Extremely Picky Cat

[arabellie]

Hello!

I'm new to feeding raw food, I have three cats - one with behavioral problems, one with FIC that is currently doing very well on Purina UR and one that is very picky. I was feeding Purina ProPlan True Nature wet with dry as a "puzzle/treat". Lexi was still having issues with struvites. Mason and Arabella were both eating it fine.

Due to some roommate drama Lexi stayed with a friend for a while and I bought a cheaper dry food for the other cats. Purina One Shredded Blend turned out to be like crack for my picky eater. Ever since then Arabella refuses to touch most wet and raw food. Sometimes I can trick her into eating it if I put some dry food on top.

I decided to switch to raw for Mason's behavioral issues - he's doing great on it. I figured it might be more enticing for Arabella. I was wrong.

So far I have been buying a variety of commercial brands and flavors of raw food. Arabella is slightly more receptive to the rabbit flavors, it seems. Right now I put a teaspoon of whatever brand/flavor of raw that Mason is eating that day, with a tablespoon of one of her "favorite" tikicat flavors, and maybe a teaspoon of dry food sprinkled on top. She eats it maybe 40% of the time. Sometimes she eats it better if she skips a meal, but I don't want to starve her.

So, TLDR; would it be wrong to feed only one type of protein if that's all she'll eat? (rabbit). Any suggestions on how I could feed her differently to transition her? It's been maybe three weeks now and I feel like we're getting nowhere. I haven't tried chunks of meat yet or home cooked food but I'll maybe try those next.

 

[orange&white]

So far I have been buying a variety of commercial brands and flavors of raw food. Arabella is slightly more receptive to the rabbit flavors, it seems. Right now I put a teaspoon of whatever brand/flavor of raw that Mason is eating that day, with a tablespoon of one of her "favorite" tikicat flavors, and maybe a teaspoon of dry food sprinkled on top. She eats it maybe 40% of the time. Sometimes she eats it better if she skips a meal, but I don't want to starve her.

So, TLDR; would it be wrong to feed only one type of protein if that's all she'll eat? (rabbit). Any suggestions on how I could feed her differently to transition her? It's been maybe three weeks now and I feel like we're getting nowhere. I haven't tried chunks of meat yet or home cooked food but I'll maybe try those next.

Ideally, you want to rotate as many proteins as possible. A suggested minimum is 3 types of meat. If she were to develop a food intolerance to rabbit and wouldn't eat any other food, then you'd be up a tree. Different proteins also have different nutrient levels. Rabbit is much less fatty than just about any other protein for example. Rotating proteins gives you a broader distribution of nutrients which may be high in one meat and low in another.

As long as Arabella is eating the right number of calories per day and her weight is good, it's ok if she skips a meal now and then. My kitten often shuns breakfast, but then eats her total daily average amount of food between afternoon and evening meals.

Keep offering her a tsp of whatever you're serving Mason, and she might "click" soon to the new food. Try both 1) mixing just a tiny bit of raw into the food she does eat and 2) serving on a separate plate next to her main meal. There are also a variety of toppers which might tempt her.

Lots of tricks to try with hard transitioners...I know....in 2008 I had one that took over 3 months to switch.

Good luck with the transition and welcome to TCS!

 

[Ardina]

Lots of good advice from orange&white. Another method that worked for my cat when I was transitioning her from dry food to wet was to do the following: figure out how many calories your cat needs and feed three equally-portioned meals per day at set times. For the middle meal, serve only the new food with toppers/enticing treats. For the other two, feed the normal amounts of old food. As long as your cat at least tastes/eats a little bit of the new food, the method will eventually work. As your cat gets only 2/3 the number of calories each day if she shuns the new food, the hunger will eventually drive her to eat more and more of the middle meal. Once she's eating all of the middle meal, repeat for the other two until she's fully transitioned.

It's important that you not starve her though! That's why you keep feeding at least 2 meals of old food that she will eat during the transition.

It may be worth a try to give different textures too. If she likes the crunch of dry food, maybe try chunks of meat that she has to chew. I've also heard that crushed dry food powder or Fortiflora work great as toppers. I had great success with burying the dry food pieces into the wet food with a little bit sticking out so my cat inadvertently ate a lot of the new food in the attempt to dig out the dry food.

Good luck!