I snapped at my cat.

[iPappy]

Another thought, some cats seem to find anything plastic, metal, or stainless steel very off putting. You mentioned that your cat will turn away licking his lips, that could be mild nausea and it's possible the material of the bowl or plate you're using has something to do with it. Experiment and see what you can come up with.

 

[Alldara]

Picky eating is a sign of allergies itself, as mentioned in the last thread you made on the subject. You should discuss this with your vet.

 

[silent meowlook]

Honestly, if he has been seen by a vet multiple times and he for sure is healthy, as in blood work was normal and thyroid levels are okay, I would feed canned food. Maybe call your vet and see if they want him on a prescription diet due to his urinary issues in the past. I definitely wouldn’t be feeding him a homemade diet. The total amount he should eat is a small can a day. Buy a baby scale and weigh him once a week. If his weight is good, then continue.

He may need to see a different vet. Not all are good with cats.

If this is becoming to much to where you are resenting him and snapping at him, that isn’t fair to either of you. Then re-home him but do your diligence to make sure whoever adopts him is going to actually care for him. I wouldn’t adopt a cat out to a stranger and I would always charge a rehoming fee. There are allot of bad people out there looking for free cats.

 

[maggie101]

do you have a pic of your cat? My cat Coco has a small face.she eats on a flat bowl and can only eat pate. peaches and Maggie needs an elevated bowl. Peaches eats minced only since she had a crown removed. Maggie is a tall tabby. Maggie takes an hour d to feed because her morning meal she eats 3 servings every 5 minutes. She gets easily distracted. My cats use a food timer after I go to bed so I can sleep.


Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

 

[Alldara]

I'll just also add that if you do decide to rehome, check your adoption contact as it may state you need to return him to the organization you adopted him from.

 

[IndyJones]

I find what i ended up doing is put the food down and go do something else pretend the cat isn't there basicly. Eventualy they always come and eat a few bites. Basicaly you are rewarding the picky behaviour making a fuss over it. Akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Might not work for everyone but it does for me.

 

[Eurocat]

Hi there
Just as a thought after skimming through this as have limited time today - so my apologies if I‘ve overlooked something.
Maybe his behaviour is actually attention seeking and has little to do with food.
If he‘s not losing weight or maintains a healthy weight, would it just help to put the food down and leave it?
What enrichment doe he have otherwise? How much movement does he get? Do you play, go for walks etc? Is he able to go outside on a harness?

 

[Eurocat]

Sorry - just saw you said you play with him for an hour a day.
Depending on his energy levels this may just be too little or maybe he is telling you he is bored.
I‘d definitely start with thinking about more ideas for enrichment - maybe also even another companion?
My cat exhibits this behaviour to an absolute minimum - especially now in winter as she doesn‘t want to go out - with her small box of treats (just kibble). She will pat the box repeatedly but she doesn‘t want the kibble - she wants what‘s associated with it, namely interaction, attention and enrichment. (I use them as treats for training) If I throw the kibble for her to chase, she will chase it, but not eat it (she‘s in great health so no worries there)..

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And I have to ask, since you are making his food at home...are you adding taurine to it? You really need to do so, if not. I may be preaching to the choir on this one, but it is often overlooked.

 

[Eurocat]

And another question - I just briefly checked another one of your threads - you say you can‘t leave food out for more than 45mins - how come?
My cat rarely eats all her food in one go. Never kibble and not wet food (which can sometimes be fresh meat too). Depending on her daily form she will graze and sometimes go back and forth for an hour or two. I have no issue with this. Granted this is difficult in summer - however then she only eats at night anyway (with bits of kibble during the day) when temps are lower. I also put her bowl on a cooling pad a couple of times so I wouldn‘t have to get up and give her her 2nd portion at 4am.
I‘m fine with this too and was initially worried she‘d gulp everything down as she was soo emaciated when I first found her (street cat) but amazingly despite her background since she’s been with me she’s never shown signs of food insecurity and manages her own input (and weight) very well.
However she is at the stage now when she has become very picky too and I have been having to throw stuff out which means I‘m rethinking how much of what I give her when. You see she’s training me very well

 

[maggie101]

If he will only eat if you're there it is very possible he is nauseous. Not all cats show it except not eating. Please give an update

 

[iPappy]

my_money_pit if you try anything suggested please let us know how things go!

 

[Babypaws]

Your cat sounds similar to one of mine. For years now he engages in what I call the circus, where he asks for his food and then expects me to follow him around from place to place, offering the food, sniffing it, and then walking away to a new location. Sometimes he vibrates his tail while doing it and he will look behind him to make sure I am following. If I dont, then he comes back and meows at me. I've tried hand feeding, putting food on the floor, on a plate, on a box, on a shelf, on a table, on a spoon, on the cat tree, etc.

So far, the thing that has created the most success is similar to what Feeby'sOwner said. Rather than mixing Cosmos's homemade food for the week together and portioning it in daily containers, I instead keep all of his meats for the week separate and feed a different one at each meal. That keeps him from knowing what his next meal will be and helps prevent boredom. Sometimes, crushed freeze dried treats are needed on top for bribes if he insists on trying to do a circus. But making sure every meal is different has helped significantly.

