Grass Is Always Greener.

[Thevikingchick]

One of my ragdolls is being an absolute snot about eating. His brother has HCM and recovering from CHF so he's being babied and is getting wet food. Naturally I gave Dàin, my picky eater some. But now it seems like he has zero interest in kibbles. My "sick" kitty is eating more than him dry and wet food. Dàin has always been a grass is greener in someone else's dish kitty, if it's someone's ELSE'S food he'll eat it. But now I'm worried he has lost a little weight and I'm not sure what to do.

We free feed canidae, and he was on Instinct before, but turned his nose up at it when we moved and other cats had canidae.
Help?

 

[cheesycats]

Is it possible to switch everyone to wet food? Wet food is better for cats in general. You just have to make sure everyone is getting enough so no one gets skinny.

 

[lisahe]

I agree with cheesycats about feeding both cats the wet food: it really is better for them over all and if Dàin's the picky cat and will eat it, that sounds like a win-win. As long as you're feeding food with decent calories, he shouldn't lose much weight.

Another thing that can really help picky eaters is feeding meals (rather than free feeding) to the cats in separate rooms. Our two cats have opposite eating habits -- one eats too much, too fast, and the other's a picky grazer -- and they both eat best when they don't eat together. Among other things, if nobody sees what the other's getting, it eliminates the "grass is always greener" syndrome, something these two also both have!

Good luck!

 

[Thevikingchick]

I'm going to look into just switching to the moist kibbles (not even sure that's the right phrase?), wet food and leaving small dish of kibble out. He'd a ragdoll and should be 10-20lbs and at 2.5 he's only 9.5 lbs. He's totally normal so not worried about health, but we have a vet check up scheduled and going to ask her about the diet change.

Do you have recommendations on wet food brand? It'd insane trying to figure it out what's best.

 

[lisahe]

Yes, the question of "what's best" could make anybody crazy, particularly because nothing's good unless the cat will eat it. In terms of caloric canned foods with high meat protein and low carbs, our cats especially like Nutro Natural Choice (minced chicken, chunky chicken loaf, sliced turkey, plus the kitten foods), Rawz turkey or chicken, and Wellness Core's kitten or duck/turkey foods. Fancy Feast Classics, the pates, are also very decent foods. You can also look at the charts on catinfo.org to compare calories and carbs. Those are pretty overwhelming but just try to focus on specific kinds and you'll be fine!

Good luck! I know it can be hard with cats who pick at their food!

 

[Thevikingchick]

You guys will love this, I picked up small bag of chicken flavored kibbles..... Guess who ate half the bowl.
........... thanks Dàin.