Do your cats finish up their food?

[TeaMatcha]

Hi all,

I've some concerns about my cat. She's turning 1 year old next month, weighting at 3.9kg. Ever since young, she has been unable to finished up wet food, but she do finished up if you gave her kibbles. I'm giving her about 10grams to 12grams of kibbles in the morning around 5am, 50grams of Wellness Tiny Tasters Pouch in the noon around 11.30am ~ 12pm, and lastly, her dinner will be around 8pm or 8.30 and it'll be either a 50grams or 80grams canned food. But either way, she doesn't seems to be interested in her lunch and dinner and would rather have kibbles instead.

I'm not too sure if I should be concerned about it being a medical problem or just that she simply prefer kibbles. I had brought her to the vet about it before, they suggested me to space out the hours between meals and I did but it doesn't help.

I'm quite concerned as she can't even finish a 50grams canned food. Anyone facing the same issues? Could it be she's just fussy? Anyone have any tips on how to increase her appetite? Thanks in advanced!

 

[game misconduct]

some cats just eat slow graycie is like that put her food out around 430 am and she only finnished half of itso far around 9 or so she will eat the rest and then sleep the rest of the day. your cat might be just a nibbler that eats a lil bit at a time. just leave the food out for her to eat as she is ready

 

[vince]

50 g. is an awful small portion, if my mental conversion from grams to ounces is right. Nonetheless, she does eat her dry food. Maybe you could ask your vet about an appetite stimulant if she seems too skinny. 3.9 Kg. doesn't seem too out of line for a female. We had one years ago that wouldn't eat much other than dry food. She was small like yours, and lived to an active ripe old age of 20.

I have a three year-old that's about the same size as your girl. She eats like a horse, though, and still doesn't put on any weight. You just never know.

 

[maggie101]

I also have a slow eater. Morning she eats half 3oz can then comes back 5 minutes later for the rest

 

[susanm9006]

Regardless of the amount she is given Willow always spreads her meal out over a couple hours. But she has always been suspicious about being fed, like it may be a pretense to catch her so she is very cautious about just relaxing and eating.

 

[TeaMatcha]

some cats just eat slow graycie is like that put her food out around 430 am and she only finnished half of itso far around 9 or so she will eat the rest and then sleep the rest of the day. your cat might be just a nibbler that eats a lil bit at a time. just leave the food out for her to eat as she is ready

As it's wet food, that's why I will usually cleaned it up if she doesn't finish not too sure if I'm right but I heard that wet food will gone stale and bad after leaving out for too long.

 

[TeaMatcha]

50 g. is an awful small portion, if my mental conversion from grams to ounces is right. Nonetheless, she does eat her dry food. Maybe you could ask your vet about an appetite stimulant if she seems too skinny. 3.9 Kg. doesn't seem too out of line for a female. We had one years ago that wouldn't eat much other than dry food. She was small like yours, and lived to an active ripe old age of 20.

I have a three year-old that's about the same size as your girl. She eats like a horse, though, and still doesn't put on any weight. You just never know.

Right! 50grams is really a small portion and she couldn't even finished it. It's about 1.7oz. I'm seriously considering to bring her to another vet to checked it out. Her previous vet only said that if she prefers kibbles, then give her more kibbles and less wet food. But tbh, I prefer her to have more wet than dry.

 

[TeaMatcha]

I also have a slow eater. Morning she eats half 3oz can then comes back 5 minutes later for the rest

At least yours will comes back. Mine will shake her paws and walked off to sleep for hours. Even if I tried to hand-feed her the rest, she'll turned her head away

 

[game misconduct]

As it's wet food, that's why I will usually cleaned it up if she doesn't finish not too sure if I'm right but I heard that wet food will gone stale and bad after leaving out for too long.

its still doesnt get to hot inside once it does i have air on to keep apartment a cool 70 degrees you can also leave out or less dry food and or play with her alot more between feedings make her burn those calories off so she is hungry

 

[LTS3]

Canned food is a cooked product so it's fine to leave out pretty much all day unless you live in a tropical environment in which case the food can be left out for a few hours max. Same with dry food.

