How To Feed Pumpkin To A Reluctant Cat?

[Stephanie1373]

Hello everyone, today my vet recommended feeding a 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin to my kitty to give him fiber to help regulate his stools. He's been having some issues with constipation since switching over to an all wet food diet, which turns out had little fiber in it. I offered some to him tonight and he refused, absolutely positively, no way.

So I tried to doll it up with a little wet food. Nope. So I tried again with some butter, just a bit...he showed a little interest but ultimately nope. My last stop was making a small ball of butter, a little less than 1/4 teaspoon and filling the middle with pumpkin. BINGO! He ate the entire thing and loved it.

So I'm wondering is there any other way to get him to eat pumpkin other than covered in butter? I don't know if butter is good for him every day, so I'd like to limit it as a treat every once in a while. But he still needs to eat pumpkin and I don't want to smear it on his backside or mush it onto his gums like I've seen some people suggest on a google search.

Thanks all! Much love.
Stephanie

 

[_spadekitty]

I mixed my cats pumpkin with some tuna to get him to eat it

 

[jcat]

I usually just put a small amount of pumpkin in with the normal amount of wet food.

 

[MeganLLB]

I got some lactose free milk and mixed it in and made a pumpkin milkshake and my cat drank it all up.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

... and I don't want to smear it on his backside or mush it onto his gums like I've seen some people suggest on a google search.

...

 

[danteshuman]

When I was feeding it to our older cat, i mixed a small amount into her wet food. I also tried and succeeded mixing a dab of smoosh-ed cooled nuked yam into her food. Though the pumpkin comes in a can and has less sugar We just started with a really low amount and slowly increased the amount of pumpkin mixed in.

 

[Stephanie1373]

Thanks all! We got him AND his sister to eat pumpkin! Just a little bit mixed in with a bunch of wet food multiple times per day. Score!

 

[cat princesses]

The pet store I shop at carries a pumpkin powder, I think it's called firm up - that might be a good alternative to mix into food if your cat doesn't like the canned pumpkin

 

[sailon]

Just curious. I can't imagine cats eating pumpkin in the wild, so what do they eat that provides fiber?

 

[missmimz]

Throw out the pumpkin, ok to just use the butter instead. I doubt it's the wet food itself that's causing the constipation. What wet food are you feeding? Almost all wet foods have some kind of fillers in them, so it may be something in that wet food that's causing it rather than a lack of fiber. Cats have very little need for fiber.