Cats Ignoring Raw...sign That Food Isn't Fresh?

[HungryPandaCat]

My two cats, both one year olds have been on commercial raw for about 3 months no issues. I feed them once in the morning and once at night before I go to bed. After I fed them last night I noticed that they didn't gobble it down like they usually do and they only ate half. This morning I opened a fresh pack before I left for work. They didn't seem too excited about the food, but I didn't think much of it and left for work. Came home in the afternoon to discover that their food was untouched.

I'm thinking I may have gotten a bad batch, but how will I know if its a bad batch or if they're just being picky?

 

[lisahe]

I don't have an answer to your question about how to know if you got a bad batch. (Other than, that is, checking for news on recalls and/or contacting the company.)

But I do know that some cats get very picky about their food if they're eating the same thing all the time. Have your cats been eating the same commercial raw food twice a day for three months? If so, they might just be tired of their food.

 

[orange&white]

Just to follow up on lisahe's point, are you rotating their proteins or food brands? I stopped making an all-chicken mix because one of my cats seems to think it's "boring". My mixes all have some chicken from bone content, liver, gizzards, and hearts, but now I switch back and forth between beef and pork for the majority boneless meat content. No problems with pickiness since then.

Do they have access to any other source of food they might have gotten into? My TNR feral didn't eat for several days last year, but she was still pretty wild and going outside a lot. It was around Thanksgiving, and I ended up figuring that some folks in the neighborhood might have put leftover turkey out for the feral community.

(It also could just be a bad batch.)

 

[lisahe]

My mixes all have some chicken from bone content, liver, gizzards, and hearts, but now I switch back and forth between beef and pork for the majority boneless meat content. No problems with pickiness since then.

This is a great point about an easy way to vary food. I do the same thing with our cats' homemade (cooked) food. I chop, slice, dice, process, and otherwise texturize the meat in various ways. And we feed several commercial freeze-dried foods in varying proportions, too, so they're always getting slightly different combinations. It all helps!

 

[orange&white]

My only other thought would be allergies or respiratory infection, diluting their sense of smell. Are the kitties healthy? No sneezing and such? It would be odd for two cats to get sick at exactly the same time, so it is probably something with the food, but that's the only other possibility I can think of.

 

[kittyluv387]

My cat get the same way if I don't switch it up with the raw.

 

[HungryPandaCat]

And the verdict is....they were just being picky.

Mixed in some pieces of wet food and they gobbled it up. Such princesses