 

[FeebysOwner]

As it's wet food, that's why I will usually cleaned it up if she doesn't finish not too sure if I'm right but I heard that wet food will gone stale and bad after leaving out for too long.

Feeby is a nibbler, so her canned food is left out as long as 8 hours before I decide it is probably ready for the garbage disposal. But, I am in a position to scoop and re-scoop her food all day long, as well as adding a bit of water each time to it. She likes it in a pile and if she flattens it out, it is time for a scooping. It is a rarity to have her eat 50 grams in one sitting.

I tend to think that your cat probably does like dry food better - there are many that do. I suppose you could try a meal or two of dry mixed with some water, just to see what she does. Maybe there is a way to get her to like moister food that way.

 

[daftcat75]

Betty takes twelve hours to finish a 3 oz can. Then it takes another 12 hours to finish her second can for the day.

She does seem a little more enthusiastic about this Hiils I/D. I would have never picked this food out for her. But after a $1300 hairball vet visit (she was spitting up stomach acid all day after a successful hairball ejection), I decided to humor the vet and offer it anyway. Imagine my shock when my nibbler, who usually takes some encouragement just to get started, plowed right through the small intro portion and then yelled for more.

It could be that you just haven't found the food that your girl goes crazy for. And until you do, let me recommend that you do food transitions very slowly. You can offer one small "guest star" portion of maybe 7 to 10 grams just to see if she likes it. You can grow that portion over several days or weeks if she does.

Betty had a failed food transition last week where I rushed it and then there was no good last step to fall back on. She decided all the food she was being offered was good once. Then she remembered the discomfort the next time. Eventually, I got her back on her "favorite" Fancy Feast because she apparently likes that food more than the discomfort it causes her. Now she's on I/D. Let's see how long she eats this one before she decides she wants Fancy Feast again.

 

[maggie101]

Hi all,

I've some concerns about my cat. She's turning 1 year old next month, weighting at 3.9kg. Ever since young, she has been unable to finished up wet food, but she do finished up if you gave her kibbles. I'm giving her about 10grams to 12grams of kibbles in the morning around 5am, 50grams of Wellness Tiny Tasters Pouch in the noon around 11.30am ~ 12pm, and lastly, her dinner will be around 8pm or 8.30 and it'll be either a 50grams or 80grams canned food. But either way, she doesn't seems to be interested in her lunch and dinner and would rather have kibbles instead.

I'm not too sure if I should be concerned about it being a medical problem or just that she simply prefer kibbles. I had brought her to the vet about it before, they suggested me to space out the hours between meals and I did but it doesn't help.

I'm quite concerned as she can't even finish a 50grams canned food. Anyone facing the same issues? Could it be she's just fussy? Anyone have any tips on how to increase her appetite? Thanks in advanced!

I got the answer! I'm no more a math whiz!
3.9 kilograms in pounds = 3.9 times 2.204622622 = 8.598028225210225 pounds. He is almost full grown so depending on his body structure-dont know how else to say it- he is at a good weight

 

[Caspers Human]

Casper is a grazer, too.
In fact, he MUST have food available at all times.

Casper was abandoned, outdoors, and had to find his own food for at least a year. Maybe more. He never knew where his next meal would come from. That made him food-insecure. As long as he knows that he can eat any time he gets hungry, he's okay. If his food bowl runs empty he gets anxiety and, the next time you feed him, he does the "scarf and barf" thing.

We give Casper a fresh bowl of dry food every morning and a bowl of canned food in the evening, at about the same time we eat dinner, ourselves. A bowl of dry food stays out, 24/7 and gets refreshed daily. The canned food gets put out in the evening and we pick it up in the morning at about the time we come down to make coffee.

In the summer, we put his bowls in a tray of water, about 1/2 inch deep, to keep the ants out. Unless the weather gets hot and icky, there's never a problem with food going off.