Wow…I don’t mean to be disrespectful of what you have to go thru but when I read the “circus” part it made me laugh….
some of my cats do the same thing when I want to comb them…they want to be combed but when I start they walk all around and I have to follow them but there are times I just give….a few minutes later they come to be combed..cats are weird
I find if I do something special for them once, they expect it all the time. LOL

 

[iPappy]

Wow…I don’t mean to be disrespectful of what you have to go thru but when I read the “circus” part it made me laugh….
some of my cats do the same thing when I want to comb them…they want to be combed but when I start they walk all around and I have to follow them but there are times I just give….a few minutes later they come to be combed..cats are weird
I find if I do something special for them once, they expect it all the time. LOL

I have a few cats that love being brushed, for a few seconds, then will politely walk away while I politely follow them continuing to work. I joke and call myself a "mobile groomer" as I move all over the house with a brush in my hand.

 

[Jabzilla]

Wow…I don’t mean to be disrespectful of what you have to go thru but when I read the “circus” part it made me laugh….
some of my cats do the same thing when I want to comb them…they want to be combed but when I start they walk all around and I have to follow them but there are times I just give….a few minutes later they come to be combed..cats are weird
I find if I do something special for them once, they expect it all the time. LOL

I don't blame you, as it's quite ridiculous. XD The things we do for our sweet muffins!

 

[my_money_pit]

I may have missed it along the line, but if your cat will eat from the floor, why not utilize an area of the floor that gets cleaned when he's done (unless it is carpet, but even that can be cleaned without leaving cleaning solution residue behind and causing him harm)?

I had gotten the impression your cat won't eat at all, but this reminded me that in fact he will eat, when the food is on the floor.

Here again, some people have had that exact same issue.



But, he had a UTI which isn't healthy. Peeing frequently, such as he is, is a symptom of the UTI. He needs to get more moisture, whether the homemade diet is working for him or not.

He is not peeing frequently as in an unhealthy way. Sorry, I might have phrased it wrong. He pees 4-5 times a day and the litter lumps are big. He doesn't drink because he is on a mix of raw and cooked food and he gets a veggies mix with each serving + water gets added to his food.

He had UTI but now he's doing great. The UTI happened in December but the eating problem has been going on since 2020, the year I adopted him.

The thing with eating on the floor is that it's not consistent. I have tried placing the food on the floor and he would walk past it, he would even walk on the other side of the wall so he doesn't walk close to the food. He does his best to avoid even getting close to the food.
I tried placing a plastic cutting board on the floor but it didn't even help the situation.

 

[my_money_pit]

thank you everyone for all the comments. I am doing small adjustments at a time to figure out what is the issue. Eurocat suggested that he might be simply bored and not asking for food. So I am going to work on this as a next time.

Here is an update on what I did last week:
I got him 3 different types of canned food and I started topping his food with the canned food. I had 2 different chicken mixes and 1 turkey mix. He would eat each canned food once or twice max so I had enough to alternate for the week.
Today, Monday, the start of a new week, for his morning meal, I topped his few with chicken pate, he picked the topping and left the rest. I assumed he is not hungry so I let it be. That was around 10am.
At 4pm he woke up and threw up a hairball then came asking for pets and followed me to the kitchen. I assumed he is hungry so I set his plate with some chicken pate as a topping. He refused to eat it.
I tested if he wanted any other the other options I gave him last week by putting a bit of the food on the tip of my finger and he refused the two options from last week. So I gave him 3 other options that I bought today rabbit, turkey and duck. He refused all three.
I even put some on the floor, he only ate the turkey of the floor and for the rest he just walked past them.
I tried topping his food with that new turkey option and he wouldn't eat. I know he likes chicken shreds, I had some in the fridge so I topped his food with that. He didn't eat either but he ate the shreds once they are on the floor.
I made a new mix and did 50/50 homemade food + his favorite chicken pate from last week. He refused to eat that.
I am assuming he is not hungry so I am going to let it be for now and see if he eats at night.

I'm also starting to interpret things differently, like when he comes over and follows me, he might be just looking for attention and he is not hungry.
Also, I am following Dr. Becker's recipes, I think his daily needs are way lower than what the book mentions. I doubt he can eat 1 cup of food a day, that is way too much food for him. The most he had was 3/4 of a cup in a day.

I'm also keeping in mind the nausea part, I didn't know that could be a thing. He never had a blood test but he always had checkups and nothing was mentioned.

If my plan for this week doesn't work, I will get him a blood test and check for allergies. I know I had another thread about this subject and allergies was mentioned but I highly doubt it because he eats fine of the floor when he wants to. If the food is topped with catit snacks he will eat it. I think it might be just me not reading him well and him being a fussy little prince that wants varieties.

Thank you all for your answers! It's such an energy draining thing to go through.

 

[maggie101]

Whenever my cat stops eating I get a can of hills a/d from the vet. It's like kitty crack. Hope you find out what's wrong

 

[Eurocat]

Hi again -
Sorry again if I overlooked it, but is his weight stable and good? (Ok with minor seasonal fluctuations - usually more in winter and less in summer)
If it is it’s an idea to stop trying to find ways to get him to eat as long as his weight is stable? Maybe he‘s picking up on your stress levels?

 

[iPappy]

Are you rotating all the recipes? What veggies are you using? Are these the newer recipes or from the older book?
I had a cat that could NOT tolerate veggies of any sort. It always triggered vomiting and/or abdominal pain. My other cats are garbage disposals and can eat pretty much anything. So I'm wondering if that inclusion is just not working for him.