but ham that doesn't have any additives of any type.

 

[catapault]

Totally off the wall here, and definitely not a rest-of-his-life possibility but -

My vet once jokingly, tongue in cheek, facetiously, said that the perfect diet for a cat would be those 30 calorie mice, consumed every few hours.

I know that people with snakes buy dead frozen mice, baby rats, chicks by mail order.

Anything to get him started eating, right?

 

[lisahe]

Belinda123 , the Kebab Shop Theory is a good one to explain your kitten's eating habits! What is his name? And I'm so sorry to hear about your car! (I looked up "MOT," which is what we call "state inspection," oh, I know all about those problems, I hope you're able to get that sorted soon, too!)

Personally, meaning as a big FWIW and even bigger IMHO, I would stay with the boiled chicken -- belinda123, he's still eating that, right? -- and keep away from the ham if at all possible, even if it's low-sodium, and not worry about baby food since the little guy is eating something consistently and chicken and goat's milk are a better diet than ham. (I write that realizing he may stop eating chicken, too, making ham a necessity.) The hardest thing is trying to get him to eat cat food, which is what he really needs for proper nutrition.

I hope something from Columbine will work -- something has to work eventually!

 

[CHIKITTIES]

Hi Belinda123

I don't have personal experience with this product (I am in US), but since you kitty loves cooked chicken so much, how about adding something like this to make it complete food? Understand that you want to find canned food your kitty likes, but at least until you find something? Just a thought ...

Your kitty is so pretty! Look at that curious eyes and pointed chin

 

[lisahe]

CHIKITTIES , that's a great idea! I'd been wondering about supplements available in the UK...

Belinda123, since this one doesn't have liver added, it looks like it should be fairly flavorless to make that chicken seem like it's still pretty much just the same old boiled chicken. It's fairly easy to make food with a premixed supplement like this: the only catch is that you have to weigh the meat before cooking so it helps to have a kitchen scale. (Or buy from a butcher who will weigh the meat out for you!) Our cats love their homemade cooked food with supplement and maybe yours would, too! Their favorite is pork: I wonder if you cat would eat plain boiled pork with the supplement?

Columbine , are you familiar with Felini Complete?

 

[Somebody]

There are also specialized toppers for cats like this one here. I remember now, I had a friend once who was into breeding persian cats or something like that and she got dead young chicks from the airport somewhere. I really can't remember what the deal exactly was but it was something like live chicks for farms or something and there were always lots of them that died and she was able to buy them somehow. But this is certainly not something that's available everywhere.
As for mice etc I know people who have snakes as pets need to buy them as life food since snakes don't eat dead stuff so you might go to a pet shop that sells reptiles and talk to them.

 

[Columbine]

Columbine , are you familiar with Felini Complete?

I'm aware of Fellini Complete, but as I don't do homemade cat food, I've never used it myself. I think a lot of the homemade cat food people use it, as it's the most readily available pre mix over here. I've heard good things about it, and it would be my go-to if I wanted to make my own food.

Sorry I can't be more help on that score.

 

[Maria Bayote]

And here I thought I am the only pet parent experiencing this. My cat Barley prefers to starve also than to eat wet food. Tried also all the brands available here.

 

[Belinda123]

Hi Maria Bayote , does Barley eat dry food?

Cayce, my cat, (named after Edgar) does not eat absolutely ANY cat food. I would be pleased if he could eat any treats, or dry, or pate, or sauce, or canned, or pouches. Anything. But no luck yet.

I bought lots of small portions of different brands today. A bit of everything. I'll try them over this week and I'll report later on again with an update!
All the baby food I saw available (and I went to the biggest supermarket in the area) has onion and garlic in the savoury options. So I guess I can't try the UK babyfood?
Will try to get hold of Felini Complete though, sounds like a possibility.

Cayce is a lovely kitty. He is the only cat and child of the household right now. He has an amazing personality. Right from the start, he demanded laptime and purred to me loudly, staring at my eyes. And that was it, I knew I was his human! He has three toy mice he footballs them for hours. He joins me for pretty much anything I'm doing, he's my little best friend. He often demands laptime, playtime or moans when there is stuff in his food bowl that is not chicken...
4 months, lots of love, energy and curiosity, but I know he's not eating well and I'll keep trying.

Today I tried:
Purina Gourmet chicken shreds - nope
Whiskas kitten biscuits (with milk/cheese treats inside) - nope

When I cooked for myself today, I showed him the tuna once more (nope) but weirdly enough he was very interested in the black olives. He tried to eat them, which I didn't let him, but he managed to lick a bit.

I know olive jars has lots of salt so not an option for cats. Looked online now and they can have a bit of a catnip effect? Anyone knows more on this? After reading that I threw then some olives juice drops on top of the catfood. Nope.

I also offered him this morning the water a the mozzarela ball bag - it didn't say salt in the ingredients, so I offered it to him. He drank it happily. Well it's one more thing I guess in his 3-ingredients menu!
if anyone knows that mozzarela water is not a good idea, let me know so I won't do it again?

 

[Maria Bayote]

Hi Maria Bayote , does Barley eat dry food?

Barley prefers dry cat food. There are also very little wet cat food that he likes so it is difficult for me when stores run out of stocks of that particular brand he eats only. WHen I feed him something else besides dry food, he looks at me like saying, "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?" Hahaha. I love him so much, though. Can't get mad at him.