To change kilos to pounds, multiply by 2.2. The real answer is 2.204... but you don't need that much precision most of the time.
It's easier to do the math in your head, that way. In fact, if you are just estimating, you can just multiply by "two and a smidge."

I used to work in a place that had equipment that used iron counterweights to balance things out. Every time you added or subtracted weight, you had to add or remove counterweights to keep everything even. The wights were large cast iron blocks that came in different sizes, weighing 12 lb., 22 lb. and 45 lb. Nobody could figure out why they were such odd weights until we figured that they actually weighed 5, 10 and 20 kilograms. After that, when guys needed to re-weight the system they would just call out for something like, "Gimme' two twenties and a five!"

 

[misty8723]

Canned food is a cooked product so it's fine to leave out pretty much all day unless you live in a tropical environment in which case the food can be left out for a few hours max. Same with dry food.

I did ask my vet and she said either 16 or 18 hours you can leave it out.

 

[ladytimedramon]

When I just had Delilah, I would give her 3 oz in the morning (around 7am when I leave for work), with a small timed kibble drop at about 11 and 3 (only about a tbsp or so), 1.5 oz when I got home (about 5pm), 3oz before bed (around 11pm) and a 3am kibble drop.

When I adopted a 2nd cat, Fancy, feeding went crazy. If Fancy left food, Delilah would eat it, and if Delilah left food, Fancy would eat it. This wouldn't have been a problem but Delilah is 2 pounds overweight (according to the vet) and Fancy was 4 pounds underweight (I adopted her and she was 4.5 pounds). Because Delilah would bully Fancy away, or get mad if Fancy licked her plate, I went with microchip feeders (glad I did because we're now dealing with Fancy and food allergy trials).

I have 2 of the surepet microchip connect feeders - the connect allows me to monitor when they're eating. Watching the data, I can see that Delilah will eat the bulk of her food at once, leaving a few mouthfuls for later (sometimes 15 min). And I've discovered Fancy is a grazer who eats a couple of mouthfuls, goes off, runs around, comes back. Her whole portion takes her most of the day and sometimes she leaves some (she's not loving the food she's eating on the food allergy trial - I'm starting to change it). The kibble timed drop is still there in case either girl is hungry, and occasionally Fancy will eat the kibble instead of the wet (rabbit pate isn't quite her thing). But for the most part I get logs of who's eating when. One plus is the feeder closes its cover and keeps the food better. They make a non microchip version that opens when the cat approaches and closes when they're done.

 

[danteshuman]

My guy is a grazer. He gets 4 small meals of 1.5 oz a day. He also eats 1/8-1/4 cup of dry food per day (depending on if he dislikes his meal(s) or not.) cats can’t eat a whole can in one setting.

 

[TeaMatcha]

Canned food is a cooked product so it's fine to leave out pretty much all day unless you live in a tropical environment in which case the food can be left out for a few hours max. Same with dry food.

I do live in a tropical environment. Singapore weather is definitely not cool

 

[TeaMatcha]

I gave my cat appetite stimulant - Mirtazapine earlier on and now she's meowing non-stop in middle of the night.

She's not touching her dinner today, hence, I gave it to her as her vet prescribed her that before. Previously when she had it, she does meow excessively but it stopped in an hour. But it has been about 3 hours and she's still restless. Read it up and understand that it's a common side effects, any idea on how long will it last?

Thank you to everyone who left a comment I'm just anxious as a first-time owner as I'm not sure if she's lacking of appetite due to illness (even though her blood test was cleared last year) or due to being fussiness. I tried convincing myself that it's probably due to fussiness as she does still eats her kibbles but somehow, I'm just worried that she's doesn't have enough to eat or that she's hungry with that small cans of food.

 

[TeaMatcha]

I got the answer! I'm no more a math whiz!
3.9 kilograms in pounds = 3.9 times 2.204622622 = 8.598028225210225 pounds. He is almost full grown so depending on his body structure-dont know how else to say it- he is at a good weight

Hahahaha nice one!! You're better than me! I can't with math That's good to hear that she's at a good weight!! Thank you!!